[Localization] Empowering teachers

[Edward Cherlin]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 8:37 AM, Yama Ploskonka <yama at netoso.com> wrote:
>
> Thoughts on this subject, on _how_ to make it happen?

I think we need to engage English-speaking teachers first, on the
Educators mailing list, and then have them take it to other
communities whose languages they speak. We can provide those
communities with their own mailing lists, as we have done for Spanish,
and help them get Wiki translations and other materials in their own
languages.

It would help if someone were in charge of this, but failing that, the
Open Source method remains available to us. I am putting up my hand.
Please invite teachers to join this list. We will see what sort of
discussion is appropriate with the first arrivals, and work our way in
from there.

It will be vitally important not to think that we simply want to teach
them. We want to provide the appropriate guidance for them to discover
the potential of the XO and Sugar, so that they understand what it
means to guide their students in discovery. We want to help them
construct understanding by constructing real things in the world, so
that they can do likewise. Above all, the teachers who come to us must
set the agenda, and must know that they are directing the process.
What are their concerns? What do they know? What don't they know?

We have to listen to them, but also apply all of our own knowledge and
understanding to uncover the gaps in what they can ask of us. When a
person asks you a question, there may be one question asked, another
thought of, and a third that is the real issue. Being able to go
behind the question asked is one of the greatest arts of great
teachers.

> Clytie Siddall wrote:
>  > Hello everyone :)
>
> <snip>
>
>  > By the way, as a teacher and community-project officer myself, I think
>  > you need to empower the teachers first. Make sure they understand the
>  > opportunities they have, and how those tools are going to help them
>  > achieve more of their goals.
>  >
>  > I have often seen excellent advances in teaching tools either mis-used
>  > or ignored, because teachers don't understand them, or haven't got time
>  > to learn how to use them properly. Let's avoid that trap, by involving
>  > teachers in the planning phases, and making sure they have enough time
>  > and help to get the most out of what we offer.
>  >
>  > In some countries, too, we will have to overcome very stilted teaching
>  > methods (rote learning, chalk and talk), so we need to allow time and
>  > effort for awareness-raising and learning very new ideas/practices. This
>  > time and effort always pays off enormously, because you are opening the
>  > door to further independent learning, and teaching people how to work
>  > together.
>  >
>  > from Clytie
>  >
>  > Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team
>  > http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n
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>



-- 
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