[Yr7-10it] RE: Year 7-10 IT structures

Tue Oct 23 19:13:59 EST 2007

I am really excited to read all these posts and all the right questions that
we seem to be asking each other.

I agree with Bill. The OLPC is a fascinating invention. Like the student
that freely dips into the wireless access spilling over the school fence
from his neighboring home, the mesh technology has even enough range to
bridge between the different islands in the Solomons. Whilst the original
vision for the telephone was that it could be used to pipe music directly to
homes, we would be equally narrow minded to think that the Internet was for
edumail and piping music to pockets filled with iPhones.

I have some Sudanese lads who are struggling with renaming files yet can
happily play computer games and chat online. Is it appropriate to measuring
their learning from their understanding of a computer desktop, a metaphor
based upon the workings of a small business office? The different ethnic
groups at our school have vastly different traditions and ideas of what it
means to 'be working together'. I am now not sure if the collaborative,
learning model that I carry about in my head is best and only way forward.

I have had some indirect contact with of the huge technology issues faced by
countries on our doorstep. From young computer technicians trained in
Melbourne to set up Ubuntu Linux networks for East Timor, the KhmerOS group
that has managed to retain a Cambodian keyboard and recover their language
using Open Office and the network manager on Naru who is experimenting
recycling old hardware using Kbuntu.

I would like us to engage with what it really means to transform ICT
education, beyond rubbing the latest shiny new toy or unboxing the latest
bit of commercial software. I like asking the big questions in my IT
classrooms so here is one. What can we do to really help our students make
this world a better place for us all to live in?

Regards Roland

On 23/10/2007, Bill Kerr <billkerr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hi Cameron,
>
> 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.
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/05/community-user-interface.html
>
> If each child owns the laptop then that open up potential for home use -
> as well as the clearly important "sense of personal ownership"
>
> 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
>
> That is sort of the point of this discussion - where would / should it
> lead?
>
> 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
>
> As you say:
> 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.
>
> 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?
>
> 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).
>
> 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"
>
> 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:
> blog of proximal development
> http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/
> (I will dig up some of his posts about this particular topic if you want)
>
> cheers,
> --
> Bill Kerr
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
>
>
> On 10/23/07, Cameron Bell < bell.cameron.p at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
> >
> >  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.
> > 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 *must* 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.
> > One between two is cheaper too!  ;-)
> > Cheers
> > Cameron
> >
> > Bill Kerr wrote:
> >
> > There is a large elephant in the room that no one has referred to so
> > far: the OLPC
> >
> > 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
> >
> > "... the whole global mind-think around technology has changed.
> >
> > 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 Classmate PC<http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/brazil/olpc_classmate_mobilis.html>to Brazil, Asustek is selling
> > Eee PC's<http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/negroponte_100_laptop_asus.html>in the USA, and even thin-client manufactures compare
> > themselves to OLPC<http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/stephen_dukker_anti_olpc_campaign.html>
> > ."
> > http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html
> >
> > 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?
> >
> > Will we treat them like mobile phones and ban them or try to figure out
> > a way to utilise them for optimal educational development?
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > --
> > Bill Kerr
> > http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
> >
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> Year 7 - 10 IT Mailing List kindly supported by
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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
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