{"id":2660,"date":"2012-02-26T12:38:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T17:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=2660"},"modified":"2022-02-15T03:27:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T08:27:17","slug":"reflections-of-a-learning-community-1993","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=2660","title":{"rendered":"Reflections of a Learning Community (1993)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1990, I had the great opportunity to lead professional development at the world’s first “laptop” schools. Australia’s Methodist Ladies’ College<\/a> and Coombabah State Primary School were the first schools anywhere to embrace 1:1 computing. MLC is a large independent school that committed to 1:1 computing in 1989. Coombabah is a public school and often overlooked for its place in edtech history. The efforts of the teachers at both schools changed the world and I am enormously proud to have played a major role in that effort.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s, I spent months working at MLC, and then numerous other schools eager to embrace 1:1 and the constructionist principles demonstrated by this pioneering school. In 1993, the MLC faculty and principal wrote a book to share their expertise, philosophy and wisdom with educators in other schools. I hope you find the nearly twenty year-old learning stories, recommendations and tips useful to you. I especially call your attention to the audacity of embracing 1:1 computing more than 20 years ago and the fact that laptops were a way of bringing Papertian constructionism to life.<\/p>\n

The book, Reflections of a Learning Community:<\/em> Views on the Introduction of Laptops at Mlc by Methodist Ladies’ College<\/em> is long out-of-print and sadly removed from the Web where it resided for several years. As a public service to researchers, educators and historians (and with the help of the Wayback Machine<\/a>) I am able to share the complete book here. Check out how hip the title of this book is for 1993, since “learning community” has just became all the rage more than twenty years later!<\/p>\n

With any luck (and lots of effort) I will soon be able to publish the first doctoral dissertation evaluating the efficacy of 1:1 computing, originally published in 1995!<\/p>\n

You should also read Bob Johnstone’s history of educational computing up to and including the early days of innovation at MLC, Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers, and the Transformation of Learning<\/a><\/em>!<\/p>\n

The chapters marked by an * indicate that the text describes some of my specific work at MLC.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Reflections of a Learning Community:<\/h1>\n

Views on the Introduction of Laptops at MLC<\/h3>\n
\n

\"\"Acknowledgements<\/a>
\nForeword<\/a><\/p>\n

Download a PDF of the book here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Section one: Computing at MLC<\/h3>\n