Techlearning blog

As educators, we know but may not often acknowledge the pivotal role we play in the cultural as well as economic development of our nations. Discussing his ultimate hopes for OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte says his is:

A three-step hope: World peace through the elimination of poverty through education through learning. Education is the goal; learning is the means. A lot of learning can happen without teaching. We're banking on that.

Learning is not the only thing that can and will happen when learners are equipped with powerful tools. The long term impact of equipping and empowering citizen journalists should not be underestimated. The causes of human rights, including self-determination, may be advanced more tangibly and dramatically through OLPC than by many other well-intentioned but less effective governmental as well as NGO programs.

Teachers and the cultures of learning in different contexts are a key to any successful educational reform, and this seems to be acknowledged by Negroponte. In the article he states:

There are some cultures where it works more naturally, like Brazil, which is a very bottom-up society. There are others where it is harder, like China, not only because it is a teacher-centric and top-down society, but because Confucius would not have advocated laptops. His theories about teaching, the centricity of teachers, and the required obedience of children are pretty strong.

He does not mention it, but I think the top-down teaching approach entrenched in most U.S. educational contexts is also a formidable challenge. Can a 1:1 learning environment by itself foment an educational revolution that supports constructivist and inquiry-based learning? My research and instincts tell me no. Like the eMINTS mentoring program focusing on sustained professional development for teachers in Missouri, effective school reform efforts involving digital technologies need to be focused on pedagogical issues even more than technological ones.

I'll be presenting "The Case for 1:1 Computing" both at our Oklahoma state edtech conference and at the Texas state edtech conference in early February. In the meantime, I'll be fleshing out my thoughts on this. If you have suggestions or additional resources to suggest on this topic, I'd love to hear them.

1:1 IS coming. Every student won't have an Apple iPhone, but in the not-too-distant future all our U.S. students are going to have digital devices with more power than today's personal computer. Our challenge is more one of mindware than hardware. The hardware is changing fast, along an accelerating exponential change curve. Our thinking, however, tends to remain rooted in the 19th century. Thankfully, leaders like Nicholas Negroponte are moving an educational reform agenda forward in other nations which will hopefully spur more change in the United States.

Leadership and vision matter in this instance, as in all others. Hopefully the instructional vision of leaders like Seymour Papert and Gary Stager will guide the pedagogic vision of the OLPC leaders and implementers, as well as the next generation of school reformers in the United States.