Re: On the links between FOSS developers and the academia

Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote:

>On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 10:53:57AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote:
>  
>
>>Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Students learn to know that there are alternatives
>>>and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many
>>>students.
>>>      
>>>
>
>Why not instead have some students try product A, some product B etc.
>and later report how they did in practice what they learned during
>theory. Yes, I am aware this creates extra-work for the staff, but
>I hope you get what I mean.
>
>  
>

Well, I try to teach the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, 
implementation, evaluation) and say that anybody who mentions 
Arc-something while she or he is in analysis or design phase, will get a 
long minus. But still, many students start the whole thing saying the 
"We take ArcGIS and...".

The same design can normally be used for FOSS, COTS, or other software. 
By evaluation of alternatives (not the E in ADDIE) I understand 
comparing these solutions (cost, support, requirements from the other 
systems, etc).

You had the example of georeferencing a raster image with different 
tools and then comparing the experiences. To me that sounds like 
something that you would do on "GIS usability" course. To do that in 
some basic GIS course sounds too laborous at least in a university.

Ari

-- 
Prof. Ari Jolma
Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics
Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology
POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland
Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma