education

A short while ago I listened to a Ted Talk called "Five dangerous things you should let your children do." It was fun. Today I read a post on Open Education on the same topic and got thinking about that again. I watched the Talk again.

Gever Tulley, who runs a summer school where fourth graders play with power tools and "come back pretty bloody and scraped" suggests children should learn to manage dangerous and unsafe things by actually getting to experience them. How else do you learn, someone could say?

Here's his list:

1. Play with fire: I did it. I was allowed to light the fireplace on my own, taught to do it by my father and did it in bonfires in friends' farms. I learned how to "control fire" and feel proud of doing it. Check. Thanks, mom and dad!
2. Own a pocket knife: I was given my first pocket knife by my mom. It was actually just a blade. I was allowed to play with it all the time. Even throwing it at stuff in the back yard (stuff... never people, plants or animals). My parents, cousins and uncles always taught me to cut away from my body and be careful with knifes. They let me play with it and tended my cuts when I made a mistake and cut myself. I know how to use a knife. Thanks, mom and dad!
3. Throw a spear: I don't remember throwing spears except javelins in phys. ed. class in middle school. However I was allowed  to own and play with a sling, throw rocks and participate in the greatest "guerras de bodoques"  with my neighboorhood friends. I don't have good aim, but this was all a lot of fun. It sometimes hurt and I got bruises, but it was great fun! Thanks, mom and dad!
4. Deconstruct appliances: I was never a big fan of breaking things appart. I actually do it more now than before. But I did my share of damage. My cousin has always been awesome at it and always had projects: a home-built remote control car, radios, etc. I slept over and played with his deconstructed appliances. I also learned how to use power tools with my dad, not putting things appart but fixing them. He taught me how to use a drill, a hammer, a saw, an electric saw. I still enjoy "bricolage" and do some things. I am proud of my toolbox and recently bought my own drill. I also played with the old car, the Renault 6, since I was about 12, seeing how they fixed it and eventually fixing simple things in it myself. Later, when I owned my own motorcycle, I had to learn how to fix the carburator, the clutch and many other things, mostly by tinkering with it and breaking it. Thanks, mom and dad!
5. Break the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act): No comment.
6. Which is the second part of 5: Drive a car: My mom took me out driving since I was about twelve. The city was smaller and there were very empty streets close to home. On weekends we went out and I drove around. When I was even younger, my mom let me shift the gears in her car while she drove. I think I'm a pretty good driver and attribute part of it to being allowed to drive since I was young. Thanks, mom! And thanks dad, who always let me drive his car, even when I crashed it (driving without a license at age 15, remember, Jaime?) and got it stolen (at age 17).

I do agree that doing these dangerous things helped learn my limits and how to cope with some level of danger. I don't break easily and feel I'm still quite tough even though I never exercise. All this helped me grow up.

I sometimes feel children are nowadays way too overprotected by their parents and supervising adults. I don't have kids... but it seems I'm not the only one who thinks that. Writing about an English organization that promotes play in children (including "dangerous" play), Open education says:

PlayEngland’s focus this year has been on one of the most traditional of child behavior’s, climbing a tree. The group found that half of children aged 7-12 years reported they were not allowed to climb a tree without adult supervision while the other half reported they had been stopped from climbing trees because it was considered to be too dangerous.

I remember being in the third or fourth grade and having lots of fun climbing a tree behind the art classrom. Me and my friends (I don't remember who were my friends back then) had about a month of fun before Alice de Cuervo, the primary school director found out we were up there and made us climb down. Years later, when I was a teacher back in the same school, the tree had been felled. I missed it. It was a beatuful evergreen with sort of a roof top where we used play when we climbed. I also used to climb lots of trees around my parent's house with my neighborhood friends. It was also great fun and nobody ever told me to climb down. When I went to the park with my mom she even helped me climb trees that were to high for me to reach on my own. Wasn't she awesome?

Just a snippet of the post in Spanish below...

