Re: Criteria for educational software
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On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 02:57:19PM +0200, RalfGesellensetter wrote:
>Am Sonntag 07 September 2008 schrieb Andreas Tille:
>> I have no idea about the criteria which make a package fit for
>> education but some review might be interesting (for instance there is
>> a Debian packaged version of Avogadro which a hint was given to in
>> this thread listed on Debian Science).
>
>Dear Andreas,
>
>you are hitting a good point here. Let's try to collect some criteria
>and place them on a prominent web space...
For software already packaged for Debian, I recommend using existing
structures for organizing it: Install debtags-edit and commit your
improvements to the debtags project.
If for some reason you/we find that debtags is unfit for the task even
for Debian-packaged software, then if at all possible file bugreports
against debtags to at least pass on the knowledge of reasoning for
sceptism.
But sure, go ahead and setup an isolated structure for non-packaged
stuff or if not interested in pushing the broader perspective here.
>Practically aspects:
>Software that is already being used by teachers in educational context
>might be called fit for school.
Would be good to tag reasonings for use. For example, do any and all
accounting tool that is used by a FLOSS-based educational institution
qualify for Debian-edu?
I mean: In what areas do Debian-edu aim for offering choice, and where
is the aim to remove choice for the sake of simplification?
>Usability:
>In most cases (apart from computer science), software fit for school
>will need an intuitive GUI (Qt, GTK), multilingual documentation,
>abilitiy to save and continue your work.
Sounds like a wishlist more than criteria.
Which languages must be supported for a tool to qualify? Which GUI
toolkits?
(hint: use debtags-enhanced aptitude to resolve and debtags-edit to
update if information is inaccurate)
>Needed Knowledge:
>Some scientific software is only usable for scientists with a knowledge
>beyond what is taught in secondary schools.
Do you mean to say that a criteria for Debian-edu is "relevant for
secondary schools"? Or perhaps "no higher than secondary schools"?
Seems to me that a classification of "knowledge levels" of some sort
seems relevant here. (again: debtags!)
>Use Cases:
>In educational context, I'd distinct different kinds of use cases.
>Software fit for school should match at lease one of them. This list
>coming into my mind is probably not complete:
>
>A. Productive software - result orientated
>Software to write a text, draw a sketch, create a mindmap
>
>B. Software supporting self managed learning
>Software that enables students to find out relations etc. themselves.
>These could be simulations (KStep) or interactive quizes (KGepgraphy).
>
>C. Software connected to a specific subject being part of a curriculum
>e.g. object orientated modelling/UML (umbrello); Kalzium (chemistry)
>
>D. Meta learning
>...
Please keep going! I suspect this to be quite valuable input for
designing a debtags taxonomy.
If anyone knows about existing work on OWL, RDF or similar semantic web
taxonomies for education, please post it here on the list.
My dream is something able to relate to FOAF[1].
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_object_metadata and in
particular the graphics at that page, and the references to editors and
repositories at the bottom of the article.
- Jonas
[1] http://wiki.jones.dk/WebFoaf
- --
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
[x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
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