Are We “Dumbing Down” What We Do With Kids, Teachers, & Computing?

Ask Gary Stager. If you haven’t heard him speak, experienced a workshop with him, or read any of his writing; you’ve missed a dynamic advocate for empowering teachers and students. He tells us that when educational computing transformed itself into educational technology, we turned from letting students attempt the impossible to having them name the parts of a computer. As for teachers, we make them take courses in using iPads, when Stager tells us his “95-year-old grandmother figured it out all by herself.” The words “Computer Literacy”, coined by Arthur Luehrmann, originally referred to using computers to solve problems, not to browse Web sites or practice keyboarding. Gary Stager asks us to use our brains when working the computers and kids and to give our students challenges that have meaning for them. Besides reading Stager’s article Dumbing Down, check out his Website, blog, and his Minds-On Institute for Educators, July 9-12, 2012, in Manchester New Hampshire. The topic of the Institute is Constructing Modern Knowledge and that’s just what you’ll do if you have the chance to attend.