Last month I was interviewed by NPR (that R no longer stands for radio) about the India’s purported plans for a “$35 laptop” for education.
I was able to get in a few whacks against the visionless plan. Read my interview here
It now appears that “mine’s bigger” has been replaced with “mine’s cheaper.” The Indian announcement, like many of the “responses” to One Laptop per Child, appears to be more about a referendum on Nicholas Negroponte than improving the lives of children.
Like Negroponte or not, the entire high-tech industry swore that low-cost laptops were impossible until a handful of MIT visionaries and their friends proved them wrong.
The current line of attack seems to be, “Well that jerk wants to change the world with a $100 laptop, we will make it even cheaper.”
Nicholas Negroponte of One Laptop Per Child posted similar views here.
Incidentally, I recently celebrated my 20th anniversary of working in schools around the world where every child has a personal laptop computer.
Cross-posted from the Constructing Modern Knowledge site. Web2.0pians should pay special attention to his mention of “personal learning communities.”
Educators fortunate enough to attend Constructing Modern Knowledge 2010 got to withness an amazing conversation between two of America’s most provocative and accomplished educators, Alfie Kohn and Deborah Meier (watch this site for video in the near future). Mark your calendars for a mind-blowing Constructing Modern Knowledge 2011, to be held July 11-14, 2011. Registration details will be posted here in early September.
Sign-up for news from Constructing Modern Knowledge and the Constructivist Consortium
Alfie began his CMK 2010 remarks by reading the draft of a stunning editorial he was preparing for publication in Education Week. The article, Turning Children Into Data: A Skeptic’s Guide to Assessment Programs, is a must read for any educator, parent or policy-maker who cares about children. Ken Bernstein also blogged about this article in The Daily Kos.
Kohn’s article begins with:
Programs with generic-sounding names that offer techniques for measuring (and raising) student achievement have been sprouting like fungi in a rainforest: “Learning-Focused Schools,” “Curriculum-Based Measurements,” “Professional Learning Communities,” and many others whose names include “data,” “progress,” or “RTI.” Perhaps you’ve seen their ads in periodicals like this one. Perhaps you’ve pondered the fact that they can afford these ads, presumably because of how much money they’ve already collected from struggling school districts
and then continues to list six questions that need to be asked…
- What is its basic conception of assessment?
- What is its goal?
- Does it reduce everything to numbers?
- Is it about “doing to” or “working with”?
- Is its priority to support kids’ interest?
- Does it avoid excessive assessment?
As always, Alfie supports his arguments with research-based evidence and common sense. Given the load of horse manure recently published by John Merrow and echoed by Grant Wiggins in a shocking display of contempt for teachers, Alfie Kohn’s column could not have come at a better time. Please share it widely.
Perhaps you’d like to leave a few copies around at Back-to-School Night along with his small book, The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools.
Share your comments below!
Alfie Kohn & Deborah Meier at CMK 2010
I realise that this is late notice, but I will be leading a seminar, The Best Educational Ideas in the World: Adventures on the Frontiers of Learning, 13 September 2010 in the Lecture Theatre at The University of Melbourne’s Trinity College. The seminar will be from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM and costs just $50 (US) ($58 AU). Regrettably, my registration system won’t handle Australian currency.
The seminar is intended for all P-12 teachers, tech directors, computing teachers, university students, parents and administrators.
You may register online here. Please pass this information along to colleagues & friends!!
A poster may be downloaded here.
Maps and location information may be found here.
The Best Educational Ideas in the World: Adventures on the Frontiers of Learning
Contemporary discussions of school improvement focus on the creation of obedience schools for poor children or utopian governance schemes. Neither approach does much to amplify the natural curiosity, expertise, creativity, passion, competence or capacity for intensity found in each child. A leading educator serves as your tour guide for a global exploration of powerful ideas and exemplary teaching practices.
The artificial boundaries between art and science are blurred as children engage in authentic activities with real materials, create sophisticated artifacts of personal and aesthetic value and become connected to ideas larger than themselves. Collegiality, purpose, apprenticeship, complexity, serendipity and “sharaeability” are a few of the common values. Each approach either requires digital technology or may be dramatically enhanced by it. Lessons learned en-route our tour create productive contexts for learning in which students construct the knowledge required for a rewarding life. An ample Q&A session will follow the presentation.
Stops along our tour may include:
- Personal fabrication
- Reggio Emilia
- Constructionism
- El Sistema
- 826 Valencia
- Generation YES
- One Laptop Per Child
- and even reality television!
About Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.
Since 1982, Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, is a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab’s Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s Learning Team. Mr. Stager’s doctoral research involved the creation a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens. Recent work includes teaching and mentoring some of Australia’s “most troubled” public schools. Gary was Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine and Founding Editor of The Pulse: Education’s Place for Debate. He is currently Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University, an Associate of the Thornburg Center for Professional Development and the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a “shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny.” The National School Boards Association recognized Dr. Stager with the distinction of “20 Leaders to Watch” in 2007. The June 2010 issue of Tech & Learning Magazine named Gary Stager as “one of today’s leaders who are changing the landscape of edtech through innovation and leadership.”Dr. Stager was a keynote speaker at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference before an audience of more than 4,000 educators. He was also a Visiting Scholar at The University of Melbourne’s Trinity College during the summer of 2009.
Recently, Gary was the new media producer for The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project - Simpatíco, 2007 Grammy Award Winner for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year. Dr. Stager is also a contributor to The Huffington Post.
So, in my mission to change the world, I search for opportunities to preach to the unconverted. That’s why I’m prevailing upon friends, colleagues and complete strangers and begging them to vote for my session at next year’s South-by-Southwest Conference (SXSW). (Read the description of my session, The Best Education Ideas in the World, here) Here are the instructions for voting.
While you’re there, you might consider voting for my tricky little pal, Chris Lehmann’s session at SXSW. He and I share common values and several honors. He’s an excellent urban high school principal who is walking-the-walk 24/7. Vote here for Chris’ session, Building School 2.0 - Creating the Schools We Need. But don’t forget to vote for me too!
The voting deadline is August 25th, so act today!
Wow! What a week. I’ve taught in Tampa, Seoul and after 25,000 miles, I am now in Paris to be a plenary speaker at the Constructionism 2010 Conference.
It is such an honor to be invited to speak at a conference featuring some of the smartest people in the world and pioneers in thinking about thinking and learning with computers. Two of Logo’s three inventors, Cynthia Solomon and Wally Feurzig, are here. Seymour Papert’s influence is ubiquitous and in many ways, the conference is a celebration of Papert’s ideas, work, friendship and leadership.
There is a lot of talk these days about personal learning networks and learning communities, but this is a true learning community featuring experts who have been evolving ideas for as long as 40+ years and newbiews. There is serious expertise here! The conference attendees range from 20ish to 80+ years old. In the spirit of Papert’s Samba School metaphor, we get to spend the next five days “dancing together.”
My paper, A Constructionist Approach to Teaching with Robotics, sounds overly dry and specific, but I hope some of you will take a few minutes to read it since robotics is a metaphor for rethinking the nature of teaching and learning. I even briefly explored the severe weakness of what Apple is now promoting as Challenge-based Learning.
I hope to upload some of the slides I’ve created to supplement the presentation at a later time.
Please vote for my session, The Best Educational Ideas in the World, to be included in the South-by-Southwest Conference! I need LOTS of votes!
Dear Friends,
I could really use your help!
You know how passionate I am about making schools better places for children. That’s why I have submitted a proposal to speak at the 2011 South-by-Southwest Conference. This conference could afford me with a great platform for educating the creative community about the current political threats to public education, and more importantly offer a constructive, creative and uplifting message illustrating alternative approaches that build upon each child’s remarkable capacity for intensity.
That is why I submitted the proposal, The Best Educational Ideas in the World. (Find the session description below and on the voting site.)
In order for me to be invited to speak at South-by-Southwest, (SXSW), I need for you and your colleagues, friends, relatives and students to spend a few minutes voting for my session. I apologize for how clumsy the web site is. That’s why I’ve included the following step-by-step instructions below:
- Go to: http://bit.ly/cxq78J
- Follow the instructions for creating an account
- An email will be sent to you containing a link to click that will return you to the voting site
- Click the link in the email
- Login using the email address and password you just created
- Click on the Explore the Interactive Proposals » link (http://bit.ly/bk31Hl)
- Type Stager into the Organizer field
- Click the SEARCH PANELS button
- My session, The Best Educational Ideas in the World, should appear
- Click the icon of the THUMBS UP to vote for my session.
- If you wish, click on the title of the session, scroll to the bottom of the page and leave a message of support. Every bit helps!
I am really grateful to each and every one of you who takes the time to follow the steps outlined above and votes for my session. Reaching multiple and varied audiences is the most effective way I can influence public opinion and help kids.
Unfortunately, this IS a popularity contest. That’s why I need your assistance.
All the very best,
Gary
The Best Educational Ideas in the World
Contemporary discussions of school reform focus on the creation of obedience schools for poor children or utopian governance schemes, such as charter schools. Neither approach does much to amplify the natural curiosity, expertise, creativity, passion, competence or capacity for intensity found in each child. A leading educator serves as your tour guide for a global exploration of powerful ideas and exemplary practices. Stops on the tour include personal fabrication; Reggio Emilia; El Sistema; Generation YES; One Laptop Per Child; a juvenile prison; 826 Valencia and more.
The artificial boundaries between art and science are blurred as children engage in authentic activities with real materials, create sophisticated artifacts of personal and aesthetic value and become connected to ideas larger than themselves. Collegiality, purpose, apprenticeship, complexity, serendipity and “sharaeability” are a few of the common values. Each approach either requires digital technology or may be dramatically enhanced by it. Lessons learned en-route our tour create productive contexts for learning in which students construct the knowledge required for a rewarding life.
Alternative models of school reform in which we treat other people’s students as our own will emerge. The common principles identified in some of the world’s most creative educational practices serve as lessons for parents, teachers and policy-makers eager to help children realize their full potential.
Questions answered during the presentation:
1. How can we create learning environments that build upon children’s capacity for intensity?
2. Are there humane creative models of school reform based on principles of social justice where students do extraordinary things?
3. How are disparate ideas like El Sistema, Reggio Emilia, personal fabrication, alternative prison education and One Laptop Per Child similar and offer new models for education reform?
4. Is learning natural and are children competent? Why do so many adults think that the answer is, “no?”
5. How can early childhood approaches be applied at the secondary level and the arts inform approaches to science?
Amidst the hoopla surrounding the silly tradition of naming a national “Teacher of the Year,” the President of the United States and Council of Chief State School Officers made major policy news by endorsing the unblocking of Internet access in American classrooms - all in pursuit of educational excellence!
A high school English teacher from Iowa who incorporates everything from singing to Facebook in her lessons has been recognized by President Barack Obama as the nation’s top teacher.
Obama introduced Sarah Brown Wessling on Thursday in a ceremony in the Rose Garden.
“Her students don’t just write five-paragraph essays, but they write songs, public service announcements, film story boards, even grant proposals for their own not-for-profit organizations,” the president said, adding that one of Wessling’s students reported that learning in her classroom was never boring.
“I’m not sure I could have said that when I was in school,” said Obama. (original article)
…The Council of Chief State School Officers selects the recipient of the annual honor and cited Wessling’s passion and innovative approaches, including incorporating Facebook in her classes.
So, congratulations are in order for Ms. Wessling and for every teacher in America who can now go tell their school “network nazis” that the President of the United States wants them to stop blocking the Web. Blocking Facebook and other web sites is unpatriotic!
Thank you, Mr. President!
National Public Radio’s terrific talk show, Talk of the Nation, interviewed US Education Secretary Arne Duncan this morning and sent out a tweet asking for questions worth posing to the Secretary. I immediately tweeted back a barrage of questions and the host asked a paraphrased version of one the most innocuous questions I submitted.
If goal is raising opportunities & achievement for all kids, isn’t RACE for the top an unfortunate metaphor? (1 winner, many losers)
Engaging in critical debates about Federal education policy in 140 characters is a challenge, but not impossible.
The following are the other questions I “tweeted” to Secretary Arne Duncan (in reverse chronological order) via NPR’s TOTN:
How would Sect. Duncan to respond to the report card given him - A for efficacy and D for policy?
Isn’t firing all of the teachers and charterizing public schools a right-wing utopian fantasy?
Where does Sect. Duncan think the magical teachers & perfect schools will come from after he fires teachers and closes pub schools?
Did you ask Duncan what he thinks of Diane Ravitch’s research disproving the basic assumptions of Obama education policies?
Given the Gates Foundation’s expensive school reform failures, why do they have so much influence within the Dept. of Education?
If you’re a parent in Harlem, should be concerned that nearly all of the local public schools have been turned into boutique charters?
Why should public school facilities be surrendered to private charter school operators?
Which is true: a) The Chicago Public Schools are a mess & failing children b) We should trust Sect. Duncan to do the same for America?
Should Americans be alarmed that most major city districts and the Dept. of Ed are now run by unqualified non-educators?
If goal is raising opportunities & achievement for all kids, isn’t RACE for the top an unfortunate metaphor? (1 winner, many losers)
Why has a “Labor” administration worked so hard to bust the teacher unions across the nation?
