One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”
This idea is why Montessori education is designed the way it is. It is also behind the design of Smalltalk and original vision of the Dynabook. It's a pity that Multitouch is being put to the service of consumption and not to making the direct manipulation of objects and programming more accessible. (In the Morphic framework, you can even open mini browsers on objects by clicking on them and write scripts against them or change their methods. Imagine the hands on exploration that would facilitate.)
I am also reminded of a visit by an admissions officer from Stanford to my high school. He read us one essay that centered around the writer's motorcycle repair hobby. It strikes me that a lot of the essay justified the repair activity as an entry into engineering and science. This article talks about such repair as a worthy thing in itself.
This idea is why Montessori education is designed the way it is. It is also behind the design of Smalltalk and original vision of the Dynabook. It's a pity that Multitouch is being put to the service of consumption and not to making the direct manipulation of objects and programming more accessible. (In the Morphic framework, you can even open mini browsers on objects by clicking on them and write scripts against them or change their methods. Imagine the hands on exploration that would facilitate.)
I am also reminded of a visit by an admissions officer from Stanford to my high school. He read us one essay that centered around the writer's motorcycle repair hobby. It strikes me that a lot of the essay justified the repair activity as an entry into engineering and science. This article talks about such repair as a worthy thing in itself.