Just a word about the Cyber-Mentoring project. It's not just building websites in English. The whole project is built around making kids more aware of the writing process and helping them to become better writers.
The students work with people from the outside world, it started with friends of mine and now includes writers from the New York Times and editors from Random House and others. Those outside mentors work with one or two kids on their work. The kids post all their rough drafts as web sites, the mentors read the work and the kids dialogue with them about the work. The students revise and post their final drafts (when it all works...) I've seen a massive increase in revision and a real understanding of the process of writing from my kids. It's been a huge success.
Also, remember, the project happens over two classes, their English class and their computer class (and the kids all take those classes together in the 9th grade), so that they learn the HTML and pine and all that in their computer class while I create the projects in English that the computer teacher uses to teach HTML. It works for both subjects because we've found that the kids remember the computer skills more when they learn it using projects that affect their subject area classes.
What would be the first thing I should do to make the school exactly like Beacon?
I tend to think that the more teachers and students who see how technology can make their classes better, regardless of subject matter, then you really see technology go. If everyone can do HTML, then the kids who want to go further will want to learn Javascript, Perl, Java, C++, Flash, etc...
So first, I'd talk to sympathetic teachers, "Can I make a hyper-essay for this assignment?" "Can I do a Power Point presentation for the next presentation you want me to give?" You will see movement happen. It takes time, but it does happen.
Not everyone needs to learn to be a sys-admin. I completely agree.
And importantly, we don't expect everyone at Beacon to do that. It's there as an option (either by working on tech staff, taking electives, working to help teachers develop stuff, etc...) for the kids who want to go further. What we do want all kids to do is realize how technology can make them more powerful students of English, History, Science or Math... how it can make them look at creating art in different ways... More than anything else, we view computers as tools to create.
Especially because we are a city school, where many of our kids don't have the family resources of a more wealthy district, it's very important that we make sure our kids will be able to use the tools of technology after they leave us.
And getting kids excited about computers when they realize how easy HTML is, and how powerful web publishing is to have your work reach a wider audience than just your teacher is just great. Most of these kids won't go on to be sys-admins or web designers or programmers, but hopefully the vast majority will leave here knowing that technology is a powerful tool that they *can* harness.
Of course, I'm writing this in the tech office, watching Tiff take a picture of her teammates holding a Tux penguin with a Star Wars helmet on. So there's a fair amount of silliness, too.
What's so frustrating about this article is that it really is nothing more than FUD. There are some interesting issues that could be raised in an NT v. Linux argument, but this is a throwaway piece. There isn't any back-up, there isn't any proof, it's all just opinionated statements thrown off as if they were facts.
If this fellow is a serious consultant, I would hope any client of his would ask a whole lot of follow-up questions... as nothing he says has anything resembling reason or proof.
Linux, NT, MacOS... whatever you want a client to use, I would hope you'd have the courtesy of explaining why.
While I appreciate Jon's comments on geek-cinema, I must say that he is missing some important history here. The "smart kid who saves the day" is a cliche in movie and TV history with a long, proud and sometimes not-so-proud history. (Come on, who here didn't want to see Wesley Crusher beamed into a wall?)
As others have pointed out, the 80s, with John Hughes riding teen-age angst for he was worth, saw a plethora of geeks from Anthony-Michael Hall (now reborn as Bill Gates on TNT) in The Breakfast Club to Weird Science. And for my money, there was never a better movie geek than Matthew Broderick in War Games.
But even before that, where would suave James Bond be without his Q? And think of all the geeks in the 50s sci-fi movies. Granted, they were usually relegated to finding out the crucial piece of imformation before the much-better-looking hero went out and saved the day, but hey, they were certainly there.
The fin-de-millenium movie making has seen a rebirth of the geek as hero and anti-hero, but I'm not sure it's a full-blown revival, because I'm just not sure we were ever gone.
Slashdot Mirror
Heya...
