Re: 0x023 summary

[Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

Pete St. Onge wrote:
> 
> 9) Moved educational stuff to alternative page; needs more work.
>      I'll probably (rightfully) get skewered for having done this; don't
> get me wrong, I really think this is an important subject. BUT:
> 
>      a) We're going after mainstream users. Educational software by
>         definition isn't mainstream. Yet. We could help that, though.
>      b) Where wp's, ss's, db's and such serve a general purpose which
>         can be tailored by their primary users who normally have
>         advanced technical skills, teachers in general do not have
>         these skills nor have the opportunity to get the skills to
>         build the software.

I'll probably respond to the rest of Pete's message later, but a thought
occurrs to me.  I strongly suspect that we have different concepts of
what "educational software" is.  From Pete's message, it appears that
he's thinking about programs to enable teachers to develop courseware
and to track students' mastery of the lesson material.  When I use it I
tend to think of "edutainment" programs designed for children to use in
a home setting.  Another possible meaning would be for the
above-mentioned courseware itself.

For our purposes it's probably a good idea to determine just which of
these related but different meanings we want to use.  I (of course) tend
to like mine for the general home user.  I think that it would be a very
good idea for the other two meanings to be combined and developed into a
major project, but I suspect that we aren't the proper group to do it. 
If I can figure out who might be I'll try to put a bug in his or her
ear.

-- 
Doug Loss                 It is impossible to imagine Goethe
Data Network Coordinator  or Beethoven being good at billiards
Bloomsburg University     or golf.
dloss@bloomu.edu                H. L. Mencken