Hi Ian and the rest,

Ive cross-posted this to the pd-ot list, as Frank suggested, so i'll continue this conversation there after my reply.

Ian wrote:

I don't think it's a terrible idea, I just think it's a bit too... static,

limited, and immalleable to specific needs

with being 'cleared' to take higher level classes and being required to

teach lower level classes.

I agree that there is a fair bit of responsibility involved in this concept, I can see how that might detter a lot of people. But on the other hand, and this is something that I miss in a lot of internet communities, it also creates a structered learning enviroment, something i've yet to find on the internet. This could mean a lot to people who might not have the best self-discipline but do have the motivation to acquire knowledge on complex issues can get that kind of structure. Again, nobody is "required" to teach if all they would want is basic, or introductory knowledge on a topic, if you then decide its not your intrest, you can just venture on to a different course, however, if you think its something you want to know a lot more about, we ask a favor in return, that you recount what you've been taught to somebody that also wants to learn about that topic. To me, this is also something that serves a great benefit for the person thats going to teach because its been proven lots of times now, that recounting what you have been taught improves your own level of comprehension of it. Not only that, your students will be paying close attention to what your saying, and when they spot a mistake in your thinking their more then likely to let you know about it! Which again, is only to your own benifit. I dont think being a "teach" in this class format will actually be taking that much time from you. Because the teaching materials will allready be there, so everybody does there reading as they would if they were just browesing the topic on the web. But the extra is that you give them assigments or tests that you check, which would be the most time consuming part of it for you. Perhaps a course should only take about 3 weeks, this would mean that the strain on the teach wouldnt be too big.

Thank you for your reply, its given me plenty of food for thought, i hope to continue this discussion with you.

Cheers Anton