STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Here’s an interesting experiment called the One Laptop Per Child initiative. It is what the title would indicate. The thing that I find most interesting is that its focus is on third-world countries. With all we’ve been hearing about in terms of a global society, how will the success (which is still in question) of this project impact the world, but more specifically our country. Will third-world use of the laptop as a conduit to information give them an advantage (and quite possibly a serious advantage) over our students? Are we Americans missing the boat which is about to set sail? My biggest question: What is being done to provide teachers and students in these countries with the know-how for utilizing these devices beyond what laptops tend to be used for in our country—expensive digital pencils. It all seems like a very cool experiment - so stay tuned!

“By focusing on tools of exploration and expression—rather than instruction—in an environment that emphasizes collaboration, sharing, and critique, we think the laptop will become the agency for engaging children in constructing knowledge—to ‘learn learning.’ ”

To learn more, watch this TED Talk video of OLPC founder (and MIT Media Lab Chairman) Nicholas Negroponte. “This is not a laptop project; it’s an education project,” he says. (If you are at all interested in technology in schools, you’ll want to watch this talk.)

With our Classrooms for the Future grant and several “smart” classrooms, you’ll be seeing more laptops in use by Salisbury students. If you could access laptops for your students, what kinds of learning would you imagine? We would like to hear!

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Thanks for reading this week!