Today I met with Camilo, the student who has been helping me with the school website. By the end of the meeting he asked me if he could have a blog in the school website. I didn't doubt. Yes! Of course! I said. I immediately granted permissions for him to blog. He posted his first entry tonight... and some unforeseen problems came through... Today I also told him about the Sites teachers will be making, some changes in the school curriculum and the laptops we're getting for students. He blogged about that, of course, and some of it, especially the curriculum change is something the Principal and Academic Director should inform the students of, not a blog post froma peer that still has some incomplete information... possibly confusing. News fly in the blogosphere, doesn't it? The post was up for about two and half hours before I read it, and I could see some people got the chance to read it... some 15 visitors to the site. The decision wasn't easy, but I put it in the moderation queue and modified the settings so blog posts submitted by students will always be moderated before publication. Teachers and administrators will be able to override this setting, but students' posts won't be immediately publised. I feel like somewhat of a fascist, but can't see a way out. I don't think I'll have to censor students (only extreme cases would merit this), but this taught me something I should have known... I won't be able to predict or control what is published in student blogs (or any other for that matter)... sure, that is the point... I'll have to be more careful with the things I tell students before they are "officially released" and think a little more about how to manage student blogs. I don't like the hypercontrolling scheme I put up with every post requiring moderation. It think I'll have to discuss this with the principal. Students should have blogs. That's my standing. They should be allowed to talk about whatever they want... they should be able to leak information (as "real" journalists do)... but just for now, before school begins, I can't priviledge one student, however hard he has been working to get the website up and running. I guess I'm saying I'll allow unmoderated blog posts once school starts. I feel really fascist by unpublishing Camilo's post.

One of the strategies I am putting together as part of the schools ed. tech. plan, is to have a few people blog. I am sure this will improve communication with parents and students, and withing the staff. The bloggers will initially be the principal, vice-principals and academic director. Aweome people to accept doing this in the first place. I will, of course, also keep a blog in the school website.

My first blog post welcomed the department heads last week and I have just posted my second entry. I used the chance to point everyone to Randy Pausch's last lecture. I just recently read he died two weeks ago. It is an awesome lecture if you haven't had the change to check it out. You can find it in my blog at the school website.

I got to this video thanks to Vickie Davis' blog. She is putting together a list of videos that show some of the things we technology advocates-enthusiasts preach. This video seems to be inspired in the M. Wesch's "A vision of students today". Here's the video: (thanks Vickie, I'm looking forward to the full collection).

A wonderful idea is back online for '07, the K12 Online Conference. It started today and the first videos are being downloaded as we speak (don't know if they were available before today, though). There will be 2 weeks worth of video conferences, discussion, blogging, and a final 24-hour Elluminate closing event. I'll keep blogging as I watch and read. It looks awesome though! Don't miss it. http://k12onlineconference.org/ . Use the tag "k12online07" if you blog about it.

Una idea genial está de vuelta en la red para la versión 2007. La conferencia en línea sobre educación básica (K-12). Comenzó hoy y los primeros videos ya están en línea. Los estoy bajando mientras escribo esto. Habrá dos semanas de videos, discusiones y blogs, y un evento final con 24 horas de salones de video conferencia, sesiones moderadas y ciber-café usando Elluminate. Seguiré escribiendo a medida que vea, lea, piense... ¡Se ve maravilloso! ¡No se lo pierdan! Usen la etiqueta (tag) "k12onlineconference" si bloguean sobre el evento (y notifiquen a Technorati).

Las últimas noticias, blogs, videos, etc. de la conferencia las encuentran en  http://k12onlineconference.org/ o simplemente suscribiéndose a este feed en su lector RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/k12onlineconference.

Doug Belshaw writes a story of how network security policies (IT Policies) thwarted a lesson he had planned using Flash games and a video, and how he couldn't get an image "just in time for his students", all due to blocking and security issues. I can't stop thinking about what I just outlined in my last blog post: how many teachers attempts to use technology to help their students learning find brick walls in IT Staff or IT policies in their schools? How can we collaborate with IT staff to create sensible policies that are conducive to better learning experiences? I have no anwers, but the Dilbert strip posted by Mr Belshaw made me laugh and definitely made me think of people I know (ha). Enjoy, and thanks again to Mr Belshaw for the great blog.

