![[Social Software Alliance Wiki]](http://www.socialtext.net/ssa/ssaSmall.gif){kind=small}
] [?]This web site should be rembered due to it's interactive learning to kids in homes.
这个学习汉语的网站也不错，应当保留学习：
|
可管理的学习(Managed Learning)是一个非常重要的概念，应当更好地体现到互联教育体系的理论和设计中。所谓可管理的学习，就是要体现Accountability, Measuable，也就是要能够通过可以衡量的方法把学习者的学习过程更好地反映到学习成就上去。这和评估有关，但是更重要的是学习过程中学习者与学习环境之间的信息不断的信息交换。而学习环境很好地记录了这种交换的过程。对于研究性学习来说，可管理的学习就是要能够看到学习者小组能够不断地收集新的信息和事实，并能够不断产生新的想法和观点，最后的结论也许只是这个过程的一个提炼，而考察这个过程才是最重要的。
所以，由此想到，如果我们建立一个学习对象库，应当在一个可管理的环境基础上建立。这种环境（不妨暂时称为MLOC, Managed Learning Object Container）能够实现一个容器的功能，让在其基础上开发的学习对象能够有效地借助这些接口进行开发，也就能够控制和接受来自这些学习对象的信息。不仅如此，这个容器更好地体现出与其它系统的信息交换，例如更外层的MLE（Managed Learning Environment），这是一个很好的互操作模型，与微软的.Net Framework 有异曲同工之妙，也会很快创造出一种学习对象经济。相比较ESCOT和EOE来说，更加实际和能够引发类似微软这种公司的支持。
实际上，这个想法也来自于几天来对Terrarium 的学习和体验，很多学习确实是可以融会贯通的。
（补充的想法：如果确实有这样一个MLOC，不妨把它的实例设计称为可以嵌入网页中，也可以由一个App启动，甚至全屏幕方式演示运行，这样适应教学演示和自学等不同学习方式的灵活性来说就非常有利了。）
（更多补充想法：有了一个好的MLOC，就能够充分发挥分布的智力。A distributed network of teachers, researchers & developers creating link-able representational tools for real middle school math curricula.）。
ESCOT的几个设计思想也很值得今后可能实现这样的产品时参考：
- Graphs, tables, calculators, geometry, simulations, equations, notepads… probably 100 or so core active representational objects that occupy parts of a screen
- Enable mix-and-match, plug&play
- Cognitive research rationale:
- Dynamic, linked multiple representations key for deeper understanding
- Animated graphics for process history
- Collaboration support
- Assessment support
Leading to:
• Lower cost
• Better quality
• More flexibility
Goals
* Collect broadly useful, powerful components
* Link to curriculum needs
* Combine in new activities
ESCOT Teams Integrate Re-usable Components from a Shared, Web-Accessible Library into Lessons
* Teacher: Pedagogical Design
* Developer: Component Design
* Web facilitator: Web Design (and teamwork)
读ＭＢＡ是在浪费时间和金钱？
2002年08月28日 12:14
拥有工商管理硕士（ MBA）一直都被视为事业一帆风顺的护身符，但美国一项研究了数十年数据的调查却质疑，修读MBA除浪费时间和金钱外，根本一无是处，别说个人知识没有得 ，更无法确保美满「钱」途。
据香港《东方日报》引述外电报导说，史丹福商业研究生院管理学授普费弗，以及美国出生的华人博士生方婷（译音），根据过去四十年有关MBA学生成就的数据，完成一份名为《商科学院末日？》的研究报告，当中毫不留情地批评一般MBA课程都是象牙塔式育，而且内容与现实生活完全脱节，毕业生除了满腹理论外，根本无实际才能。
报告甚至披露，部分质素差的学院的所谓课程，只是让学生胡混两年，每晚「花天酒地」，最后冠冕堂皇的拿个硕士衔头。报告更指出，拥有MBA并不代表可以就此飞黄腾达，研究显示学生成绩或是否拥有工管硕士学位，与未来的薪金多寡根本没有实质联系。报告称「 MBA是成功的保证」这观念，其实「完全没有数据支持」。
根据报告，一九五六年全国每年只颁授三千二百个MBA学位，但如今已增加超过三十五倍，每年的毕业生超过十万人，但报告形容，这十多万人大部分都只是浪费了两年青春，和多达十万美元（约七十八万港元）的学费，有学生更为了这学位而债台高筑，结果可谓得不偿失。
另一名有份研究的芝加哥大学商业 授伯特直称：「我从未发现 MBA课程有任何好处，通常它只令你比其它没有此学位的同侪老了几年。」此外，美国大学商学院联会亦不讳言，其多个会员提供的课程「无可救药地落后于信息科技，只执于学院杂志排名」，协会称：「单靠教 科书不能为赶上急速的商业步伐作好准备。」
