User:AdaptiveCampus

My name is Keith Bourne. I am the founder of Adaptive Campus (http://www.adaptivecampus.com), so I used that as my user name. Adaptive Campus develops software applications for the higher education field, so I am very curious to see how well Wikiversity works. I will be taking courses in topics that I am interested in and comparing it to my formal education experiences. In general though, I am excited that this resource is here and look forward to using it.

I have a twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/adaptivecampus where I discuss issues related to personal learning environments issues (PLE). If that is an area of interest for you, you can join a tweet party geared towards PLEs using the hashtag #PLE - meaning if you put #PLE in your twitter post, it will be collected under that hashtag for future reference.

I also have a blog at http://www.marketingineducation.org/blog where I discuss issues related to marketing in the field of education. If that is an area of interest, please join me on the website, ask questions, post your own thoughts on the field. It is an open resource for anyone and meant to help support marketing professionals in our field.

Is it just me or does the Wikiversity logo look a lot like the MIT dome?

I am going to use my user page to document my progress in my "courses":

• February 26, 2009 - Started "Introduction to Computer Science" - Introduction to Computers
  • If I leave work after 5pm, I like to leave my computer at the office and if I need access to it, I'll use my wife's computer to tap in using gotomypc.com's service. But when sitting at home, winding down from the day, I find that my Blackberry is sufficient to allow me to review the course "materials". I don't take as many notes or click through as many links, but it is convenient.
  • I completed the first lesson. Took me a while and I took some liberties with the assignments. I actually did more work on the assignments, but didn't pay particular attention to pulling it into a formal format to "turn in." It makes sense to me, so I suppose that is what counts. The first lesson took much longer than what I would suspect it would take me in a traditional university setting, but mainly because I clicked through many more links and probably ended up learning a great deal more than in the traditional format where the prof is leading you down a more rigid path. I feel less directed, which I can see benefits and problems with this, but I enjoyed the information upgrade. I enjoyed clicking the "additional" resources, such as watching the 17 minute YouTube piece that was an original promo for Univac. Even though I am missing many of the nuances and benefits of the interaction with a live professor in a traditional classroom, I find that this ability to let my curiosity lead me through the learning process has its own benefits.
• March 2, 2009 - Just moving to the second lesson.
  • The next few lessons were relatively short. Afreidman encouraged me to contribute to the development of the courses, so I added a couple additions where they seemed to make sense. I found this a little different from Wikipedia though, in the sense that I feel a little more obligated to maintain the course in the format that the original author intended. Of course, I don't know exactly what that is, so I am more hesitant in this format to contribute. For one contribution, rather than adding what I was suggesting, I posted the suggestion to the discussion page for that lesson (this is in the Algorithm section). I did add a navigation element to that page though, without asking, as it seemed to make it more consistent with the other lessons. I am also hesitant to contribute because I am worried about introducing my own learning biases into the lessons I am taking. I learn in particular manner, but should I impose that on others that might learn in another way? Of course, that is the kind of perspective that you are supposed to break down in these open communities, but it was something that made me hesitate. I personally am finding the lessons so far to work in a way that I am comfortable, but it does tend to lean towards a one-size-fits-all learning system. How can we remedy that? Adaptive Campus is working on developing a PLE platform that is meant to address this very issue, so I wonder how we could develop it in a way that addresses this within Wikiversity and other similar open-learning forums. AdaptiveCampus 19:43, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
  • I've been digging again now that I am to the lesson on Algorithm. Even though there aren't a lot of links on the Algorithm lesson page, if you click through to the Algorithm page on Wikipedia, you can get lost for hours - control flow, imperative programming, logic programming, OOPS, self-modifying code, and so forth, all subjects that you could feel compelled to explore further. AdaptiveCampus 19:43, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
• March 9, 2009 - Finished the Intro to CS course, moved on to the Intro to Programming.
  • Fell behind in my "studies", but finally got back to work today. I completed the Introduction to Computer Science course. Would be interesting to have some way to test my knowledge, if even to myself. Perhaps a "Final" that one can self administer. While multiple choice, T/F, and other similarly limited forms are questions have their own issues, it seems as though it would difficult to self-assess an essay in this format. Moving on to Introduction to programming. AdaptiveCampus 19:55, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
• March 10, 2009 - Finished the Intro to Programming Course.
  • I know most of this stuff, so I am probably proceeding faster than if I didn't. Like previous lessons/courses though, I am wandering into areas that I don't think I would have learned as much about in a more structure traditional classroom setting. And again, this typically occurred when I was over on the Wikipedia side of the lessons. My latest tangential learning experience focused on Rube Goldberg Machines. Rube Goldberg machine contests are something that I've come across in recent years, so I read a lot more about that then I think I would have when I was younger and in a formal program. I even searched the Internet to look for the latest contests that have been held. Man, I wish I had the Internet in its current form when I was an undergrad!
• March 11-12, 2009 - Intro to Programming in Java Course.
  • I loaded the Java Development Kit, made it through the lessons that were there. It only made it to Boolean Variables and the lessons ended. It seemed like a good start though. AdaptiveCampus 02:23, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• March 12, 2009 - Bounced around.
  • Much of the program falls apart at this point. I clicked around and found different pieces that seemed to go together, but it isn't quite formed yet. AdaptiveCampus 03:11, 13 March 2009 (UTC)