Ed Tech Day Ithaca College in NY

[Chris Ball]

Hi all,

   > * Impossible to make a single 4th grade electronic textbook that
   > serves all use cases. (Sure, that's true - but by that logic, it's
   > impossible to make a 4th grade non-electronic textbook that serves
   > all use cases therefore nobody should ever write 4th grade
   > textbooks. You start with one to prove it's possible, not to solve
   > everything for all time.)

Doing something is clearly better than doing nothing here, yeah.  As
far as OLPC goes, though, my impression is that it's not true that most
of the kids with XOs in the world have the prerequisites for a US
curriculum fourth grade math course -- maybe we should chat with some
of the learning folks and find out if we'd be reaching many more kids
(and not holding too many others to a lower level) if we started out
with something easier?

(I imagine it takes more effort to produce a textbook as the material
gets harder, too, so I think there might be something to be said for
starting out simple and getting the hang of the mechanics of making a
textbook before attacking the harder stuff.)

I don't mean to bikeshed, though; it's all your call.  ;-)

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb at laptop.org>