It's not that Ministries of Education should *stop* their core activities, but another possibility to consider before *starting*.
A physical school where children can learn and work together is wonderful. In some situations where it's a struggle to build a physical school, where it really may be a dichotomy between buildings/laptops because of the expense, maybe they want to make digital collaboration their main goal instead of building with brick and mortar. Blake Elias On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Edward Cherlin <[email protected]> wrote: > What he said. I hate false dichotomies. They abound in discussions of > education and in the politics of education, indeed in any situation > where the more extreme the position, the more likely it is to be > heard. > > On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 18:04, Ian Thomson <[email protected]> wrote: >> Personally, I think the whole approach is wrong. You will never convince >> Ministries of Education to stop their "core" activities just because >> there are laptops. >> >> The better approach is to show how laptops can enhance education in >> schools. >> This should not be an "either/or" approach. We can do both. >> >> As a simple example, children can leave the school earlier after >> suitable teaching and complete work on the laptops at home or other >> locations. This will free up the school to take a second shift of >> students. >> Teachers can restructure their teaching to have groups working together >> to learn, so freeing them up to take more students. >> >> Ian Thomson >> ICT Outreach Section >> Economic Development Division >> Secretariat of the Pacific Community >> B.P. D5 - Noumea Cedex - 98848 >> New Caledonia >> >> Phone +687-265419 >> >> Fax +687 26 38 18 >> http://www.spc.int >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bernie Innocenti >> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 8:36 AM >> To: Timothy Falconer >> Cc: [email protected]; grassroots OLPC; >> [email protected]; Squeakland List; Maho 2010; IAEP; >> [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [realness] a school is not a building >> >> On Sun, 2010-12-05 at 15:18 -0500, Timothy Falconer wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> >>> A favor: help me make this case (or refute it) as we prepare once >>> more for Haiti ... "spend money on training & laptops instead bricks >>> and mortar". >>> >>> http://waveplace.com/news/blog/archive/001035.jsp >> >> It's a beautiful thought that touches deep into my hacker spirit, but >> the conclusion seems weak: what is it that we are advocating for? Remote >> learning? Home-schooling? Having classes under a tree? It's unclear. >> >> The point that you were making with the military canteen vs cooking at >> home metaphor is that compulsory education doesn't follow individual >> inclinations. Then, the conclusion should state the proposed solution >> for this problem. >> >> -- >> // Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/ >> \X/ Sugar Labs - http://sugarlabs.org/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> > > > > -- > 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/ > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep _______________________________________________ Olpc-open mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
