Thanks for answering the roll call. And now, a question.

[Greg Dekoenigsberg]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, Eric Brown wrote:

> Speaking as a teacher, what I think is missing for other teachers is
> familiar resources they can use to do what they do.  In Greg's
> original post, did those teachers just sit down and learn Moodle on
> their own?  I kind of doubt it.

As I understand it, they went to workshops that were sponsored by the 
Indiana DOE.  But again: in schools where a single classroom was equipped, 
that class did not use the computers.  But in schools where multiple 
classrooms were equipped, the computers were wildly successful.

Teaching effective use of Moodle (or maybe Sakai) is clearly one of the 
requirements for a successful one-to-one computing initiative.

> We say that we should be teaching word processing and spread sheets, not 
> Microsoft Office, good luck finding such resources.  Yes they are out 
> there, but not in the places most educators normally look, such as the 
> website of the big textbook publishers.  With all this in mind, I think 
> Red Hat, if they want to put company effort into making their product 
> specifically, and open source generally, into the minds of educators is 
> to promote things like:

> -publishing and selling textbooks that specifically teach word processing
> skills, not just Open Office or Word or Abi or whatever

Let me ask this question:

Why textbooks?  Textbooks are expensive, relative to bits.  If the goal is 
to teach computer skills, why not make a computer-based curriculum the 
primary method of teaching?

> - Have available, for extra cost or free, Moodle course material
> for any of these courses

I'd say the Moodle curriculum should be the basis -- not the texts.

> -Provide low cost, highly available training in Moodle (or any other 
> open source classroom software deemed appropriate).

I agree with this.  Some combination of CBT-based training and local 
knowledge.

> This could even be done as a train the trainer type sessions where a 
> teacher who attended the training could then go back and teach others.

Which appears to be exactly how Indiana is doing it.

> -help develop moodle material for other courses of popular textbooks. As 
> a math teacher, I've attempted to do Algebra lessons for Moodle, but 
> with equations and graphs, you have to create images for all that. I 
> imagine the same issues would exist for physics or chemistry.

Right.  This is a clear issue: I'm seeing a divide between what's possible 
for English / History / Social Studies and what's possible for Math / 
Physics / Chemistry.  Moodle seems to be more useful for the former 
disciplines.  Looks like NASA is working on some interesting stuff in the 
latter, though.

> I think the best approach would be indirect.  Not promote the OS, but
> promote activities that would require or make desirable, open source.

Yeah, I agree here as well.  The nice thing is that the open source 
alternative can be the "reference implementation" that just so happens to 
be free.

> That's my opinion.  But as I like to say, I'm just a math teacher from Iowa.

Math teachers seem to be underrepresented, so I'm glad to see your 
participation.

If you had your druthers, what software would exist to teach math?

--g

-- 
Greg DeKoenigsberg
Community Development Manager
Red Hat, Inc. :: 1-919-754-4255
"To whomsoever much hath been given...
...from him much shall be asked"