Thursday, August 16, 2012

paulo blikstein





we don't know what we want to give up
achievement gap, how about caligraphy or hunting gap..
a lot of skills today are obsolete as well.. but we are still teaching them.. which is eating up our time
no matter how important you think sports is.. you can't teach it unless you have a gym
same with innovation, critical/scientific thinking.. we need new types of spaces
same with assessment 
need for invention spaces - not so much for tech skills people acquire.. but how people look at the world..

what would happen if instead of waking up everyday to learn a new formula.. they would wake up everyday to invent something new..

love this.. grazie.
another good snag for tonight Steve Hargadon...


his site



FabLearn 2012 -- II Digital Fabrication in Education Conference @ Stanford. Call for proposals is online!



found Paulo via Steve's webinar..
Join me Thursday, August 16th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.comwebinar with Paulo Blikstein, assistant professor at Stanford University’s School of Education and (by courtesy) Computer Science Department. He is the director of Stanford's Transformative Learning Technologies Lab and director of Stanford Makers' Club and FabLab@School project.

Paulo’s research focus on the confluence of expressive technologies for learning and critical pedagogy. He adapts cutting-edge technologies for use in inner-city schools, such as computer modeling, robotics, and rapid prototyping, creating constructionist learning environments in which children learn science and mathematics by building sophisticated projects and devices. His research interests also include the applications of complexity sciences in education and computational literacy, particularly the new knowledge representation infrastructures emerging from the use of computational representations.

Blikstein has worked extensively with inner city students in developing countries, such as Brazil, Mexico, Senegal, and Costa Rica, and also in the US. He completed his PhD. at the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling at Northwestern University, and holds a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering and a MEng. in Digital Systems Engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil (1998, 2001), as well as a MSc. degree from the MIT Media Lab (2002), where he was also a visiting scholar (2003). Outside of academia, Paulo studied Film and directed scientific documentaries. Paulo has published several book chapters and papers about his work in education (most available at http://www.blikstein.com/paulo
). (Bio courtesy of his Stanford faculty page.)




Peggy George 6:19 PM
http://www.amazon.com/Mindstorms-Children-Computers-Powerful-Ideas/dp/0465046746
Oronoque 6:20 PM
http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/

this is a great article and video about the fablab http://peninsulapress.com/2011/11/16/educator-brings-shop-culture-back-into-schools-with-digital-fablab/
monk51295 6:26 PM
: )
Peggy George 6:27 PM
http://tltl.stanford.edu/projects/fablabschool

n 6:28 PM
http://tltl.stanford.edu/about
http://tltl.stanford.edu/projects


hmm.
outlier kids are what we showcase.. other kids need more direction?
kids do the same trivial project over and over again?...
are they getting to choose.. or do they have an end they have to match up to
started projects within curriculum.. have been very successful

many photos here http://fablabatschool.org/

Melody 6:56 PM
http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/faq/

http://tltl.stanford.edu/projects/bifocal-modeling


"travels in troy with freire" --- the paper


interesting share at the end..
kids from high income schools report right away that they are creators, opposite for low income school kids
kids from low income schools, if asked if they fix things that are broken at home, say yes, opposite for high income schools
so while - as Paulo said, kids from low income schools, need scaffolding.. because without it they keep doing menial tasks when given freedom
he also said, they say they are not creators, but do some amazing creating/inventing as they are fixing things in their world.

so perhaps, we need to just wait longer (and for rich kids as well - maybe they appear to be doing things good.. but they are just mimicking) before intro-ing structure/scaffold. maybe we need to assure them they have nothing to prove..
and then see.. just what they come up with..