LearningForward

Kent Chesnut's technology in education blog.

In Mindstorms - Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (published in 1980), Seymour Papert seemed to foresee that schools would leave the great potential of the computer as a constructive tool largely untapped.  We can clearly see this - schools now have a significant number of powerful computers - but most are used to teach keyboarding, Microsoft Office, or to “look stuff up” on the internet.

In Chapter 8, Images of the Learning Society, Papert discusses possible venues that might be used as models to create learning environments that support the use of the computer in a way compatible with his ideas - “one that helps us not only to learn but to learn about learning.”  (page 177)  One of those models discussed is the Brazilian Samba school.

The Brazilian Samba school model is fascinating to me.  Papert describes the samba school as a social organization that forms for a specific purpose (to perform in Rio’s carnival), is composed of a few hundred to a few thousand people of various ages, works together as collaboative co-learners to put together their performance.  In this post, I’m going to make a few comments about the samba school model and then try to come up with educational examples that may fit with the model.

The samba schools:

• Are voluntary.  It appears that people choose which (if any) of the various samba schools they want to be a part of.  This would appear to enhance intrinsic motivation.
• Allow for significant choice.  There are lots of tasks associated with preparing for the carnival… and it appears the members can choose which activities to be a part of.  Also an intrinsic motivator.
• Don’t allow for infinite individual choice.  The schools as a whole appear to set their goal, and then work together.  I assume an individual can’t change the direction of the whole group.  This fosters a sense of community and teamwork.
• Provide for intergenerational interaction / teaching / learning.  This wouldn’t always be just the adults telling the students how to do something.  I suspect the more mature sometimes rely on the younger to come up with and develop new ideas. 
• Provide for collaboration between novices and experts.
• Provide authentic tasks / learning experiences (making costumes, choreography, learning to dance, …) within a real-world context (preparing to perform in the next carnival).

OK, so my goals don’t include travelling to Rio to perform in the carnival.  I want to understand and encourage constructive thinking and learning using technology.  Are there educational programs available that include some of the attributes of the samba school?  Let’s do some brainstorming…

• IEEE Future City
• Botball
• After-school Computer Club (possibly with Logo Mindstorms / LCSI MicroWorlds)
• Saturday Computer Camp (possibly Scratch or NetLogo Programming)
• AECT’s ISMF (Association for Educational Communications and Technology International Student Media Festival).
• Maybe there could be an after-school or Saturday club to explore the use of various web 2.0 tools - like blogs.  However, I think this kind of task would be best situated within one of the other clubs.  For example, someone in a botball group may choose to blog about the progress of their project.  Or the IEEE Future City group may use a wiki to collaborate on the design of their city, …

All of the above are voluntary and I belieive will allow for the kinds of constructive efforts that Papert described in the samba school.  I also believe they would foster intrinsic motivation.  Future City and Botball are competitions with a pre-specified goal - very much like the samba schools.  ISMF is a competition but with many choices for products.  These competitions supply an overall goal and real-world context.  The computer club / computer camp ideas are more geared for individual exploration and goals - in these the individual would be setting their own goals.

Does anyone have experience with such clubs / competitions / festivals?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.

Now I’m sure I’ve missed some really good ones!  (For example, I know there’s a small school district in Canada that hosts an international media competition - but I don’t remember where it is!)  I’d love to hear from readers (assuming such people exist) with additional ideas.