The Purdue Kiwi
A multidimensional, multimedia, self-adaptive, collective learning tool.
A multidimensional, multimedia, self-adaptive, collective learning tool.
Spring 2008 Course List
- What is a Kiwi?
A “kiwi” is a collective learning tool that Mimi is developing. In a kiwi, students post course material, questions, comments, observations, or whatever else they think is relevant to the course. The goal is to create a large study group as well as a repository of learning material whose form and content are constantly evolving. The key difference between a kiwi and a course webpage or textbook is that a kiwi is “for the students, by the students”, as opposed to “for the students by an authoritative expert”. I particular, the presence of mistakes in the material is an integral part of the kiwi concept, which is used to enhance learning.
- 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. That assumption is that the latter provides a better way to learn in an academic context.
