Context Project Reflection
1. Papert asks “Why, through a period when so much human activity has been revolutionized, have we not seen comparable changes in the way we help our children learn?”
As I read this chapter, I had a myriad of thoughts. As a second-year teacher yet experienced professional geologist, I am experiencing the same perspective as the time traveler. In my industry experience, I was always working at the front edge of technologies and ideas. My team was responsible for developing new geologic exploration concepts and we were always testing ideas, technologies, etc. for ways to see the same data from different perspectives.
In teaching, I feel transported literally and figuratively back to my high school years where ideas, perspectives, and methods have changed very little. I am a natural first adopter in almost every aspect of my life. It is natural that I am drawn to the “new” in education. When presented with Canvas versus Google Classroom, I immediately chose Canvas because I could tell there was more functionality with that platform.
My first thought is that we do not reward teachers for innovation. In industry, my innovative ideas had the ability to produce results in terms of merit-based monetary rewards as well as promotions. In education, the system is so flat, that there is little to no incentive to push or pull teachers to innovate. The innovation that is occurring comes from the individual “yearner” and the “schoolers” even seem to fight small shifts from Google Classroom to Canvas because they lack the vision or desire to learn the new platform.
2. Papert seems to believe that video games are particularly educational. What have been your personal experiences with video games? In what ways are your feelings about the value of video games the same or different from Papert’s?
Video games are a window into our technological reality. As for my son, I feel that he has developed a wonderful imagination using video games. It is a different version or outlet for his imagination than my experiences; however, I can tell it is just as rich and vast as my experiences. It is just different. Since he first started playing Minecraft, I have been amazed at his ability to research techniques to interact within the game. He knows all these short keys, “formulas”, and ways to plot his next course of action to obtain the resources he needs, I was blown away and realized that I didn’t have the time nor patience to become so intimately involved. I was, however, impressed and saw value in his activity.
3. Papert asks “In trying to teach children what adults want them to know, does School utilize the way human beings naturally learn in nonschool settings?”
I believe this is where we are perpetuating the same methods over and over. We use our knowledge, our experiences, and our reference points with which to impose a lens for our children to use. It discounts the way the world, culture, and technology have changed. The world is moving on and we are stuck over 2 centuries ago in the past.
Using the example of video games, children are learning about various topics and in ways that have nothing to do with how they learn in school. The disconnect produces boredom. Technology is there, we as educators just need to evaluate how children are learning in non-school settings and leverage those connections to the material, we want them to learn. As I tell my students, I don’t give them information to memorize because they can Google any fact. However, they need to learn to process disparate facts and find connections. I believe games do this by linking the immersive and fun elements with the difficult nuts and bolts parts of the game.
4. After Papert’s story about sleeping giraffes, he mentions the possibility of the creation of a Knowledge Machine. The book was published in 1993. Do you think the Internet is the Knowledge Machine Papert envisioned in the early 1990s? If so, does it work the way Papert envisioned?
Papert’s description of the Knowledge Machine made me visualize a box that is part time machine and part encyclopedia in a computer. I do think the internet is this Knowledge Machine. It just works differently than he may have imagined. I believe it is more fluid, interconnected, and vast than he imagined. It does not, however, have the ability to reproduce sensations but the virtual reality world is headed in that direction.
5. After envisioning the introduction of a Knowledge Machine into the classroom, Papert asks “How would the introduction of Knowledge Machines into the School environment compromise the primacy with which we view reading and writing-that is, children’s fluency in using alphabetic language?”
Given that reading is central to using most aspects of the internet, I would say that fluency with alphabetic language is still of primary importance. Nevertheless, the advent of emojis and shortened texting lingo are changing what literacy means in different situations. In personal interactions, kids are texting emotion and more information using fewer characters and using a mix of pictographs and alphabetic code.
As I read this chapter, I had a myriad of thoughts. As a second-year teacher yet experienced professional geologist, I am experiencing the same perspective as the time traveler. In my industry experience, I was always working at the front edge of technologies and ideas. My team was responsible for developing new geologic exploration concepts and we were always testing ideas, technologies, etc. for ways to see the same data from different perspectives.
In teaching, I feel transported literally and figuratively back to my high school years where ideas, perspectives, and methods have changed very little. I am a natural first adopter in almost every aspect of my life. It is natural that I am drawn to the “new” in education. When presented with Canvas versus Google Classroom, I immediately chose Canvas because I could tell there was more functionality with that platform.
My first thought is that we do not reward teachers for innovation. In industry, my innovative ideas had the ability to produce results in terms of merit-based monetary rewards as well as promotions. In education, the system is so flat, that there is little to no incentive to push or pull teachers to innovate. The innovation that is occurring comes from the individual “yearner” and the “schoolers” even seem to fight small shifts from Google Classroom to Canvas because they lack the vision or desire to learn the new platform.
2. Papert seems to believe that video games are particularly educational. What have been your personal experiences with video games? In what ways are your feelings about the value of video games the same or different from Papert’s?
Video games are a window into our technological reality. As for my son, I feel that he has developed a wonderful imagination using video games. It is a different version or outlet for his imagination than my experiences; however, I can tell it is just as rich and vast as my experiences. It is just different. Since he first started playing Minecraft, I have been amazed at his ability to research techniques to interact within the game. He knows all these short keys, “formulas”, and ways to plot his next course of action to obtain the resources he needs, I was blown away and realized that I didn’t have the time nor patience to become so intimately involved. I was, however, impressed and saw value in his activity.
3. Papert asks “In trying to teach children what adults want them to know, does School utilize the way human beings naturally learn in nonschool settings?”
I believe this is where we are perpetuating the same methods over and over. We use our knowledge, our experiences, and our reference points with which to impose a lens for our children to use. It discounts the way the world, culture, and technology have changed. The world is moving on and we are stuck over 2 centuries ago in the past.
Using the example of video games, children are learning about various topics and in ways that have nothing to do with how they learn in school. The disconnect produces boredom. Technology is there, we as educators just need to evaluate how children are learning in non-school settings and leverage those connections to the material, we want them to learn. As I tell my students, I don’t give them information to memorize because they can Google any fact. However, they need to learn to process disparate facts and find connections. I believe games do this by linking the immersive and fun elements with the difficult nuts and bolts parts of the game.
4. After Papert’s story about sleeping giraffes, he mentions the possibility of the creation of a Knowledge Machine. The book was published in 1993. Do you think the Internet is the Knowledge Machine Papert envisioned in the early 1990s? If so, does it work the way Papert envisioned?
Papert’s description of the Knowledge Machine made me visualize a box that is part time machine and part encyclopedia in a computer. I do think the internet is this Knowledge Machine. It just works differently than he may have imagined. I believe it is more fluid, interconnected, and vast than he imagined. It does not, however, have the ability to reproduce sensations but the virtual reality world is headed in that direction.
5. After envisioning the introduction of a Knowledge Machine into the classroom, Papert asks “How would the introduction of Knowledge Machines into the School environment compromise the primacy with which we view reading and writing-that is, children’s fluency in using alphabetic language?”
Given that reading is central to using most aspects of the internet, I would say that fluency with alphabetic language is still of primary importance. Nevertheless, the advent of emojis and shortened texting lingo are changing what literacy means in different situations. In personal interactions, kids are texting emotion and more information using fewer characters and using a mix of pictographs and alphabetic code.