It's 1am and I'm grumpy!

If we really care about educating the young...

1) Go to the school utility room and pull the circuit breakers off the electrical panels.

2) Return to the newly-nonelectronic classroom with some actual books.

3) Commence reading and discussing said books.

There's nothing wrong with computers. And yeah, they can even teach you some things. But there are many things - incl the most important ones - they will never teach.

I recently had the dubious pleasure of spending a sick-recovery afternoon in the company of my neighbors' 15 yr old son and several of his friends. I do not exaggerate when saying that not a single one of them could speak several consecutive sentences of correct English.

I'm not talking about the teen-speak and "slang" that every youth cohort adopts as part of their identity formation. Every generation does that; as did my friends and I. For us, though, slang was just that - slang; a degenerate and subordinate patois of the proper English we could and did speak when necessary.

As I'm 20 years their senior and make a point of speaking properly, my afternoon companions were doing their best to "level up" in their spoken expression while around me.

Alas, plainly and bluntly, these young men can barely speak their own language.

These youngsters are not victims of privation or hardship. They have never known a computerless (or Internetless) world. They're neck-deep in the kind of gadgets and facilities that would have seemed like magic to their grandparents. They've been given the best education a wealthy, modern society can provide. They have nigh-effortless access to communication and information storage/retrieval technologies that make available to them a breadth and depth of knowledge that would have made Goethe's head explode.

I listened carefully to them. "Speak, that I may see thee," as the old saying goes.

Half of them cannot conjugate the verb "to be" properly in spontaneous conversation.

Clearly, the answer is: More technology. Computers. Incessant noise and images flashing across a screen. Edutainment, baby!

Rant over. Ah. I feel better now. :)

I think the problem with educational software is that it is the software that tries to do the teaching. A project group at my grad school made a training game to help first-responders (firemen) deal with WMD scenarios last year. Their game worked by simply simulating the situation, and making no attempt to instruct the players (the firemen). Instead, their fire chief stood in the center of the room, while the players played over a LAN. The fire chief gave them instructions, and told them when they were making mistakes.

Originally, this was done to better simulate the real environment, where the chief would be talking with them over radio, but it wound up being so much more effective (firemen respect their chief, not necessarily some videogame, and are more likely to remember things they learn). Computers are good at simulating, so let them do that, but humans teach other humans better than anything. Simulation is the key to the future of games-to-teach.

Plus maybe Number Munchers. That's good too.

ClockworkGrue is referring to the HazMat Project, which has actually gone above and beyond that original design, integrating an instructor client into the mix. The instructor client allows a trainer to set up custom situations to run their students through. This way the instructor can actually create scenarios that make a specific point. The notion holds true that humans learn best from other humans.

Thinking about education means that we have to remember that teaching should not be divorced from reality.

I have been a teacher longer than I want to admit. But it is not about shutting down technology. The problem is not technology, the problem is that each administration wants to remake education and teachers who remain in teaching get whiplash trying to toe the mark and do the political good thing which is not always the best of teaching in every example.

Technology is not a silver bullet, games may not be the answer, but what is the question?

How do we create engaged learning? How do we keep children in school, and on a learning path?

We are going to let kids do technology to do the tests, to correct their essays, to go through life surrounded by technology, except in the schools. I don't think so.

Unplug the new dental devices, the imaging and kinds of non invasive surgery if so. We need in this country, scientists, math , and technology people to be able to keep moving forward.

The National Academy of Sciences, has written a report entitled , " Technically Speaking, what all Americans need to know about technology! It deserves a read and some serious thinking.

Some people here have never taught.

I use games, simulations, and visualization because of many reasons . Could be games are the hook to get kids to the classroom. It is not that every school in America has the technology. Oh, it is in the office, and the networking for the school bus, and the orders for the lunchroom, but I work the digital divide, that is rural, distant, urban , and tribal groups.

Communities strive to do the best that they can, but the problem is that knowing technology, as the report says, does not mean that the best uses of technology are chosen by a school board or a local group,or that the
technicians understand the ways of teaching and individualizing. Then, we could think about the fact that we put technology in schools, but we never took the time to create effective professional development for teachers all over the nation to use the very simplest technologies.

Are you saying that we keep them in 19th century learning mode to be turned out to the world as totally inadequate?

We are not talking about mindless games.. obviously there are games that do not belong in school. But there are games, and simulations that create knowledgenetworks and extensions to lifelong learning. Every school does not have a treasury of qualified teachers , or teachers rich in subject knowledge, . ... with technology, knowledgenetworks help teacher to create meaningful learning as in the Marco Polo Initiative.

We are going to let students exist as ..customers? We beam the technology to them, but they sit glued in chairs, or on couches?Videos, music and movies? They should be making their own and creating their own and making their own games. We , in my classroom, and after school
group make , use and learn with games and with a gusto.

I was a victim of segregated schools. We talk about Brown vs. Board of Education and that took too long , over 20 years to work in Virginia, if you think it worked. But I digress.The point of adding this is that is that similar mistakes are being made and other people are being prepared for a future that is inclusive of technology and games, and visualizations, and simulations while others are learning in ancient ways with some validity for memorization, but not using the latest understanding from game research. We did not get to Mars by reading a book about it.

What can you do with games, visualization, and simulations, in the classroom? Wonderful things.
I could write a book , if I had time.

Science. Games provide a practice place to use the information that you are learning.
You can practice skills, and I am not talking about brain numbing integrated learning systems and tutorial. Technology extends the reach of those who teach. Technology took me to places that my colleges never went.Technology creates thinking patterns and problem solving.

Games provide a place where you can make a mistake and work to better it, to make it a higher score, to create a different understanding , to learn a vocabulary in an individual space. If I am going to use technology with Robert Ballard's rainforest I can use , the game that leads children through the rainforest on a trail , they learn the vocabulary, the resources, the map, and other information. There are children who may never go to those places in reality, but there are articles, movies, and experiential learnings , and the richness of
"Seeds of Change" on line. The game or simulation should be one of a rich set of experiences to encourage learning.

But that is chump change compared to using Xpeditions to learn the standards in geography, and there are online games from NGS that teach geography.

There is Kinetic City, which teaches the science standards. It is an amazing resource for after school and inschool groups. Unfortunately most teachers get taught science for dummies. Using technology I can use the resources of the Exploratorium to learn, add, augment or extend what there is in the classroom and to individualize.. see Windows to the Universe from NASA and UCAR.

There are ways to infuse games and visualizations into writing as well Take CRAYON, create your own newspaper. Or the making of a newspaper, or using project based learning which may have been dealt out of most classrooms by the NCLB. Test, test, test. Better than that their are ways to teach language that are not deadly.

In working with a project based learning we read, write , create, journal and dialogue. Too many classrooms have a foot in the past and a template for failure because the children have not enough support for real teaching and learning and instead have become political footballs.

I know this is too much to say, but I just getting started. Look at the George Lucas Educational Foundation , glef.org, and take a look at the possibilities of creating learning landscapes that work.

This is the age of media. We can't expect kids to enter the classroom and change to fit the ways in which We were taught.

Bonnie Bracey

Thinking about education means that we have to remember that teaching should not be divorced from reality.

I have been a teacher longer than I want to admit. But it is not about shutting down technology. The problem is not technology, the problem is that each administration wants to remake education and teachers who remain in teaching get whiplash trying to toe the mark and do the political good thing which is not always the best of teaching in every example.

Technology is not a silver bullet, games may not be the answer, but what is the question?

How do we create engaged learning? How do we keep children in school, and on a learning path?

We are going to let kids do technology to do the tests, to correct their essays, to go through life surrounded by technology, except in the schools. I don't think so.

Unplug the new dental devices, the imaging and kinds of non invasive surgery if so. We need in this country, scientists, math , and technology people to be able to keep moving forward.

The National Academy of Sciences, has written a report entitled , " Technically Speaking, what all Americans need to know about technology! It deserves a read and some serious thinking.

