[Its.an.education.project] An "About" statement? (Was: untangling constructionism)

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 8:24 PM, Bill Kerr <billkerr at gmail.com> wrote:
> thanks for the feedback walter and edward on my summary suggestions for
> "About". Here's an attempt to improve it further (numbered only for
> convenience of discussion):
>
>
>  "it's an education project"
>
>
> 1) Learning practice and theory needs to evolve as technology evolves, so we
> need to discuss constructionism and other learning theories and how they
> work in practice

s/discuss/research/

>  2) We need to build a richer dialectic between the overlapping communities
> of software developers and educators

s/build a richer dialectic/open a wider conversation/

> 3) Sugar software development can serve as a tangible structural
> underpinning

underpinning of...?

> 4) understanding Suagr's educational importance is a current focus
>  of this discussion list

s/Suagr/Sugar/

Of course, we are also considering what sort of organization we might
create, with what vision and mission.

I like a vision of One Education Per Child, but I'm open to discussion.

The mission needs to include various aspects of Sugar, of course, and
various other R&D.

* Support of the 2nd generation hardware from OLPC, which Kim Quirk
promises to tell us about soon, and the Pixel Qi $75 laptop, among
others.
* I'm for organizing some new kinds of research on Constructionism,
with and without computers,
* and on the social, political, and economic consequences that might
be expected to follow.
* Getting children and other stakeholders into the conversation. In
two or three years I expect to see children doing a lot of the
development, localization, textbook writing, and much more.
* Conferences?
* A journal?
* Partnerships?


> discussion:
>
> 1) indicates that this list *will* discuss learning theories and not only
> constructionism (previously it was just a feel good motherhood statement)
> 2)  "bridge" is replaced by "richer dialectic"
>
> dialectic means interpenetration with the prospect of transformation
> "richer" implies that there is already some mutually beneficial dialogue b/w
> the two communities
> "overlapping" means that developers already have opinions on education and
> that some educators may already be developers or can contribute 3 and 4) no
> change from Walter's wording
>
>
> I agree with Edward that the "bridge" metaphor is limited - as well as the
> reason Edward gives (that a bridge assumes permanent separation) there is
> also the reason that bridges tend to be built from known point A to known
> point B - you can't build a bridge to a destination you haven't arrived at
> yet
>
> wrt Edward's list of constructionist software:

Best Practices page on Wiki started. I need to link to it from other
appropriate pages.

> a) we shouldn't be prescriptive in an "about" statement

Quite right. The resource directory needs to be a project in itself.

> b) you can also have constructionist learning without any software at all -
> if we are going to talk about what Sugar and the OLPC is good for then that
> implies talking about things that it is not good for, ie. which can be
> better done without computers

Agreed, as mentioned above. Also, where a judicious combination of
computer and real-world discovery is appropriate.

> On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 6:32 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 5:43 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > Here's my massaging of Bill's summary
> > >
> > >  "it's an education project"
> > >
> > >  Summary:
> > >
> > >     * Learning practice and theory needs to evolve as technology evolves
> > >     * There needs to be a bridge connecting the community of
> > >  developers with the community of educators
> >
> > I dislike the bridge metaphor. I wrote a paper for a Unicode
> > conference on "Obliterating the Digital Divide" because bridging a
> > divide still leaves people on the wrong side of it.
> >
> > We need more people who are both educators and developers. Now that we
> > have powerful development tools that teachers can learn and students
> > can use, there is no excuse for the separation. In the long run, we
> > need every teacher and every student to be a developer, and we need
> > every developer to be a lifelong student and a mentor to others.
> >
> >
> > >     * Sugar software development can serve as a tangible structural
> underpinning
> > >     * understanding Sugar's educational importance is a current focus
> > >  of this discussion list
> >
> > We also need to be aware of other Constructivist and Constructionist
> > possibilities. I would like to start a Best Practices list, which I
> > suppose I will do in a minute on the Laptop Wiki, to include the best
> > tools and learning materials we collectively know of.
> >
> > I nominate, in addition to Sugar, Python, and Smalltalk/Squeak/Etoys,
> > the programming languages.
> >
> > * Forth: Best books, Starting Forth and Thinking Forth, by Leo Brodie.
> > Used in Open Firmware. The most compact, conceptually simple, and
> > extensible programming language. The Forth word 'see' allows a user to
> > inspect the source code of any Forth word.
> >
> > see 2dup
> > : 2dup
> > dup dup ;
> > ok
> >
> > *LISP/Scheme: Best books: The Little LISPer/Schemer, The Seasoned
> > Schemer, The Reasoned Schemer, by Daniel P. Friedman and others:
> > Anatomy of Lisp by John Allen.
> > *APL/J There are numerous math books written using APL and more
> > recently J as the executable notation for every math statement. Ken
> > Iverson, the inventor of APL, wrote textbooks on Arithmetic, Algebra,
> > and Calculus. APL has successfully been used in first grade
> > arithmetic. I also have copies of books on probability, statistics,
> > cryptography, computer graphics, and computer design using APL.
> >
> > Forth, LISP, APL, and Smalltalk are the most important programming
> > language paradigms. They are Turing-equivalent, but so different in
> > form, and so simple in concept and syntax, that I can say that nobody
> > understands the possibilities of computers who does not understand all
> > of them in some depth.
> >
> > * The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study, by Kimon
> > Nicolaides . Whole Earth Review : "...not only the best how-to book on
> > drawing, it is the best how-to book we've seen on any subject."
> >
> > Add Montessori, Gattegno, and many others. Think about engaging all
> > students to be learning researchers, able to discover in general and
> > in every individual case the best learning/discovery/mastery
> > strategies for every subject.
> >
> > >  -walter
> >
> > --
> > Edward Cherlin
> > End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
> > http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
> > "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Its.an.education.project mailing list
> > Its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org
> > http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project
> >
>
>
>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay