24 teachers start OLPC training

[Edward Cherlin]

I wonder whether there is enough interest to put something together
for all the volunteers. I could certainly do with a guided tour of
both theory and practice. Can somebody figure out how we can discover
Constructionism together on our laptops (with appopriate guidance),
and perhaps set up a jabber server for that purpose? If we could make
it work, we could perhaps offer it to interested people in education,
government, and the general public. Presumably some tailoring to
particular audiences would be needed.

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 8:04 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Edward,
>
>  Papert built on the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Co-learning,
>  experiential learning - these ideas were pioneered by Piaget and
>  Vygotsky. David Cavallo and Edith Ackermann talked extensively of Piaget
>  and Vygotsky at the OLPC Learning conference I attended in January.

Thanks. My mother majored in Child Development at Chicago, so I got a
fair amount of background while growing up, particularly on Piaget and
Bruner, but I need a lot more detail now.

>  I am particularly a big fan of Vygotsky as I agree with him that
>  learning is fundamentally a social process and that culture plays a
>  large role in our social interactions, hence learning.
>
>  All of our materials are in Nepali. I hope to post them in a publicly
>  accessible place later. Right now we are in a crunch because we start
>  the pilot at Bashuki and Bishwamitra very shortly.

Can we invite some other volunteers to translate them to English, or
can you point to the English sources for the material?

>  "Constructionism" is a broad term that encompasses ideas from many
>  different theorists and many different elements such as:
>
>  social cognition
>  co-learning
>  scaffolding
>  Experiential learning
>
>
>  The single best resource I have found is this web site:
>
>  http://www.funderstanding.com/engaging_kids.cfm
>
>  and especially this page
>  http://www.funderstanding.com/theories.cfm
>
>
>  Bipul Gautam wrote a nice, short post about some of Piaget's theories on
>  our blog:
>  http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/200

I'll check them out. Perhaps you would be willing to add them to the
OLPC Wiki page on Constructionism?

>  On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 22:38 -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
>  > 2008/3/31 Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com>:
>  > > 24 teachers from Bishwamitra and Bashuki schools started 4-day long OLPC
>  > > training organized by OLE Nepal.
>  > >
>  > > http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/193
>  > >
>  > > At the start of the Nepali school year, OLE Nepal will distribute 150
>  > > laptops to children in grades two and six at Bashuki and Bishwamitra
>  > > schools. Teachers from both schools are currently in four days of training
>  > > how to use the laptops in the classroom.
>  >
>  > Can you tell us what the training materials are and where to access
>  > them? Are they in Nepali? Can we get English translations? For
>  > example, we have nothing in the Wiki about this:
>  >
>  > "On the morning of the second day Bipul focused on the theories of
>  > Piaget and Vygotsky that underpin constructionism. The afternoon of
>  > the second day returned to the activities in the XO and how they
>  > reflect the ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky."
>  >
>  > In fact, it is the first I have heard of the connection between Piaget
>  > and Vygotsky and the XO. Which of their publications are most
>  > relevant? Who knows about any of this? The Constructionism page in the
>  > Wiki is feeble.
>  >
>  > > OLE Nepal has developed a completely open-source set of learning activities
>  > > for both grades. Mahabir Pun, OLE Nepal's Director of Networking has set up
>  > > Internet access for both schools.
>  >
>  > Excellent.
>  >
>  > > We regularly update our blog with more details
>  > >  http://blog.olenepal.org/
>  > >
>  > > Bryan Berry
>  > > Systems Engineer, OLE Nepal
>  > >
>  > > _______________________________________________
>  > >  Devel mailing list
>  > >  Devel at lists.laptop.org
>  > >  http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>  > >
>  > >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay