[Squeakland] View from Canada: Strike 3....

Mankovsky, Sheine sheine.mankovsky2 at tdsb.on.ca
Mon Jul 7 00:48:42 PDT 2003


Hope I got it right this time....
 
In this era of globalization, it will not seem strange, I am confident, to
receive input on what the American national technology plan should include
from a non-resident.  

My name is Sheine Mankovsky, and I am an elected Trustee on the Toronto
District School Board (www.tdsb.on.ca).  Our Board is the sixth largest
public school board in North America with about 300,000 students.  Like all
local education authorities across North America we are experiencing very
challenging times.  However, we have summoned the energy nevertheless to
begin the trial of an open source software program called Squeak.  You are
probaby quite familiar with Squeak, and its developers, Alan Kay  et al.
Squeak is available at www.squeakland.org and there is a link to Don Mills
Middle School where the work is being largely done by students facilitated
by energetic, dedicated staff and volunteers.   We also have an on-line
forum where educators and learners can share ideas on Squeak, and get
support to improve their skills.  Although Squeak is supportive of many
curriculum objectives, our primary purpose is to improve learning in
Mathematics and Science.

We were pleased to have had both Alan Kay and his mentor, Seymour Papert,
visit Toronto last February to work with the kids at Don Mills Middle School
on Squeak, and talk with teachers about education and the more thoughtful
incorporation of technological innovation into the classroom.  Needless to
say, the visit had an energizing effect.  We are working on implementing the
use of Squeak on a larger scale in the near future.

I'd like to support Alan Kay and Seymour Papert' s position on what
education is and its potential enhancement via the use of the computer.  In
my opinion, and this isn't original thinking at all, the computer is the
book.  However, this "container"--because that is all a book really is--can
serve as an infinitely richer learning medium and not only enhance learning,
but I would posit, accelerate it.  The rewards of that are potentially huge
in individual, societal and global terms.

Both Alan Kay and Seymour Papert argue for a child-centred approach that
puts both the enjoyment, and the responsibility for learning, much more
clearly in the hands of kids.  I agree with them fundamentally.  

With respect to technology, I would refer you to the Maine Project
www.mainecite.org with which Seymour Papert has been involved.  It's
revolutionary today.  It should be the norm in the future.  

In that State, the governor supported the provision of laptop computers to
kids, with the objective of broadening the distribution so eventually every
child in the system had a personal laptop that they could take home.  I
would encourage further examination of that project with respect to
incorporating its vision into your national plan and of course, not only
continuing to support it, but also making it a fundamental purpose to put a
computer into the hands of all children.  As Seymour Papert said to our
teachers: you wouldn't restrict access of students to pencils, so why limit
their access to computers!

Finally, and most importantly, given the potential of the internet for
individualized and group learning opportunities, and the capacity for
building virtual learning communities of many types, I would encourage a
re-thinking of building-based education.   Education, and this isn't a new
thought either, takes place in many locations and in many ways.  We have
encouraged a myopic approach to education.  That will not continue to serve
us in a globalized, digitalized world.  Any contemporary plan needs to
encompass more than the traditional school house approach.  Access to
learning with computers needs to happen in libraries, museums, art
galleries, shopping malls, community centres, even parks.

We owe it to our children to provide learning opportunities that facilitate
them to harness the potential of the new opportunities that the computer
presents.  After all, they can't change the world for the better without the
appropriate means.

Sheine Mankovsky
Trustee
Ward 5, York Centre
Toronto District School Board







More information about the Squeakland mailing list