Nov .edu update

[der.hans]

moin, moin,

as I reported on the PLUG-discuss list I ran into some people doing some
cool educational stuff with Linux while I was at ALS.

For those who like Portuguese or enjoy browsing via bablefish :).

http://www.brod.com.br/

The university link appears to still be down :(. They had a severe power
outtage in the region and things don't appear to be back to normal.

http://www.Univates.br/

http://sagu.codigoaberto.org.br/

Cesar has 200 schools running with GNU/Linux and another 2000 are getting
it.

The Brasilian gov't in his region is paying for GNU/Linux development and
they've passed legislation in Cesar's region requiring to government to get
bids using Free Software for any jobs that require software.

After ALS I met with Don from Sequoia. He's the one driving the project they
want done.

What they need is an engine house/give problems and an engine that tracks
standards.

The problem engine would be able to hook into a database of problems. Let's
say math probs as that's the specific one we're gonna work on to begin with
:). It can then take some configuration from the instructor as to what kind
of exercise/quiz to build. It could then either spit out the problems or
give the problems one at a time ( one pupil per computer interface ) for
adaptive testing[1]. There are several interfaces avilable for this.

The standards tracking engine would really just be something similar to
groups. The problem is a member of many groups. Whoever maintains the
content decides that, not us. We then have an engine that can pull up 20
problems for test type A, skill level 6, skill area 5.3. As an example :).
Lots of room for functionality in this engine.

We'll also need to be able to do report generation using info from both
engines.

Brian has some sample code. I'm waiting for Don to get me some sample
problems and sample groupings info for them.

My goal is for us to take a set of problems and build the necessary engines
for them. The engines don't need to have lots of bells and whistles. Don
currently has one set of problems that he can't get covered by the
commercial software the school is using. They have one type of interface
that they're currently using and they're worried about two standards. I
think this is something we can do pretty quickly, thereby providing some
immediate needed functionality for Sequoia.

After building the demo we can design the product fairly exhaustively and
start building the various modules. Maybe the modules can be slipped into
the demo such that we can add functionality piecemeal as we go.

I've got a report of an engine for math problems, but haven't heard back
from the software engineer I was pointed at.

ciao,

der.hans

[1] adaptive testing bases the next problem on whether or not the correct
answer was given for the current problem. If enough correct answers for a
type of problem have been given the test engine can go on to another type.
If they haven't, it can continue to ask questions of the current type or
even move on to break down the current tasks into sub-areas and start
testing those one by one. Computerized SAT, GRE, etc. use this method.

-- 
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#  is if he's wearing Depends[TM] - der.hans