根据联会的调查， MBA毕业生认为与人沟通的技巧在商场上至为重要，但只有百分之六的人认为课程在 授此范畴上是「中度有用」或以上，而被评为「极度重要」的聆听技巧和应变能力，亦分别只有百分之十二和六的人认为课程有帮助。
修读ＭＢＡ不但不能一朝富贵，原来此荣衔亦非优质管理的信心保证，因为很多管理阶层即使头戴硕士帽，其管理表现也一塌糊涂，做事墨守成规，不知变通，更只是懂得纸上谈兵，一旦应付商场实战就一筹莫展。很多管理失当情况其实源于管理层的处事作风，行政总裁倾向一成不变，只依从既定方针办事，不会根据行业性质不同，或者人手分配安排作出适当调动。此外，ＭＢＡ课程只重授空泛的管理理论，反而忽略了真实的管理知识。
根据《财富》杂志的报道，美国百大企业中，有四成的行政总裁拥有ＭＢＡ，但事实上，这些公司却都以失败居多。文章指出，这批ＭＢＡ高层欠缺良好的人际手腕，管理手法不善，以致公司亦随走下坡。部分美国顾问公司亦注意到ＭＢＡ课程的流弊，于是特别推出一些短期的在职管理培训，卖点是在短短两周内，将非ＭＢＡ职员变成半个管理专家，让学员在短时间内掌握到实用的管理技巧，这类密集式的课程既省时又悭钱，对正统的ＭＢＡ课程无疑带来新冲击。
不过，对于有研究指修读MBA课程并无实用，不论对事业发展或加薪也不会有大帮助，美国经企管理专业研究生入学考试委员会（GMAC）立即提出反驳，以数字证明毕业生在完成课程后，薪金如何水涨船高。GMAC的统计显示，在美国修毕MBA的学生，平均年薪起点有七万七千美元，相对学生当年只拥有学士学位时的五万美元年薪，已凸显MBA对个人事业发展的帮助。
GMAC更表示，由他们委托美国育测验服务社（ETS）主办，用来评估入学申请的研究生管理科学入学考试（GMAT），在今年首半年的申请数字已上升百分之十三，而在过去数月内上升速度更快。部分学校还经常接受传媒访问，或在报章上刊登特稿，以证明修读MBA的成效。GMAC主席威尔逊表示：「事实已证明MBA的需求甚大，它已有百年历史，并不是潮流玩意。」
学习编程，从游戏开始！
微软的团队确实是用创造性的方法在工作，他们的.Net 研发队伍为了能够让更多的人加入到这个新技术的开发社区中来，竟然从头设计了一个生存游戏------ Terrarium（小动物饲养箱）。它们提供了这个“饲养箱”生态系统环境（一个容器服务程序，源代码也可以下载）和动物/植物的基类，然后让各路开发人员竞相开发基于这些基类的食肉动物(Carnivore)、食草动物(Herbivore)和植物(Plant) 等。各类生物的生存指标都有平衡，要么攻击/防守能力很强，要么很容易繁殖，系统可以提供各种事件的接口，
按照微软开发组的一个单页建议，只要几分钟就可以编写一个生物（你可以用任何语言编写自己的一个DLL），还有一定的智能。但是要想真正在整个生态系统中长期生存下来，则必须具备精心设计的策略，这大概就是“生命”的意义。所以在你编写的生物进入真正的网络生态系统之前，最好现在自己本地的一个试验饲养箱中先测试测试自己生物的生存能力和特性。一旦你把自己的生物（无论是食肉、食草或植物）放入在网络上的生态系统中，就要面临残酷的竞争了。
微软的服务器负责运行整个生态圈，用一套可以管理的容器方式让所有的生物在其中自由生活。在美国，这个生态圈每周将进行一次评比，看到底谁的生物能够生存下来，并选出当周的获奖者颁发一套正版的Visual Studio。而再过一段时间，还要选出更大的奖项，颁发微软的XBOX游戏终端。据了解，这个比赛很快就要到中国了。
现在，你要做的就是下载这样一个生态系统的客户端界面，打开你的VS.Net, 然后把例程代码拷贝到里面，Build，然后开始养自己的第一个“宠物”了。不过你要想让它们活得健康、活得开心，必须要进一步动脑筋，当然最重要的是在这个过程中学会了运用C#, VB.Net, JScript.Net等开发程序。
这是我作为学习者的亲身经历，但是在这里我真正想说的是模拟/虚拟游戏也是学习技术的一个重要领域，Simulation 本身在商业和教学中已经运用多年，并取得了很好的成效，目前也正在随着全球教育技术的发展而蓬勃兴起。我过去曾经参加过的一个商业培训，“非财务人员的财务管理”，就运用了一套沙盘模拟的方法，在一套虚拟的工厂中进行生产、销售、财务的运作，经过虚拟Mentor的指导，连我这种对“财务”比较发怵的人也产生了兴趣，最后竟然在开局不利的情况夺得各个培训小组中的头筹（虚拟运作一年时间）。而中间过程中对贷款、库存和财务报表的理解自然而然进入了我的头脑。
我们需要更好的ISD（教学设计）方法，也需要高超的技术人员把好的ISD 变成提高学习体验的实际学习环境。曾经看过很多好的模拟应用，包括DK公司的人体解剖、网络虚拟青蛙解剖、Profiability 的经理实验室等，更广泛地看，还包括SimCity这样的游戏，他们都可以帮助少年儿童透过缩微世界（Small World）的方法学习到很多非结构化的知识(ill-structured knowledge)，当然也完全适用于终身学习者。这种教学方法正应当大量应用到我们现在的课程改革中。而模拟软件开发的推动力，正来自我们的教育技术行业，应当互勉共进。
Don Norman 是我一直崇敬的一位人机交互专家，他近年的重点业转向了教育方面，elearnmag对他的访谈表现了他的观点，不过看来与教育的全局还有距离。这大概是研究的重点不同造成的吧。（不过他对培训和学习体验的看法于我心有戚戚焉）
Q&A with Don Norman
A freewheeling exchange with a true visionary of interaction design
By Lisa Neal, Editor-In-Chief, eLearn Magazine, and Managing Consultant, EDS Digital Learning
