🚀 go-pugleaf

aland@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Alan D.) writes:
>Subject: Re: Usenet University things to ponder
>Message-ID: <aland.711118132@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
>Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1992 12:48:52 GMT

>>1.  Where is the pub?  The most interesting, enjoyable, and possibly
>>important aspect of face-to-face class work is the social interaction
>>which frequently continues outside of the class setting.  Is this
>>possible in the UU setting, and if so, how will it work?  It's going
>>to be pretty gosh-darned difficult to have the class over for dinner
>>at the end of the term, that's for sure!
>
>alt.callahans. ;)

also alt.uu.cafe or alt.uu.pub is an idea to develop.

>>2.  Does a 'class' try to 'stay together', or do people proceed at 
>>their own pace?  How do you keep together with round trips of up 
>>to 72 hours to some members of the class?
>
>This really isn't that different from a 'normal' class, one in which
>students of differing abilities work at different rates...

I'd expect this to vary a lot depending on what course or corner of UU
you are looking at.  While there will probably be some courses with
time schedules, there will probably also be material for self-study
where each will progress at their own pace.

>>3.  How do I draw you a picture?  Practically everything interesting
>>to study and teach requires visualization, images, and diagrams.
>>Exchange of such info through internet is difficult or impossible.
>>Same problem for hi fidelity sound.  Even bigger problem for anything
>>that requires shared experience such as examining a piece of sculpture
>>or an engine.
>
>Postscript. ;)  It's the closest to a universal graphics language that
>we have right now.  'MacPaint' binary pictures are viewable from both
>Macintosh and Unix under X, but I don't know about PCs.

Don't really know.  There are things like jpeg, gnuplot, dvi, hytime,
etc. etc.  This is to be discussed in alt.uu.tools.  Perhaps there
will "recommended standards" for UU, perhaps everyone corner of UU
will just use their own tools anyway.

>>4.  Will teachers need to be able to screen potential students for
>>adequate foundation, and if so how?  I can't exactly say that 
>>"Students should have experience equivalent to 1 semester of calculus, 
>>two courses in metaphysics, and an upper level course in botany", as these 
>>experiences are difficult to translate.
>
>This could be a problem, but as there seem to be no real per-student
>expenses (once the course is designed, adding another student is of
>negligible cost.  Since adding someone is 'cheap,' it probably doesn't
>matter if 'unqualified' people virtually sit in, auditing the course
>so to speak.  And, if someone consistently 'hands in' work which is
>obviously unqualified, then the grader can notify the student.

Openness as one of the main principle, many courses will be designed
so that there will be little or no cost for "no-show" or flunking
students, so this probably won't be a problem.  In my opinion.

>>7.  What sort of "contract" will typically exist between teachers
>>and amoung students, and how do we learn about them.

Again, there will be wide differences.  In my opinion the best suited
for the media would be something of a "all teachers are replaceable"
method, ie. students will be served by any teacher available - no
fixed roles.

>>E.g., perhaps
>>a teacher is supposed to perform certain roles, and continue until 
>>some goal or time.  Perhaps students are supposed to participate 
>>in certain ways, interact with fellows in certain ways, and so on.  
>>If these "contracts" are to be worked out for each class individually, 
>>the UU will be an interesting experiment in applied sociology, but 
>>much else will be crowded out by negotiations we take for granted 
>>in more "traditional" settings.

Oops, you didn't exactly mean that.  OK, these "contracts" or "styles
of courses" will be in principle negotiated individually for each
course, but a few styles will probably be more common than others.
The styles will dynamically change.

>>Notice the effort that is going
>>into simply defining the overall idea.  Multiply this by the
>>number of courses times the number of participants, and there
>>isn't much time left for anything else.

Use of different newsgroups and keywords fields with intelligent
newsreaders should help somewhat in this.

>Perhaps, in the 'registration packet' there would be some explanation
>of what is desired and required from the students in a course.

Yes - and to keep this from becoming too complicated, the "generic UU
flavors" would be needed.  Like "The course will be run otherwise as
UU seminar style B, but frib frob frab."

>Anyway, I would like to know where to go to get further information
>about this group. ;)

Anonymous ftp to machine nic.funet.fi, directory pub/doc/uu has some
document files about UU.  Then there's this newsgroup.

We need a fresman's course, something to teach how to study and work
in UU.

//Jyrki