[IAEP] inquiry on constructionism advantages

[Ian Thomson]

Hi Bastien,

A good way to measure the skills needed in this rapidly changing world
is to look into Information Literacy
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy )
references the American Library Association's description which is
fairly good

The American Library Association's (ALA) Presidential Committee on
Information Literacy, Final Report states, "To be information literate,
a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have
the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed
information"

Evaluating these skills would be a very good start.

Please note that this is often confused with IT Literacy, which is
another thing altogether. Many developing countries Education systems
see their role in ICT as IT literacy development.

Ian Thomson
RICS and OLPC Coordinator
Noumea 
SPC
Phone +687 26 01 44 

-----Original Message-----
From: iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Bastien
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:12 PM
To: Edward Cherlin
Cc: iaep; Yamandu Ploskonka
Subject: Re: [IAEP] inquiry on constructionism advantages

Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> writes:

> Ask about teaching children to work together, as with collaboration in
> Sugar, rather than individual achievement alone. How will the
> government test that?
>
> Ask about solving problems that may have no single right answer, and
> certainly don't have a known right answer. How will the government
> test that?
>
> Ask about what citizens need to understand to participate in
> politics--Finance, statistics, history, geography, civics... How will
> the government test that?
>
> In order to employ all of the qualified graduates from these schools,
> the economy must be prepared to support a massive expansion of
> entrepreneurship. How will the government pass that test?

This is a very common line of reasoning, at least among the
constructionist crowd: 

(1) "the world is changing so fast that your tests are already obsolete
    (as your instructionist method).

(2) We are promoting a method that prepares children for a rapidly
    changing world.