Talk:Education Ideas

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I will probably make multiple pages from this discussion, which ranges from technical details about how to use a wiki, to questions of language choice, to questions of educational content. Not that these are completely unrelated topics, but the threads are getting difficult to follow. --Walter

Request

Could you possibly consider implementing the ideas in the "Additional facilities which could expand the capabilities possible with this wiki" section please, if that can be done using the present wiki-engine.

William Overington 1222 GMT 23 March 2006


Esperanto?

Is OLPC serious about using Esperanto as the language of educators? Or is this just a pipe dream of the people who contribute to this Wiki?

I personally like the idea of a "worldwide education language", but from a practical standpoint I think it is an extreme disapointment. As mentioned in the article, English is the current "worldwide education language" and probably it would be much more practial to choose it. (case in point: are any of this wiki's pages written in Esperanto?)

If Esperanto is not the language of choice, I strongly recomend moving the associated verbage in the article to the talk page, as it's presence conveys some sence of standard. --JasonS 11:01, 23 March 2006 (EST)

It has been moved to start a new page, Education Ideas Esperanto, that seeming to be a neutral balance.

oops!

I'm sorry... but my company's firewall ate the page. Can someone revert the page? How do you revert to a previous version in a wiki anyway?

-Archfool

Moved from the main page

It's better to make some pages rather than suggest that pages be made

Additional facilities which could expand the capabilities possible with this wiki

If there were added to the server a directory named, say, http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/items and a page named, say, http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/bridge with the page http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/bridge being accessible by clicking on a hyperlink on the page http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool and then the page http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/bridge had on it a facility to upload a file from the end user's PC to the items directory provided that the file name used is not the same as that of a file already stored in the items directory, then people could upload .htm files, .gif file, .TTF files, .PDF files and whatever types of file they wish. If someone uploaded a file named, say, graph017.gif then that file would automatically have the web address of http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/items/graph017.gif and could the referenced as an image from a .htm file added to the http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/items directory.

Thus a whole webspace with its support files could be developed in the http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/items directory, with graphics on pages and links to right click download pdfs, all with an automatic record keeping system as no file would ever be replaced. Entry to the webspace would be from a link in a page such as this, which could be changed. So it would be a matter of discussing in a page such as this what is needed then preparing files and only uploading them once the content is stabilized.

I do not know how the Wiki software works so I do not know whether adding such a facility would be a major software engineering task or just a few adjustments using existing facilities or something somewhere in between.

William Overington

19 March 2006

PS I wrote the above and then previewed it. I had referred to the web address of the graphic as http:// wiki.laptop.org/ wiki/ OLPC_Idea_Pool/ items/ graph017.gif (spaces put in here so that I can indicate what I was trying to put) and the wiki tried to actually show the graphic in this document rather than include a link to it!

If you don't want that behavio(u)r then you should include the content/link inside example tags.

Ah, like this.

http://wiki.laptop.org/wiki/OLPC_Idea_Pool/items/graph017.gif

Thank you for demonstrating how to do this in the source code of the page. William Overington 22 March 2006

The flaw with ...

The text here was moved from the main page where it did not seem to flow. In addition, its focus on flaws seemed more appropriate here in the discussion.

The flaw with the Teacher-Student Schools/Cells of Educating/Advising is the Teachers/ Instructors, if you remove the Teachers, then after an initial startup time you have a Cell of Learners who Learn, Advise, Relearn and Improve for each other. Some of Year two Instruct Year one etc etc... when and if they require it! If the Learners can use the Educational tool or in the case laptops (After some help from IT volunteers which need to be supplied on a volunteer basis by large corporations for say 6 months at a time, 1 volunteer per company with over 500 people should cover it!), then in future after a short time the requirement for even the IT volunteers will go away) then you only need a small group of more proficient Learners to support Cell in terms of the IT problems. From where I see this project it is a chance to restart the model of Educating young learners and bring it more up to the twenty 1st century.

I have another Idea for the IT volunteers program because as Companies are naturally resistant to provide free workers for a volunteer program, someone from OLPC sets up a program to work with University IT departments, and instead of IT students going on a Year out in a Company during their Degree (Bsc) they take a six month mission to help provide IT Support and Advise for Developing nations and are placed in one of the Schools/Cells.

If one or some of the students are slower then they work with younger learners who they can work with, you dissolve the hirachy in the system, Year one/ Year two, Student/Teacher and the labeling age14, Age15, Age16, / Maths/ Physics / Computing, Pass/ Fail, Qualification of Pass or fail and create a learning environment which is as natural as it can be.

The Internet as a Backbone

The internet is the living example of what global unity in information exchange is, and the upcoming idea of "Web 2.0", or an "always-on, integrated" internet I think proposes a way to provide the educational content on the scale that it needs to be. I feel that once these laptops are distributed to local communities across the globe, through local wi-fi (the idea of which is not unique to me by any means) that is distributed through the schools or a designated "community center," the internet can be accessed.

Once this connection between the world's young students and the world's information is established, I feel that the best way to start the education process would be a very meticulously crafted website or series of websites that cover the educational needs for various grade levels. For example, very easy to navigate lessons using flash websites and pictures for pre-school to middle school children. Then as fluency in the use of the internet increases and a more advanced study continues, use of other web sites and internet services can be brought in to the more advanced students in high school/college area.

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