xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
> When lesley college was subsequently recruited
>to provide masters degrees, Cindy would gather her students the friday
>before
>their monthly weekend class to assemble a 'computer lab' that lesley
>instructors could use. On monday morning, they would dissemble it, and
>reconstruct the classrooms. (One contradiction is that lesley values
>computers
>in the classrooms as opposed to computer labs -- but the nature of the
>program
>required a lab.) The children learned a lot about technology by the need
>to
>move and configure it.
>
>In a typical middle/upper-middle class setting that lesley classes
>usually are
>in, there are computer labs, and often enough kids cannot take the same
>actions
>with configuring the technology, nor are lesley students (and sometimes
>instructors) also allowed to do any configuration because this is the
>responsibility of a tech person -- raymond could not afford a similar
>division
>of labor for dedicated tech support. All of this may be making a
>difference
>between what people in the two settings learn.
So much that is familar in this story. My current project has 350
portable computers out in school. I would love to have time to fully
investigate what is the result of the portability. I am an Apple bore: I
want to get details of what cheap wireless networking will do ( I use
Airport at home) .<< Ps remind me to write grant application for portable
classroom of tomorrow>>
Secondly, I do not subscribe to the school that says" you don't have to be
a mechanic to drive a car... so why should I know about computers". The
analogy just doesn't hold up to inspection. However there are intersting
issues when tools designed in one culture get transferred into different
cultures.
Thirdly, there is the culture of control in institutions which lead to the
provision of computer labs.......
Fourthly..... I have an interest which goesback to the heart of the B & G
debate. Some friends run a project NotSchool. It is richly funded by
government and it is for school refusniks and other people who can not
attend school for a wide variety of reasons. In this case the aim is to
give kids not the National Curriculum but a positive experience of
learning
http://www.notschool.net/. This is done by givieng the kids really good
computer tools.
Fifthly... we have these things called Education Action Zones (EAZ's) ...
these are partnerships whereby public and private finance is used in
economically "challenged" areas to have education "action". These areas,
it appears do not have to follow the National Curriculum, and can devise
educational experiences appropriate to the clientel(note the terminology
here). This is interesting. Is this progressive or retrogressive? from one
standpoint we are taking away access to the orthodox curiculum on the
other hand we have the ability to attack the prevailing orthodoxy. This
should be an interesting site of study. In the post war period we had a
bi-partite school policy with one curriculum for 30% and a so-called
"secondary modern" curriculum for the 70%.
Judy... The ways these issues are voiced is very important to the
perception of what is going on. The language of change, opportunity,
appropriateness, development......words are chosen very carefully by many
sides of this debate.
MArtin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jul 01 2001 - 01:01:34 PDT