Just a word about the Cyber-Mentoring project. It's not just building websites in English. The whole project is built around making kids more aware of the writing process and helping them to become better writers.
The students work with people from the outside world, it started with friends of mine and now includes writers from the New York Times and editors from Random House and others. Those outside mentors work with one or two kids on their work. The kids post all their rough drafts as web sites, the mentors read the work and the kids dialogue with them about the work. The students revise and post their final drafts (when it all works...) I've seen a massive increase in revision and a real understanding of the process of writing from my kids. It's been a huge success.
Also, remember, the project happens over two classes, their English class and their computer class (and the kids all take those classes together in the 9th grade), so that they learn the HTML and pine and all that in their computer class while I create the projects in English that the computer teacher uses to teach HTML. It works for both subjects because we've found that the kids remember the computer skills more when they learn it using projects that affect their subject area classes.
Hope this clarifies things.
-- Chris
I tend to think that the more teachers and students who see how technology can make their classes better, regardless of subject matter, then you really see technology go. If everyone can do HTML, then the kids who want to go further will want to learn Javascript, Perl, Java, C++, Flash, etc...
So first, I'd talk to sympathetic teachers, "Can I make a hyper-essay for this assignment?" "Can I do a Power Point presentation for the next presentation you want me to give?" You will see movement happen. It takes time, but it does happen.
Good luck!
-- Chris Lehmann
Not everyone needs to learn to be a sys-admin. I completely agree.
And importantly, we don't expect everyone at Beacon to do that. It's there as an option (either by working on tech staff, taking electives, working to help teachers develop stuff, etc...) for the kids who want to go further. What we do want all kids to do is realize how technology can make them more powerful students of English, History, Science or Math... how it can make them look at creating art in different ways... More than anything else, we view computers as tools to create.
Especially because we are a city school, where many of our kids don't have the family resources of a more wealthy district, it's very important that we make sure our kids will be able to use the tools of technology after they leave us.
And getting kids excited about computers when they realize how easy HTML is, and how powerful web publishing is to have your work reach a wider audience than just your teacher is just great. Most of these kids won't go on to be sys-admins or web designers or programmers, but hopefully the vast majority will leave here knowing that technology is a powerful tool that they *can* harness.
Of course, I'm writing this in the tech office, watching Tiff take a picture of her teammates holding a Tux penguin with a Star Wars helmet on. So there's a fair amount of silliness, too.
-- Chris Lehmann
-- The Beacon School
What's so frustrating about this article is that it really is nothing more than FUD. There are some interesting issues that could be raised in an NT v. Linux argument, but this is a throwaway piece. There isn't any back-up, there isn't any proof, it's all just opinionated statements thrown off as if they were facts.
If this fellow is a serious consultant, I would hope any client of his would ask a whole lot of follow-up questions... as nothing he says has anything resembling reason or proof.
Linux, NT, MacOS... whatever you want a client to use, I would hope you'd have the courtesy of explaining why.
-- Chris
While I appreciate Jon's comments on geek-cinema, I must say that he is missing some important history here. The "smart kid who saves the day" is a cliche in movie and TV history with a long, proud and sometimes not-so-proud history. (Come on, who here didn't want to see Wesley Crusher beamed into a wall?)
As others have pointed out, the 80s, with John Hughes riding teen-age angst for he was worth, saw a plethora of geeks from Anthony-Michael Hall (now reborn as Bill Gates on TNT) in The Breakfast Club to Weird Science. And for my money, there was never a better movie geek than Matthew Broderick in War Games.
But even before that, where would suave James Bond be without his Q? And think of all the geeks in the 50s sci-fi movies. Granted, they were usually relegated to finding out the crucial piece of imformation before the much-better-looking hero went out and saved the day, but hey, they were certainly there.
The fin-de-millenium movie making has seen a rebirth of the geek as hero and anti-hero, but I'm not sure it's a full-blown revival, because I'm just not sure we were ever gone.
-- Chris