EdTechTrek

I am beginning to read Blocks to Robots: Learning With Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom by Mariana Umaschi Bers. I have only read the foreward which is written by David Elkind, a favorite author of mine. I love how he writes. And this passage struck me as so clear and well-written that I would like to share it here. In describing constructionism, a theoretical framework built on the shoulders of Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, and others…

“When children build their own mechanical/electronic objects, they have created experience from which they learn new concepts of space, time, and causality. Indeed, in this self-created virutal world, space has become portable, time has become retrievable, and causality has become programmable.”

I love how that it worded. Children of all ages so need learning opportunities where causality is programmable – where they learn through direct interactions with their environment, but where they hold the power over this environment and are able to manipulate it in so many ways. The fact that these interactions are both portable and retrievable makes it even more attractive. Opportunities for learning through construction are so vast. My graduate students felt overwhelmed by the endless learning opportunities and potential afforded by new technologies.

But tell me this – is the bigger challenge getting teachers to understand and value constructivist/constructionist principles, or is it getting them to use new technologies? It would seem to me that the former must happen before the latter, or at least, they must happen simultaneously. It is extremely hard to explain the learning power that can be leveraged with new technologies when the theoretical frameworks upon which these learning experience are built are so foreign, so uncomfortable to begin with.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of this book.

My two sons both went through their Buzz Lightyear phase and could be seen shouting as they jumped off of the sofa, “To infinity and beyond!” Are our students aspiring to the same?

Finding that balance between school knowledge/skills and knowledge/skills that we need once we leave school is not easy. No doubt, a democratic educated citizenry needs a core base of common knowledge and skills. However, are we preparing kids to be successful AT school, or are we preparing kids to be successful once they leave school?

Imagine if Buzz Lightyear uttered the exclamation of “To the next room, and the next!” Or, “To math, then to spelling!” I am so thankful for the dedicated and visionary teachers out there who are helping their students every day to reach beyond the classroom and the walls of the school to infinite ways of knowing, learning, and collaborating… beyond our own school experiences to experiences that will truly prepare them to be ready to jump in to “real world” learning and working. After all, we best remember those school experiences that meant something to us – that challenged us, that excited us, that allowed us to use our “school skills” in relevant and authentic ways, that involved a real audience… So, I say, “To infinity and beyond” with new meaning today in this highly connected and flattened world. The opportunities to achieve this are so great they are dripping… Let’s not let our students dry up on the vine.

Funny how it is so much more interesting, exciting, invigorating, meaningful, memorable, personal, enjoyable, powerful, …. when we participate.

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