[dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 8 - POMS

[Gary Short]

-------- Original Message --------
> From: Robert McWilliam <rmcw at allmail.net>
> Sent: 06 February 2008 00:32
> To: Tayside Linux User Group <dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 8 - POMS
> 
> > So stalemate; which is a good time to bring the discussion to an end
> > I think.
> 
> I'm not that defeatist. Someone disagreeing with me is a chance to
> explore the issue, and have some fun constructing arguments. 

Well all righty then. I think the investment should be in teachers because:

1. Its what happens in the developed world, which is not to say its best just 'cos its what we do, but it does mean that it is a proven model. Its been done for centuaries; everyone does it, which means they've not come across a better way of doing it; because its a established, proven model, there are lots of empirical studies around what works and what doesn't work.

2. Even when the pupils are remote from the teacher there is already a model for dealing with that, both here in this country with schools programmes on TV and radio and (if you need more interaction) in Australia with the short wave radio serivce.

3. In short the problem that OLPC tackles has been solved, there are tried, tested and proven methods and techonologies in this area already; why throw that away and spend millions developing a solution to a problem that has been solved? Why not invest in the current (proven) solutions? It does smack a little of NIH.

-- 
Cheers,
Gary
http://www.garyshort.org