[Yr7-10it] RE: Year 7-10 IT structures
Dr Paul Chandler
paul.chandler at YVG.vic.edu.au
Wed Oct 24 12:20:07 EST 2007
I'm rather fond of a quote from Neil Postman:
When citizens do not believe they have a culture worth preserving, their
children are beset with sorrows including a lack of hope, conviction,
trust and aspiration. [What is needed is not computers or any other kind
of gadgetry but] some meaningful story to tell our children. It may be a
story about their souls or their minds or their history or their country
or their planet. But it must be strong and romantic and inspiring. It
must be capable of touching the hearts and the nerves, and it must
explain who they are and why they are here and what is expected of them.
It's because I see possibilities for ICT in a curriculum shaped towards
these goals that I continue to do what I do ...
________________________________
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Anne-Marie Chase
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:39 AM
To: 'Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] RE: Year 7-10 IT structures
Hi
Very big question!
I read an article this morning, Schools debate bogged down in negatives,
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22623552-27197,00.html
I thought the wish list was a good idea, to have goals/aims/ideals.
Maybe something like this from an IT perspective needs to be worked out
so that we can "really help our students make this world a better place
for us all to live in?"
Cheers
Anne-Marie
P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.
________________________________
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: 23 October 2007 17:14
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] RE: Year 7-10 IT structures
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
<mailto: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.htm
l> 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_distrib
ution.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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--
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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