Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!thom From: thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (Thom Gillespie) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Against educational fads (was: math credit) Message-ID: <39960@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 8 Dec 90 19:09:04 GMT References: <15404@cs.utexas.edu> <15425@cs.utexas.edu> <15488@cs.utexas.edu> <39937@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15541@cs.utexas.edu> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Thom Gillespie) Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley Lines: 66 In article <15541@cs.utexas.edu> turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) writes: >----- >In article <39937@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Thom Gillespie) writes: >> The earlier you introduce the correct tool , the better. > ... long winding path ... >As I said before, I believe in airconditioning. I also believe >in word processing. Unlike Publius, I also believe (some) in AI. > >Having students use word processors will no more teach them to >write than having them use pencils. They are an improvement, >just as pencils and erasers are an improvement over quill, knife, >and blotter. If word processors make the teaching of writing >easier and faster, that is great. But people still have to put >their own ideas together, and figure out how to best express >these ideas in words. And students have to be taught to do this. >Don't confuse the tool with the skill. > >Russell THere is no cofusing the tool with the skill if you realize that there is no separation between the tool and the skill. If you can play the piano, the violin, the flute, then you can play music. If can't use the musical tools than you can't play music -- there is not music without the tool. If you can't weild a brush or a piece of lead then you can do the plastic arts:painting, printing, etc. Can you play basketball if you can't bounce and shot the ball? Can you write before you can handle the tools of pencil and paper -- they are tools just as much as a word processor is a tool. The answer is no, like with music, without the tools there is no writing, or music, or basketball. If you can use the tools then you can play music, basketball, ... and write. Teach the tools and you teach the skill. Daniel Fader did some research and wrote a book called "Hooked on Books." He figured that if you want to kids to read then you have to get to read. The only way to get them to read was to give them what they wanted to read regardless of the quality or subject matter ... it was very effective as you would expect. We tend to get better at what we do the more we do it. He extended this approach to writing and had kids writing daily -- copying from Newsweek or any other written material was encouraged. They weren't 'taught' to write with a bunch of disembodied rules, they 'learned' to write the way everything else in life is learned ... by imitation. You learn to walk, talk, play music and basketball, all by imitation. First the tool and then the imitation, and then skill develops. A.S. Neill observed the same development in the Summerhill school in England. There is an element of 'desire' that has to come from within for learning to be complete. The problem with learning math has been that there haven't been good 'tools' to learn to use, just rulers, protractors, and slide rules and symbolic rules. There have been studies which show that kids learn math quicker with a calculator because they get to 'see' the pattern of the numbers develop quicker than if they used paper and pencil -- these are elementary aged kids! That was what Papert was trying to explain in "Mind Storms" with his development of LOGO. That is what 'tools' like Mathematica and other math simulators are doing today. Programming provides an excellent tool for 'learning' math. And if you want to use programming in a math class then you must the students must have the tool down cold. Word processors provide an excellent tool for 'learning' writing ... programming may also be an excellent tool for 'learning' writing? Again, pencil and paper are tools just like a word processor, the alphabet is a tool for communication -- all language is a tool for communication. You only have skill when you have mastered the tool. There is no separation. --Thom Gillespie