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
squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org