Children in the Information Age. Opportunities for Creativity, Innovation and New Activities

227 Pages·1988·12.803 MB·English

by  Academician Blagovest Sendov, Ivan Stanchev

Other Titles of Interest
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Learning & Language in the Classroom
McGUIRE& PRIESTLEY
Life After School
MOONEN & PLOMP
Eurit 86: Development of Educational Sofware and Courseware
THOMAS & KOBAYASHI
Educational Technology - It's Creation. Development and Cross-
Cultural Transfer
SMITH
Advances in Computer Assisted Learning
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New Technologies in Language Learning
A Related Journal
COMPUTERS & EDUCATION
An International Journal
D F ROGERS & P R SMITH
Computers have entered nearly every aspect and every level of education.
In order to disseminate information on the wealth of experience being
gained, Computers & Education sets as its goal the establishment of a
forum for communication in the use of digital, analog and hybrid computers
in all aspects of education. Although the principal educational applications
of computers have been in higher education, there is a growing awareness
of their role in secondary and indeed primary education, and papers which
describe developments in these areas will be considered.
A prime requisite in developing any technology is the establishment of its
supporting literature. For both scientific and nonscientific newcomers to
digital, analog and hybrid computation, this publication serves as a refer-
ence standard against which goals can be set and the current state of the
art assessed. The journal also features reviews of books and papers pub-
lished elsewhere, meeting schedules and short courses being offered.
Relevant papers are welcomed for editorial consideration.
Children in the
Information Age
OPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATIVITY,
INNOVATION AND NEW ACTIVITIES
Selected Papers from the Second International Conference
Sofia, Bulgaria, 19-23 May 1987
EDITED BY
Academician Blagovest Sendov
and Dr Ivan Stanchev
PERGAMON PRESS
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All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
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First edition 1988
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Children in the Information Age.
Sponsored by the State Committee for Science and
Technical Progress of the People's Republic of Bulgaria,
...etal.
1. Computer-assisted instruction - Congresses.
2. Computers and children - Congresses.
I. Sendov, Blagovest. II. Stanchev, Ivan. III. Bulgaria.
LB1028.5.C514 1988 371.3'9445 85-28528
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Children in the Information Age: Opportunities for Creativity
Innovation and New Activities Conference: 1987: Sofia)
Children in the Information Age: Opportunities for Creativity.
Innovation and New Activities; selected papers from the
international Conference;
Sofia, Bulgaria, may 19-23
1. Education - Data Processing
I. Title II. Sendov, Blagovest III. Stanchev, Ivan
370'.28'54 LB1028.43
ISBN 0 08 0364640
φ
Printed in Bulgaria by Printing Works and Publishing Centre of
the "Lyudmila Zhivkova" International Foundation
Foreword
An old Bulgarian saying teaches us that "Practice makes perfect". That is
why, after the II International Conference "Children in the Information Age" is
over, we should give an answer to the question "What do we know more and
better?"
Firstly, we know that we have now many friends and colleagues, who share
our ideas and creative efforts for solving the numerous problems in relation with
the introduction of electronics and informatics in the sphere of education. The
programme of the conference was quite abundant: over 400 participants from
more than 40 countries; 76 papers, 16 of which plenary.
Secondly, we know that we still have many disputable issues and critical
moments in the use of computer-oriented methods and means for education
and out-of-school activities of youngsters. That is why, along with the vivid dis-
cussions of the papers, there were also debates organized in each stream of
the conference. What did the participants in them argue about?
- Do computers reduce interpersonal skills?
- Does information technology widen the gaps?
- Do knowledge-based systems damage schools?
We know, too, that in the future we shall continue to have the full support
of prestigeous international organizations like UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, IFIP,
NASA and specially the Lyudmila Zhivkova International Foundation and we
hope others will join. This support is guaranteed by the high estimation of the
role and significance of the International Research Programme "Children in the
Information Age" and the conferences, held regularly within its framework.
These estimations were expressed in the greeting addresses of the interna-
tional organizations and created an atmosphere of creative optimism in the very
beginning of the conference.
But we also know that these estimations oblige us, that the job we have
started is getting greater in amount and wider in scope. This is proved by the
events, parallel to the Second Conference:
- a meeting of experts for the First UNESCO Congress "The use of com-
puters in education" - Paris, 1989;
- a working session of the editors of journals and magazines, specializ-
ing in informatics in education;
- a working conference of TC 3 of IFIP on the problems of informatics
and mathematics;
■* - a session of the UNESCO IIP Bureau;
- First International Competition on Programming for Children;
- a complex exhibition of software systems and technical aids for educa-
tion.
These events contributed for a number of organizational and research
decisions to be made, important for the development not only of the interna-
tional programme, but also of numerous specific problems, which the
specialized international committees and organizations are facing.