Some people here have never taught.

I use games, simulations, and visualization because of many reasons . Could be games are the hook to get kids to the classroom. It is not that every school in America has the technology. Oh, it is in the office, and the networking for the school bus, and the orders for the lunchroom, but I work the digital divide, that is rural, distant, urban , and tribal groups.

Communities strive to do the best that they can, but the problem is that knowing technology, as the report says, does not mean that the best uses of technology are chosen by a school board or a local group,or that the
technicians understand the ways of teaching and individualizing. Then, we could think about the fact that we put technology in schools, but we never took the time to create effective professional development for teachers all over the nation to use the very simplest technologies.

Are you saying that we keep them in 19th century learning mode to be turned out to the world as totally inadequate?

We are not talking about mindless games.. obviously there are games that do not belong in school. But there are games, and simulations that create knowledgenetworks and extensions to lifelong learning. Every school does not have a treasury of qualified teachers , or teachers rich in subject knowledge, . ... with technology, knowledgenetworks help teacher to create meaningful learning as in the Marco Polo Initiative.

We are going to let students exist as ..customers? We beam the technology to them, but they sit glued in chairs, or on couches?Videos, music and movies? They should be making their own and creating their own and making their own games. We , in my classroom, and after school
group make , use and learn with games and with a gusto.

I was a victim of segregated schools. We talk about Brown vs. Board of Education and that took too long , over 20 years to work in Virginia, if you think it worked. But I digress.The point of adding this is that is that similar mistakes are being made and other people are being prepared for a future that is inclusive of technology and games, and visualizations, and simulations while others are learning in ancient ways with some validity for memorization, but not using the latest understanding from game research. We did not get to Mars by reading a book about it.

What can you do with games, visualization, and simulations, in the classroom? Wonderful things.
I could write a book , if I had time.

Science. Games provide a practice place to use the information that you are learning.
You can practice skills, and I am not talking about brain numbing integrated learning systems and tutorial. Technology extends the reach of those who teach. Technology took me to places that my colleges never went.Technology creates thinking patterns and problem solving.

Games provide a place where you can make a mistake and work to better it, to make it a higher score, to create a different understanding , to learn a vocabulary in an individual space. If I am going to use technology with Robert Ballard's rainforest I can use , the game that leads children through the rainforest on a trail , they learn the vocabulary, the resources, the map, and other information. There are children who may never go to those places in reality, but there are articles, movies, and experiential learnings , and the richness of
"Seeds of Change" on line. The game or simulation should be one of a rich set of experiences to encourage learning.

But that is chump change compared to using Xpeditions to learn the standards in geography, and there are online games from NGS that teach geography.

There is Kinetic City, which teaches the science standards. It is an amazing resource for after school and inschool groups. Unfortunately most teachers get taught science for dummies. Using technology I can use the resources of the Exploratorium to learn, add, augment or extend what there is in the classroom and to individualize.. see Windows to the Universe from NASA and UCAR.

There are ways to infuse games and visualizations into writing as well Take CRAYON, create your own newspaper. Or the making of a newspaper, or using project based learning which may have been dealt out of most classrooms by the NCLB. Test, test, test. Better than that their are ways to teach language that are not deadly.

In working with a project based learning we read, write , create, journal and dialogue. Too many classrooms have a foot in the past and a template for failure because the children have not enough support for real teaching and learning and instead have become political footballs.

I know this is too much to say, but I just getting started. Look at the George Lucas Educational Foundation , glef.org, and take a look at the possibilities of creating learning landscapes that work.

This is the age of media. We can't expect kids to enter the classroom and change to fit the ways in which We were taught.

Bonnie Bracey

Thinking about education means that we have to remember that teaching should not be divorced from reality.

I have been a teacher longer than I want to admit. But it is not about shutting down technology. The problem is not technology, the problem is that each administration wants to remake education and teachers who remain in teaching get whiplash trying to toe the mark and do the political good thing which is not always the best of teaching in every example.

Technology is not a silver bullet, games may not be the answer, but what is the question?

