[Its.an.education.project] untangling constructionism

[Bill Kerr]

SJ:
Other questions :
   is this [also] a research project?  Is defining and carrying out short-
or long-term studies an integral part of it?  Is collaborative participation
in data gathering and analysis an important part?
   is this an outreach project?  Is reaching new audiences of all ages and
backgrounds with a message of [the importance of] educational empowerment
integral or incidental?

First question: You could find a whole new strata of educators would come on
board, if the research project is embraced. The Scratch project combines
constructionist and on line collaborative principles - easy to post finished
scratch projects to MIT website.

Second question: If you are an educator and not a developer and live in the
industrialised world it has been difficult to become actively involved due
to the reluctance to distribute OLPCs to the industrialised world (for
legitimate reasons). So in my school in Australia I am now pushing that we
buy trollies of EEEs and install Scratch. That is a far from perfect
solution - not sugarised - but a huge improvement on taking students to
computer labs of networked PCs running Windows with the internet heavily
filtered. I have searched but cannot find a single school in Australia that
would embrace all of the OLPC philosophy. If I could find one I would apply
to teach there. I have considered migrating to a third world country. btw
there are many aboriginal australians living in third world conditions /
disaster zones in some cases  - the main push there currently is how to
teach basic literacy and numeracy effectively and OLPC does not figure in
the thinking of those in charge. The new Australian government (Kevin Rudd)
is promoting a "digital education revolution" - once again the OLPC / sugar
/ constructionist thinking is totally marginalised in their thinking. We
have a lot of work to do - educational work as well as Sugar developmental
work.




On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 2:15 AM, Bernie Innocenti <bernie at codewiz.org>
> > wrote:
> > > Bill Kerr wrote:
> > >
> > >  > It can be important to know what words really mean and to use them
> > >  > correctly. I think the word "constructionism" is being thrown
> > around
> > >  > carelessly at the moment. These trends should be avoided IMO:
> > >  >
> > >  >     * that constructionism is the best or only good learning theory
> > >
> > >  Although I don't want to impose my own view of what is relevant to
> > this
> > >  list, I think discussing the validity of constructionism is not
> > on-topic.
> >
> > I take the validity of Constructionism as a given on this list, within
> > the wider framework of proven educational ideas and practices. The
> > conversation should include how to explain Constructionism, and
> > examples of Constructionism at work. We also need to talk about the
> > opposition to Constructionism.
> >
>
> I hope, ehm, constructive discussion of constructionism is on-topic.
> Considering the name of this list, "it's an education project, not a XXX
> project"
> should be valid, when filled in with many but not all things.
>
> "what this project is" (education, collaboration?)  and  "what this
> project is not" (laptop)  should be fleshed out.  I'm not sure into which
> group ideas such as 'software' and 'constructionism' fall, but it's worth
> clarifying whether this is a constructionism project, and that is considered
> the only good learning theory, or whether it is an education project,
> strongly influenced by constructionism, but interested in exploring many
> good learning theories.
>
> Other questions :
>    is this [also] a research project?  Is defining and carrying out short-
> or long-term studies an integral part of it?  Is collaborative participation
> in data gathering and analysis an important part?
>    is this an outreach project?  Is reaching new audiences of all ages and
> backgrounds with a message of [the importance of] educational empowerment
> integral or incidental?
>
> SJ
>
> It is important to stress guidance--patiently giving children hints
> > about what is discoverable, as in the design of the Montessori
> > teaching materials, or as described in Caleb Gattegno's little book
> > that is included in every set of Cuisenaire rods.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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