On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 2:00 PM,
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Welcome and some ideas/thoughts moving forward (David)
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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 12:37:56 +1000
From: David <bouncingcats@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Welcome and some ideas/thoughts moving forward
To: Fedora IRC Classroom discussion and feedback list
<classroom@lists.fedoraproject.org>
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<974cfff50905141937w7a5db325q5a7cd5b1bf3a0e48@mail.gmail.com>
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On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 5:01 AM, Kevin Fenzi <kevin@scrye.com> wrote:
> So, I would like to propose for comment/consideration a new setup:
>
> Classroom sessions can be anytime a teacher wishes to sign up for and
> tech. We either keep the wiki page updated or try and come up with
> some calendar/feed for announcements about classes. (Or both).
>
> What do people think? Is this something we should look at going to?
> Or are their better ideas moving forward?
I used to work in education. I think this Fedora Classroom is a
wonderful initiative. I have some thoughts in response to your request
for feedback.
I like the idea of flexible scheduling. But it doesn't have to
entirely replace a regular schedule. You can have a known regular
schedule, but allow variations from it if necessary.
Another thought is rather than having the teachers define the topics,
consider measuring potential demand for topics, and then seek
teachers.
My own Classroom use-profile is this: I'm in GMT+1000. I can be on IRC
any hour of any day. I attend only the class topics that interest me,
or read the logs if I miss the class. So I don't care at all about
scheduling, what I find really valuable about the classes are: 1)
graded introduction to a topic; 2) opportunity for questions.
I can imagine a very different group of users who might not have their
own internet connected computer, perhaps a group of them has to get
together to book in advance and travel to a common location and
collectively pay for an access time to a shared computer. I imagine
that for a group like this, the scheduling would be important and that
once the session had started, they would appreciate being able to have
several topics covered.
So I suspect that the student group will have very diverse needs that
cannot possibly all be met simultaneously, so I think the policy
should be as flexible as possible to allow for this diversity.
I suggest a recommendation rather than a rule about minimum period
notice between announcing and delivering the class. It is obvious to
any presenter that attendance will be poor with too short a
notification time.
As well as the wiki Classroom page, I suggest intensive use of the
fedora-announce list or fedora-general list to promote the classroom.
Email is cheap and easily filtered and has a very wide audience. I
suggest: 1) weekly announce email for all classes for the coming week;
2) another reminder announce 24 hours prior to each class or set of
classes; 3) another announce 1 hour prior to each class. My thinking
behind each of these is: "1" allows students to make advance
arrangements; "2" is a timely reminder; "3" could really help to boost
the numbers attending, it will catch people who are already online and
interested. Perhaps "1" belongs on the classroom mailing list, but "3"
should definitely be on the fedora-general list.
Also, having participated in several classrooms, several times I have
seen presenters have to rush the latter part of their presentation and
question sessions cut short. I strongly suggest for this mode of
delivery that 90 minutes would should be allowed, with presenters
aiming for a 45 minute presentation and a 30 minute interactive
question session.
Thanks for this opportunity to give feedback. My ongoing appreciation
to all the organisers and presenters in the Classroom.
David
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End of classroom Digest, Vol 1, Issue 3
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