On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 9:05 PM, Edward Cherlin <[email protected]> wrote:
<< SNIP >> >> lest >> you get caught up in dinosaur flavors of "should we allow calculators >> in math class?" kinds of debates (nothing at all about computer >> languages), angry mud slinging that's been going on for decades and >> going nowhere (lots of energy sinks, time sucks, not worth your >> attention). > > Now that we are embarked on creating interactive textbooks for the > OLPC XO project, (_not_ CAI-style, but more along the lines described > in Seymour Papert's book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful > Ideas), all of those arguments are irrelevant. > Irrelevant in our circles certainly, but for many, the "calculator wars" have become a way of life, a cottage industry. Given MIT pushed for that "computers in the jungle" aesthetic (a marketing gimmick, not saying ineffective), there're still very few USAers who even know what an XO is. As geeks, we forget that (I have one under my tree, for symbolic value): http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/12/snow.html When I took mine to Fine Grind (csn.fg) recently, none of the very bright people there had ever seen one (has nothing to do with IQ): http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/11/posting-from-my-xo.html How do we get the word to ordinary USAers about "life after calculators"? I suggest more hype around Sugar as North Americans love sugar and corn above all (corn syrup = the breakfast god). Sugar is something of a Python flagship as well, looks like an iPod (circular menus). Why nothing on the backs of cereal boxes then? Not ready for prime time? My suggestion is been more of those overseas schools, where overseas might mean in Colorado, a 50-50 mix of native and imported students, wanting diversity of experience, training to become diplomats maybe, and sharing these new toyz. Growing up as an expat much of the time, I know the State Department is well aware of this model and could implement it pronto as an alternative public school network, branded as such (not just for "rich kids"). Here's a quick sketch of a blueprint, some details bleeped: http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-kind-of-charter.html Minus well-packaged curriculum segments, self schoolers tend to reinvent too many wheels. We think it's cute if they hit on an algorithm for addition or multiplication (lots of constructivist cooing) but always practicing for "after the nuclear winter" or whatever isn't really moving us back from the brink. We force kids into idiocy at gunpoint almost (lots of threats if you start to act smart in some peer groups -- especially if you're a teacher with a big dummy textbook you're expected to teach to (a kind of bullying)). In my view, it's a matter of withholding heritage, with most schools functioning as giant shut-off valves, their primary purpose being to deny access. On the bright side though, kids go home to the Internet and YouTube, and those motivated to catch up, do so, morph into geeks, and join us on the front lines, where we know what "XO" means. Kirby End notes: > >> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 10:42 AM, Michael Paul Goldenberg wrote: >> (I'm not a fan of MPG's writings -- too vitriolic, yet devoid of substance) >> << SNIP >> >> Not my view of GRUNCH, nor am I expecting "depression": >>> As we prepare for what well may another world-wide depression thanks to the >>> GRUNCH of the giants that Haim doesn't want to discuss here (we're supposed >>> to believe that it's teachers' unions that got us where we are, I suppose), >>> we should be spitting in the faces of people like Haim and their >>> self-serving, utterly bankrupt views and policies. >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu-sig mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
