[Technical] Using IRC for student development collaboration

[Con Zymaris]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2005 at 11:38:31AM +1000, Clark, Ian C wrote:
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tech-bounces at edulists.com.au 
> > Sharing code via IRC is easy. Sharing code face-to-face is hard.
> > 
> > Sharing ideas with 20 kids on IRC is easy. Sharing ideas with 
> > 20 kids in a lab is hard. Logging and documenting all the 
> > good ideas is exciting and helps the kids understand that 
> > they are building something more than a transient app.
> 
> Honestly, sharing isn't a problem, Con ... students already do plenty of
> that ... too much of it, many would say.  ;-)
> 
> They share mp3s, movies and copied homework from each other (you
> actually don't want collaboration happening on an assignment that isn't
> a team project!). 

Correct. But much of what you would teach them doesn't immediately fit 
into either the assignment or exam criteria. You switch on the IRC server 
when you want them to jointly explore codebases or research syntax etc.


> 
> Students don't need a peer to peer app to do all this. It already
> happens around the State courtesy of USB keys, shared out laptop hard
> drives, compromised folders on school servers and burnt CDs/DVDs.

None of this is the same as sharing code snippets and programming solution 
ideas in real time.

> 
> It may not be a problem for you and any contract programmers working
> from home, but it's a problem in schools for teachers and network
> administrators. 
> 
> Imagine a situation where you have twenty five employees, who from 9 to
> 5, would prefer to socialize and share fun stuff instead of work for
> Cybersource. Well, that's a scenario a teacher can face five times a
> day.  :-)

With all activity logged and with interested users, this isn't a problem.

> 
> Generally, a teacher who wants to make code or a photo or an assignment
> available to my class, can put it on an Intranet or a folder on a
> server, and examples of student work can go there too. Using IRC to do
> that might suit some people really well, but not others. 

IRC allows the students to interact and help each other. Just like in most 
organisations, most of the real tech support isn't provided by the help 
desk staff, but by nearby co-workers.

As I said, try it first, then tell me it's a bad idea ;-)


-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
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