At 07:59 AM 6/27/2010, Fred Bauder wrote:
Yes, articles from diverse points of view would be good.
One Size Fits All. (If It Doesn't Fit You, You get an F.)
Free Public Education for All. (Implicit: One Curriculum, Centrally Decided. How?)
Free Encyclopedia: (One Brief Article Per Subject.)
I just came from the AERO Conference in Albany, NY. Educational Philanthropy is destroying indigenous cultures around the world, imposing, all with good intentions, the economic and social paradigms that are dominant in the donor cultures. John Taylor Gatto, who coined "Dumbing Down," was there as one of the keynote speakers. And then,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LbZ3XcfK4
Not only it is an option to have many schools, it is a necessity.
Not only is it an option to have many teachers and many courses, it is a necessity.
Not only is it an option to have many points of view, without diversity, there is no depth.
Wikipedia, unless it develops and uses genuine consensus process, will follow this old deadening error.
AERO is "Alternative Education Resource Organization." They are now extensively connected with IDEA, Institute for Democratic Education in America; and, in the end, the people who are involved have many competing educational theories and techniques, often at each other's throats, so to speak, where they disagree, but are uniting behind a broad consensus, which, as you might suspect if you see the video I linked, is likely to punch through the noise. They know how to do it, they have the energy, and they have the resources.
Wikiversity allows diversity. And, just in case, NetKnowledge is an alternative, and I just came across conex.org.
The AERO and IDEA people were not aware of Wikiversity. Now they are.
Watch this space.