One of the most interesting sessions at this year’s Educon was facilitated by Chad Sansing and Meenoo Rami, both of them Science Leadership Academy faculty. The title was Hacking School: the EduCon 2.4 Hackjam. I didn’t know what to expect – and what actually happened was beyond all expectations.
They gave groups of four or five of us, collections of objects (tiny cotton balls, crayons, blocks, etc.) and a complete Monopoly set. We were instructed to play the game, but told that players, as part of taking their turn, were required to change the rules in some way. On my first turn, I was at such a loss that the best rule I could make was that if you couldn’t come up with a rule, then you had to figure out a way of wearing a colorful pipe cleaner. Someone may have uploaded a photo to Flickr.
The rule I took away from the game was to never play monopoly with anyone more than 40 years younger than you. None of us took the activity very seriously.
However, as the debriefing began, it became apparent that there was intent behind this exercise. That follow-up conversation became part of the game. We continued to change the rules, to hack our own insights – as we exchanged our exceedingly diverse experiences.
Then Sansing and Rami introduced us to Hackasaurus, a tool that enables you to take most any web page, examine it’s underlying code, and then hack that code to change the look and content of the page. Learning about Web coding (HTML & CSS) is the ostensible purpose. But I kept thinking about the playful learning that might result from asking students to hack particular web pages about their current topic of study in history, science, etc.
Then, what really kicked me in the head was when someone said that..
“..anyone who is not a programmer is part of the program.”
The earth trembled under my feet, as I began to parse out the statement’s meaning, and my previously held notions about teaching and learning broke down and recombined into something new.
“What is the purpose of education?” It’s a frequently asked question these days and I have long said and written that the purpose of education is to prepare our children for their future. Now I believe that,
The purpose of school is to prepare our children
To Own Their Future!
Are we (educators) making programmers,
or are we just making software?
I almost missed the sublty of it! I get overwhelmed or bogged down or something like that over the how. so many ways, so many different types of learners. Oh my.
David – every time I hear those words and/or participate in a hack jam, I feel that same thunder. Thank you for reflecting so eloquently on the experience and its impact.
What kind of playful learning have you seen out there lately?
While I would dig working with the SLA crew, I work for a Virginia charter school – the Community Public Charter School, in Albemarle County, that is extremely diggable in its own right. I will work on improving my introduction at the next hack jam 😉
All the best,
C
Wish I’d been at that session–sounds fun. I’m not sure we’re even making software. Because, to use your analogy. Programmer = student = learner. Teacher = student = learner. Therefore Teacher = programmer. Is that last syllogism always true? Even if it is, it implies, I guess that they’re making software to used by others. If, however, teachers are not learners themselves, they might just be part of the program or just using the program. Which is kind of an ugly thought.
@Laura, Point well made, Laura. So what you’re saying is that we’re all part of one big piece of “bugie” software.
@Laura, I wrote the same thing yesterday, but not nearly so concisely! “We” need to be more aware of our role as programmers in re those who will replace us, not just of our students.
David,
I think I forgot to send you a link to the mini-interview I did with you this summer at ISTE when I asked you what the purpose of school was. Here it is: http://youtu.be/mxeMF2QEZpg
I attended Chad and Meenoo’s Hackjam at ISTE last year and loved it. I used the Hackasaurus tool and checked out Bill Gates’ tweets and edited them, then took a screen-shot. See http://davidwees.com/content/hacking-bill-gates-what-i-wish-he-was-tweeting
Not only should we prepare children to own their future, we should allow them to own their present. Don’t just train them, give them the Thimble and allow them to play – for real. (ps – I’m always the Scottie Dog.)
Who are the programmers then? Wall Street? Corporate Execs? The bureaucracy? Teachers? We can, if we wish, write our own program and we don’t have to be a programmer to do that. This is what we should be teaching our kids…
David-
I loved your thoughts on are we making programmers or are we making software? It actually reminded me of one of my favorite quotes : “You can give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime”. Your ideas are a modern version of this quote, I believe. I suppose we could add another dimension to the quote: “teach a man to analyze his catch, build the most effective boat and gear, and he feed the world”. The more tools we can give students, the more prepared they will be to determine their own future. Technology definitely plays a role in that future-we have to use it (as pointed out in your example) to teach students to think outside the box and problem solve, so children have choices and are prepared for their future. Students should be allowed to “play” and explore.
Very, very interesting ideas, Dave. I think what you’ve nailed here is what the purpose of education ‘Should’ be, not what it necessarily ‘Is’. It’s all too easy for us to create ‘software’ through our education systems- it’s what they were geared toward after all- the factory systems. Thus, outdated as they are, we’re still producing far more’software’, than ‘programmers’. This is what we’re doing at the moment- helping people to move forward with their education without merely producing ‘software’- after all, if we all become software, after a generation…nothing will happen!
What a great blog! Education should train students into practical aspects of life not just the traditional 4 corners of classroom. Technical training, retraining, tutoring (brampton tutoring) will help people prepare for post college life.
“Education is backbone of the nation”
I have also the same questions. Who are the programmers then? Wall Street? Corporate Execs? The bureaucracy? Teachers? We can, if we wish, write our own program and we don’t have to be a programmer to do that. This is what we should be teaching our kids…
I feel that it is our right as citizens of the United States to educate our children. But it is also a responsibility for anyone in the community such as parents, teachers, law officers, and any other adult citizen. School is the stepping stone for our kids to be successful in our community. The more educated our students get will be one more person contributing to the success of our great country. Many educators will push their students to be successful through hard work. When a student grows into adulthood they will fall back on the teachings of teachers and parents. So when our students fall in the rough spot they will know to keep moving forward no matter the obstacle.
What is the primary goal of public education? And where can it be found?
To answer the second question first, in each state’s constitution in the article that authorizes public education. So in essence there are 50 different goals/purposes although I suspect that they are similar in nature to what Missouri’s constitution has to say: Article IX, subsection 1a: “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state within ages not in excess of twenty-one years as prescribed by law.”
I’ll let you decide what “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people. . .” means. But I do not see anything about “preparing students to assume the responsibilities of citizenship”-whatever those “responsibilities” may be. We have assumed a purpose that may or may not be in concert with what the constitution says so I have concerns with these mission statements that go beyond the basic purpose as delineated in the constitution.
Now the “prescribed by law” part can be a problem in that some laws made may be unconstitutional, e.g., segregated schools. And I believe that when we sort and separate students using grades and standardized tests to name a couple of nefarious practices, some of whom then receive rewards funded by the state-scholarships, special treatment, awards, etc. . . , or vice versa, are sanctioned, not getting scholarships, held back, not given a diploma but a certificate of attendance, etc. . . , then we, the public schools are discriminating against a certain class of student, those who through no fault of their own (in essence like skin color) don’t “live up to the standards”. And in doing so we are contravening the fundamental purpose of education and causing harm to some students