Kay on Motivation, Papert on how schools discriminate against learners, and Dede on social learning #edchat

This is another fantastic clip from the 1995 Congressional Hearing on Technology in Education that is loaded with important points about motivation in learning.

In this clip Alan Kay eloquently describes the Montessori model of education and how the Macintosh OS is a kind of Montessori learning environment. He also highlights how kids want to learn how to do things they find value in and that our schools do not look like places they resemble from any other part of their lives. Part of this problem, he adds, is they don't see their teachers learning and if they did they might be more motivated as well.

Seymour Papert jumps in to add that our traditional school model is well suited for only a minority kind of learner and that this model discriminates against students who learn differently. He goes on to speculate that with time congress might see this as a human rights issue and declare that schools violate a basic human right by discriminating on the basis of learning style.

At the end of this clip Chris Dede jumps in to add that learning is also social and highlights the ability for computers to foster activities of collaboration and communication. His statements sound like he was describing today's social networks.



Well, that's all I have time for tonight. Stay tuned, when I have a little more time I will try to get through the remaining 170 minutes of this hearing.

Are Learning Styles a Myth?

Like many people I have a customized home page that I use on all of my computers that contains links to stuff I use on a regular basis. Recently I have added two RSS feeds to this home page that I have found extremely valuable and maximized my use of two separate web2 services: Twitter & del.icio.us. My Twitter subscriptions and del.icio.us network closely mirror each other. They are mostly composed of people I have come across in the edtech world who post interesting stuff relevant to what I am interested in. With this feed I catch the latest tweets and tagged sites every time I refresh my browser or return to my home page.



Today I noticed Bernie Dodge posted a link to the video by Dan Willingham I have embedded below. I find this video thought provoking but also a bit unsettling. I find it hard to argue with what he says and I am sure I will be spending quite a bit of time over the next few days (maybe weeks) chewing this over in my mind. Basically, Dan tells us that there is no scientific basis for the existence of individual learning styles. The conclusion is that there is no need for teachers to alter their lessons to accommodate individual student learning styles. What do you think? Also, if this is true, how do I address a teacher who says online staff development is not conducive to their learning style?