Funny -- I've been thinking along these same lines,
and have actually been working up a blog post about a
piece of this wrt the Journal functionality of the
OLPC, and what this could tell us about approaches to
learning, differences in processing patterns (think
Mel Levine's placemat) and, in turn, using that
information to get better information about how
individual students learn: what do they do/what tools
are used, etc, in the process of learning. The Journal
does the bulk of the "meta" piece of this, as it
provides a track record of what an individual does --
Imagine a Journal parser that imported the journals of
various students and presented that data on *how*
students worked to the teacher in a readable format --
this would allow real-time feedback on how people
worked, which would be incredibly useful for learners
and students --
(of course, any functionality like this would need to
have an "off" switch, as this also has some serious
privacy issues -- but just for a second let's live in
a world where people still have privacy ;) )
This could be a useful tool for helping students with
learning differences analyze their strengths and
deficits, and strategize accordingly.
RE:
> In a system like this classes would still be
> necessary for discussions and
> other group activities but might need to meet
> substantially less than they
> do now.
Kind of like life, where we all go out, do our work,
connect loosely via listservs/blogs/online
communities, and then have more meaningful/satisfying
connections via f2f interactions.
FWIW, from having designed various systems supporting
online learning, online communities, and blended
learning, the f2f piece is essential. The online
interactions prime the pump for the f2f, allowing
these meetups to be more productive.
RE: "Perhaps information technology is making it
possible to no longer perform the educational
equivalent of strip mining?"
The technology is already there. Unfortunately, there
appears to be a lack of both individual and collective
will required to effect the change, to *be* the change
that we believe is in the best interests of our
students. IMO, true educational reform is not a
technological issue; it's more tightly connected to
organizational cultures, politics, and the economy.
/me leaves rant mode
Look's like it's time for me to write that blog post I
alluded to in the first paragraph
Cheers,
Bill
--- Fred Bartels <fred_bartels@rcds.rye.ny.us> wrote:
> A few developments have caused me to think again
> about the potential role
> of databases in education. Certainly most of the web
> 2.0 tools (blogs,
> wikis, forums, social networking sites)
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