[Squeakland] Squeak 'non-starter' in U.K. schools?

Darius Clarke DClarke at fadal.com
Wed Jul 9 01:57:02 PDT 2003



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Hi Alan <--

> ... treating Squeak as a medium ...

> ... being really careful about terminology ...


Still, watching schools treating the computer as a medium, they welcome the equipment with open arms, just without the content-creation software to make learning "hard fun".

 

I know the difference of which you speak between Squeak & eToy. I consciously adopted the convention of the Squeakland site which uses "Squeak" in the generals sense, most frequently used with your publicity and with children, to mean the platform for instigating a change in education. We're not going to eToyFest next month.  :)   (I suspect that is because "squeak" is more a playful word of expression, while "eToy" has a more business sounding tone. It reminds me of the failed Zowie playset toys http://www.geocities.com/piernot/proj/zowie/)

 

... "real math" and "real science"...

Do you have suggested reading for the above? I know someone asked this before, but he was not given much of an answer.

... McLuhan and Postman ...

I’ll read these authors' books from your suggested reading list page on Squeakland.

However, as counterpoint, here's an anecdote. I read somewhere (lost the reference) that there was a debate when the printing press started to become popular in the Middle Ages. Those opposed to the printing press' use argued that everyone would lose the ability to remember vast amounts information, if they could just keep it in a book and only reference it when they needed to. And, the opponents were right. Western culture has just about completely lost any oral tradition now that literacy reigns supreme (except urban myths). However, the same reference pointed out a hidden blessing. With books, as opposed to oral tradition, the facts and conditions at the time of observation & discovery could be kept much more accurately and distributed w/o data loss. This lead to reproducibility of experiments and then on to the discovery of the “scientific process” which we enjoy the fruits of today.

T.V. is also credited for unifying demand across the country which allowed food producers to standardize and leverage mass production techniques within the limit of supply and demand which, in turn, gave rise to the most stable food supply system in the world, reducing much of the seasonal famines our ancestors were use to.

Yes, message and medium are linked. Nevertheless, we’ll see a change now that High School students have loaded camcorders and know how to use them (for documentaries). T.V. will soon give way to the “everyman” video producers. With the Internet, there will be the “everyman” broadcasters. Just as blogs have become the “everyman” syndicates. And, there will be a _different_ link between the message and medium and a different effect.

I strongly follow Janet H. Murray’s prognostication for the future of both the media and message in “Hamlet on the Holodeck - The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace”. 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=dp_sr_00/102-3318997-8292968  

Have you read Murray’s book?

Cheers,
Darius

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