Downtown Doha from Museum of Islamic Art
I just landed in Doha, Qatar after almost 24 hours of travel. I’m in Doha to be the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual ICT in Education Conference in Doha, Qatar on March 27th. My address is entitled, “The Best Educational Ideas in the World.: Tickets to Constructing Modern Knowledge”
New Museum of Islamic Art by I.M. Pei
This is my third trip to this amazing country and I am quite honored to share my thoughts on teaching and learning with a young nation eager to create an educational system for the future.
From Doha I travel to Bangkok via Cairo for a few days of exploration. I’ve never been to Thailand before and am glad that the airlines are forcing me to stop there.
From Bangkok I fly to my adopted second home of Melbourne Australia where I’ll be keynoting the Australian Conference on Educational Computing Conference (ACEC). My keynote address is being created especially for this occasion and is called, “So, You Say You Want a Revolution.”
You can also register for a special “Breakfast with Gary Stager” workshop on April 6th.
I’ve keynoted this event a couple of times before, but this year’s biennial conference is quite special.
The first conference I ever keynoted was ACEC 1992 coincidentally in Melbourne and 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of me working with schools and educators across more than 40 trips Downunder. In 1990, I had a paper accepted for the World Conference on Computers in Education in Sydney. I accompanied Seymour Papert to Sydney, where he gave a magnificent keynote address, and I met fantastic educators seriously engaged in changing the world.
Three weeks later, I was invited back to Australia to lead professional development activities in the world’s first two “laptop schools.” That wa followed by work with dozens of schools, plus consultation with state governments and lots of of workshops and keynotes over two decades. I also earned my Ph.D. in science and mathematics education at the University of Melbourne and have been a Visiting Scholar at Trinity College.
Here is the cheeky video I made for ACEC 2010.
The organizers of the conference asked me for a video advertising my participation. It ain’t Scorsese, but here it is.
Gary Stager’s ACEC 2010 Video from Gary Stager on Vimeo.
Description
ACEC Keynote Address: You Say You Want a Revolution?This keynote will explore the notion of the digital learning revolution and its assumptions while addressing such questions as, “What happened to the last digital revolution in Australia?” Were there lessons learned? If not, why not?
Who are the combatants in this latest revolution? Will children, democracy and creativity be the first casualties.
Gary Stager will reflect upon his experiences of working in Australian schools for the past twenty years and insights gained from similar top-down “reform” efforts being imposed across the United States.
Gary will remind ACEC attendees why he is still excited by the potential of computers in education as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression and challenge the audience to raise their game in order to realize the opportunities computing affords learners. This of course will be accomplished with humour, candor and provocative examples of student learning.
Seymour Papert on Capital Hill
C-Span has now made 23 years worth of video, everything they have broadcast - 160,000 hours, available online. (Read NYTimes article) That means that some of my favorite public policy discussions, author interviews and political fireworks can be accessed and shared on-demand. The entire programs may be embedded in other web pages and an awful lot of the programs may be edited via a browser for embedding excerpts in blogs and web pages.
This is an amazing resource for teachers, learners and citizens. From time to time, I will share some of my favorite C-Span moments via this blog.
In October 1995, the House Committee Economic and Educational Opportunities and House Science Committees held a nearly three-hour hearing to examine “technological advances in education.” The first two hours or so of the hearing are a real hoot (as the kids on Capital Hill say).
The first panel consists of the father of educational computing, Dr. Seymour Papert; Alan Kay, the inventor of the term “personal computer” and many of its accompanying technologies; an Wall Street guy who gave a lot of money to the Clinton Campaign; and Chris Dede.
Papert starts off like he was shot out of a cannon. Alan Kay says that he agrees with Seymour and then throws gasoline on the fire. The Wall Street stiff decides to argue with Dr. Papert while the Congress bangs the gavel in an attempt to restore order.
The discussion is well worth two hours of your time if you care about the edtech or the future of education.
I remember seeing the hearing when it first aired and have cherished a 3rd generation VHS recording. Now I can share it with you and my students via the Web!
When I originally saw the hearing, back in 1995, I remember thinking that the members of the Congressional Education Committee may not be our nation’s best and brightest. Watch the hearing today and you can’t help notice that naughty underage male Congressional Page sexting aficionado, Mark Foley, and convicted felon, Duke Cunningham, interrogating some of the most thoughtful educational thinkers in the world.
If the video does not appear, please use this link.
