Insights into the thought process and how the student learns is an area that is often ignored during higher education / training programs in the industry.
Educators tools need to be explored and implemented with a sincerety of purpose into the curriculum.
Critical analysis and thinking, discussion, open debates and questioning are important to adhere to during the facilitation to learning. A course completion with a grade assigned is only an indication that the self learning can begin well equipped with the right tools.
Learning can be facilitated with the facilitator in control of questions that examine the several layers of the cognitive learning domain. The facilitator has the additional responsibility of retaining the focus and bringing the discussions back on track.
For example, consider Bloom's taxonomy [Reference 1] with the six levels for Cognitive learning applied to the relevance of Open Source Software discussion question.
Opening Discussion Question/ Question relating to Knowledge
Discuss the influence of Open source on Software Development.
Many defend that open source systems have several advantages over the traditional approaches to building systems. Comment on this aspect.
What is the competitive advantage offered by other vendors in this area?
Question relating to Comprehension:
If you were to make decisions on adopting Open Source for the next project in your company, what would you do to justify your case?
Question relating to Application
How are existing players (vendors) reacting to the Open Source revolution?
How are large and successful business enterprises utilizing the benefits of both the traditional as well as Open source offerings?
Question relating to Analysis:
Is Open Source ready for mission critical applications in large enterprises? What could be the complexities that need to be managed?
Question relating to Synthesis:
What do you think the future of Open source would be?
Question relating to Evaluation:
What could be the criticism on the "Free" part of Open source? If companies and people join to form Free Enterprise not having control on ownership how would profits be made?
Reference 1:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