How do we create engaged learning? How do we keep children in school, and on a learning path?

We are going to let kids do technology to do the tests, to correct their essays, to go through life surrounded by technology, except in the schools. I don't think so.

Unplug the new dental devices, the imaging and kinds of non invasive surgery if so. We need in this country, scientists, math , and technology people to be able to keep moving forward.

The National Academy of Sciences, has written a report entitled , " Technically Speaking, what all Americans need to know about technology! It deserves a read and some serious thinking.

Some people here have never taught.

I use games, simulations, and visualization because of many reasons . Could be games are the hook to get kids to the classroom. It is not that every school in America has the technology. Oh, it is in the office, and the networking for the school bus, and the orders for the lunchroom, but I work the digital divide, that is rural, distant, urban , and tribal groups.

Communities strive to do the best that they can, but the problem is that knowing technology, as the report says, does not mean that the best uses of technology are chosen by a school board or a local group,or that the
technicians understand the ways of teaching and individualizing. Then, we could think about the fact that we put technology in schools, but we never took the time to create effective professional development for teachers all over the nation to use the very simplest technologies.

Are you saying that we keep them in 19th century learning mode to be turned out to the world as totally inadequate?

We are not talking about mindless games.. obviously there are games that do not belong in school. But there are games, and simulations that create knowledgenetworks and extensions to lifelong learning. Every school does not have a treasury of qualified teachers , or teachers rich in subject knowledge, . ... with technology, knowledgenetworks help teacher to create meaningful learning as in the Marco Polo Initiative.

We are going to let students exist as ..customers? We beam the technology to them, but they sit glued in chairs, or on couches?Videos, music and movies? They should be making their own and creating their own and making their own games. We , in my classroom, and after school
group make , use and learn with games and with a gusto.

I was a victim of segregated schools. We talk about Brown vs. Board of Education and that took too long , over 20 years to work in Virginia, if you think it worked. But I digress.The point of adding this is that is that similar mistakes are being made and other people are being prepared for a future that is inclusive of technology and games, and visualizations, and simulations while others are learning in ancient ways with some validity for memorization, but not using the latest understanding from game research. We did not get to Mars by reading a book about it.

What can you do with games, visualization, and simulations, in the classroom? Wonderful things.
I could write a book , if I had time.

Science. Games provide a practice place to use the information that you are learning.
You can practice skills, and I am not talking about brain numbing integrated learning systems and tutorial. Technology extends the reach of those who teach. Technology took me to places that my colleges never went.Technology creates thinking patterns and problem solving.

Games provide a place where you can make a mistake and work to better it, to make it a higher score, to create a different understanding , to learn a vocabulary in an individual space. If I am going to use technology with Robert Ballard's rainforest I can use , the game that leads children through the rainforest on a trail , they learn the vocabulary, the resources, the map, and other information. There are children who may never go to those places in reality, but there are articles, movies, and experiential learnings , and the richness of
"Seeds of Change" on line. The game or simulation should be one of a rich set of experiences to encourage learning.

But that is chump change compared to using Xpeditions to learn the standards in geography, and there are online games from NGS that teach geography.

There is Kinetic City, which teaches the science standards. It is an amazing resource for after school and inschool groups. Unfortunately most teachers get taught science for dummies. Using technology I can use the resources of the Exploratorium to learn, add, augment or extend what there is in the classroom and to individualize.. see Windows to the Universe from NASA and UCAR.

There are ways to infuse games and visualizations into writing as well Take CRAYON, create your own newspaper. Or the making of a newspaper, or using project based learning which may have been dealt out of most classrooms by the NCLB. Test, test, test. Better than that their are ways to teach language that are not deadly.

In working with a project based learning we read, write , create, journal and dialogue. Too many classrooms have a foot in the past and a template for failure because the children have not enough support for real teaching and learning and instead have become political footballs.

I know this is too much to say, but I just getting started. Look at the George Lucas Educational Foundation , glef.org, and take a look at the possibilities of creating learning landscapes that work.

