about three years ago, mcnealy was trying to help his son with a science project and couldn't find basic information on the internet about how electricity works. from that point on, he started a project to try to get an open resource together on the web to help children learn. that project became curriki, a wiki aimed specifically at helping children get access to the reliable information they need to learn.
the name curriki is formed from the words “curriciulum” and “wiki” and already has 11 subject fields represented, 3,000 items available, and 35,000 members. parents, teachers, and the children themselves are encouraged to post useful information on the site, which is carefully vetted, and any ip rights are clearly signed away on content by individuals.
mcnealy also has a key interest in making sure curriki works for developing countries and is using china as a launching ground for this with the site. he also aims to work alongside textbook publishers to give teachers more breadth of subject matter in the classroom without raising costs.
read more at the associated press article.
no one can argue with someone trying to create a free resource to help children learn, but a fine balance has to be struck here.
on the one hand, you want to give a child free access to information, but need to also ensure that it is just information and not the answers to their questions, since this would defeat the purpose. on the other hand, the information has to be sound and checks done to ensure it is 100% correct.
curriki is going to have to overcome the above two problems in order to be seen as professional and trustworthy to parents and teachers. if anyone can post information, then the risk of false facts goes up and the chance people will start to post answers to specific questions also rises. mcnealy needs a good support structure in place to review all information before it becomes present on the site.
if this is done correctly, then it should form a quite useful resource for all children and hopefully help them learn and continue through school.
user comments 1 comment(s)
|it sounds cool (8:27pm est wed apr 18 2007)
what's the intended release date ?
– by yuri_ha