| "As our language becomes more complex, an increasingly complex world emerges for our actions."
(McMaster, M. D. (1998). Conceptual background of "The Intelligence Advantage"
From the beginning of the DECOPRIM project our interests focused on actual and possible learning environments in preschool and primary school. One major topic in our discussions was the role information technology (IT) could or should play in such environments. Simultaneously, we began to work on different design concepts for the CD-ROM on which we were going to publish the work of the other project members. Both of us were particularly interested in the question if and under what circumstances computers could be seen as an added value in learning environments. We were motivated by our experiences with IT on different levels in education (work in preschool and primary classes, teachers' in-service training, European projects using the INTERNET, etc.) but also by discussions with parents, students and teachers about the role of IT in school.
During DECOPRIM2 we wondered how we might show the multiple interconnections between the different activities that were going on in the preschool class in Mersch (Roger's class). Our aim was to give a description of an environment where IT is used, not only to enhance children's learning but also as a medium for research (record-keeping and documentation) and negotiation with all kinds of partners, parents as well as students and teachers during in-service training. In this class, children worked a lot with computers. They used them mainly for voice recording, drawing and experimenting with print. The challenge for us, however, was to discuss and to try out different strategies for using the computer "on the fly" in order to record what was going on in the classroom and to capture how children interacted and reflected on their work. We also wanted to investigate the children's ideas about their work and to find out more about the origins of these ideas.
On the level of data collection we addressed the question of how the gaps between recording, analysing and storing or publishing could be minimised. This was necessary in order to capture immediately what happened in the classroom and to link it with other situations, comments, meta-comments or products. Furthermore, as we planned to store the collected data on digital media, we thought of reducing data conversion (analogue to digital, for example) to a minimum. These technical and organisational problems became part of an authentic piece of research in the classroom, in which children were directly involved. We simultaneously negotiated scientific concepts, explored the potential of various pieces of software for our purposes and experimented in the classroom. This opened new fields of investigation and raised new issues. One important objective was to concentrate on children who, under different circumstances, would certainly have been labelled 'slow learners' or 'under-achiever'. We thought that IT might, in "quick motion", help to show the learning processes these children evolved in, processes which otherwise may well be forgotten or overseen.
A first attempt at sketching out a framework was the draft for an article called 'Authors of Learning'. Later the Introduction to the CD-ROM was partly taken from this draft. However, we kept the title 'Authors of Learning' for the illustrated part of our work. Our personal experience with computers and our participation in numerous debates around the implementation and use of IT in education finally made us think of writing in general about the place of 'Computers in Education' and about recent developments in Luxembourg. This lead us to investigate if and under what circumstances computers in education could provide an open space for learning and teaching. An important issue in this field is the question of Standards in educational IT equipment. Finally this work lead to an outline of a Framework for teaching, learning and researching with media in the classroom.
We think that for the next few years we will have to continue our investigations in this area, linking in theories from different fields such as psychology, linguistics, aesthetics, Complexity Theory, ethics, sociology, etc.
" ... those who refuse all theory, who speak of themselves as plain practical people, and virtuous in virtue of having no theory, are in the grip of theories which manacle them and keep them immobile, because they have no way of thinking about them and therefore of taking them off. They aren't theory-free; they are stupid theorists."
(Inglis, F. (1985). The Management of Ignorance, p.40, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.) |
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