This is the age of media. We can't expect kids to enter the classroom and change to fit the ways in which We were taught.

Bonnie Bracey

From time to time, someone invents a product or develops a practice which has an unforeseen and massive impact on society. The printing press, created by Johann Gutenberg approximately five and a half centuries ago, was such an invention. Who would have predicted that a press initially devoted to publishing the Bible and other religious texts would someday be seen as one of the forces undermining church authority?

Who would have imagined that books, then owned by few and treasured as symbols of wealth and power, would someday be accessible to nearly everyone? And who could have foreseen a system of public schools organized primarily for the purpose of teaching children to read and to help them absorb the knowledge books contain?

The results of the printing press, and all of its modern successors, are so much a part of our lives it is difficult to imagine an existence without the ability to read, and the books, journals, and newspapers that support a reading public. It is also difficult to imagine how one could organize instruction without textbooks and various associated readings. For teachers and students alike, learning at all levels of education has been primarily a process of reading what experts have written, discussing what has been read, and listening to teachers explain or expand upon textbooks. In most cases, schooling has become a process for understanding, retaining, and reporting what is found on the printed page.

Inventions of the twentieth century have the potential to influence society as much as did the printing press. The computer, video, and telecommunications of various kinds are having an impact on every aspect of our society: work, leisure, entertainment, household tasks. These inventions are also transforming the way we approach knowledge and sources of expertise. Today, people are no longer required to read about an event; they can see media versions of it unfold before their own eyes and make their own interpretation. Consequently, the ability to obtain and interpret information quickly and accurately is even more important than in the past.

There is no longer a question about whether the new technology will be used in schools. Nearly everyone agrees that students must have access to computers, video, and other technology in the classroom. Many believe these technologies are necessary because competency in their use is an important feature of career preparation; others see equally important outcomes for civic participation. Most importantly, a growing research base confirms technology’s potential for enhancing student achievement. What is less certain is how and when these technologies will change the nature of schooling itself. For example, the technologies are already providing an alternative curriculum for students that is scarcely acknowledged by the formal school curriculum. Nevertheless, they have been mainly employed as additions to the existing curriculum. Teachers are employed who know how to use them, but knowledge of and skill in the use of technology has not been necessary for all teachers. These attitudes are surely short-sighted if technology infusion is to take root.

The introduction of computers and other technologies into schools is occurring at the same time that three decades of research in the cognitive sciences, which has deepened our understanding of how people learn, is prompting a reappraisal of teaching practices. We know from this research that knowledge is not passively received, but actively constructed by learners from a base of prior knowledge, attitudes, and values. Dependence on a single source of information, typically a textbook, must give way to using a variety of information sources. As new technologies become more readily available and less expensive, they will likely serve as a catalyst for ensuring that new approaches to teaching gain a firm foothold in schools.

We wrote this in 97 for NCATE.

Some things happened. The gentleman on the rant obviously talks from a point of priviledge. The digital divide still exists and there those who are only asked to be customers of technology groups. That is, to buy, be beamed to, recieve ideas and not be a part of the new world of media.

That the teachers cannot teach or that the kids cannot write might be symptomatic of the political use of education. We change it at the whim of an administration, and the authority is that we in education cannot do well because education is a political football.

Games,simulations and visualizations are very important learning tools. Probably in schools where there is too much, if there is such a thing
it may be mismanaged. But the kids in need, rural, urban, distant and across the digital divide, are sadly lacking...We cannot ask children , students who are surrounded by technology everywhere but in the schools to
prosper without many new uses of technology, including games, visualizations and simulations.

That is the reality show that need to be done.
Give me 5 teachers and 5 classes .. to share the possibilities. Unfortunately the teacher skill level would be a problem , content knowledge, but with beinginvolved in a knowledgenetwork.NASA, National Geographic, Marco Polo and so one, we get better work.

Technology should not be only used for creating testing opportunities and evaluation.

Bonnie Bracey

Think simple. Learn different. Macinstruct.net

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Posted by: outsider on April 11, 2006 09:18 AM