[Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] Concepts and Curriculum]

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

owner-seul-edu@seul.org wrote:

> From: <glogan@telusplanet.net>
> To: <seul-edu@seul.org>
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Message-Id: <20000701125014.BYOQ25296.priv-edtnes12-hme0.telusplanet.net@[161.184.235.11]>
> Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 06:50:15 -0600
>
> >>>> ....We need to teach concepts, not keystrokes.  The basic Linux
> distributions
> >>>> give the tools to teach concepts.
> >>>
> >>>OK, so tell me what concepts you've come up with as essential.
> >
> >>Oy veh, the stuff you can teach!  Language, certainly.  How about computer
> >>assisted music?  Art?  Web design?  Process control -- with the mindstorm LEGO
> >>robots?  The possibilities are endless.
> >
> >Some of these I'm going to try and cover (computer music - since music
> >was my primary degree, web design -this could be and endless class...).
> >Now the art raises my eyebrow.  I'm decent with image programs
> >(Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro in windows, learning GIMP), but don't know
> >where to begin teaching the students, and then letting them "do"
> >something with it.  Who's done this before?  Where did you start and ask
> >the students to go during the class?
>
> I helped the Art teacher this year put a 1 week unit in her class.  We
> started with the tools the program had to offer.  Once the students could
> use these and knew which to use for each task, we had them recreate some
> art work.  These are pretty standard in the art world.
> 1.  Scan 1/2 of a face and draw in the other half.
> 2.  Re draw a famous piece of art.  State with Don Quote by Picasso
> first.  Very simple and only black and white.
> 3.  A water colour painting from my home colection.  This pushed the
> limit for some of them with the washes and such.
> 4.  Final project which was a creation of their choice.
>
> >What about web design.  I've tried this two different years (with a
> >poorly scheduled class, twice a week) and have not been able to motivate
> >about 75% of the students to be creative.  How have some of you
> >approached this kind of class?
>
> I don't know if you will ever inspire creativity in much more than 25 %.
> I have taught this unit and had them design a five page site about
> themself.  I designed a site that taught and showed them what I wanted,
> but they used PageMill to do the work so it would not work with Linux.
> It work out okay, some finished in a day, others took much longer.  I
> found if I broke the assignment up into one day tasks it worked alot
> better than a 2 week assignment.  My wife teaches older students (Grade
> 10-12) and uses the Volcano Web Site to teach the process.  This is html
> and would work fine in with a Linux platform.
>
> >Any one doing a database class?  I have a few students each year that
> >want to work with databases in prep for business school.  I'll be
> >honest, I'm still relearning databases (Access mostly) and get very
> >frustrated that most of the instructional books have VERY poor exercises
> >and project ideas.  What can some of you throw out?
>
> I hate to say oit but Access would be the first thing I would throw out.
> I have taught grade 3-12 with Filemaker and Clarisworks.  I find it to
> work much better and lets you get to the database concept rather than the
> keystroke issue.  Project ideas for databases and spreadsheets must come
> from the other classes.  I use Science a lot because of the nature of the
> research, lists and stuff.  This year in grade three we did an Endangered
> Species database, I worked on a project for the school district where we
> did growth conditions for plants (Grade 4), and a database for Grade 3 on
> Whales.
>
> >>Beyond that, a general class ought to build on the sacred three (word
> >processing, spreadsheet, databases) at >least.  These are tools that are
> >going to get general use by almost everyone.
> >
>
> WP: I work with the Language Arts teachers to get writing assignments and
> teach the studetns to do it right, it amazes me how many still use spaces
> to center titles.
>
> Spreadsheets:  Science and Social Studies are great.  My Grade 8 class
> study immigration so we make a series of spreadsheets showing the origin
> of immigrants coming to Canada over the last 100 years.  Great Stats
> Canada information on the web for those who live up here.
>
> I hope this will be helpful. If anyone needs more details or files and
> urls please just ask.

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire