[Olpc-open] [IAEP] Montessori madness...

[Martin Langhoff]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Dave Bauer <dave.bauer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Martin, can you point to Bryan's "theory" or give me a hint on
> search terms to find it?

I googled for it too, don't think he's posted anything
google-readable. He mentioned it in a couple of presentations at OLPC.

Boils down to the fact that most of the early trials / pilots of
technology or technique in education, including things like the
Paper/Negroponte adventure many years ago, Montessori's own work with
kids, etc succeed because they are done with small groups of children
and passionate talented educators.

So IIRC Bryan shows one of the pictures of Papert back in the 70s
working with kids and computers in Dakar, and points out that you have
Papert and 12 kids. The computers are "redundant".

You could do the same with a picture of Montessori herself, with kids
and her specially designed learning tools.

It is a controversial take on things of course :-) -- but helps me
keep focused on making simple tools that just work (see my sig!) for
teachers and kids in crowded schools.

"There is no silver bullet" the foundational book on programming said.
It may as well have been about teaching, or any complex human
endeavour.

cheers,



m
-- 
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 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
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