I confess... I hadn't heard of Randy Pausch before last night. The link to his "last lecture" was sent to me by a friend and I started watching... he tends to refer great stuff. It started as a pretty average academic lecture, a talking head. I insist, I hadn't heard of Pausch. It kept going somewhat non-interestingly for someone who doesn't know the speaker's work, but it started picking up. He is a great entertainer, which goes to Diego's point that a good presenter has to be sort of a showman. That helped a lot. Then, he just kept saying more and more interesting stuff... not about how to make virtual reality or educate people with techology, but about life, about working hard, about achieving what you want. A life story, but also an incredibly inspirational talk that hit me right in the face now that I stubbornly think about trying to stick to academia, to get into a PhD, to obtinately believe it makes sense to try to be "a doctor". I won't preview it more... just an awesomely humane talk...

Lo confieso, no había oído de Randy Pausch. El enlace a su "última conferencia" me lo mandó un amigo y empecé verlo, básicamente porque ese amigo me suele apuntar a cosas interesantes. Empezó como una conferencia promedio. No había oído de Pausch. Siguió como algo no-tan-interesante para alguien que no conoce el trabajo del conferencista, pero empezó a coger ritmo, a atrapar mi interés: apagué el televisor y lo puse en pantalla completa. Es un gran entretenedor (perdonen si me invento la palabra, pues no es artista, es "entertainer"). Eso ayudó su conferencia. Luego, siguió hablando y diciendo cosas más y más interesantes... tal vez ese es un mal adjetivo, no eran sólo interesantes, fueron cosas que me tocaron, cosas muy humanas. No habló de realidad virtual, de tecnología o de educar a la gente con ella (aunque sí lo hizo), habló de la vida, de trabajar duro, de lograr los sueños de infancia. Una historia de vida inspiradora. Me cayó como un puño en la cara ahora que tercamente pienso en volver a la academia, obstinadamente creo que tiene sentido "ser doctor". No más anticipo... una charla increíble y humana.

Hmmm... ¿cómo se expica qué es Twitter? Es un sitio donde la gente manda y lee mensajitos de texto sencillos y cortos. Nancy lo describe así en su Wiki. Aún estoy descifrando qué tipo de mensajes son "apropiados" y "relevantes", pero en general veo que son mensajes cortos. Si fuera sólo una página más para visitar no le vería mucho sentido. ¡Otro sitio de la "red social" de la web 2.0 donde toca inscribirse y estar pendiente... otra comunidad! Ya es suficiente con mantener dos blogs, leer otros cuantos, leer listas de correo, leer blogs de amigos, revisar las últimas fotos de Flickr. He leído gente quejándose porque nadie está haciendo el pegante que pega todo eso junto. Twitter no lo es, pero se deja pegar más fácilmente. Puedo ver, en una barrita en mi Firefox gracias a un programita llamado TwitterFox (gracias Diego!). Se ve así: Es medianamente interesante. Según el wiki citado es algo así como mantenerse al día de amigos y seres queridos, mantener comunicación permanente con colegas... Veo lo que la gente que decido "seguir" (¿un poco big brotheresco?) escribe. Para que tenga mayor sentido debe seguir más gente. Desconocidos me están siguiendo. ¿Un poco miedoso no?

