RE: [seul-edu] Math teachers...

[Chris Hedemark <hedemark@bops.com>]

Individual skills run through simulators can be a lot of fun.  Back in high
school we did a stock market simulation.  Everyone started out with some
funny money and was allowed to use it to participate in any of the
securities covered in the Wall Street Journal and/or NYT.  Since real life
daytraders do most of their work through a PC, it can be a reasonable
facsimile of real life.

Many other tasks just aren't real enough for kids to learn much from.  There
is no sense of consequence.  They don't feel like they're part of the
experience.  Apartment shopping, for example, just can't be simulated on a
computer.  You have to walk through, look at the apartment, ask questions,
touch things.  This is way too much (at least in this day and age) to
simulate.

In advocating the use of Linux in schools, it is important to understand the
limitations of the technology.  Be quick to point out the things that Linux
is great at, and be realistic when dealing with things that Linux (or any
other platform for that matter) would be bad at dealing with.  Be objective.
And be ready to concede "I'm sorry, but the technology just isn't there to
provide a rich learning experience for this particular skill".

Chris Hedemark
System Administrator
Billions of Operations Per Second, Inc.
6340 Quadrangle Drive, Suite 210
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
email: hedemark@bops.com <mailto:hedemark@bops.com>
"It is better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a
fool!" - Ecclesiastes 7 


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Hobbs [mailto:chobbs@silvervalley.k12.ca.us]
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 7:20 PM
To: seul-edu@seul.org
Subject: Re: [seul-edu] Math teachers...


Douglas Loss wrote:

> Not to be mean-spirited or anything, but don't your math
> teachers teach any math to these kids?  I mean, This is all life
> skills stuff that requires little more than basic arithmetic.
> No trig, no algebra, no calculus?  I suppose you could teach
> some basic statistics with some of those things, but they don't
> appear to be designed for it.

One of my techs and I had the same discussion after I got the list. They
do teach Algebra, Calc, Geometry and Trig, but apparently have not
invested any money in software for it - IMHO this is actually good,
because if it exists for Linux, we can show them some things they may
not have seen before in any form.

So, hoping that Doug and I aren't the only ones reading the list :), is
anyone familiar enough with this type of software to make
recommendations that will knock their collective socks off?

PS. Does anyone else see value in a "life simulator" for use in a life
skills course such as I described earlier? I've been thinking about it
all day, and am envisioning a web based product that would allow
students to live a virtual life, maybe a week or a month to a real day,
and encourage them to keep a journal or some other deliverable to turn
in to their teacher.

-- 
Chris Hobbs       Silver Valley Unified School District
Head geek:              Technology Services Coordinator
webmaster:    http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/chobbs/
postmaster:               chobbs@silvervalley.k12.ca.us
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