Tinkering towards technology literacy

Tinkering Toward Technology Literacy Sylvia Martinez President, Generation YES

The dots...• What is technology literacy?• Why is it important?• How do we teach it today? Can we do better?• How does tinkering work as a model of learning?• Bringing it all together

What is technology literacy?• Computers or more?• NAEP says technology literacy should cover “the designed world”• 49 of the 50 states have technology literacy goals and standards; more than 80 percent of the states have adopted, adapted, or referenced ISTE National Education Technology Standards (NETS)

SETDA says...• Technology literacy is “…the ability to responsibly use appropriate technology to communicate, solve problems, and access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and to acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century.”

3 Interconnected AbilitiesKnowledge • Vocabulary, recognition, history, tradeoffs, constraintsCritical thinking and decision making • Inquiry, analysis, systemized thinkingCapabilities • skills, information gathering, troubleshooting, ﬁxing things, offer solutions, design processfrom National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and National Research Council

“Doing” connects them

Why is technologyliteracy important? or f nt s LB eme er C ir N u q h gr ad re 8t a ll tt he ha gy t o ed nol d in iev ch de el te lu b f lum 8% y o e inc rricu 9 d u ld b l cu st u oo sho sch e up 2002 thGall -

How do we teach it?

If “doing” is the key connector betweenthe three aspects of tech literacy, weneed a theory of learning thatemphasizes “doing”not lecturing... not a checklist... not testing.

Constructionism • Seymour Papert - collegue of Jean Piaget • Based on constructivisim • Children learn by discovering a world view piece by piece, building on what they already know and can do • Making things in the real world cements this knowledge

Making things is better than being passive Making good things is even betterKnowledge is a consequence of experience Gary Stager

Constructivist/Constructionist Resources• Seymour Papert - Articles and books http:// www.papert.org/• Constructivist Consortium http:// www.constructivistconsortium.org/• PBS Online Classroom http:// www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/ w2-resources.html

From theory to practiceProject-based learning(PBL)

Project-based Learning1. PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum2. PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that drive students to encounter (and struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline3. Projects involve students in a constructive investigation4. Projects are student-driven to a signiﬁcant degree5. Projects are realistic, not school-like J.W. Thomas - A Review of Research on Project-based Learning (2000)

PBL Resources• Edutopia (Core topic: project learning) http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning• Buck Institute for Education http:// www.bie.org/• Project-based Learning Online http://pbl- online.org/

Dots so far...• Technology literacy is important• Technology literacy is multi- dimentional and “doing” is central• Constructionism is a theory of learning that emphasizes doing• PBL is a classroom methodology that supports constructionism and doing

Tinkering as a form of PBL• Bricolage - French for tinkering, using found objects, playfulness in creation.• Papert deﬁned two styles of problem solving: analytical and bricolage • School only honors one style• McGyver, Apollo 13• DIY, HGTV, Make magazine

"The bricoleur resembles the painter who stands backbetween brushstrokes, looks at the canvas, and onlyafter this contemplation, decides what to do next."- Sherry Turkle

Tinkering School - TED Talk Gever Tully http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

no set curriculumno testslots of stufflots of toolsreal toolsimmersivetimehow to make thingsdeep realization that they can ﬁgure things outnothing turns out as plannedevery step is valuablejust start buildingfully committed to project at handsuccess is in the doingfailures are celebrated and analyzedchild-appropriate response to frustrationall materials useful

Can we do this in school?

Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)• Free access to lots of different kinds of books• Minimum censorship. Comic books and magazines are OK; hard and easy books ﬁne• More often and short is better than long, but rare • No tests, book reports, logs, comprehension quizzes • Comfortable space to read • The teacher reads too • For all kids, not a reward or remediation • Supplement with interesting experiences about reading – trips to library, discuss literature, conferences, etc. (not skill building) • Good readers tend to be narrow readers (they stick to one genre) • Look for “home run” books

Sustained Technology Tinkering• Free access to lots of different kinds of software and hardware• The teacher works on computer projects too• No tests, reports, logs, quizzes• Comfortable space to read work on computer projects• Follow their passions• Collaboration

Designhas changed in the real world

Waterfall Design Deﬁne DesignBuild Implement Test Complete

Spiral design model (Boehm, 1988)

Whathappened in the 1980s?

• Use technology to test ideas• Take risks• Reﬂect, reﬁne• Assessment = does it work, is it interesting, is it beautiful

Connect the dotsresearch, learning theory, practice, outcomes Assessing Technology Literacy: The Case for an Authentic Project-based Approach http://genyes.com/freeresources/

Contact information• Sylvia Martinez, President• Generation YES, a non-proﬁt 501c3• email: sylvia@genyes.org• URL: www.genyes.org• Blog: blog.genyes.org• Twitter: smartinez

http://blog.genyes.org	434
http://www.scoop.it	294
http://howardrheingoldsteachingnotes.posterous.com	198
http://ecompetencies.wikispaces.com	62
http://elearning.wintec.ac.nz	10
http://paper.li	3
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	3
http://cloud9education.wikispaces.com	1
http://www.slideshare.net	1

Tinkering towards technology literacy

by smartinez on May 17, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

9 Embeds 1,006

Statistics

Tinkering towards technology literacy — Presentation Transcript