[Edu-sig] Shuttleworth Summit

[kirby urner]

Paul:
>If you are looking for a middle way for Python, then by all means, make
>something attractive for both unschooling and schooling. Or, as an
>approach, write something for constructivist open-ended unschooling (like
>we did with our Garden Simulator) and then get someone like Kirby write a
>curriculum guide for it for when teachers choose to use it in school. :-)

Like I said Paul, this is less about some guy like me coming in with
some mandatory
curriculum,

and more about anybody with talent, including students, coming up with
lesson plans for a central repository,

with field tested better than not field tested i.e. if you have a
classroom activity for us, one you've actually tried, why not share
it?

Let others improve on it, mix and match.  The repository grows.

That's the open source way.

A whole *separate* thread is the idea of coming up with new software
tools that don't currently exist, especially tools aimed to help with
education, such as a more powerful graphics engine with Python
bindings.  Or a new kind of HyperCard.

For a lot of geeks, a first reflex is:  what new software might we
write?  But that's not always the key question.

My advice to Shuttleworth Project (like when I write to staff) is consistent:

Even if we had no new software, we already have the tools to come up
with a dynamite learning environment that helps cultivate analytical
skills per Project goals, by a bottom-up process.

And yet:  new software *will* be coming down the pipe (exactly what it
looks like we can't always say -- edu-sig is one place where we dream
and/or share working examples).

So...  best of both worlds:  what we already have is enough to get us
going, plus we're looking forward to more.

Kirby