Don Norman, who has been called “the guru of workable technology” by Newsweek magazine, has few peers in the field of user-centered design. His books include The Design of Everyday Things, Things That Make Us Smart, and The Invisible Computer. He is a principal of The Nielsen Norman Group (which he co-founded with Web-design expert Jacob Nielsen), Professor for Computer Science at Northwestern University, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. In addition, Norman recently served as an executive at online learning specialists UNext/Cardean University. eLearn magazine Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal met with him recently to discuss the current state of online learning.
LISA NEAL: How does distance education compare to classroom education?
Distance education is of necessity different from local education. Because it is so different, you have to actually think harder about what you’re doing. The result could be superior. And it’s not because I believe that distance education is superior to--what shall we call it?--traditional education. It’s surprising how little attention is actually paid to the instructional matters and to how much people learn in traditional courses. But in a distance education environment, you must pay attention to it.
LISA NEAL: What do you think about the current state of instructional design for online courses?
DON NORMAN: Instructional design refers to a particular philosophy of setting your goals upfront and making sure there are various metrics. And what I’ve seen is very uninspiring. It’s all very logical-- and the courses are horrible. I’m a big believer in motivating the student by getting them excited about the problem and then thrusting them into the problem before they’re ready. They have to be unready in just the right amount. If they’re too unready it’s confusing and they give up.
LISA NEAL: Can you give an example?
DON NORMAN: The traditional way of teaching, actually, is that instructional designers do an analysis of the material--say, basic digital circuitry. In order to understand that you need to understand digital logic. And to understand that you need to understand Boolean logic and Boolean algebra. So that’s where they start. And the really interesting stuff doesn’t come up for a long time, just the dull introductory stuff that logically is essential to understand. But how do you keep yourself going? What I want to do is throw them the challenge of making an exciting computer game, or something that would be fun to build. Then they’ll discover they need to know more about computer logic and other topics. You lead them through so that at every step there’s a gap, but it doesn’t seem unapproachable.
LISA NEAL: Can that approach be successful for all students, for all topics, and for all settings?
