Re: [school-discuss] Feedback needed from teachers for the

[Cameron Miller <cdmiller@adams.edu>]

Well,

As a tech head, I don't know if Michael is correct about the mind 
numbing quality of free software aimed at teaching language.

I do know that as such software is free software, Michael or anyone else 
is free to modify, redistribute, or contribute suggestions on how to 
make the software better.  So lets have it. What improvements are needed 
for the current crop of free language teaching software?

And example suggestion:
Below is mentioned, "drills a list of 10, 20 or 100 isolated words". For 
the packages I have looked at in the past, the end user is allowed to 
create their own word lists to conduct drills with.  Perhaps one 
suggestion would be easier creation and management of said word lists...

- cameron

Michael Hall wrote:
> KDE-Edu
>  project
> Sender: owner-schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
> X-To-Get-Off-This-List: mail majordomo@schoolforge.net, body unsubscribe schoolforge-discuss
> 
> I have to be frank ... many of the open source 'educational'
> programs that
> come along, especially those aimed at teaching language, make me
> shudder
> at the thought of actually using them in class. Technically they're
> great,
> run on Linux, free, etc, etc ... but educationally, they are
> examples of
> the worst possible teaching methodologies imaginable ... pure,
> mindless
> rote learning. I don't think that many of the people creating these
> programs are teachers or educators, they're tech heads. A program
> that
> simply drills a list of 10, 20 or 100 isolated words out of any sort
> of
> meaningful context is not much better than a list scribbled on paper
> and
> memorised. Educational software needs to be good educationally, not
> just
> open source.
> 
> I'm sorry, I don't have time to elaborate here, but there have been
> some
> real mind-numbers released lately.
> 
> Mick
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2 Apr 2002, Anne-Marie MAHFOUF wrote:
> 
> 
>>Hi!
>>
>>As you know, the KDE-Edu project is doing quite well but we need
>>more
>>feedback from teachers and in several countries.
>>http://edu.kde.org
>>We started to  "internationalize" a few programs and we would need
>>
> 
>>data in
>>several languages. We would also need to know if the application
>>
> can
> 
>>be run
>>in several countries, and how to make it work for several
>>
> languages.
> 
>>As a start, we would need feedback about KLearnSpelling.
>>http://edu.kde.org/klearnspelling
>>(needs KDE2)
>>This program is intended to help pupils to learn to spell words.
>>
> The
> 
>>interface is not so good at the moment.
>>We would like to get some lists of words that children must learn
>>
> to
> 
>>spell in
>>several languages. These words will also be used in other programs
>>
> 
>>like
>>KHangMan, KMessedWords and a flash-card program (and maybe more).
>>We would like teachers to tell us how they think their pupils
>>
> could
> 
>>use such
>>a program and what features would be useful for the teacher
>>
> (having
> 
>>the score
>>of each child, printable, ....)
>>
>>We already have the help of one teacher and the ideas he has are
>>very
>>valuable as we, developers, don't see the software actually in
>>
> use.
> 
>>If you
>>have Linux in your classroom or if you have a little time to test
>>the
>>programs at home and participate at the improvement, we would be
>>very
>>grateful!
>>
>>You can subscribe to the kde-edu mailing list
>>http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-edu
>>and send here your suggestions/ideas to improve one of the
>>
> existing
> 
>>software.
>>Or you can mail me and I'll pass it on.
>>
>>Thanks a lot in advance!
>>
>>The KDE-Edu team
>>annma@kde.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> 
> --
> -----------------------------
>   n  i  n  t  i  .  c  o  m
>   data  driven  development
> -----------------------------
> Michael Hall   mick@ninti.com
> -----------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

- cameron miller
- UNIX Systems Administrator
- cdmiller@adams.edu