And finally, we know that our friends and guests are pleased with their
stay in Bulgaria, as the social programme gave them the chance of visiting
cultural, historical and artistic sights in our beautiful capital Sofia, but they
could also take part in the national holiday of culture and letters, which is a
unique nation-wide celebration for glorifying culture, science and education.
And so, the Second International Conference "Children in the Information
Age" concluded its work. Its participants are now getting into "new and deeper
water". This is evident by the contents of the invited and plenary papers com-
prising this book. We hope that, by tradition and thanks to the support of Per-
gamon Press and personally Mr Maxwell and the Lyudmila Zhivkova Interna-
tional Foundation, this edition will contribute to the wider spreading of the sci-
entific and application results of the conference.
The content of this book follows the structure, which was adopted already
by Pergamon Press in 1986 in the book entitled "Children in the Information
Age", containing selected papers from the First International Conference held
in 1985 in Varna, Bulgaria.
In conclusion, the editors would like to express their gratefulness to the
Lyudmila Zhivkova International Foundation for its financial support, and also
to Mr Branimir Handjiev and Dr Kiril Manov for their professional help in pre-
paring this edition.
Sofia, July 1987 The Editors
To Participants in the Second
International Conference
"Children in the Information Age:
Opportunities for Creativity,
Innovation and New Activities"
It gives me particular pleasure to welcome most cordially participants and
guests to the Second International Conference and Exhibition "Children in the
Information Age: Opportunities for Creativity, Innovation and New Activities",
organized by the Lyudmila Zhivkova International Foundation, with the coop-
eration of scientists and organizations from tens of countries.
The event which has brought you together and has united you is marked
by responsibility and love of humanity because it relates to the future of the
planet, to the children of the world. Today's childrep will live and create in the
coming, 21st century, they will determine its image. That century, called by
many scientists and experts "an information age" is already knocking at our
door, forwarding its requirements and challenges. Many of these have been
generated primarily by the colossal, in its implications for the future of civiliza-
tion, influx of electronics and informatics in the various modules of society,
and in production. This is a process that will entail cardinal changes in produc-
tive forces worldwide.
It is our duty to utilize all possibilities offered by computers in the quest for
new horizons in education and the upbringing of children and the young, for a
fuller unfolding of their gifts and abilities and the formation of harmonious per-
sonalities.
The topicality of these issues finds proof in the support a number o frepu-
ted international organizations, such as UNESCO, NASA, WHO, the UN Uni-
versity and others, offer the idea for the drawing up of an international re-
search programme titled "Children in the Information Age".
The community in the People's Republic of Bulgaria full appreciates the
problems you have been discussing. We have undertaken energetic action in
the field of informatics and electronics, we have invested much effort in provid-
1
2 Address of Todor Zhivkov
ing hands-on computer literacy for the growing generation. We endeavour to
create adequate conditions for maximum creativity by the young, for the
growth of versatile and spiritually advanced individuals.
We have quite a few achievements in this respect about which, I have no
doubt, your Bulgarian counterparts will tell you. Needless to say, we shall be
grateful for any new idea that might enhance our endeavours and multiply the
results thereof.
Allow me to assure you that our state and public organizations, Bulgarian
scientists and artists, teachers and educators of young people will make their
contribution to fulfill, in the best possible way, the goals you map out at this
forum.
I wish you success at this conference and would like to convey my deep
conviction that it will be a significant contribution in the efforts of peaceloving
mankind for the attainment of trust and understanding, in the name of the fu-
ture - the children of the planet.
Good luck!
TODOR ZHIVKOV
President of the State Council
of the People's Republic of
Bulgaria
A Critique of Technocentrism
in Thinking About the School
of the Future
SEYMOUR PAPERT
MIT, Cambridge, Ma 02139, USA
Everybody in this room would agree that we are moving into something
called "the computer future," a future where everything will be different be-
cause of the presence of computers and other new technologies. In some de-
partments of life, the computer presence is already visible. Coming here from
my home, I passed through an airport and bought airplane tickets. The com-
puter terminal has become an integral part of that transaction: you buy
airplane tickets by dealing with somebody at a computer. In some of our air-
ports in the United States, you don't even need the person. You can deal di-
rectly with the computer: put in your credit card, out comes the ticket.
These manifestations of the computer are perhaps superficial. They have
not changed our lives very much. It even takes the same amount of time to get
your airplane ticket. But there are other departments of life where nobody
would say that the use of the computer is superficial. No one who owes his or
her life to CAT scans in medicine would think that the role of the computer in
transforming medical practice is a superficial matter. We are met here this
week to talk about the computer in a department which, up to now, has been
touched only quite superficially: learning, education, and the lives of children.
The presence of the computer in this area will have a very deep impact - not
only upon the nature of schools themselves, but also upon the whole of
human society. The way that the computer enters into learning will play a de-
termining role in the way that both technology and the larger culture evolve in
the coming generation.
So we are entering the computer future, but what will it be like? What sort
of a world will it be? There's no shortage of experts, futurists, and prophets
who are ready to tell us - only they don't agree. The Utopians promise us a
new millenium, a wonderful world in which the computer will solve all our prob-
lems. The computer critics warn us of the dehumanizing effect of too much ex-
3
4 Seymour Papert
posure to machinery, and of disruption of employment in the workplace and
the economy.
Who is right? Well, both are wrong - because they are asking the wrong
question. The question is not "What will the computer do to us?" The question
is "What will we make of the computer?" The point is not to predict the com-
puter future. The point is to make it.
Our computer future could be made in very many different forms. It will be
determined not by the nature of the technology, but by a host of decisions of
individual human beings. In the end, it is a political matter, a matter of social
philosophy and of social decision how we will remake and rethink our world in
the presence of technology. When we talk about computers in education, we
should not think about a machine having an effect. We should be talking about
the opportunity offered us, by this computer presence, to rethink what learning
is about, to rethink education.
In past generations, education has been very much off on the side of the
main stage of the world. In our universities, the schools of education are given
second place. The prestigious departments are physics and molecular biology
and mathematics and philosophy. Education? That's some minor subject.
In the political world, when statesmen meet at conferences and summits,
they talk about matters of finance and arms and trade. Learning is off in the
wings, to be discussed - if at all - in lip service statements in opening
speeches and closing ceremonies. But I think this is changing. One of the ef-
fects of these new technologies is that learning and education will move to the
center stage -in its intellectual interest, in the opportunity and the need for
profound study and research, and in the political arena as well.
We are already beginning to see signs where the politics of learning is be-
coming a matter of central stage and not something off in the wings. As we
face a world of ever-accelerating change, it's no longer possible to have a
concept of learning where people in their youth will learn the skills that they will
apply through their lives. Learning has to be a continuous matter. Everyone
pays lip service to this now, but soon it must also enter into the decision mak-
ing at both the highest and lowest levels of all countries of the world. Who will
prosper and who will not will be largely a matter of who is able to enter the
computer future of learning.
The words I am putting up on this screen now are words I will talk about
in the next half hour or so.
1. Technocentrism
Technocentrism, the first of these words, is written in red because the theme
of my speech is a warning against that thing. I coined the word from Piaget's
use of the word egocentrism - which does not mean that children are selfish;
simply that when the child thinks, all questions are referred to the self, to the
ego. Technocentrism is the fallacy of referring all questions to the technology.
In the proceedings of conferences on technology and education, there
are questions like, "Will technology have this or that effect?" Will using com-
A Critique of Technocentrism about the School of the Future 5
puters to teach mathematics increase children's skill at arithmetic? Or will it
encourage children to be lazy about adding numbers because calculators can
do it? Will using word processors make children become more creative writ-
ers? Or will it lead to a loss of handwriting skills? Will computers increase chil-
dren's creativity? Or will it lead to mechanical, rote methods of thinking? Will
the computer increase interpersonal skills? Or will it lead to isolation o fchil-
dren from one another?
These questions reflect technocentric thinking. So do all questions about
whether this use or that use of the computer is the right one. "Does drill and
practice improve children's performance in arithmetic?" "Does Logo lead to
more mathematical thinking?"
These are interesting questions, of course, but they are not fundamental
ones. It's not drill and practice - or Logo - that will achieve this or that result;
it's how we use these things. But beyond questions about the most efficient
way to teach arithmetic, there are questions that existed long before the com-
puter: questions that have to do with general theories of education.
Long before the computer, the education world was divided into two
camps. One emphasized the development of the child and the child's active
construction of an understanding of the world. One might call these child-cen-
tered or developmental-centered approaches to education. On the other
hand, in quite sharp opposition, are those who believe in a more curriculum-
centered approach.
I want to quarrel a little with the title of this conference: Children in an In-
formation Age. The title carries the danger of encouraging an information-cen-
tered approach to education - which is not very different from a technocentric
approach. Thinking of the future as an information age certainly focuses on
some exciting new developments. There is more access to more information
than there has ever been before. But there is also a dangerous side from an
educator's point of view: the danger of seeing the most important aspect of
education as the providing of information - or even the providing of access to
information.
One should make a sharp distinction between these two views of educa-
tion. In one, the goal of education is to foster individual development. The
other focuses on the information that the individual will acquire. Strongly re-
lated to this division is whether we see the goal of education as fostering inde-
pendence and a sense of personal power on the part of the children. This con-
cept is the one I will concentrate on in this talk.
The role that the computer can play most strongly has little to do with in-
formation. It is to give children a greater sense of empowerment - of being
able to do more than they could do before. But I also see the computer being
used to lead the child step by step through the learning process. Ivan lllitch
said the most important thing you learn at school is that learning only happens
by being taught. This is the opposite of empowerment. What you ought to be
learning at school is that you don't need to be taught in order to learn. This is
not to say that the teacher is not an important part of the learning process.