openideas

Contributions

• People are different and learn in different ways. Even the same person learns in different ways, depending on the subject and circumstances. Hence there is no one solution. What might be interesting is to somehow separate the content from the delivery. By this I mean, abstract the content into a machine and human readable database (must have some structure, unlike Wikipedia; perhaps like Dbpedia). Access might be best through an API, and done in a manner that enables "mashups" of diverse content.

  But then also create widgets that can pull from that structured content and in a sense, allow rapid generation of tools to deliver learning. It might be a game, it might be slides, it might be spoken work, it might be a reading list, it might be a set of examples, ...
  Perhaps these widgets become customized with use by the user or institution. A personalized window into the data that fits their mode of learning. I think separating the data from the delivery is important.

  Finally, the path of learning needs to be captured. The learning thread might be embedded in the tool (fixed path) and is some of the value of the tool. Or the paths of learning themselves become learned, as users find themselves the best way to approach a subject. At first, there will be explorers but as more people travel down that path, the rough spots can be identified and worked through. It will become better with use. But there will be no one path, or no right path. Local circumstances will likely influence the path as well.

  /Mike

  posted by Mike Ayukawa 12 days ago

• In my belief games (on PC, playstation, Wii, .....) will contribute to the education.
  I always loved to play strategic games with a historical background (e.g. the Total War series). The first games where always imaginative with great made up storyline. But in last time you can re-play real historical battles and through the story learn a lot of history (not only warhistory but all kind of history). In school I knew some historical details not even my teacher knew.

  After the quiz hipe on TV (Wer wird Millionär) there are a lot of new quiz games (Buzz was the first mass game i guess). Last week I played on a Nintendo Wii with some friends a quiz game and we had a lot of fun.
  I talked with some younger people and I think knowledge becomes sexy. I know some who started reading books just to get better scores in the quiz game.

  The games dont have to be only for historical or useless knowledge (if this exists). There are also a lot of small online games, where you have to build e.g. bridges. in some levels you need your matematic skills to solve them. For every school lesson there are suitable games.

  I think it will be more importaint to fuse learning material with games, or good made programs. The new generation wants high tech and fun. Schoolbooks are too boring.

  Learning by doing!

  posted by Alexander Mann about 1 month ago

• In my opinion two global trends will merge in terms of education into a new trend called microlearning (or microtraining). The first important point to make is, that we are increasingly using mobile devices. These gadgets will become our personal knowledge management assistants, because they open the gate to an individualised, social web. Examples therefore are blogs, twitter, ... But there is also another upcoming issue that we are all facing: lack of time. Having these two trends the solution could be short, personalised microtraining sessions which takes about 15minutes.
  - 3 minutes thinking and reflecting a topic
  - 6 minutes demo exercise to explore the topic and stimulate learning progress
  - 4 minutes discussion and knowledge sharing with other learners and feedback
  - 2 min what's next? ensure that learners leave with a goal, retain knowlege

  more information: http://www.microtraining.eu/

  posted by Charly Vogelsinger about 1 month ago