[Sugar-devel] versus, not

[Bill Kerr]

I'm not sure what is meant by a "big tent"

Why do some people want a big tent for learning theory but not a big tent
which accepts both FOSS and proprietary software? Phrasing it that way is
intended to encourage people to think about what sort of thing is learning
and hopefully will not be interpreted as just being provocative for its own
sake.

you can have a big tent where people don't discuss learning theory because
it's too hard to reach agreement

you can have a big tent where people passionately argue about learning
theory but actually listen to what each is saying and argue rationally

when I look at minsky's theory of mind I see that he supports multiple
models of thinking but also argues against models of thinking that he thinks
are incorrect or which emphasise only one way of doing things, eg. although
he helped create connectionism he now thinks it has too much influence

that suggests another version of a big tent which I favour - cherry picking
the best parts out of different learning theories / activities based on
criteria (not stated here) that are substantial

I don't believe that thinking people are agnostic about how people learn

it seems to me that alan kay has presented a possibly strategic view of
progress on these questions (that learning about bricks will not
automatically lead to building arches, that we need more than just focusing
on building blocks) - but that for various reasons we are not in a position
to implement the learning materials based on that view in practice in the
activities

for me to sit in the big tent holding a strategic view feels different to
"too hard basket", agnosticism or a tower of babble - teaching with an
underlying strategic view is very different to just going along with the
tide

that would mean work to understand and implement that strategic view but
also accept that we are not there yet (it will take some time) and so it is
perfectably understandable and desirable that people will use and develop
whatever is at hand or which they think important to develop - no one can
stop that anyway accept by successful arguing someone out of a POV

Does the "big tent" phrase add clarity to this conversation?


On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 4:59 PM, Martin Langhoff
<martin.langhoff at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 3:03 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Fair enough. I agree that *most* people on the list agree that there
> > is not just one right way. And to use a metaphor that has been
> > oft-spoken in the US news of late, Sugar Labs has to have a "big
> > tent."
> >
> > Sugar itself has affordances that can be used in support of many
> > educational approaches and virtually any content area.
>
> Completely for the big tent, and wide ranging use models. It also
> means I have to swallow hard when people use things I build in ways
> that I consider... not particularly good. You might hear me mention
> that "that's a practise that I don't emphasize" ;-)
>
> cheers,
>
>
>
>
> m
> --
>  martin.langhoff at gmail.com
>  martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
>  - ask interesting questions
>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
>
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