From arjun at laptop.org  Sun Aug  7 21:29:27 2011
From: arjun at laptop.org (Arjun Sarwal)
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 06:59:27 +0530
Subject: [Educators] learning by interacting with physical world
Message-ID: <CAJZFjKSo4W+_6HyjrxxGSQDq=35df6eUssZ7aMSyfcZMQ3TFbg@mail.gmail.com>

I am looking for any interesting material that can help me understand
better the fundamental process of  how do children and young
adults learn ; especially with regard to interaction with external
physical environment. Examples could be learning music, learning
through science experiments etc

Could you please point me to any research papers/thesis, or
interesting real life experiments you might've come across that you
thought were particularly insightful.

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Arjun

From THOMAS.BENJAMIN at det.nsw.edu.au  Sun Aug  7 23:16:58 2011
From: THOMAS.BENJAMIN at det.nsw.edu.au (Benjamin, Thomas)
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 13:16:58 +1000
Subject: [Educators] learning by interacting with physical world
In-Reply-To: <CAJZFjKSo4W+_6HyjrxxGSQDq=35df6eUssZ7aMSyfcZMQ3TFbg@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAJZFjKSo4W+_6HyjrxxGSQDq=35df6eUssZ7aMSyfcZMQ3TFbg@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6EC0B72A89DDAF44B7605C626A1713B97A6DB6FD61@SLUGPEXMC04.central.det.win>

You mentioned music learning. You might like to check out my website at www.oz-rock.com  It's a new way of learning to play music by ear. I re-engineered basic chords to make them easy to play. My first pupils were adults but it is extendable to children and a variety of simple instruments besides guitar. As for science experiments I've mainly developed materials for astronomy with naked eye, binoculars and the Galileoscope project (Int Yr of Astronom 2009). You can find details of these at my sites www.radio-tom.com www.tv-tom.com www.movie-tom.com I also did a lot with spreadsheets which are useful for all types of scientific monitoring.


Tom Benjamin, PhD
NSW Department of Education & Communities
35 Bridge St
Sydney, NSW, Australia
02 9561-8927



-----Original Message-----
From: educators-bounces at lists.laptop.org [mailto:educators-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Arjun Sarwal
Sent: Monday, 8 August 2011 11:29 AM
To: educators at lists.laptop.org; iaep
Subject: [Educators] learning by interacting with physical world

I am looking for any interesting material that can help me understand
better the fundamental process of  how do children and young
adults learn ; especially with regard to interaction with external
physical environment. Examples could be learning music, learning
through science experiments etc

Could you please point me to any research papers/thesis, or
interesting real life experiments you might've come across that you
thought were particularly insightful.

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Arjun
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http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/educators
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From echerlin at gmail.com  Mon Aug  8 01:31:40 2011
From: echerlin at gmail.com (Edward Cherlin)
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 01:31:40 -0400
Subject: [Educators] learning by interacting with physical world
In-Reply-To: <CAJZFjKSo4W+_6HyjrxxGSQDq=35df6eUssZ7aMSyfcZMQ3TFbg@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAJZFjKSo4W+_6HyjrxxGSQDq=35df6eUssZ7aMSyfcZMQ3TFbg@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CADmpiaaoVrtJsRxzTz3=ReudmaS01qG3bmCTNDauX8c3LOQOEg@mail.gmail.com>

On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 21:29, Arjun Sarwal <arjun at laptop.org> wrote:
> I am looking for any interesting material that can help me understand
> better the fundamental process of ?how do children and young
> adults learn ; especially with regard to interaction with external
> physical environment. Examples could be learning music, learning
> through science experiments etc

There is a huge amount of material in this vein. First, there is the
literature and also the learning materials created by or inspired by
luminaries such as

* Maria Montessori, Montessori schools
* Caleb Gattegno, Cuisenaire rods
* Jean Piaget, scientific study of children
* John Holt, How Children Learn, How Children Fail
* Seymour Papert, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas;
The Children's Machine
* Doug Engelbart, The Mother of All Demos; Enhancing Global Intelligence

and many more on educational techniques and on child development
before schooling begins. Then there is software such as

* Smalltalk (Alan Kay and his team at Xerox PARC)
* Logo (Seymour Papert and others, MIT Learning Lab)
* Sugar (Nicholas Negroponte, Walter Bender and others at OLPC and Sugar Labs)
* Dr Geo II (Hilaire Fernandes)

> Could you please point me to any research papers/thesis, or
> interesting real life experiments you might've come across that you
> thought were particularly insightful.

There are far too many to list here. If you tell us what you want to
do with the information, we can give you more  specific advice.

But I can give you a few pointers to get started. Here are several TED
Talks of interest

* Sugata Mitra, Hole in the Wall Computer
http://www.ted.com/search?q=sugata+mitra
* Deb Roy, who recorded 90,000 hours of his son's learning to speak
http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html

> Thanks in advance
>
> Regards,
> Arjun
> _______________________________________________
> Educators mailing list
> Educators at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/educators
>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (??/???????????????/????????????? ?) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks