I just read the article Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learningby Seymour Papert (1998). There are quite a few points in this article i dont agree with, but here is the main one i do agree with.
Papert’s initial claim is that “Shavian reversals – offspring that keep the bad features of each parent and lose the good ones – are visible in most software products that claim to come from a mating of education and entertainment.” Athough this may have been true 10, or even 5 years ago, i think i have to disagree for a number of programs and software products that are around today. Papert focuses mainly on one bad example, to demonstrate his point, and in doing so I feel he oversimplifies his whole argument (though he does admit this himself). The example he chooses is of a game that makes absolutely no advantage of the benefits of using technology and games together as an education tool. Doing sums on a computer is much the same as doing them on a piece of paper to me. It is for this reason that i believe a lot (maybe even the majority?) of programs designed for childrens educational purposes TODAY have moved past this idea. There are so many programs that allow the student to be in control of their learning, or at least a major participant, rather than just ‘being instructed’ in a different way. Some examples of these i have ever experienced myself this semester, such as Comic Life, Scratch, and the most recent, Digital Storytelling. Using these software programs students can produce work that is fun, creative, and individualized, as well as educational.
I agree completely with Papert when he makes the point that the types of games such as his example of the math problems on a road (read his article for more detail!) is the very worst of curriculum development and gaming combined. No kid picks up a game because it is easy, they enjoy the challenge of games, so that when they reach the end, or the next level they feel they have achieved something (for example in Halo or GTA).
“What is best about the best games is that they draw kids into some very hard learning…game designers have a better take on the nature of learning than curriculum designers… Their livelihoods depends on millions of people being prepared to undertake the serious amount of learning needed to master a complex game.”
After seeing that video about second life and thinking about it some more, i was interested in researching some more of the educational uses of the program. I found this slideshare show that explores using this virtual world for ESL purposes. Its called ESL, Second Life, and Teenagers: Learner Autonomy for the Digital Natives. The British Council have created an island in second life for teaching english. For example, the information center on the island which will provide resources. They claim that the island is a self access center for teenagers, and has no plans for direct teaching. Their sections include: layers of language, vocabulary, language in use, and lexical sets. Slide 29 in particular was interesting.
Ok honestly, for me the whole presentation was a bit fake and idealistic. Saying things like it will be “an attractive place for teens to meet and spend time”. But there were a couple of slides that stood out, and the general idea behind the slideshow was compelling. They were trying to create an space where students can meet and collaborate no matter where they are from. I can see how this would be a useful tool for learning languages in particular.
I just read Sean’s post about ‘Second Life’ and virtual living. I first heard about this phenomenon a while ago from a few friends. I found it amazing (and a little odd) that it has reached a point where people actually spend real money on things for their virtual selves.
It is a 3D virtual space that provides “insightful interaction, collaboration, learning, and experimentation” between users. These are all things that have been discussed this semester as desirable for students when using technology in a classroom. However, I agree with Sean, I am not sure if this particular ‘virtual world’ is entirely beneficial to all users, in particular younger students, but i find it interesting that they mention a lot of the benefits that other programs claim to have as well.
I just read a post that Sunny wrote about engaging students in lessons, and how there are many different ways of doing it, especially using the internet. I found the idea of using google earth in a classroom really interesting, i think it could apply to a lot of different areas and subjects, not just math.
“The Department of Immigration historically has been less active than they should have been with settlement patterns. It needed to ensure that school populations were more diverse.” — The parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, Laurie Ferguson.
There are concerns that the NSW Department of Education needs to consider more closely where it educates refugee children in Sydney. There is growing concern that there is a spread of ‘white flight’ from schools across Sydney. ‘White flight’ is explained as when students from Anglo-European background leave schools that have a high concentration of students from other racial backgrounds. For example, the increasing African presence in the suburb of Blacktown. A ‘confidencial survey’ done in NSW in 2006 raised concerns about white flight “undermining government schools and threatening social cohesion.”
I observed a situation similar to this one while I was in Guatemala. There was an English speaking international school there, that was taking in beca (scholarship) students into grades K and 1, from the local indigenous community, for the purpose of learning English. After a couple of years however, the spanish speaking beca students far out numbered the English speakers, and so the students were not learning the language, and nearly all communication was done in spanish. I know this situation is slightly different, but i can see that it is a potential problem that could happen here too, as well as many others of course.
Apparently, there were 30 or 40 schools in western Sydney which are dealing with this problem.
“We need to ask ourselves what kind of society will we be in 10, 20, 30 or 50 years’ time if we continue down the path of state-sponsored segregation and education by class, religion and ethnicity.” — The president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos.
I just read Sunny’s blog post A Vision of K-12 Students Today about a video she found. I found it thought provoking and very moving.
In the middle of the video, the students hold up a number of signs asking how different forms of technology (ipod, camera, laptop etc) could help them learn. I think this is a clear challenge to teachers to think beyond the obvious. It is our challenge, our job, to develop with the techonology, and enable our students to use all the tools they have available to them. Especially the ones that they are most interested in, and that are going to become ever more important in the future. The students are asking to be taught to think, create, analyse, evaluate, and apply. The internet is the perfect tool with which to learn all of these skills, with the right training, programs, and i believe, the right philosophy. Fundamentally, the students are asking to be engaged.
I just watched the youth video from the 2020 summit. It was very comforting and encouraging to realise that the youth of Australia are taking these issues so seriously, that there are those that are inspired to work towards the goals that we believe in. I hope the students that I will be teaching one day will develop this same energy, and consciousness.
From watching the introduction to the summit, and from hearing the PM Rudd speak about what he is trying to achieve with this summit, it is obvious that we are starting to think globally. Not only on a business and economic level, but also on a personal, educational, environmental and political level. It struck me that Australia’s politics has turned a corner, a very BIG corner. I couldn’t even imagine Howard doing something like this. Rudd is opening the doors to discussion, questions, creative ideas, and creative solutions to some of the key issues that are facing us as a nation. The most important part of this summit to me is that he is opening the nation up to communication. This is demonstrated by the thousands of blogs and forums that have been created and commented on in the last month. The Internet has been a perfect forum for all the people not one of the 1000 invited to the summit to express their views, ask questions, and generally start the ‘conversation’ around these issues. See the Blogocracy for one example.
Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp-F7diymq8