DON NORMAN: I believe the fundamental approach works. But there are several considerations--first of all, what motivates one student might be very different from what motivates another. Second, if I’m really already very well-motivated to learn, then the approach I just mentioned gets in my way, and what I want instead is to be told what to read. That’s how I learn a lot of the skills I pick up.
LISA NEAL: What happens when a company wants to teach, say, diversity training to 1,000 people?
DON NORMAN: I don’t believe there’s any way you can do it that will hit everybody at the right level unless you can tailor the instruction or have one-to-one tutors. How do you give a lecture to 300 people? You can’t--even though we do it all the time.
The problem-based approach is great at motivating people and focusing attention on what’s important to learn. And we know that you learn better if you know what’s important. But not everybody needs that. Or people may have different motives for taking the course, in which case one problem will miss some of them.
The real issue here is mass education. There’s no single method that’s going to hit everybody.
LISA NEAL: If you’re trying to offer diversity training throughout your company, what is the best approach?
DON NORMAN: If your problem is getting people physically together, then use an online course. But I can’t believe that an online course is inherently superior; if everybody’s already together, why not teach people directly? It allows you to have better social interaction and answer questions more rapidly than online. Besides avoiding travel, the only reason to use technology is to enhance learning. For instance, some medical instruction is wonderfully done, using a combination of video, computers, and models so people can practice surgery online.
LISA NEAL: Is the real advantage of being online is that you can do things that you wouldn’t be able to do in the classroom?
DON NORMAN: Yes, but it’s hard to find a course where the entire course is better online than in the classroom. I’ve never been a fan of online or distance education. I’ve been a fan of education.
At Cardean University we had a very particular market. We had people who could not afford to go to a university or were traveling too much. We didn’t say that this was superior to the university--we said this is for people who can’t go to a traditional university.
LISA NEAL: How important is peer interaction in an online course?
DON NORMAN: I think Cardean was weak in student interaction. We talked about it a lot, but we didn’t really implement it. I think peer interaction is where you learn. And having students teach each other is where you learn. Having students work together in groups is essential. The course is not just the material that we present to them.
LISA NEAL: In Italy there’s a Slow Food movement with a snail for the symbol on restaurant windows. It means they use seasonal, local ingredients and traditional cooking processes. People have similarly talked about the slow learning. What do you think about that compared to just-in-time learning?
DON NORMAN: In a paper David E. Rumelhart and I wrote a long time ago, we argued learning had three components, which we called accretion, restructuring, and tuning. Accretion is what happens when I go through the day and I pick up this fact, and that fact, and I’m learning. Just-in-time learning is fine for that. I’m a big fan of just-in-time. Tunings is the difference between an expert and the informed. For instance, a senior who’s finished physics knows physics, but if you ask him to solve a problem he has to think about it and puzzle. If you ask an expert to solve the problem, they look at it and immediately they know that this is an energy conservation problem and they attack it. They may not even remember the equations, but they can classify it right away. They don’t worry about remembering the equations; they’ll derive them again or something. The hard part is knowing what kind of a problem it is and what to focus on. The real difference often has to do with how many times you’ve done it.
My standard example is juggling, which I learned from Seymour Papert at MIT. I can teach you how to juggle three balls in probably ten minutes. But it’ll then take you two or three years of practice to be good at it. What goes on in those two or three years? Well, it’s tuning, it’s making it subconscious, automatic--adding precision to the way you toss, and to the way you quickly spot where the balls are going to come down. No thought is required.
Well, that’s accretion and tuning. Restructuring is where real learning, what we think of as learning, takes place, and it’s rare. It’s when you’ve been given all this stuff and you can parrot it back, and even use it, but you don’t truly understand it. This is what takes time and thought. What you need is the right framework. And at some point by some magic, which we don’t fully understand, you suddenly get the right point of view and then it all clicks into place. That’s when you have this “ah-ha” experience.
If you only learn a half-hour here, a half hour there, it’ll never happen. So there are different kinds of learning and reasoning. Most training doesn’t require this restructuring so most training can be done just-in-time. There’s a problem in teaching fundamental material. If I want you to be really good at computer circuits, at some point you just have to learn the basics, and you have to really understand them, because I never want you to think about them again.
Q&A with Don Norman
LISA NEAL: Do you draw a real line between training and education?
DON NORMAN: No, I don’t. But there’s a prototype of training, which is learning how to do a task for the moment. And there’s a prototype of education, which is understanding deep fundamental principles. If you look at what goes on in training, and you look at what really goes on in universities, the line is horribly blurred. A lot of what you do in universities is really training, and a lot of what you do in training could be called education. If you look in the dictionary, training is defined in terms of education, and vice versa.
