[Olpc-open] [IAEP] [realness] a school is not a building

[Blake Elias]

It's not that Ministries of Education should *stop* their core
activities, but another possibility to consider before *starting*.

A physical school where children can learn and work together is
wonderful.  In some situations where it's a struggle to build a
physical school, where it really may be a dichotomy between
buildings/laptops because of the expense, maybe they want to make
digital collaboration their main goal instead of building with brick
and mortar.

Blake Elias

On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> What he said. I hate false dichotomies. They abound in discussions of
> education and in the politics of education, indeed in any situation
> where the more extreme the position, the more likely it is to be
> heard.
>
> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 18:04, Ian Thomson <IanT at spc.int> wrote:
>> Personally, I think the whole approach is wrong. You will never convince
>> Ministries of Education to stop their "core" activities just because
>> there are laptops.
>>
>> The better approach is to show how laptops can enhance education in
>> schools.
>> This should not be an "either/or" approach. We can do both.
>>
>> As a simple example, children can leave the school earlier after
>> suitable teaching and complete work on the laptops at home or other
>> locations. This will free up the school to take a second shift of
>> students.
>> Teachers can restructure their teaching to have groups working together
>> to learn, so freeing them up to take more students.
>>
>> Ian Thomson
>> ICT Outreach Section
>> Economic Development Division
>> Secretariat of the Pacific Community
>> B.P. D5 - Noumea Cedex - 98848
>> New Caledonia
>>
>> Phone +687-265419
>>
>> Fax +687 26 38 18
>> http://www.spc.int
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> [mailto:iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Bernie Innocenti
>> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 8:36 AM
>> To: Timothy Falconer
>> Cc: olpc-haiti at lists.laptop.org; grassroots OLPC;
>> olpc-open at lists.laptop.org; Squeakland List; Maho 2010; IAEP;
>> ht2011-winter at waveplace.org
>> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [realness] a school is not a building
>>
>> On Sun, 2010-12-05 at 15:18 -0500, Timothy Falconer wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> A favor:  help me make this case (or refute it) as we prepare once
>>> more for Haiti ... "spend money on training & laptops instead bricks
>>> and mortar".
>>>
>>> http://waveplace.com/news/blog/archive/001035.jsp
>>
>> It's a beautiful thought that touches deep into my hacker spirit, but
>> the conclusion seems weak: what is it that we are advocating for? Remote
>> learning? Home-schooling? Having classes under a tree? It's unclear.
>>
>> The point that you were making with the military canteen vs cooking at
>> home metaphor is that compulsory education doesn't follow individual
>> inclinations. Then, the conclusion should state the proposed solution
>> for this problem.
>>
>> --
>>   // Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/
>>  \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://sugarlabs.org/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
> http://www.earthtreasury.org/
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep