Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast, UK: Ethnolust Writing "Theory into Practice: Rethinking Education," About World University & School

Hi G,

Thanks very much for your timely and insightful writing about World University and School, "Theory into Practice: Rethinking Education" - http://ethnolust.com/2011/10/20/theory-into-practice-rethinking-education. In a way, it's World University and School's first 'third party' write up, and we're appreciative.

Concerning some of the other links in our conversation I mentioned, here's World University and School's collection of open, free, online university projects we've found, including P2P, for example -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates.

And here are the 'great' universities, so far, we'd like to engage for open educational resources -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings.

Your sentence "For example, MacLeod states that students would be permitted to take online courses not offered in their home institutions for credit" is accurate in that WUaS would like to explore and facilitate this, especially among the great universities above (and there's precedent, for example, where MIT and Harvard students can take each others courses, I think), - possibly through a kind of membership approach, yet still free and open for WUaS students.

What I didn't mention in our phone conversation, I think, was that WUaS facilitates people-to-people teaching and learning, as wiki, where people can teach to their web cameras (e.g. Salman Khan - math and sciences plus, Jimmy Ruska - web design plus, Bill Robertson - bagpipe), create a new subject page, innovate in other ways, etc., as a kind of meta-directory, and that WUaS is planning to be in all 3,000-8,000 languages, and accredited with the same degrees in 50-100. It's a humongous vision, yet Wikipedia (free, open, wiki and advertising free), by way of comparison, is in 281 languages, and we all did it.

Perhaps your article will help World University and School get into Wikipedia, in multiple languages.

WUaS would like to collaborate richly with Duke University, for example.

Thanks again.

Let's keep in touch.

All the best,
Scott

(October 20, 2011)

Hi G,

Here's one other informational response to the last observation in your thoughtful writing about WUaS - http://ethnolust.com/2011/10/20/theory-into-practice-rethinking-education.

Here's World University & School's Hardware Resources' wiki, Subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Hardware_Resource_Possibilities - for very cheap, or free, hardware. And WUaS has an explicit focus on One Laptop per Child countries - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child_-_XO_Laptop_-_$100_Laptop_-_MIT - as part of its mission.

WUaS is planning for mobile devices as well.

I think the audio recording also helps your article.

(We just had an earthquake here ... a 4-ish on the Richter scale ?)

Thanks again,

Scott

(October 20, 2011)

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Hi G,

Great. Yes, let's talk further. What do you have in mind in terms of an interview? See my web site for an overview of most of what I'm doing, here - http://scottmacleod.com.

In my blog, here's a main resource for World University and School, at 'global university' - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/global%20university.

And here's the wiki, 'Anthropology," subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Anthropology - for an idea of how an academic subject works, and of course, one can always start a new subject page, like Ethnology, if one wants to. The main, organizing, wiki "Subjects" page is very extensible - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects.

And here's one of the links to my actual / virtual Harbin ethnography book I'm writing - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Harbin%20ethnography - with a virtual Harbin to come, probably in ScienceSim.

And here's the wiki for the course I've taught for about 7 semesters on Harvard's virtual Berkman island in Second Life - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/w/page/17175578/FrontPage - also accessible from my web site above.

I've enjoyed teaching in virtual worlds because of the two channels - group voice chat and group text chat (and the possibility to build) - as well as a kind of flow experience which occurs in conversing about ideas seriously. And it's placeless so people can participate and share ideas - almost like riffing - from anywhere.

I'd like to get a 'third party' reference/citation to get World University & School into Wikipedia, and perhaps our chat in your blog might do it.

Your blog looks very interesting, as well.

All the best,

Scott

(October 13, 2011)

(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/10/giants-causeway-and-causeway-coast-uk.html - October 20, 2011)