­
SOLE destroying: an advantage of analogue over digital — ICT & Computing in Education
  • Front Page
  • Search
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy
Menu

ICT & Computing in Education

Articles on education technology and related topics
  • Front Page
  • Search
  • Newsletters
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
  • Info
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy

SOLE destroying: an advantage of analogue over digital

November 23, 2015

Every so often someone comes out with the idea that we don't need knowledge (or teachers or even schools). For example, Sugata Mitra, writing in the Times Education Supplement, says:

If we make the curriculum not of things we know but of things we don't know, there will be little to teach and much to learn. We call this a self-organised learning environment (SOLE).

Now, I was thinking of responding to this, but as I think Tom Bennett did a pretty good job in SOLE: Snake oil learning experience?, I don't think I'll bother. After all, I have a lot on my to-do list, and if I responded to every example of this sort of thing I'd never get anything done at all.

I think Bennett got one thing wrong in his article though. He says that "we're the turkeys who voted for Christmas", referring to that odd-to-say-the-least phenomenon of "teachers applauding people who have never been classroom teachers, telling them that teachers aren't necessary." It's actually worse than that: if you incur a financial cost to attend a talk by anyone who is there to tell you that teachers are surplus to requirements, or that all we need are "facilitators", or whatever, then you're a turkey who has paid to vote for Christmas. That's nothing less than insane.

I was going to write a post along the lines of "What do African school children -- you know, the ones who walk for miles and miles to get to school -- know that Mitra doesn't? But Bennett covered that, in a way, in his regular column, when he describes how one of his pupils walked for three hours to get to school during a train strike and bad weather, because:

education was very important to him and his family because it was so hard to access in his native country.

And this brings me to what I wanted to point out, something that you don't get to see when you read articles individually online, taken out of the context of the periodical in which they originally appeared. Whether by accident or design, Mitra's article saying that kids can do it for themselves, and Bennett's article citing an example of a pupil walking six hours to school and back, are placed next to each other!

A bit of devious positioning, or an unfortunate juxtaposition?

A bit of devious positioning, or an unfortunate juxtaposition?

I think this is a real example of delicious irony, and an example of where paper beats digital hands down!

In News & views Tags Sugata Mitra, Tom Bennett, SOLE, juxtaposition, journalism, analogue, paper
← Fiction and computational thinkingTeens, technology and friendships →
Recent book reviews
listen in.jpg
Quick looks: Listen in: How radio changed the home

Back in the 1930s, radio was the cutting edge technology in the home.

Read More →
Backlist: The Written World
Backlist: The Written World

Writing was invented ‘only’ a few thousand years ago. It’s a fascinating story.

Read More →
Backlist: What I'm reading: Bounce
Backlist: What I'm reading: Bounce

What does it take to become an expert? And what can the Computing teacher do about it?

Read More →
Backlist: The Fourth Education Revolution
Backlist: The Fourth Education Revolution

The title of this book invites curiosity: what were the other three ‘revolutions?

Read More →
A book review for your English department colleagues perhaps
A book review for your English department colleagues perhaps

Some of these stories are so richly told, it can almost seem as though you’re right there with him.

Read More →
Review: Pen Names
Review: Pen Names

OK, so this has nothing to do with education technology, but we all read (I hope!). A very interesting examination of the pen names some authors have adopted, and why.

Read More →
Review: The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History
Review: The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History

There's a really interesting section in this book about how ceramic storage of data and information is probably the most likely medium to stand the test of time.

Read More →
A book review for your biology colleagues perhaps
A book review for your biology colleagues perhaps

The subject under discussion here is how human physiology has developed in different ways, in response to different conditions around the world.

Read More →
Review: Social Media for Academics
Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

Read More →
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Read More →
Dig+Ed+Banner.jpg

Contact us

Privacy

Cookies

Terms and conditions

This website is powered by Squarespace

(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved