Twitter Book Club - Seymour Papert's "The Children's Machine" Chapter 9

"Fantasy has always been encouraged in good creative writing and art classed. Excluding it from science is (cont) http://tl.gd/2oumh3less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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RT @anderscj Fantasy has always been encouraged in good creative writing and art classes. Excluding it from science... http://tl.gd/2oumh3less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneingridktw
ingridktw

This reminds me of some of the more memorable school science projects I have been part of both as a teacher and a student. When I was in 3rd grade I remember an extended project where my teacher told us that we were going to go to the moon and set up a city there. It was up to us to figure out how we might go about doing it. How would we get there? How would we transport goods? How would we get enough oxygen? What would we eat? What would change because of the difference in gravity?

A few years ago I tried a similar project with a team of teachers at the ALC I was working at where instead of going to the moon we went under the sea. The project was sparked by an exploration of tube worms, a living organism that appears not to depend on photosynthesis being part of it's food chain and the question of whether we could adapt like the tube worm if our species needed to go under ground or under water for some reason. This kind of exploration, both for me in 3rd grade and for the ALC students resulted in such divergent deep learning of science, math, language arts, visual arts, sociology, computer science, etc. It allowed for both group and individual projects to sprout off of it. Many students would do their own related projects at home and ask if they could bring them in to add to the project.

I did another project one year where I found an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean and asked the students to create a fictional society there. They had to study the geography, the geology, the climate, then compare it with climates in other parts of the world to determine how the environment would effect the development of the local culture that would emerge. We also determined that there would be no native people and that all people on this island would be immigrants. We used this as a launching point to study the development of other civilizations. Some students became interested in what kinds of economies would emerge and did in-depth projects related to monetary systems and trade. Another student, in what was one of the more interesting off-shoot projects, became interested in what kind of people might be considered this country's "founders" and what people might be granted legendary status in its development. Our school was located in a community center that also housed an early childhood center as well as a senior program. She took photos of the senior citizens, discussed her project with them, and together came up with imaginative biographies based both on the work the other students were doing and on personal insights the seniors provided.

We eventually wrote a constitution, created a military, developed a currency, developed a historical timeline, invented local cuisine, and later went to war with a "Pirate society" that had developed in another class doing a similar project. The depth to which these students learned and understood biology, geography, literature, history, economics, art, economics, math, etc. was deeper than anything I had ever been involved with as a teacher or a learner. It also defied "testing."

"The first use of a technology always consists of striving to do better what had been done before." Papertless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Time and the growth of ideas are usually needed before the idea of using a new technology to do something (cont) http://tl.gd/2ourcnless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The extreme conservative side is to follow what is already in the school curriculum: There is already more (cont) http://tl.gd/2ov6hrless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"...But on my reckoning, the fraction of human knowledge that is in the curriculum is well under a (cont) http://tl.gd/2ov799less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The radical answer is that we should make all knowledge available so as not to impose our own preconceived (cont) http://tl.gd/2ov7r5less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This "making all knowledge available" is precisely why our creative projects worked so well. Students had access to the "knowledge machine" throughout the project. They also had access to each other, the community, and their teachers.

"The real problem was that I was still thinking in terms of how to 'get the children to do something.' This (cont) http://tl.gd/2p06c0less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Looking toward the future, it seems obvious that children will grow up building cybernetic constructs as (cont) http://tl.gd/2p08cgless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Emergent structures often behave very differently than the elements that compose them." Papertless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj Thank you for tweeting so many Papert quotes over past several days. I feel like I've read so many good books now! :)less than a minute ago via TweetDeckCathy Higgins
thinkict

Going to school! I will keep reading (please note @anderscj) today and yes it is because @misterlamb found me http://untiny.me/ ! I'm lucky!less than a minute ago via webMarge Runkle
mrunkle

New Additions to the Digital Backpack (continued)

- Video archive of Ignite events.

- Online video editing platform
- Online Spreadsheet Application
- Schedule future tweets
- URL Shortener that lets you password protect the link
- "Mash your ideas and media together with friends in a dynamic whiteboard wiki. Using photos, videos, and other web content you can instantly create brainstorms, presentations, scrapbooks, and enjoy an interactive chat with more than 50 friends."
- Make an interactive online bulletin board.
- Create slide presentations out of websites you want to show people.
- Create interactive map tours
- Create interactive map tours
- Make an interactive online bulletin board.
- Online diagram tool for Brainstorming and Mindmaping
- multi-user collaborative whiteboard application
- multi-user collaborative whiteboard application

I am also going to try to sort and organize my bustling collection of Twitter Apps in the Backpack today. Their number has grown unmanageable.

Twitter Book Club - Seymour Papert's "The Children's Machine" Chapter 8

"Every professor knows that a good way to learn a subject is by teaching a course on it, and I half (cont) http://tl.gd/2odl3oless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This was the prevailing reason/concept that prompted me to write this post last week:

Here is your assignment, if you choose to accept it. #edchat #iste10 #rscon10 #k12Online

"At the same time, perhaps because we felt we were guests or immigrants, we structured our work in ways (cont) http://tl.gd/2odmrmless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Ah, could it be that Marc Prensky's term 'Digital Immigrant' was derived from this line in Papert's The Children's Machine? He undoubtedly would have been aware of this text being that Prensky is primarily concerned with Digital Game-Based Learning. This work of Papert was published in 1993 while Prensky's use of the term first appeared in 2001.

Papert defines CAI as using the computer to program the student and BASIC or LOGO as a way for the student to program the computer.less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Behaviorists are fond of using the designation 'learning theory' for foundations of their thinking, but (cont) http://tl.gd/2odqbrless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The breakthrough that set me on track to what would become my trademark way of using computers came when I (cont) http://tl.gd/2odvihless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This is why I think it is critical for schools to support the development of teacher PLNs. We have to find a way to institutionally value informal learning. However, we have to be careful to resist the urge to institutionalize it.

"one visibly works toward the goal by being wrong most of the time. But one can see that one is wrong and ask (cont) http://tl.gd/2oeaihless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This exactly illustrates what is wrong with formal schooling, high-stakes testing, and the recent drive toward teacher accountability. We punish teachers and students for making mistakes and for getting wrong answers when for learning to occur we have to make mistakes and get wrong answers most of the time.

*I feel like this book is making me smarter. It has not really introduced any new concepts to me but has helped me immensely at connecting thoughts, ideas, and concepts that were disjointed. It has also given me the clarity of thought to express these ideas more clearly. Thank you Seymour!

Twitter Book Club - Seymour Papert's "The Children's Machine" Chapter 7

@mrunkle

"a prevailing tendency to overvalue abstract reasoning is a major obstacle to progress in education." Papertless than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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"Even the statement (endorsed if not originated by Piaget) that every act of teaching deprives the child of (cont) http://tl.gd/2npq5hless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I have to constantly keep this in check when working with adults too. The problem is, most teachers have been so thoroughly schooled that they reject or resist PD that leads them to make their own discoveries or be too active in their own learning. Usually I find teachers request "training" when what they need is a PD environment that fosters personal growth and change. We must seek ways to change this. On this front I think we could take some lessons from John Taylor Gatto and what he did with his students to "trick" them into spending time alone, engaging in real problems, doing community service, and take charge of their own intellectual development. Off the top of my head, these are some methods that I believe might work:

1. Encourage the development of PLNs. So long as we don't package them as "the PLN" and depersonalize the learning experience this can work. (PLNs)
   
2. Another way might be to send teachers to spend time in alternative learning environments or to shadow other teachers in those environments. (Job Shadow)
   
3. It might also work to ask teachers to spend time thinking about their own non-school learning experiences and draw conclusions about how they can foster the powerful effects of those experiences in the classroom with their students. (Metacognitive Reflection)
   
4. We might also try what I call the "wax-on, wax-off" approach (named after the approach used in the popular 1980s film, The Karate Kid) of modeling the use of technology in the collective pursuit of another goal or to use it collectively to solve a particular problem. (Wax-on, Wax-off)

What other methods might work? I would love to hear what other strategies other instructional leaders can think of. Please comment if you have anything to add!

"the goal (of constructionism) is to produce the most learning for the least teaching." Piagetless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Since one reason for poor instruction is that nobody wants to teach reluctant children, the (cont) http://tl.gd/2nptvtless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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In Ivan Illich's 'Deschooling Society' he "eloquently states his case that the principle lesson School teaches is the need 2b taught."Papertless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"School's teaching creates a dependence on School and a superstitious addiction to belief in its methods." Papertless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

"School['s] ..perverse commitment to moving as quickly as possible from the concrete to the abstract (cont) http://tl.gd/2nq8jrless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"In the practice of education the emphasis on abstract-formal knowledge is a direct impediment to (cont) http://tl.gd/2nqhlaless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Computers serve best when they allow everything to change." Papertless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Rather than push children to think like adults, we might do better to remember that they are great (cont) http://tl.gd/2nqrfcless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj Which papert book(s) are you quoting from?less than a minute ago via webAshley Casey
DrAshCasey

@DrAshCasey Sounds like Children's Machine to me. @anderscjless than a minute ago via TweetDeckBeckyFisher73
BeckyFisher73

@DrAshCasey Children's Machineless than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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Just ordered Ivan Illich's 'Deschooling Society' for future Twitter Book Club reading.less than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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@anderscj My copy just arrived. Iless than a minute ago via TweetDeckMarge Runkle
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@anderscj I'll be playing catch up for the middle of the night read alongs! Hope to be part of a conversastion!less than a minute ago via TweetDeckMarge Runkle
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It has been fun seeing the effect the "live tweeting" of my reading of these books has had and the replies I have been getting. I can't help but think that some of the other conversations I have observed in the past week on Twitter have been influenced by one or more of these quotes floating around. When I started this Twitter Book Club thing a week ago I set out with the premise that Twitter Book Club, like a PLN, can only have 1 member. The following reply to Marge here was not meant as dismissive but rather that she should try the same thing, start a book club of 1. Use Twitter to discuss the elements of the book as she encounters them. There is no need to "catch up" because the network provides a steady stream of people willing, eager, and open to discussing these topics at anytime.

@mrunkle start your own conversations anytime of dayless than a minute ago via mobile webanderscj
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I must stop this reading! I must go to bed! I must go to school tomorrow! Do some extended contract days! OK!less than a minute ago via webMarge Runkle
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@mrunkle read what you just wrote; "I must stop this reading, I must go to school..."less than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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@anderscj LOL! OMG! I am in love with this sharing so very much that tomorrow I will have to shut down so that I can catalog! Sad state!less than a minute ago via TweetDeckMarge Runkle
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