Maria Cervone wrote: > This is a good first thought for knowledge sharing. One word of > caution, though: teachers are already struggling with a rampant > problem of students purchasing term papers on the internet and turning > them in as if it were their own work. If term papers were included in > Wikipedia, it would make it all the more easy for students to cheat. I > personally don't understand why a student would want to do so, as > little knowledge is gained when the effort is minimal. Unfortunately > all too many students haven't learned that yet...
My personal thought is that the education system generally has a culture of 'passing' instead of 'learning'. This isn't to demean the work of some really good professionals out there - rather, it's an observation of a problem that professionals encounter. Too often when I taught I was asked, "What do I need to do to pass?". When I responded, "Learn", I got quite a few blank looks. My view is that even if a course is failed, the student should take something from it. Of course, administration tends to view things differently, since the priorities are different... and I wonder if consistently we have not made administration a priority in education. There's a lot of money spent in academia, but this money tends to go toward administratia - buildings, desks, computers, classrooms, etc... not much actually goes into the curriculum. We measure learning by certificates... to get these certificates, students have to pass.... so can we fault them for simply focusing on passing? Looking back, I was always at odds with the curriculum. All the cool stuff wasn't on it. It was dry and dull... academia seemed like a tomb (and this was over 10 years ago). I guess this is why I have my 6 year old niece building Pascal's triangle. It isn't homework... but using her basic math skills (and reinforcing them), she's building something of 'her own'. Wait until I help her discover some of the cool stuff she can do with it :-) Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net " It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one's inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom."— Rollo May _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
