Re: [seul-edu] wikis in education (was: SEUL/edu wiki test) (fwd)

[Michael Viron <mviron@wsdo.sao.uwf.edu>]

At 09:23 AM 01/19/2001 +0000, you wrote:
<snip>
>Of course the current educational system is to narrow and >does not let
individual students find their appropriate >niche, but every student needs
some hand-holding in order >to learn rather than muddle around.
I would have to disagree with this--my experience is the exact
opposite--students can participate in activities outside of the normal
school curriculum.  As for "the current educational system is to narrow and
does not let individual students find their appropriate niche" - it has not
been my experience that the opportunities are not there--for example--in
1996, I founded Web Spinners (officially chartered in 1997), a web design
and development group at the University of West Florida, before there were
organized classes for the topic.  This group has already done several
things that have not been done before, and therefore, as a group and as
individuals, members have found "appropriate niches".
<snip>
>In particular, the web concept is a bit inappropriate since >the student
should be discouraged from deviating too much >from what (s)he is studying
at the moment - or rather:
>encouraged to finish what (s)he is doing rather than jump >around endlessly.
If that is the case, then why are more US and Canadian universities
introducing either individual online classes or entire online degree
programs?  If they believe it is worth the cost (and there is a cost
associated with such programs), then there must be enough students that
will do the exact opposite and have fun doing it and therefore justify the
cost.
>
>I don't really see the point of chat-rooms or equivalents >at all --
Chat rooms can be used for "real-time" discussions which isn't truly
possible utilizing usenet news feeds--we use it in several groups I'm in,
including SEUL, OODS, LinuxKB, etc.
<snip>

Michael

--
Michael Viron
Project Coordinator / Primary Developer
General Education Online