Hi Kirby,
I think many students would be better served if the emphasis were on creating for them a safe personal workspace, with plenty of bandwidth to the outside world, with opportunities for 2-way interactions (so not just receiving broadcast television, as in the "mindless consumer couch potato" model of the late 1900s).
I know that many if not most of our students have exactly this environment at their home. But they don't use it much for learning. The average 14-year-old won't do much education-wise outside of some fields of special interest, if there isn't any pressure in form of exams and tests etc. Just talking about real students...
In a comfortable middle class household, Johnny already has a heated bedroom with a desk, books, and computer, but has to leave this workspace to rub shoulders with peers in a daycare setting we call "school".
I know quite a lot would rather stay at home and play the same computer games all day. Still waiting to see the masses who want to learn two foreign languages plus maths and sciences all on their own... (I know there always are some exceptions. I always wanted to learn more than what I learned at school, but even I did go to school nevertheless and probably would never have learnt Maths or French all on my own.)
Said school may censor Youtube and/or otherwise block access to information, so for many school-goers the experience of school is of burning an expensive fuel to frequent a less information-rich environment than their own comfortable bedrooms.
Well I get to see lots of real students, but when they open youtube in a computer lab at school, they never look at those wonderful educational videos. I encourage them to do so at home (maths is explained pretty much like at school, but with a pause and rewind button!), but many prefer to use their own time otherwise.
Better that Sally should stay home and watch instructional Youtubes about > math + programming approach to STEM. She just won't find that at her local day care center. Why waste Sally's time?
I haven't met many of Sally' s kind. Also: In many countries in Europe (in Germany for instance) homeschooling is actually forbidden for a variety of reasons. But apart from that: I do question the main assumption that not using a computer for a couple of hours each day is in any way damaging to the education. On the contrary I think it is higly unlikely that a large proportion of the youth in Germany would still learn English, Maths, some bits about Science and History at the same levels as today when they would be left to their own (computer) devices. Already in the present system the advantaged students are those who have educated parents, not those with the biggest computer racks at home. That problem would be amplified to the extreme, when education would be privatized in this way. My guess is: Only the very best 1-3% students would learn more or less about as much as now, because some kind of coach would be around. To paraprase Churchhill: Schools are lousy ecosystems for learning but we haven't found any practical better systems yet. How successful has the OLPC-project actually been? Any evidence beyond quotes and ideas from SciFi "The diamond age" ;-) ? Cheers Christian
To paraprase Churchhill: Schools are lousy ecosystems for learning but we haven't found any practical better systems yet.
How successful has the OLPC-project actually been? Any evidence beyond quotes and ideas from SciFi "The diamond age" ;-) ?
Cheers
Christian
From my point of view if you have a safe "home alone" environment
You bring up a good point: home schooling is actually verboten in some countries. Including in Germany? Really? I didn't know that. The late Arthur Siegel used to post eloquently on this list about how 14 year olds stand to benefit much more from activities *not* involving a computer. Riding a bicycle for example. But then having a smartphone talking in your helmet about which way to turn, especially in a strange city... But then who's in a strange city at 14 one may ask. Well, many 14 year olds don't know their own city. Learning local geography is a worthy goal, with an eye to mastery and getting around autonomously. If computers (including smartphones) might help with that, so much the better. OLPC: I'm not expert. I think many children have been grateful for these electronics but not many were reached compared to the number who might have enjoyed the boost. A drop in the bucket. The common wisdom about OLPC is it helped some kids, plus Sugar Labs and the hardware design teams, reaped substantial benefits in terms of getting to prototype tomorrow's "best of breed" technologies. then great: problem solved in your case. Given the number of homeless runaways not seeing a safe study space anywhere on the horizon, the work for NGOs I support is ongoing. If governments are in any position to assist with high tech, then lets think of high tech as more than a laptop. It's a safe personal workspace. Schools fit the bill if they give students space to be individuals with private space and time. Some do. Many don't see that as their role. Many are more like prisons which specialize in "all or nothing" i.e. you're either never alone, or you're in solitary. I'm not looking for those extremes for average work / study students just seeking better lives for themselves. Kirby
participants (2)
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Christian Mascher
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kirby urner