[Yr7-10it] VELS and IT

Mon Jun 12 13:59:36 EST 2006

Last year, futurist Dr Damian Conway gave a good talk at a Monash Alumni
breakfast about some of these technological changes and the convergence that
is happening. The MP3 download of the one hour
presentation<http://audio.monash.edu.au/alumni/conway.mp3>is 28 Mb but
worth listening to with a good
summary by Bill
here<http://billkerr.blogspot.com/2005/07/four-funerals-and-wedding.html>
.

It is sad that many schools ignore these 'disruptive technologies', the
benefits of Open Source software, the challenges of the Web2 or a
"read-write" Internet, rejecting good ideas behind a small suite of
shink-wrap software and corporate licences.  Whilst they are playing safe by
firewalling themselves from the world outside the school, they could become
irrelevant, sugar-coated centers of learning that are stuck in the
technological dark ages.

It is hard to engage students and be an agent of change with your head
firmly cemented in the sandpit.

Regards Roland

On 12/06/06, Bill Kerr <billkerr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> As well as the skills - taught through both conceptual understandings
> which hopefully will be developed at Paul's wiki and immersion (great
> discussion b/w Paul and Tony about this at Paul's wiki)
> http://pdchandler.wikispaces.com/computing_concepts
>
> I've been thinking that attitudes (perhaps stemming in part from beliefs)
> and environments are also v. important
>
> Some users have the attitude of mastering the machine, of looking behind
> the screen, of exploring it more deeply. One tiny example, I've noticed how
> much more proficient those who learn and become fluent with keyboard
> shortcuts are over those who just rely on the mouse. (but of course there is
> far more to it than that)
>
> Environment is so important IMO. Brian Harvey used to give his students
> the key to the computer lab. The trend increasingly on my patch is to lock
> everything down and to restrict options rather than expand them.
>
> 1. Censor-ware
> 2. MS Agreement is bad in a number of ways. The MS UI is dumbing down (eg.
> hide file extensions), also the agreement restricts the uptake of Open
> Source, which is far more compatible with an educational philosophy (sharing
> stuff)
> 3. Copyright Law (now out of date due to technological advances)
> 4. DRM (restrict ability to copy to prop up ageing business models)
> 5. Locally many schools are obsessed with security (perhaps for good
> reasons)
>
> I call these things the instruments of torture, analogous to the
> instruments of torture shown to Galileo to restrict his freedom of thought.
>
> Taken as a group: skills, attitudes, environment - how are we going in
> schools at the moment?
>
> Not very well, I would suggest.
>
> --
> Bill Kerr
> http://billkerr.blogspot.com/
> http://beam.to/billkerr
> skype: billkerr2006
>
>
>
>
>
> On 6/11/06, Dr Paul Chandler <paul.chandler at yvg.vic.edu.au> wrote:
>
> > In an earlier post, I suggested that what we need, first of all, some
> vigorous discussion, some postulates, of what are some conceptual
> understandings which 'really matter' - those that 'the better' computer
> users have that 'the strugglers' don't yet have.
>
> In this context, Tony Forster observed:
>
> > Imagine that its 1986, you are learning Wordstar on DOS or CPM. With the
> > wisdom of hindsight, what are the generalised, higher order skills which
> > will  still be useful in 2006? More importantly, how would you have
> > recognised them back in 1986? If you can answer that, then you are on
> the
> > way to knowing what is important to teach now.
>
> Thanks, Tony.  Interesting stuff to think about ... my thoughts for the
> moment ...
>
> Not everyone on the list will be able to date themselves back to Wordstar
> in 1986 (I can only just do so).  The things that were true then which seem
> to be true now are:
> - the document and program you are working in, exists within an 'external
> context' (hardware, operating system and filing system).  So that, if you
> turn off your computer before saving your work, it's gone; if you type long
> enough, you'll make a document too big for the computer to handle, and
> you'll probably lose it; if you don't have your printer turned on and
> plugged in, printing will be either lost or be in jibberish; etc etc
> - if you select chunks of text they can be manipulated in various ways;
> these 'various ways' include its location in the document and format
>
> Anymore contributions, anyone?
>
> Now, I'm not sure that we need to back-track into history all the time to
> identify 'key concepts', but sometimes it might sharpen our thinking.  For
> instance, in the early days of the Macintosh, the word processor MacWrite
> had a concept of 'inserting a ruler' and certain formatting applied from
> that ruler until the next ruler encountered.  MS Word (and possibly
> wordperfect before it) gave us the idea of a paragraph as a 'grouping' of
> certain formatting options.  The fact that the MacWrite idea has largely
> gone by the board does not change the fact that 'the ruler' was a vital
> concept for those who were using it at that the time.  I don't think the
> 'important concepts' have to have extreme longevity, but they need to be
> applicable to how we are worki! ng now.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Tony Forster
> Sent: Sat 6/10/2006 11:09 PM
> To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] VELS and IT
>
> > I'm teaching "about IT", I find it _really_ hard to move beyond
> knowledge.
> > To do things such as summarize, describe, interpret, apply, demonstrate,
> > calculate, analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify,
> combine,
> > integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, assess, decide, rank, grade,
> > test,
> > measure, or recommend ... All the "higher order" skills is just so hard.
>
> > I'd suggest that this is because we are too bothered with ensuring that
> > the
> > students have "the skills" rather than "the concepts".  If we were
> > orientated towards "concepts", then then higher order stuff would come
> > easier.
>
> Imagine that its 1986, you are learning Wordstar on DOS or CPM. With the
> wisdom of hindsight, what are the generalised, higher order skills which
> will  still be useful in 2006? More importantly, how would you have
> recognised them back in 1986? If you can answer that, then you are on the
> way to knowing what is important to teach now.
>
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-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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