[elearning] Walter's words about learning with computers

Tue Jan 6 00:38:28 EST 2009

Lovely post Donna .. thank you for sharing this :-)

Gosh I wish I could go to the LCA conference, am tied up with a deep
ocean enviro training course called Flexe at Footscray SC at the end
of Jan.
    http://www.globe.gov/projects/flexe

Regards Roland

2009/1/3 Donna Benjamin <donna at cc.com.au>
>
> Hi All,
>
> Walter Bender posted this to the "it's an education project mailing
> list".  Seemed fitting food for thought as the year draws to a close.
>
> He'll be speaking about Sugar at http://linux.conf.au in Hobart in
> January.
>
> Best wishes to everyone for a Fantastic New Year!
>
> cheers
> Donna
>
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> From: Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> To: community-news at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Cc: iaep <iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org>, OLPC Sugar <sugar at lists.laptop.org>
> Subject: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2008-12-29
> Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:35:55 -0500
>
> As 2008 comes to an end, it gives me an excuse to do some reflecting
> on what we are doing as a project and foundation. Most of the
> following you've read before, but it is helpful—at least to me—to
> revisit these ideas periodically.
>
> The world faces many seemingly intractable problems: war, a faltering
> economy, an energy crisis, global climate change, to name just a few.
> My generation has failed to solve these problems. Our children will
> inherit them from us. But we can leave them something in addition: the
> means to become a generation of critical thinkers and problem-solvers.
> The investment that we can make on their behalf that will have the
> most return is learning. It has a bearing on all of the challenges we
> face and is essential if our children are to excel in an ever-changing
> world. Providing every child with the opportunity to learn learning
> will allow them both to achieve a clarity of purpose and to develop
> independent means towards their goals.
>
> What should children and learn and how should they learn it?
> Information is about nouns; learning is about verbs. Of course
> learners should have access to power ideas (I won't debate here which
> ones we should teach). But they should also engage in exploration and
> collaboration, appropriating knowledge while engaging in authentic,
> open-ended problem solving. This can be accomplished within a
> framework of accountability, one that complements rigorous national
> standards where learners engage in a process of reflection, public
> expression, and critique—a "portfolio" approach. What am I learning?
> How did I learn it? Why is it important? Can I teach it to others?
>
> We have some simple, universal points of leverage:
>
> * Everyone is a teacher and a learner.
> * Humans are social beings.
> * Humans are expressive.
>
> You learn through doing, so if you want to learn more, you want to do more.
>
> Love is a better master than duty—you want people to engage in things
> that are authentic to them, things that they love. Internal motivation
> almost always trumps external motivations.
>
> These ideas are not immiscible with current norms within schools, but
> too often we fall back on what we "know". I challenge you to think of
> a great learning moment in your life: was it sitting in a classroom,
> all eyes forward, listening to a lecture or was in when you were
> trying to solve a problem that was important to you?
>
> We know of no better tool for learning than a computer—it is a "thing
> to think with" when it is used as a means of knowledge creation.
> (Unfortunately, it is too often thought of and used as simply a
> mechanism for information retrieval and rote learning in our
> schools—the modern equivalent of the mimeograph machine, AKA the
> "purple" plague.)
>
> Three experiences can characterize a computer-enhanced learning platform:
>
> Sharing: The interface should always shows the presence of other
> learners. Collaboration is a first-order experience. Students and
> teachers dialog with each other, support each other, critique each
> other, and share ideas.
>
> Reflecting: A "Journal" should record each learner's activity. The
> Journal serves as a place for reflection and assessment of
> progress—the basis of a portfolio.
>
> Discovering: We can accommodate a wide variety of users, with
> different levels of skill in terms of reading, language, and different
> levels of experience with computing. It is easy to approach, yet it
> doesn't put an upper bound on personal expression. One should always
> be able to peel away layers and go deeper and deeper, with no
> restrictions. This allows the direct appropriation of ideas in
> whatever realm the learner is exploring: music, browsing, reading,
> writing, programming, or graphics. The student can always go further.
>
> These are the core ideas behind Sugar. By embodying these ideas
> directly into the affordances provided by the user interface, we can
> skew the odds that teachers and learners will engage in more than the
> accumulation and transfer of information.
>
> In Sugar, have in hand the tools to reinvent how computers are used
> for education. Collaboration, reflection, and discovery are readily
> integrated directly into the learning experience. Children and
> teachers have the opportunity to use computers on their own terms,
> reshape, reinvent, and reapply both software and content into powerful
> learning activities. Learning can be focused on sharing, criticism,
> and exploration. We have a lot of work ahead of us to refine these
> tools and to refine the practice around them, but we have a solid
> beginning.
>
> We can raise a generation of critical thinkers, armed with the
> complementary tools of science and the arts. (Relatively speaking, it
> is a trivial investment—probably less than the cost of a single
> "bridge to nowhere". All of the necessary tools are freely available
> under free software licenses. But we do need to invest in engaging
> teachers, parents, and children in learning learning.) So let's make
> it happen.
>
> ===Sugar Labs===
>
> Gary Martin has generated another SOM from the past week of discussion
> on the IAEP mailing list (Please see
> http://sugarlabs.org/go/Image:2008-December-20-26-som.jpg).
>
>
> Happy New Year.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
> Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
> ph +61 3 9326 9985 - mob +61 418 310 414
> open source - facilitation - web services
>
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--
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead