Back to another day, and I am feeling inspired again, because the day started with a few key reflections of the events of yesterday. I felt the strong energy of the group, and the wonderful sense that attendees were genuinely reflecting, cutting and dicing – not just accepting words as received, but using them to further discussion and move in new directions.
Our online link to Dr Seymour Papert was also inspirational for the focus points that he provided us. [Dr. Papert is the inventor of the Logo computer language]
What a great thing to see this leading thinker up on the big screen, and to hear his thoughts flowing in response to questions being presented.
Seymour urged us to move our thinking from HOW to WHAT. Not how students learn and how to teach, but what children learn and what to teach. How can kids learn things in better ways?
As to our how our technology future is looking? Seymour offered four key points:
- Every kid must have a computer! It is ridiculous to waste further time to debating this. Every knowledge worker (with the exception of our students) finds that technology is the proper medium for thinking work. If knowledge workers have computers, then why don’t kids!
- Shift from HOW to WHAT to learn.
- Recognise that it is global forces that drive change in education. Look to the forces in the global scene, rather than relentless educational debate to find the focus for future learning initiatives.
- Stop talking to the computer industry, and do not accept their economic agenda to spend more in order to buy bigger and better. We should be setting the pace and saying what we need. The $100 laptop project shows the clout that we can have if we wish to really make a difference.
Through all this Seymour urges us to focus on the fundamentals (not ‘back to basics’) . Now more than ever we need to return to the fundamentals of HARD THINKING – the real issues that are below the surface.
It was great to hear these important concepts articulated by a global leader. Literacy, mathematical thinking, digital thinking ……….. or we could say that literacy remains an enabling mechanism for effective Cognitive and Metacognitive engagement …… hard thinking…… real learning.
People laughed at Seymour Papert in the sixties when he talked about students using computers as intruments for learning and for enhancing creativity. Not any longer!
Our schools, universities, corporations, and non-profit organizations, need to adapt. We need to change the spaces and structures of our society to align with the new context and characteristics of knowledge.
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