hi Cameron,<br><br>The OLPC has wireless mesh networking and a new user interface (sugar) based on a community metaphor, which invites extensive collaboration with each child having their own laptop. In that respect (and some others) OLPC is superior to its new low price rivals from Intel etc.
<br><a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/05/community-user-interface.html">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/05/community-user-interface.html</a><br><br>If each child owns the laptop then that open up potential for home use - as well as the clearly important "sense of personal ownership"
<br><br>I agree with you that if the laptops are introduced and teachers keep to their old techniques and lesson plans then its not going to work very well at all<br><br>That is sort of the point of this discussion - where would / should it lead?
<br><br>Papert has argued for years that maths could be transformed with one
laptop per child but that it doesn't work with other ratios. The
pencil argument, it would be poor education to chain up pencils in a
lab or to insist on sharing of pencils<br><br>As you say:<br><div style="margin-left: 40px;">The laptop struggles to break out from being
a glorified word-processor, file storage and email client to the off
the shelf tool that gets used as needed, to develop a solution for the
problem at hand.<br></div><br>With OLPC the laptop does or should develop or appear to develop some sort of agency of its own, it demands to be used in new and different ways - are the teachers up to it?<br><br>btw I attended a conference at Methodist Ladies College (Melbourne) in
circa 1980 when every child had a laptop and they were using logo
extensively (David Loader was the Principal). <br><br>Your points about forcing collaboration are interesting and I'd like to hear more about the tool you mention that facilitates a process whereby students "produce work that reflects their own knowledge, not the groups
knowledge"<br><br>I'm wary of formalising collaboration in an institutional sense. I think learners have the right to choose their time and place for collaboration. When setting up groups I often do permit a group of one. I'm aware of one very good educational blogger who has been arguing this for some time:
<br>blog of proximal development<br><a href="http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/">http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/</a><br>(I will dig up some of his posts about this particular topic if you want)<br><br>cheers,<br>-- <br>Bill Kerr
<br><a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/</a><br><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 10/23/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Cameron Bell</b> <<a href="mailto:bell.cameron.p@edumail.vic.gov.au">
bell.cameron.p@edumail.vic.gov.au</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
But Bill, lots and lots of schools have implemented laptop programs -
some for many years now. We have found that you don't need one laptop
per child - in fact, I believe that insisting each child having their
own laptop can stifle pedagogical progress. When each child has their
own laptop or they are working in a lab, the teacher is generally just
using the same teaching techniques and lesson plans they always have,
insisting on personal work, students working in isolation
(communicating, but in isolation) with the whole class doing the same
activity at the same time. The laptop struggles to break out from being
a glorified word-processor, file storage and email client to the off
the shelf tool that gets used as needed, to develop a solution for the
problem at hand.<br>
We have run with a one-between-two program here for the past couple of
years (I was skeptical as I had just come from a 1-1 school) and apart
from a couple of dedicated labs, we now deliberately aim for
one-between-two for all our technology infrastructure. It means
students <u>must</u> collaborate as teams on producing work and we are
being forced to develop methods for students to be able to collaborate-
but then produce work that reflects their own knowledge, not the groups
knowledge. It's tricky but I have found a very useful little tool that
enables that to happen in my classes and the rest of the staff have
adapted too! Some of us are creating digital portfolios, this requires
group prac work, but individual reflections. How do you do this with
one-between-two? You are forced to examine individual learning plans,
multiple lesson plans within a lesson, rather than the
one-size-fits-all approach that we have always done. (Primaries have
done this for years!) While 1/2 the class use the laptops for part of
an activity, the other 1/2 are doing another part. For us, this is also
essential to break up a 72 min period and help keep the students
focussed.<br>
One between two is cheaper too! <span><span>
;-) </span></span><br>
Cheers<br>
Cameron<br>
<br>
Bill Kerr wrote:
<blockquote type="cite"><div><span class="e" id="q_115ca73ef4a2bde7_1">There is a large elephant in the room that no one has
referred to so far: the OLPC<br>
<br>
The one laptop per child non profit project not only plans to deliver
millions of laptops to third world children but has also become a hand
grenade in the commercial world - and has succeeded in forcing down the
price of other laptops now on offer
<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">"... the whole
global mind-think around technology has changed. </div>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">No
longer is low cost computing in education a fantasy, no longer
are big technology companies secondary, and everyone wants to sell
technology into classrooms. Intel introduced </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/brazil/olpc_classmate_mobilis.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
Classmate
PC</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> to Brazil, Asustek is </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/negroponte_100_laptop_asus.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
selling
Eee PC's</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> in the USA, and even
thin-client manufactures </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/stephen_dukker_anti_olpc_campaign.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
compare
themselves to OLPC</a><span style="font-style: italic;">."</span><br>
<a href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html
</a></p>
How will schools and education departments in the wealthy west react to
the fact that in a few years we will have the capability for every
child to have their own laptop?
<br>
<br>
Will we treat them like mobile phones and ban them or try to figure out
a way to utilise them for optimal educational development?<br>
<br>
The use and misuse of computers in schools has up until now been based
around the idea that computers mainly belong in labs and / or that
access is limited. The fact of limited access has acted as a powerful
brake for many teachers not to extend their knowledge much beyond the
basics.
<br>
<br>
Most (all?) of the maths curriculum could be taught using laptops. In
fact MIT produced a series of books in the 80s for teaching much of
maths and aspects of language and art using logo.<br>
<br>
Shouldn't we factor this potential into the discussion? If we are
talking about the future it might be incorrect to assume that the
pattern of distribution of computers in schools will remain similar to
the present. <br>
<br>
-- <br>
Bill Kerr<br>
<a href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<br></span></div>
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