[IAEP] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Education_Team#Commentary

[David Farning]

On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Dennis Daniels<dennisgdaniels at gmail.com> wrote:
> It was suggested that I post a link to my commentary about Sugar and
> education to this list.
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Education_Team#Commentary
>
> A quick poll before I go on... how many actively participating
> teachers on this list or the wiki? From what countries?
> --------
> The views expressed are my own and a byproduct of my energies to try
> and get teachers to incorporate computers into their curriculum for
> over four years. I built an LTSP lab sometime ago for my English
> class(I'm a certified English teacher in California.)
>
> That lab was an eye-opener for me.Though admins and parents and
> students loved what was happening in the class, the improved scores,
> the better writing, higher order thinking etc...  _Not a single
> teacher accepted my offer_ at my school, or any other!, to help them
> get their own computer lab running.  Admins couldn't convince OR force
> teachers to take what was free e.g. my offer to help build the LTSP
> labs.
>
> Sugar will get very little traction in schools without a seriously
> hard look at your biggest obstacle/opponent: the teachers.

Moddle has a very effective method of dealing with reluctant teachers;
they don't worry about them!  Moodle works very hard to insure that
Moodle is effective even if only one teacher in a school uses it.
Then, they let the kids do the selling:)  If 25 kids successfully used
Moodle in the third grade, those 25 kids become 4th graders and bug
their new teachers to use Moodle.

david

> I need help in getting Sugar to be cool for kids and the easiest way
> _in my experience_ is to make it easy for kids to show off... make
> screencasting a FUNCTIONING and EASY to USE tool that can be launched
> from every activity.
>
> Please, if you're going to flame back, try to attack the argument (and
> parts of it may be flawed) and not me.
>
> thanks,
> Dennis
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>