LISA NEAL: Do you think that learners need guidance to find a learning environment that minimizes distractions?
DON NORMAN: Yes. But one of the problems of distance education and home study is that you have to be self-motivated. And a lot of people can’t manage it. One of the advantages of a traditional classroom where you have to show up three times a week is that it’s externally motivated.
You asked me once before: As a university professor, isn’t it strange that no one’s ever told me how to teach? Well, as a nation of learners, isn’t it strange we don’t teach people how to learn?
Many years ago Herb Simon was vehement about this. We should be teaching fundamental problem-solving skills and learning skills, not the content, but the skills for doing it. If you had those skills then you could yourself pick up any material you needed.
Although it’s obvious we should study without distractions, so few people do it. Teenagers insist on playing music, television, and having the telephone and cell phone next to them all the time they’re studying, and claim that there’s no problem. I would love to see somebody study this. My personal belief is that they’re not doing deep learning, they’re not doing deep studying. Maybe with the material they have they don’t need to. I believe the music they play could actually be helping them.
I’ve been focusing my research recently on the study of affect and emotion, in part because I want to build intelligent robots that are autonomous, and the only way to make them exist and be smart is to give them affective emotion. And for the first time I think there’s enough known where we can make advances.
I’m learning a number of things, including the fact that the affective system is a very powerful information processing system that places value judgments. It makes rapid value judgments, plus-affect and minus-affect. And those value judgments affect the way the cognitive system processes information. It truly does. Slight arousal and especially apprehension focuses you.
LISA NEAL: Is that what music might be doing for teenagers?
DON NORMAN: That’s what music might be doing. If you’re slightly pleased and happy, you end up actually being slightly dis-focused. Which makes you a better creative problem solver. You’re more easily distractible, but you’re also doing more breadth-first thinking and more out-of-the-box thinking. When you’re slightly anxious you do more depth-first thinking and are less distracted.
LISA NEAL: Can you, under certain circumstances, enhance an online student’s state of nervousness through music?
DON NORMAN: Artists have always thought so--hence, the use of music in movies. Movies go to great efforts to recreate realism on screen and get you involved, yet feel it essential that they have music in the background. They feel it really adds to the interpretation and experience. It’s often the case that artists are ahead of scientists. What scientists do is notice what the artists have done, and then try to understand it.
LISA NEAL: With corporate training, some people saw going to training classes as a benefit--time away from work, travel, coffee and donuts, etc. Do you think there’s something there that can be motivating for people?
DON NORMAN: Yes, because if you take a look at even higher education, education is only a small part of it. When you go to the university it’s the last stage of the maturation process. It’s where you meet your lifetime friends and contacts. It’s where you have your last fling. Sometimes it’s the first time away from home. I certainly believe that company education is related--you get to meet people from all the other branches of the company. It is a relief from your day-to-day work. You break out of your normal diets, have donuts and lots of coffee, and go out drinking every night. Those are very positive things. Most companies treat this as an extra expense, instead of an opportunity, but they can help build company loyalty and pay back as much as the things that are learned.
LISA NEAL: What can be done to enhance the learner experience?
DON NORMAN: There’s a really important concept, which is flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi told me that I was just trying to recreate the flow experience, and I think he’s right. Flow is a wonderful experience when you do it. Sometimes a good book can cause it, or good theatre, or movie. The world disappears and you’re focused entirely on the material.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that you have to have just the right amount of challenge--that’s what I think the proper learning state is, if you can somehow manage it. That’s what’s so difficult in a lecture. Sometimes you have the people spellbound, but if I can do it for five minutes, I’m lucky. And with a large lecture you can’t do it for everybody. And that’s where the distractions of modern life destroy it. You get into the flow state and the phone rings--and it’s gone.
直到今天国内的教育技术工作者们还没有转变思维，那就是把技术应当融入到教育的每个环节中，而不是把远程教育、教育信息化单独辟出来，找一块自留地进行耕种。这种思维在技术领域存在，在教育系统内部也是如此。所以教师、学生会把计算机当作是附加的内容，而一旦评估的要求与提高效率并没有关联，则自然会变成一种负担。其实Online-edu如果不把教育整个话题当作核心，也不免会走入这样的误区，把自己与教育界隔离开来，形成一个孤僻的社区。