[Foundation-l] Wikiversity

[Cormac Lawler]

On 8/15/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Cormac Lawler wrote:

> > Yes, I think you've got me, Birgitte :-). I just
> > think that NPOV (as I
> > conceptualise it) is not a useful concept to apply
> > to Wikiversity.
> > Don't get me wrong - I wince just as much as anyone
> > if someone will
> > try to teach people that the world began 10,000
> > years ago ;-), but
> > surely the point of education is to try to get
> > people to think for
> > themselves? I see no problem with provocative, even
> > biased,
> > educational materials - so long as people are given
> > the wherewithal to
> > critically evaluate them. I think we need an analogy
> > to NPOV -
> > "completeness" sounds better, but just not catchy
> > enough :-)
> >
> > Cormac
> >
>
> Yes I agree and your response just sparked in my mind
> a very realistic example.  I always thought WV would
> find an audience developing homeschooling materials.
> Now in the US many people who homeschool do this
> because they do not like the lack of religion in
> public schools.  How will WV handle the develpoment of
> science teaching materials for homeschoolers which are
> based in "creationism"?
>
> Birgitte SB
>


Well, Wikipedia, for example, has an article about a given topic, say
[[Earth]]. Wikiversity, I would imagine, will have many learning
resources on the Earth - geared toward particular learner levels, or
styles of teaching. So, much as I wouldn't like there to be a
Creationism school on Wikiversity, I could tolerate it as long as it
was categorised properly - for that level, within that
pedagogical/theoretical framework. I hope that materials will be
searchable for teachers and learners, sop that they can find materials
that suit their needs, quickly. This is one reason we're working on a
metadata patch to be added to wikiversity - though I don't know just
how developed it is yet.

Cormac