[MWForum]Introducing MW @.0

[Lauren Pacini]

Sorry, that should have been DIGEST!! Too early on a
Sunday morning!!!

Lauren

--- Lauren Pacini <lrpacini@yahoo.com> wrote:
> A lot to direst, Harvey, but some really worthwhile
> "stuff!" Right now I have a group of teachers who
> would rather see technology fizzle and go away,
> except, of course, for their own personal
> convenience!! I knew I was in trouble last year when
> I
> put out a plea for participation on the Technology
> Steering Committee. The few who agreed to
> participate
> contributed even less. So much for the notion of
> "buy-in!" 
> 
> I concur completely with your notions of attitude
> creation. Grades 4-6 offer a far better opportunity
> that does 7-8, so the Upper Elementary is this years
> target. The hope being that next this years 5th
> graders, being next years 7th graders, will take the
> attitude with them.
> 
> I will report my progress at appropriate intervals!!
> 
> Thanks to all who have contributed their thoughts!
> 
> Lauren
> 
> --- Harvey Bornfield <earlyfire@earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> > Dear Lauren:
> > The homework which underwrites and guarantees
> > successful integration of 
> > Microworlds into a school system is, in the
> initial
> > phases, much more 
> > about conjuring attitude than superimposing
> > strategy. Many teachers 
> > regard any new analytically-challenging,
> > concentration-intensive 
> > programs requiring long-range commitments in an
> > unfamiliar experiential 
> > theater as ranking up there almost as high on the
> > top 40 desirability 
> > list as say, a firing squad, unpaid leave a
> midnight
> > visit from the KKK, 
> > an Afghanistan Honeymoon, a swig of
> Socrates-quality
> > hemlock. So the 
> > lion's share of your efforts to engage prople will
> > be campaigns of 
> > enchantment rather than arsenals of strategy. One
> > needs to find ways to 
> > camouflage the labors with charm. Define concrete,
> > creatively 
> > visualizable activities and their fruits, the
> > deliverables, and make 
> > them teacher-friendly, turbo-charged with
> > inspiration, and the rest is 
> > footnotes. No clipboards, no 'death by details',
> no
> > talk of 'one size 
> > fits all'. Create an alternative to sterility,
> > people will begin 
> > 'jumping ship' in growing numbers. The innovation
> > diffusion mode. And it 
> > is the children who will do your charming, and let
> > their laughter voice 
> > the intrinsic merit of creativity as higher a
> motive
> > than the 
> > acquisition of skills and knowledge. More about
> how
> > to involve the kids 
> > later in tomorrow's post..........
> > 
> >  From the PR point of view, I have found in 9
> years
> > of managing 
> > elementary school computer labs using Microworlds
> ,
> > that individual and 
> > collaborative authoring both in creative writing
> and
> > in social studies, 
> > makes the most graceful justification-exempt way
> to
> > bridge from a 
> > concentration-camp gradebook food-chain mentality
> to
> > authoring, i.e., to 
> > working out of imagination. So what's to publish?
> > 
> > Recipe books (a digital camera, capturing kids
> with
> > waffle batter up to 
> > their third knuckle)
> > Stationery, customized, at Parent Meetings,
> > available to peruse at the 
> > online web site.
> > 
> > Downloaded and/or postmarked stamp collections,
> > turned into turtle 
> > shapes, used in a template of a postcard or an
> > envelope. The advanced 
> > kids get to scanning, sizing, and launder the
> > postmarks, and put their 
> > own names on stamps.
> > 
> > Maps of villages, cities, states, countries. A map
> > of Europe or the US 
> > can feature Flags, downloaded, and edited into
> > shapes. Make different 
> > sized diamonds to reflect city population size.
> > Icons to show various 
> > economic enterprise,
> > (factories, mining, agriculture) Topographic Keys
> > (mountain, forest, 
> > desert, swampland, plain, tundra)
> > Civilization Map Keys (National Parks, Camping
> > facilities)
> > 
> > By 6th grade, kids can reuse other's works or
> their
> > own last years works 
> > (plan on longevity, on building a permanent,
> > inter-school sharable 
> > library, internet accessible), Map skills prepare
> > the way for 
> > integration of a math component, of estimation,
> and
> > simulating travel 
> > agencies to various places can fill a month or
> > three. Collaborative 
> > groups plan itineraries, use a variety of vehicles
> > on routes (on foot, 
> > horseback, llama, camel, bikes, rental cars and
> > jeeps jeeps, chartered 
> > helicopters, planes, boats) (if you're NASA, you
> > create vacations on 
> > different planets). (If you're Tolkien or George
> > Lucas, you have to know 
> > what kind of vehicles to use) Itineraries can also
> > include ships 
> > exploring the New World, Marco Polo's voyages, the
> > settlement of the US. 
> > Lots of inert 8 and a half by eleven to be set in
> > multimedia motion.
> > 
> > Kids have to plot distance and aim, switching
> > shapes, from horse to 
> > bike, ship, jeep. railroad, when necessary. The
> > Math-Expert member(s) of 
> > the team, use glide, and set up a movement that
> > reflects accurate 
> > comparative speed of vehicles. Say, for example
> One
> > minute = one hour's 
> > travel, as coordinated with the map scale. Several
> > itineraries on the 
> > same map. Not just to execute. Team members make
> > their projects for 
> > others, who have to use stop watches to figure out
> > mileages, given 
> > observation of times as the independent variable.
> > Add to this The 
> > Money-man. (Ken Lay not available) Rents the
> > vehicles on an hourly or 
> > daily basis. Hotel, motel, hostel, campground,
> food
> > fees have to be 
> > figured out. Kids might have to get brochures, and
> > search the internet 
> > to acquire real rates. They create tabs, and
> create
> > receipts. Online 
> > cash register programs. Use Turtle shapes worth a
> > thousand words, 
> > calculate change. There's your gifted program.
> > 
> > For your offroad kids, create Original lands and
> > maps of unknown places, 
> > and vehicles, science-fiction inspired. Create
> > stories, and at each 
> > place you click on a map, a text or movie comes up
> > dynamic dioramas.
> > 
> > An ambitious third grade class sized their faces,
> > pasted them on scanned 
> > dinosaurs, and taught the dinosaurs now to speak
> by
> > clicking on the 
> > face. Juraissic Interviews 101. Then merged the
> > pages into a book.
> > 
> > When you become daring, you can create "roadmaker
> > guns". You set a 
> > slider to a road type, 1-dotted line path,2-
> double
> > dotted line donkey 
> > trail 3-graded,........n=Interstate n+1=airplane
> > route. Each a unique 
> > symbol. Then aim, and "Spray out a road" in
> 
=== message truncated ===


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