Ed, you wrote, in response to the assertion that "Printed material is of greater value to a participant because she can take it home" the following: "That is true without one-to-one, 24/7 computing. With it, software is of greater value to children than textbooks, because it includes multimedia, is of much greater capacity, and can be provided at no cost and with the freedom to modify it and share the results. In addition, computers and software are now essential subjects for schools. Not so-called "Computer Literacy" but computer mastery."
I beg to differ with both positions. Your claim, I think, is assuming too much for the moment as far as the potential impact of computing technology is concerned, and I am saying so inspired by the more than 40 years I've been working (and living for more than half that time) in countries deprived of even the most basic resources like, in the school context, something that could function as a blackboard and a piece of chalk, or even a decent piece of stone or wood to sit on while in class (not necessarily under a roof or complemented with something that could resemble a desk), let alone materials with which to engage in collaborative activities with one's fellow learners for, say, the purpose of exploring and understanding the workings of nature. Doing one's homework at home may be less dependent on having a computer or a book than on having the kind of home that minimally resembles the dwellings you and I live in (not to speak of the homes of the likes of Schwarzenegger, McChrystal and McCain) and particularly on having economic conditions that don't put you as a child in charge of all kinds of tasks that must necessarily be performed to sustain the life of the family and that heavily interfere with fruitful participation in a regular school environment. Of course, I'm all for the great and important things you and others are pursuing, but I'm afraid there are no silver bullets. The solutions to improving the quality of human learning around the world in diverse circumstances and multiple cultural contexts are complex because learning is a complex phenomenon. One-to-one computing is possibly part of the solution to reshaping the learning landscape, enabling all to learn, but so are books, TWB, WE and a host of other things. None of them will do the job alone and much will depend on co-evolving contextual factors. One of the important lessons I’ve learned is that it usually stifles the creativity if we focus too strongly on just one dimension of the problem. And, while I am at it, let's not forget that there is an enormous wealth of learning beyond formal schooling whereas most of the efforts, including our own in WE, continue to be inspired by the predominant school metaphor, which is strongly rooted in the western culture of the industrial era. We really need to broaden our thinking beyond the perspectives that follow from our primary inclinations. I’m sorry to paint a less satisfying picture, but, with due respect to the efforts of TWB (whose coming into being and growth I have followed since my first contacts back in the 1990’s with its founder Fred Mednick), and fully recognizing the valuable intentions of those involved in making one-to-one computing a reality, as well as with deep appreciation for the work of those engaging in producing print or screen based text and other software, I’m afraid we are only scratching the surface of a problem that is immensely more complex than what is imagined. Jan -- Jan Visser, Ph.D. President & Sr. Researcher, Learning Development Institute E-mail: [email protected] Check out: http://www.learndev.org and http://www.facebook.com/learndev Blog: http://jvisser-ldi.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Edward Cherlin Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 11:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WikiEducator] Re: Teachers Without Borders (TWB) On Sat, May 15, 2010 at 12:56, Vtaylor <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Edward > > We were not sure exactly what you were asking. If this doesn't answer > your question, let's talk further. Let's, whether in this mailing list or offline. I'm talking about the coming wave of one-to-one computing in schools, now that netbook computers cost less than textbooks. See, for example, the resources listed at http://www.librarianchick.com/ The most complete listing http://www.clrn.org/fdti/ Math and Science texts for CA http://www.flossmanuals.net/ Free Software manuals, and how to use Free Software I am one of the co-authors of How to Bypass Internet Censorship at FLOSS Manuals. It has become available in Russian, Chinese, Farsi, and other relevant languages. I am currently writing an introduction to the Sugar software for the OLPC XO, now available for most other computers., and trying to organize a project to create free textbooks for every school subject in every grade for every country in the world. We believe that there are major funding opportunities available from the US Dept. of Education and various international sources. One of the projects at county level in the US tells me that it has a team of grant writers it can call on. Gov. Schwarzenegger in California is sold on the idea of free digital textbooks http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/blog/issue/20090608-arnold-text-blog-textbooks/ and Gen. McChrystal in Afghanistan seems to be a recent convert. Sen. John McCain also sees one-to-one computing in education as an important anti-insurgent tool. It also will allow girls to learn at home in areas where the Taliban tries to interfere with the public school system. http://blog.laptop.org/2010/05/15/on-afghanistan-2/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/sets/72157622267805539/ > All the TWB course materials are available online. > http://courses.teacherswithoutborders.org/ > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. > http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Perfect. > The TWB Certificate of Teaching Mastery is being added to WikiEducator > http://wikieducator.org/Teachers_Without_Borders/Certificate_of_Teaching_Mastery > > For face-to-face training, these are distributed to participants in > paper format. > > I passed along your question to Konrad Glogowski, TWB Program > Director. Here is Konrad's reply - > > Do you mean our current offline programs? That would translate into > providing all participants with laptops, Exactly. That is why I am talking about one-to-one computing, where the student gets to take the computer home to use on homework and in family activities. We find that students from subsistence economies are helping their parents increase their incomes. > which would require quite a bit of funding. When we get the promised $75 laptops, (http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/10/olpc-spin-off-plans-75-laptop/) it will come to $20 billion annually for the billion or so children in the whole world, plus the cost of installing renewable electricity and broadband Internet out to the poorest and remote villages. This assumes a replacement cycle of four years for the laptops. The electrical and wireless communications systems will last much longer. We can expect trillions of dollars of increased economic activity as a result, and we have the opportunity to educate the next generation on sustainability, among other things. > Printed material is of greater value to a participant > because she can take it home. That is true without one-to-one, 24/7 computing. With it, software is of greater value to children than textbooks, because it includes multimedia, is of much greater capacity, and can be provided at no cost and with the freedom to modify it and share the results. In addition, computers and software are now essential subjects for schools. Not so-called "Computer Literacy" but computer mastery. I would love to have this conversation with all of your members who are interested, and to help you set up a program to address these issues, needs, and opportunities. > - Konrad > > > > Konrad Glogowski, Ph.D. > Program Director > http://teacherswithoutborders.org > http://twitter.com/teachersnetwork > Skype: teachandlearn > Teachers. Leaders. Worldwide > > o (206) 623-0394, ext. 9 | f (206)-623-0396 | m (647) 200-1528 > > > On May 14, 8:36 pm, Edward Cherlin <[email protected]> wrote: >> Does TWB have any interest in replacing printed textbooks with free >> software and content? >> >> -- >> 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/ >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] -- 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/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
