The Laptop Institute 2005
Stop Teaching Applications: Why do we do this anyway?
Harker School in San Jose – high pressure school
-reframe what it means to “teach computer”
-cause you to reexamine your assumptions
state of discourse – look at wikipedia
is becoming the agora – the marketplace of where the action is happening
– from ISTE
-CSTA – Comp.Sci. Teacher’s Assoc.
A model for curric for K-12 Comp. Sci.
What do we mean by Tech. Fluency?
-need to rely on standards; must be continuously revised, focus on process and product
– literacy; is not sufficient by itself; requires context; comes from continuously re-evaluated competence
What it means to be literate is changing as fast as wikipedia (!)
3 Domains of Tech Fluency
Three different components of what it is to be tech fluent
info lit = domain of librarians, mostly concrete skills based; Big6 – having teachers use the same vocab.; scope and sequence that can be integrated
Comp Sci. = thinking algorithmically, sorting and classifying, how tools are designed and deployed, how teach cs without programming, programming is a dept of its own 9-12 – should be compulsory in his view to help students think algorithmically/logically, transfers over to other disciplines; overlaps with science and math in terms of vocab.
-(seeking another name) – one suggestion – learning technologies
– laptop – one example of a generic tool
-use tech as a tool
-facilitate learning – not about the laptop
-this is the “how to” space
Need to recognize the distinctions between these three domains AND planned distinctly
LCC is muddy in all three of these areas in terms of whose domain is whose in the school – as far as I can see.
Chose metaphor of digital ocean and its size between 1969 and today
Skilled swimmer in 1999 is an amphibean. Very few of us above the age of 30 are amphibeans who are comfortable in both places.
2005 – larger oceans, skilled swimmers are fish
I’m a mammal, the kids are fish, fish don’t swim like mammals. Now what?
We moved from mammal school in the 90’s, to amphibian school – info literacy moved forward – less teaching, more coaching – higher level skills are an objective – student as creator/publisher – focussed on training in apps
Fish school – don’t remember first computer – focus on product and process – not the tools – “real world” tool for those specialized areas – many roads to the kingdom –
Comp Sci I
– app driven – web pages, film, – skill-tested
– no real cs
Computing across the curriculum
– coop projects
-student dev criteria
-design project between teachers (i.e. history) and cs people – so history project that is a web page, etc.
Not unlike what I have done with Macbeth Project and Lit Collab.
Movie Maker Deluxe – comes with price tag?
– students develop criteria for assessment
So in forum area, ask students for criteria of websites design
Much like I was doing 3-4 years ago with nicenet.
Initially he was there a lot, then he was not there at all – sort of different from the way I had my students in my data collection
In his opinion, the students “internalized” what was expected of them in the forum area.
His goal was to have his students independently confident of their ability to determine what they need to accomplish, choose the right tool, learn how to use the tool, accomplish the goal
The app skills we teach today are very likely going to be irrelevant in a very few years.
Example: file-saving, folder- making, file org.
Google desktop already exists to find anything you want
Where to from here?
-no more spreadsheets
-Course content moves to Middle School
-Speculation – no comp. apps courses at all – he would like to see a half-term design course and a half-term real cs course
-make the problems real – authentic learning
-don’t answer questions without asking other questions
-“what is the key word for that?”
-“have you tried….?”
-make them develop the criteria – FISH KNOW!
-teach them about process
Teaching about Writing:
-“Blurt and reorganize” – using a word processor
-hold them accountable for quality
-mammals can’t/shouldn’t teach fish to swim
-mammals can still suggest where they need to go
-lots of teachers who will take risks if you provide enough scaffolding
Those educators who care about what is good for the kids will go there!