Unconnected Classroom

Pedagogy should not even be a consideration during the planning stages of technology use. Harsh statement? Perhaps, but it's a reality. Few Utopian situations exist where our decisions on how to teach can be based exclusively on pedagogy. Resources, expertise, technology, needs (of learners, educators, society), and funds impact what we choose to do. In a world: context. The mix of multiple, mutually influencing factors determine what we types of technology we select.

I think this is a major problem with most attempts to integrate technology into education. Educators find out about something ‘cool’ and integrate it into their program, then have to scramble to find a way to link it with meaningful assessment.

The (lack of) implementation plan is only part of the OLPC hubris on this project. Underlying that is the more insidious educational theory level of the program. Teacher-centric approach While this philosophy is essential to the mission of OLPC, it's also a source of tension. Current educational leaders in Peru embrace Constructionism, but most countries base their education systems on the idea that teachers pass their knowledge to receptive students. That was a problem for OLPC in China as well as India. India's education department, for instance, calls the idea of giving each child a laptop "pedagogically suspect," and, when asked about it recently, Education Secretary Arun Kumar Rath barked: "Our primary-school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops."

Most revealing was the percentage of Tokyo pupils who thought education was necessary "to live a happy and fulfilled life": only 40%, compared with over 50% in Seoul and Beijing, and almost 75% in London and Washington DC. Also, only 25% of Tokyo pupils believed they would be happy "if I graduate from a good university (40% in Beijing, 60% in Seoul, 80% in London, 85% in Washington DC.) It was also revealed that a whopping 87% of Japanese pupils say they "talk with my family a lot," compared with about 75% of pupils in the other cities.

CTO's Chief Executive Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said these ICT business models have proven successful because of the involvement of public-private-peoples' partnerships which involves nurturing local ownership of rural ICT projects.

Dr. Wagner shared with us his “Seven Survival Skills for the New Economy” which he discusses in length (with examples from interviews with business leaders and from his weekly classroom observations): Critical thinking and problem-solving Collaboration across networks (across distance, time, space) and leadership by influence (as opposed to “by position”) Adaptability and agility Initiative and entrepreneurialship Effective oral and written communication skills Accessing and analyzing information — information is constantly changing & growing exponentially (here he really criticized our current testing curriculum and gave examples of countries who outperform us on exams, but who use performance assessment or portfolios or oral/written exams rather than multiple choice.) Curiosity and imagination — innovation and creativity — we can’t continue to produce innovators randomly or by chance, we must produce them intentionally (AMEN!)

A few suggestions are to:Schedule your class(es) as much as possible Prepare you class(es) for the lab visit just like you would prepare them for a field trip (that's what this lab visit is) Use the lab time as a portion of a collaborative group project rather than as an individual typing assignment Prepare rubrics, and prepare your class(es) before arriving at the lab Provide all instructions about the assignment before arriving at the lab Develop an online presence of your own, and allows students to access the project resources from home Test the lab and work through the processes first, alone Plan on reusing the same rules, rubrics, strategy, or project method for every lab visit for the year Make the original assignment generic Build the assignment or project in a modular fashion Train students at every step of the project Check each student to ensure that they know what to do before you arrive at the lab Assign helpers, partners, buddies for each student. These are the first line helpers that students will turn to before seeking their teacher's help.Plan on a strategy where every student is doing something different while your class is using the lab.

Sugata Mitra has a PhD in physics and heads research efforts at New Delhi's NIIT, a fast-growing software and education company with sales of more than $200 million and a market cap over $2 billion. But Mitra's passion is computer-based education, specifically for India's poor. He believes that children, even terribly poor kids with little education, can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy. The key, he contends, is for teachers and other adults to give them free rein, so their natural curiosity takes over and they teach themselves. He calls the concept "minimally invasive education."