[IAEP] Contents of IAEP Digest, Vol 28, Issue 24

[Tabitha Roder]

On 19 July 2010 00:26, Alan Kay <alan.nemo at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Though there are a few truly important differences between books and
> laptops, it would be really worth while to get *your* answers to your
> questions with regard to having any and all books that one could desire in
> the same educational situations in NZ.
>
> I am not entirely sure I understand. In NZ we have computers in every
school, just not many computers. Unfortunately we don't take the approach
that olpc recommends. We don't have:
* child ownership (and the empowerment that goes with that, I don't feel the
benefits of learning outside and school and within community are as widely
recognised as it should be)
* low ages (computers are used a little bit at all ages in most schools, but
learn by play is mostly for preschool here, then it gets more and more
serious and unplay like as school years go on for some sad reason)
* saturation (1 or 2 computers per class)
* connection (schools have internet mostly, but that does not translate to
connection between kids creating, constructing knowledge together)
* free and open source (an area being worked on by a few fierce voices, and
growing awareness is occuring in schools but there are politics to overcome
as much as understanding to build)

I think new teachers entering our schools know about the theory of
constructionism and social constructivism, but I don't know how many can
translate that theory into practice, or how well our education system allows
for this. I think we can do more thinking about thinking about ways to think
(thanks for the essays Marvin), utilising networks more and providing
appropriate mentors.

There is a high school in NZ that is leading changes to our education
sector. Albany Senior High School - http://ashs.school.nz/ and
http://theopensourceschool.blogspot.com/ are good places to see a completely
open source school by design. Open source matches their teaching philosophy.
They run a unique timetable with 100 minute blocks, "impact projects" on
Wednesdays which are students working on their own developments, tutorials
and community development time. The school has shared learning spaces not
classrooms. There are some other schools that use open source software but
this one is the most public presently.

I think the view of technology and its application for learning need to
change in NZ.

Tabitha
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