Re: [seul-edu] Discuss: How software educates.

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

Kevin Turner wrote:
> 
> An application for assisting teaching would be like a highly evolved
> blackboard.  It would have more knowledge and provide more complex
> feedback than a blackboard, but it would only come alive to students
> under the direction of a mind that knew how to address them.  Like the
> blackboard, the teacher uses it to illustrate a point...  Sure, you
> could use chalk, but chalk might not be the medium of choice for
> visualizing how the gravatational attraction between moving massive
> objects changes over time.
> 
Ramin certainly knows more about this subject than I do, but one of the
stumbling blocks I see is convincing teachers (and by extension, their
administrators) to learn and use new applications.  As someone (Adam?)
said about home-schoolers, they have a way of working right now that
they're comfortable with; learning to use new tools and methods takes
some effort, and puts them at least initially back in the position of
unknowing student.  They may not enjoy being in that position again. 
This isn't really a technical problem, but a social one.  If we develop
these wonderful tools, how do we get the educational community to
consider using them?

-- 
Doug Loss                 The difference between the right word and
Data Network Coordinator  the almost right word is the difference
Bloomsburg University     between lightning and a lightning bug.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain