[IAEP] [etoys-dev] TED - Alan Kay - Example(8:44)

[Edward Cherlin]

Exactly so. When every teacher can learn from students how to help
them learn, we will make a great advance in education, and in treating
children better more generally.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 00:06, K. K. Subramaniam <subbukk at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 24 February 2010 05:53:26 am Edward Cherlin wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:42, K. K. Subramaniam <subbukk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Tuesday 23 February 2010 09:13:59 pm Edward Cherlin wrote:
>> >>We also know that simply asking the question and making careful
>> >>observations also gives astonishing results, as, for example, in the
>> >>careers of Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget. Also Jerome Bruner
>> >>
>> > Yes. But these people followed the child. Jean Piaget discovered that
>> > children in the 2-7 age group do not comprehend conservation of quantity
>> > or use logical thinking. Children don't come with fast forward buttons
>> > :-).
>>
>> It is easy to demonstrate what children are capable of, when you can
>> see them do it. It is much harder to demonstrate what they are not
>> capable of, or what some can do but not others, or what is dependent
>> on development or prior experience.
> Maria Droujkova pointed out earlier that conservation of small quantities is
> innate. We also find this in birds and mammals. If you hide a few M&Ms from a
> packet of 10, most first graders can figure out how many you "stole" by looking
> into the remaining ones. Symbolic arithmetic is not required. But what happens
> when quantities have no simple imagery; say 10,000? The conceptual structures
> required to deal with such quantities and generalizing them using symbols
> (stones/seeds) take time to develop.
>
> I am not an expert in child learning and I will defer the larger question to
> the practicing teachers and researchers. As community volunteers, our
> challenge in large scale education is not so much in deciding what children
> are capable of (or not) but in setting up an environment where each child can
> follow his/her own learning curve. I don't rule out the necessity for guidance
> but the assistance needs to be tuned and timed to the immediate needs of the
> child. To me, software like Etoys is interesting not because it is blackboard
> for lessons but because it is a blank paper for children to express what they
> know. I have had many teachers tell me that they got a much better idea of
> their students' capabilities after seeing their independent Etoys projects, so
> now they could tune their lessons effectively. It inverts the conventional
> model where the teachers tells the child to one where the child tells the
> teacher, "This is what I know.  Will you now help me reach the next level?"
>
> Subbu
>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/