[Foundation-l] Wikiversity - courses

[Cormac Lawler]

On 12/20/05, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
[snip]

> I think that the key thing that would distinguish Wikiversity from the
> other projects is that it is about process while the others are about
> product.
>
> In considering your suggested three foci I thinkl that as long as we
> can't get past the first one Wikiversity is just as well in Wikibooks.
> The third is very far ahead of where we are.  It would be absolutely
> forbidden in Wikipedia under the No Original Research  rule.  Making
> that a part of Wikiversity before Wikiversity is ready for it could be
> an invitation to all kinds of nutcase research that defies peer review.
> Peer reviewers would need to be in place before original research could
> take place.


Well, I think peer review would grow out of having research hosted on
Wikiversity. But until the research is peer reviewed, it shouldn't be
considered an appropriate source for Wikipedia/books. I personally
think the Wikimedia community is hampered by not having recourse to
publishing research somewhere within Wikimedia (even though we all do
- in Wikibooks!)

>
> Your second focus is key to Wikiversity.but I would leave it simply at
> "growing learning communities" without reference to specific tasks.
> Getting tangled up in specific tasks and courses  leaves too much room
> for Wikiversity to repeat the educational model established by
> traditional universities.  The top down development of a course by a
> "teacher" imposes a range of requirements on what's being done.  It does
> nothing about revolutionizing the entire learning process.  "Courses"
> are about the teacher rather than the learner.

I agree that top-down course development shouldn't be where we're
going, but I just meant that learning communities generally have to
have some sort of goal (ie writing a good article, exploring the pros
and cons of advertising, etc.) - that's all.

>
> The name "Wikiversity" is just fine *because* it is about all learners
> at all levels and all ages.  That's what universality is all about.
> It's about life-long learning from kindergarten to post-graduate.  It's
> about those who know a little bit more helping (not teaching) those who
> know a little bit less.  I think that it's very encouraging that kids
> can go into seniors' homes to teach about computers.  A book that I
> recently acquired "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and
> Literacy" by James Paul Gee.  He analyzes video game playing in terms of
> 36 "Learning principles".  The first of these is the "Active, Critical
> Learning Principle" - "All aspects of the learning environment
> (including the ways in which the semiotic domain is designed and
> presented) are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive,
> learning."

Absolutely - the wiki-format is entirely geared towards active,
critical learning. Learning by doing - experiential learning. That's
the kind of learning that I'm personally talking about when I talk
about wikiversity - not the acquisition and repetition of facts.

>
> Perhaps the first "course" to be offered in the Wikiversity should be
> about learning, and how it happens.  If it is to have any such thing as
> a core curriculum maybe that should be on it.


Sounds good (I had already thought of this). Would you be willing to
help out? (I am..)

Cormac

>
> Ec
>
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