Standard curricula

There was interesting thread recently in the Israeli Linux mailing list talking about digital educational content - one of the opinions in favor of the current, paper model - explained that the textbook industry exists for a reason.

1. I think an argument against competitive alternatives on the basis of an incumbent industry's economic interest is, to say the least....weak.

The Israeli textbook industry is a racket. This thread would not be happening if our children would be learning from standard paper textbooks. Virtually all of the K12 educational content from math to science to language was invented over 100 years ago - which means that there is no functional justification to recreate the content in different forms (workbooks, experimental programs etc...) every year and throw out the content just to generate more revenue for the folks who feed off the Ministry of Education pork barrels.

Israel can save billions by using and recycling standard paper textbooks. I'm talking about impact on family budget, if you factor in impact on the environment of throwing out 5-10 million workbooks every year- then it looks really bad. After we standardize, then we can talk about a OKLP project (One Kindle per Little Person) project.

2. To set the record straight: there are free digital content (i.e. music and video) business models. All of the artists on MySpace music, Garageband and now the big studios provide free content as a way of promoting live performances, movie tickets and paid-for content - whether in a VOD subscription model, pay per track or pay per view.

3. The Israeli Ministry of Education is teaching technology in the classroom instead of using technology to teach. The worst example I can think of is (and I kid you not) a program in first grade to teach children how to use Microsoft Windows Paint.....




Danny



On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote:

On Tue, 8 Sep 2009, Dov Grobgeld wrote:

Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 09:40:58 +0300

From: Dov Grobgeld
To: Jonathan Ben Avraham
Cc: ILUG

Subject: Re: eTextBooks (for kids)

That argument is like the arguments against writing free software because it
will put the software vendors out of business. It is clear that the interest


No, it's a very different argument. The correct analogy here is music. The content market is not the same as the sotware market. There is a free software market, but there is no free content market. And the main reason is that there is a revenue model for free software, but no revenue model for free content.

- yba



of the consumer is to have the information available for free, and if
someone wants to volunteer their time to provide this information for free,
then all the more respect to them. Of course this will make the publishers
unhappy, and they'll have to compete harder to have someone pay for their
work.

But this is all hypothetical as I have yet to hear about any such project.

Regards,
Dov

2009/9/8 Jonathan Ben Avraham

Hi All,
Don't forget that there is a large industry of authors and publishers who
make their living on the current paper book model. Like music, this is a
content market whose reason for existence is payment for content.

I think that a better idea for a free education project in this direction
would be an online publishing house the would sell kindle style versions of
the current content offering.
Regards,

- yba


On Mon, 7 Sep 2009, Dov Grobgeld wrote:

Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 21:22:37 +0300

From: Dov Grobgeld
To: Dotan Cohen
Cc: linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il
Subject: Re: eTextBooks (for kids)


This reminds me of a "public service" project that I have thought about
for
some time. It would be nice if someone created some free (as in license)
books that would pass the requirements of the education ministry. These
could then be downloaded as e-books or printed, copied partially,
photocopied, translated, modified, read in audioform, etc, which would be
a
great service to the all kids and parents.

Just my 2 ag,
Dov

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 14:06, Dotan Cohen wrote:

Is there a place to buy electronic versions of textbooks for (israeli)

school children?
The schools don't have places for kids to keep their books on premises,

so

they have to schlep all their books all day long. They are heavy. I'd
rather they carried a small laptop or e-book reader.
Any ideas?


You are ahead of your time. What grade are the kids in? You should
know that the books are likely used for more than reading, for
instance they may have to write in the book.

You should also know that Education Ministry limits the sacks on one's
back to 10% of their body weight. If your kid's books and a reasonable
pack exceed this, complain to the school management. Keep us informed.


--
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il

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The role of pasta in software development

According to the Military Health Research Forum (MHRF) 2009 - and an article published on MedScape Medical News
high-carb and/or high-fat diets can improve cognitive performance.

I guess that means - pasta eaters make better programmers - just like milk drinkers make better lovers

September 1, 2009 — Diets high in carbohydrates or fat can lead to significantly better cognitive-performance and inflight-testing scores in pilots than diets high in protein, according to results reported in a poster presentation at the Military Health Research Forum (MHRF) 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition, a high-carbohydrate diet helped study pilots sleep better, and a high-fat diet appeared to lead to significantly faster short-term memory.

"We started out thinking that the high-protein diet would lead to being the sharpest afterward," said colead investigator Glenda Lindseth, RN, PhD, licensed registered dietician and professor of nursing at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks. "But we were surprised by our findings that it was actually the high-carb or high-fat diets that were the best. Eating a diet that's high in protein just isn't going to help you perform optimally."

Creativity and learning

One of the most annoying things for me is thinking how the Israeli school system misuses technology in the service of education.

The Israeli Ministry of Education teach technology in the classroom instead of using technology to teach. In other words, we have teachers taking 90 hour courses in learning Excel and first grade students being taught to use Microsoft Paint.

This is of course - a total waste of time and tax-payer money. Children already know about and use technology like the iPhone, social media like Facebook and online video like Youtube and Hulu.

I started thinking about this in a discussion in the car yesterday coming back from a wonderful visit to Yad Hanadiv - I asked my wife why small children stop being so inquisitive after first grade - I've always thought it was the educational system that destroyed their curiosity by spoon feeding knowledge and regimenting problem solving.

I then got into an argument with my daughter about why the primary school system in Israel 20 years ago (when she was in first grade) used בדידים - colored pieces of woods of different lengths - I think white was 1. The idea was to that using colors and physical lengths of things you can hold was a good way of teaching addition and subtraction. I recall participating in a PTA meeting with her first grade teacher who tried to teach the method to the parents - I vividly remember that I was never able to correlate the colors with the lengths of the pieces of wood.

This morning I took back what I said about the colors after listening to Gell-Mann's 2007 lecture on getting creative ideas.

We used color coding of entity types during a system analysis of the facilities area at Fab8 and I remember that beyond serving as a memory aid - the colors stimulated social interaction in the group - as we collected data in wall charting sessions in a conference room.

Social interaction is an important part of learning and it seems that the colors help reinforce the interaction.

So - using colors is a creative idea - that may have been useful, although to this day I cannot understand what is wrong with rote learning of arithmetic.