The Purdue Kiwi

A multidimensional, multimedia, self-adaptive, collective learning tool.

Spring 2008 Course List

• ECE301_OldKiwi
• ECE438_OldKiwi
• ECE662_OldKiwi
• ECE637_OldKiwi

---

• What is a Kiwi?

A “kiwi” is a student driven internet based learning tool developed by Mimi. In a kiwi, students post course material, questions, comments, observations, or whatever else they think is relevant to the course. In addition, students can cross-link material from within the course, from different courses, or from exterior www pages. The goal is multi-faceted. First, we want to create a large study group as well as a repository of learning material whose form and content are constantly evolving. (There is no better way to really learn a subject than to teach it to somebody else, so posting itself is a learning experience!) Second, we want to teach students “knowledge in its whole complexity”, including the different ways to link the pieces of knowledge together. (For example, a lecture is merely a directed path in the kiwi graph. There are different ways to choose the path that will cover the same basic material. Students should be encouraged to try to follow different paths when studying.) Third we want to use the inherent presence of "mistakes" in the kiwi to enhance learning. (How do you deal with material that contains mistakes? How do you find the truth from different sources which all have mistakes? How do you find your own mistakes? What are the mistakes that are typically made when solving a given type of problem?) Fourth, we want to use the kiwi as a way to enhance communication between the students and the instructor, in particular providing real-time feedback and novel ways to evaluate student's understanding.

• Why the name “Kiwi”?

Because, in a sense, a kiwi is the opposite of a wiki page in Wikipedia: while the goal of a wiki page is to have supposedly knowledgeable people collectively build an authoritative reference on a subject to be used as a learning resource, the goal of the kiwi is to have people who, a priori, know nothing about a subject collectively build their own learning resource. The assumption is that the latter provides a better way to learn in an academic context. In particular, professors often are not aware of the latest technology or software that can enhance learning, or they may simply be too busy to take advantage of them, while students are not afraid to jump on the boat and try out new things, especially if they think this will help them learn better. Also, professors are often not aware of what exactly is covered in other classes and how, so it may be impossible for them to make the connections, especially since the background of every student sitting in the class may be different.