There has been a great deal of heat and some light shed on OLPC policy in recent discussions, but it is clear that much of the commentary is hampered by extreme lack of clarity on OLPC's goals. Is it an education project, or a laptop project? Why? Is it really One Laptop Per Child, or should it be called One Education Per Child? Whatever is the case, why are essential management functions being ignored? I would like to go back to the beginning, and ask about the supposed education mission.
We are told that Constructionism is the essence of the OLPC project (or not), but we are not told what Constructionism is, or how to apply it. There are suggestions that Constructionism will end poverty, solve global warming, and otherwise Save the World (but not do absolutely everything. No cure for the common cold, in any version I have heard). Or possibly that laptops will do all that, regardless of Constructionism. We have been told that Free Software will do all of these things, or none of them. Or that Free Software is irrelevant, and we should switch to Windows. I would like to have more discussion of all of these matters, but I propose that this thread be about Constructionism. If you want to talk about anything else I have mentioned above, please change the subject line. Constructionism means at least two different things. * One is how the learner constructs knowledge and understanding. This is universal, and doesn't depend on a teaching technique. But understanding how people learn suggests how to teach more effectively. * The second is that people learn better by doing and making, particularly collaborative public creation, rather than by theory, lectures, and book learning. But not any of these to the exclusion of the others. Theory is essential to guide experiment. Lectures are good for communicating some kinds of ideas and information. We might redesign books when we can include software in them, but that does not change their basic function of recording new ideas in a systematic way to simplify access to them, or surveying existing ideas. One thing that Constructionism is not is unguided exploration. There is a place for play, for browsing, for exploring one's ignorance, and so on. But these cannot be the only forms of learning. A large part of what children need to know is what others have discovered or constructed before them that is in common use in their society and culture. Similarly for scientists, artists, craft workers, and everybody else who has the opportunity to build on what has gone before, and sometimes to build something new. Constructionism makes the point that how we learn depends on what we already know, as well as on our mental abilities and the like. The first question is, then, what do you think you know, and what do you want to know? Also, why do you want to know it? That is, what do you want to be able to do with your enhanced knowledge and understanding? I'll start. I have read a little bit of the literature, and followed the discussions here. I had the advantage that my mother studied Piaget in her college days, majoring in Child Development, and often talked about him and other Constructivist pioneers. The Constructionist point of view says that we should try to construct something, and not just talk about theories, in order to construct meaningful understanding. Constructing Sugar has been quite educational, but for many of us it is still not clear what Sugar is about. My challenge is to create a Constructionist way to introduce people to Constructionism. Letting people try out the XO is useful, but by no means sufficient. The biggest question is how to deal with the culture clash that Constructionism inherently creates. Conventional education treats a great deal of the dominant culture simply as given, and not to be questioned. Constructionism requires behaviors that are not valued in many cultures, such as speaking up with new ideas, or criticizing received wisdom. What do you think, Sirs? -- Edward Cherlin End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business http://www.EarthTreasury.org/ "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay _______________________________________________ Olpc-open mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
