Teachers as Programmers? Get Real

[Marty Billingsley]

Don Asbridge <dasbridge at taft.k12.ca.us> writes:
>
> But there is a bigger picture:  the students.  Several of you have
> mentioned the students.  Students are the ones with the money (and the
> time, motivation, creativity, learning drive, energy, etc.).  Marketing
> directly to students seems the way to go.  But instead of expecting
> "teachers to teach students to use RR," expect the students to use RR
> to take the older generation into the information age (the children
> shall lead).
>
> Instead of teachers using RR to teach the students... allow the
> students to use RR to change the world!

This is the philosophy behind the Generation-Yes project.
>From their web site <http://genyes.com/>:
 Generation Y (Gen Y) is the premier solution for schools looking
 for a research-proven methodology designed to infuse technology
 throughout the school. Students work with teachers to bring
 effective technology into the classrooms and libraries. The
 resulting collaboration provides the students with project-based
 learning and the teachers with on-site, sustainable professional
 development.

The way it works in our school is that our Gen-Y class teaches
students certain skills (like creating web pages, etc.) and hooks
up these students with teachers who need things done (like web
pages made) but don't know how to do them.  The kids have a
project within which to exercise their new skills; the teachers
get their projects done and even learn a little bit along the
way.  Maybe we should look at incorporating RunRev into this....

  - marty

--
Marty Billingsley (marty at ucls.uchicago.edu)
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools