Subject: [IFETS-Discuss] VLEs, plugins, and prereqs
corrie@itasca.net
Date: Fri 16 Jun 2000 - 00:50:53 MEST
From: corrie@itasca.net Subject: [IFETS-Discuss] VLEs, plugins, and prereqs Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 15:50:53 -0700
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Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
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At some point you have to draw the line on prerequisite skills. Any new
communications technology comes with a learning curve. Once upon a time,
students had to be taught how to use a table of contents and index, because
those were new technologies. We still have to teach students how to use a
library catalog, and how to sift good data from bad (especially now!). But
a button labeled "click here to learn how to use a mouse" IMO is overkill.
There are so many basic-level computer courses available these days that I
think we can waste a lot of time reinventing the wheel instead of just
saying, "Look. Here are the things you need to be able to do. If you can't
go learn and then come back." Guess I'm turning into a curmudgeon.
Most new browsers have the Flash plugin already installed. If not,
downloading and installing a plugin is IMO a necessary information-age
skill. To use Norman's term, it's knowledge-in-the-world. The plugin sites
have very well-written procedural instructions for the most part.
I am dubious about creating "install disks" that have everything already set
up. I've been in a product-development environment, and I know that the
level of effort in creating and properly testing a software product (even a
simple install for a standard environment) is VERY non-trivial. And then
you have to update it every few months as new browser version or bug patches
come out.
I think Flash has a great deal of potential. The fact that it can pass
values back and forth to a web page, which in tern can pass them to a
server, in itself holds out the promise of "real" CBT interactivity on the
Web. I don't mean button graphics that indent and make a little 'clik'
sound, or "click here to watch a stamp-sized talking head," but the kinds of
intelligent, multi-pathed simulations that PLATO and MECC pioneered nearly
thirty years ago. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Corrie Bergeron, Jr.
"An educated mind is useless without a focused will,
and dangerous without a loving heart." - W.J. Deijmann
corrie@itasca.net
www.itasca.net/~corrie
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