Cada día se pone más frío. Ya la calefacción está prendida casi todo el día y es imposible cometer el error de salir a la calle sin tener una chaqueta puesta, simplemente no se me ocurre. El ábol que veo desde mi ventana está casi completamente sin hojas y así están algunos de los que veo en el camino, a través de Cambridge commons, a mis clases. Otros todavía tienen algunas hojas verdosas, pero en general, el frío ya llegó en serio y la ciudad entera se prepara para el invierno. La temperatura promedio es la de una noche fría en Bogotá, unos 6 o 7 grados y esta semana ha estado lloviendo mucho, con por lo menos una llovizna cada día. A pesar del frío, la ciudad está, en todo caso, llena de alegría y esperanza. Los Redsox le ganaron a los Yankees en la liga americana y están jugando la serie mundial, esa serie de partidos de béisbol donde sólo juegan equipos gringos, pero se llama mundial. La semana pasada vi un par de partidos y el miércoles salí a la calle a celebrar la victoria definitiva y ver cómo era eso por acá. A pesar de ver gente brincando feliz, otros subidos sobre la estación del metro en Harvard square tocando trompetas y saxofones y muchos más gritando "Yankees suck" o "Let's go Redsox", me preguntaba, ¿dónde están la harina, los huevos, la alegría? Pues sí, son gringos, organizados y juiciosos. En el square había casi que más policías que gente celebrando y no se paraban en la calle sino en el andén para no bloquear el tráfico... ñoños. En Bosoton fue otra cosa... casi desbaratan Fenway park. De pronto la celebración fue ñoña por acá porque era en Harvard square y los estudiantes de Harvard somos, hay que aceptarlo, ñoños. Habrá que esperar a ver si los Redsox ganan la serie mundial (ayer ganaron el primer partido), cosa que sí podría tumbar esta ciudad: no ganan desde 1918. La rutina diaria de la universidad sigue siendo la misma, con cada vez más trabajo y un semestre que ya definitivamente tomó forma. Este viernes entregué mi primer "paper", para el que escogí escribir sobre un tema del que no se había hablado en clase, mi clase de análisis de políticas educativas en países en desarrollo. El viernes, precisamente, se trató el tema de mi corto paper en clase, y después de oir la presentación de tres horas del profesor, concluí que mi corto trabajo estaba bastante mal, pero ya no había mucho que hacer. En todo caso era el primer trabajo, corto y conciso, e hice lo que me pidieron, con un argumento claro y (creo) coherente, así que sacaré una nota muy mala... pero sí me di cuenta de lo mucho que me faltó para que el trabajo fuera bueno. El resto de mis clases no tienen ese tipo de trabajos, y para ninguna tengo exámenes, cosa que me alegra. Toda la evaluación viene en la forma de trabajos y proyectos que duran todo el semestre, con trabajo constante y continuo, en vez de evaluaciones de una sola sentada. Ya estoy trabajando en dos de esos proyectos, uno con Gabriel, diseñando una unidad curricular para que él use en sus clases en el CSC, otro haciendo un estudio de caso de un software educativo llamado WISE, diseñado en Berkeley. El tercero es algo que aún me elude, pues no tengo claro qué hacer ni qué debo hacer ni cómo lo voy a hacer. Sólo sé que voy a trabajar con wireless handheld devices (palms y pocket pc's) y su potencial educativo... más allá de eso sé poco. Espero que pronto se aclare todo eso y pueda finalmente empezar a trabajar. Creo que el hecho de estar haciendo proyecto en lugar de exámenes hace sea más trabajo, pues no es cuestión de estudiar para un día algo que se puede olvidar el día siguiente, sino que toca tener muchas cosas muy claras para poder hacer los proyectos. Hace unos días me preguntaron en un mensaje si la universidad era tan buena como se dice por ahí... aún no sé qué responder a eso. Es, definitivamente, mejor que la Nacional en Colombia (sin que eso diga que la Nacional sea mala), solamente por la calidad de las instalaciones y de la planta docente. Las instalaciones son muy buenas, con todo lo necesario en cada salón y bibliotecas increiblemente grandes. Todos mis profesores son investigadores que están a la cabeza de la innovación y la investigación en sus áreas, publicando y avanzando el conocimiento. Mis compañeros, además, son estudiantes comprometidos que leen todo lo que se nos pide y a veces más (no sé de donde sacan tiempo), que nunca dejan de asistir a clase y que están realmente interesados en aprender, cosa que jamás vi en la Nacional. Estas tres cosas, la calidad de las instalaciones, de los profesores y de los estudiantes, me hacen pensar que una respuesta parcial a esa pregunta es sí, pero aún no la puedo dar. Estoy demasiado deslumbrado todavía para poder ver aquellas cosas que se esconden en los armarios y debajo de los tapetes, donde se guardan las cosas sucias que no se quieren ver. Toma tiempo ver esas cosas feas y molestas. Ahora tengo que ponerme a estudiar y ponerme al día con algunas cosas que no pude leer la semana pasada; afortunadamente no son sino unas 50 páginas. Así que los dejo con este mensaje, un saludos para todos y un abrazo. Saludos a todos, Nando P.S. Ah, y les mando una fotico que me tomaron hace unos días, cuando aún hacía menos frío.