What Education is

Reconciling Liberty and Democracy in Education; or, Why Philosophy Matters Even in Software

What nutrition and reproduction are to physiological life, education is to social life.This education consists primarily in transmission through communication. Communication is a process of sharing experience till it becomes a common possession. It modifies the disposition of both the parties who partake in it. John Dewey, from Democracy and Education

We'll begin today by discussing an excerpt from Eamonn Callan's 1997 book Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy that seems to become more relevant each year. We'll consider the following questions:

• What is your reaction to Callan's "Brave New World" scenario, and what (if anything) do you believe it has to do with education?
• In your own educational experience (how) has the conflict between liberty and democracy been addressed?
• (How) Do the uses of technology in school reflect assumptions about the purpose of education"?
• How can/should the design of technologies for children in school reflect a philosophy of education?

John Dewey's Experience and Education

We'll begin our discussion of Dewey's 1938 book with Susannah's comments and questions, as well as the questions raised by Emily Bolon ( who presented Dewey in CS92 in the spring of 2000).

The Project Process

• Meeting with sponsoring teacher
• Revised project description
• Begin project page(s)
• Gather materials, schedule observations, and begin the design process.
• Note the dates for storyboard presentations

The Revised Project Description

If you look at the revised project descriptions from past years (they are included on the project pages) you will see that different teams have structured them differently, some with more and some with less detail. But here are some kinds of information that you should consider making clear in the revised project descriptions:

• The audience for your program
• The school and teacher with whom you'll be working
• The computers for which you'll be designing the program
• How the program will likely be used by the students/teacher.
• The tentative schedule of team meetings and classroom observations as the project proceeds.
• A timetable for the project, including benchmarks like the storyboard, prototype evaluation, testing and final installation
• The qualities you are looking for in an authoring tool/ environment for this project.
• The distribution of responsibilities (if known) for accomplishing your work.
• Your initial thoughts about the project and your expectations/aspirations about what you hope to accomplish with the program you're building.
• Whatever else you would like followers of your project to know.

For next time: Read Israel Scheffler's "Computers at School?" (1986). Arrange a team meeting and contact your sponsoring teacher. Begin your revised project description after you've met with and discussed the project with your sponsoring teacher