Fill in the Blank

[Kim Rose]

Here's one:

>A piano is an instrument (or tool) with which one makes music.
A computer is an instrument (or tool) with which one makes meaning.

Is this going too far?  Now, I don't believe this is *always* the 
case, or that meaning can be made by "computer alone"......not 
everyone that sits at a piano can make music either....music and 
meaning must be contructed via a variety of media, tools,  and 
experiences.  But as the phrase suggests it is the "player" who 
creates the music, not the instrument.

I have just had the pleasure of spending one day a week for this past 
school year at the Los Angeles Open Charter School where I have 
observed children making meaning of "powerful ideas" (ideas like 
acceleration and gravity) by using the computer (Squeak) to create 
models and projects which then, helped create meaning to the child.

  -- Kim



At 2:19 PM -0400 6/5/02, Anindita wrote:
>There's also the "standardized test way" of approaching an analogy by
>rephrasing it:
>
>A piano is an instrument (or tool) with which one makes music.
>A computer is an instrument (or tool) with which one makes. . .?
>
>I don't have something easy to fill in the blank since there are so many
>things which can fill that blank (music, art, applications), but it's
>another way of looking at it.  Music isn't in the tool, it's something
>that you can express or create with that tool.  Is there a word to
>summarize everything that can be expressed or created with a computer?
>
>Could one invent a word to encompass all of that?
>
>Anindita
>
>>         At 3:42 PM -0700 6/4/02, Edwin Pilobello wrote:
>>  >I'm writing up a new course description for the Fall term.  I need your
>>  >opinion on what fills the blank :
>>  >
>>  >"Music is not in the piano" as "(blank) is not in the computer"
>>  >
>>  >Should it be knowledge, learning, wisdom, whatever?
>>  >
>>  >For a course title, I've considered "Pre-Dynabook Lab" or something to
>>  >that effect.  I could use suggestions on the course title as well.
>>  >
>  > >Cheers,
>  > >Edwin Pilobello
>  > >Instructor, Saturday Academy
>  > >www.saturdayacademy.org
>  >
>  >
>  > --
>  >


--