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logo philosophy and implementation

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table of contents introduction what is logo who needs it by seymour papert iv the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities by clotilde fonseca photographs accompanying each chapter are used with permission of the authors the samba school photograph in the brazil chapter is used with permission of the photographer john maier jr 2 the saint paul logo project an american experience by geraldine kozberg and michael tempel 22 the russian school system and the logo approach two methods worlds apart by sergei soprunov and elena yakovleva 48 a logo postcard from argentina by horacio c reggini graphic design by le groupe flexidée © logo computer systems inc 1999 all rights reserved no part of the document contained herein may be reproduced stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means photocopying electronic mechanical recording or otherwise without the prior approval from logo computer systems inc legal deposit 1st semester 1999 isbn 2-89371-494-3 printed 2-99 microworlds is a trademark and is a registered trademark of logo computer systems inc all other trademarks or registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners 78 logo in australia a vision of their own by jeff richardson 96 the constructionist approach the integration of computers in brazilian public schools by maria elizabeth b almeida 106 project lighthouse in thailand guiding pathways to powerful learning by david cavallo 128 iii

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introduction what is logo and who needs it by seymour papert s eymour papert is currently lego professor of learning research and director of the epistemology and learning group at m.i.t he contributes actively to lcsi research and development keeping lcsi abreast of innovations in the fields of education and technology in 1993 dr papert was given the lifetime achievement award by the software publishers association he was the sixth individual to be so honored he has published several books including mindstorms the children s machine and the connected family all acclaimed discussion of computers children and learning dr papert s interest with children grew as a result of his work with jean piaget in the late 1950 s and early 1960 s in switzerland iv v

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introduction the great religious teachers of the world have understood that if you want to communicate a powerful idea you may do better by telling stories than by spinning abstract definitions in the spirit of their ways i am sure that this book of stories each of which describes a large scale logo implementation in a different country will make a significant contribution towards communicating the powerful idea that is captured for me as for the authors of its chapters by the word logo why then does it need an introduction don t the stories suffice in themselves sure the stories would suffice but the idea that the stories will be enhanced by commentaries is in line with the practices of the religious teachers i take as my model and does not at all contradict the principle that concrete stories are better vehicles for communicating ideas than abstract theorizing the point is the same as the first of two extensions to the principle of learning by doing we learn better by doing but we learn better still if we combine our doing with talking and thinking about what we have done the chapters of this book are written by people who not only have done something important but who have thought and talked a lot about their actions what i plan to do in this introduction is just a little more of the talking part a good starting point is to ponder what the several projects described in the chapters have in common what makes them all logo projects an easy answer might seem to be that they all use a programming language called logo they do but this is not enough to qualify for when you read the chapters you will see that what is important to the writers is not the programming language as such but a certain spirit of doing things i and again i guess all the authors would see many projects that use logo as thoroughly counter to the logo spirit and in the other direction i can imagine though i have seldom seen computer-based projects comparable in spirit and scope to those described in this book which use a different programming language so the question posed becomes what is this logo spirit and why is this spirit so rarely found in computer work without logo i have myself sometimes slipped into using an answer given by many logoists in the form of a definition logo is a programming language plus a philosophy of education and this latter is most often categorized as constructivism or discovery learning but while the logo spirit is certainly consistent with constructivism as understood for example by the author of the brazilian chapter there is more to it than any traditional meaning of constructivism and indeed more to it than education in fact a feature of this book itself exemplifies an aspect of the something more as you read it i want you to consider the idea that the right answer to what is logo cannot be an x plus a y it is something more holistic and the only kind of entity that has the right kind of integrity is a culture and the only way to get to know a culture is by delving into its multiple corners the feature of this book that begins to make my point appears in the fact that although the book is published by a company that has a commercial interest in logo it nevertheless reports as many examples of difficulties in the implementation of logo as examples of uncomplicated successes this acceptance of negatives is very characteristic of the logo spirit what others might describe as going wrong logoists treat as an opportunity to gain better understanding of what one is trying to do logoists reject school s preoccupation with getting right or wrong answers as nothing short of educational malpractice of course rejecting right vs wrong does not mean that anything goes discipline means commitment to the principle that once you start a project you sweat and slave to get it to work and only give up as a very last resort life is not about knowing the right answer ­ or at least it should not be ­ it is about getting things to work in this sense you will see on reading the chapters that the writers vi what is logo and who needs it seymour papert vii

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introduction practice what they preach or rather use practice in place of preaching and in so doing make the moral of the story stand out more strikingly than any abstract words could possibly do the frame of mind behind the logo culture s attitude to getting it to happen is much more than an educational or pedagogic principle it is better described as reflecting a philosophy of life than a philosophy of education but insofar as it can be seen as an aspect of education it is about something far more specific than constructivism in the usual sense of the word the principle of getting things done of making things and of making them work ­ is important enough and different enough from any prevalent ideas about education that it really needs another name to cover it and a number of related principles some of which will be mentioned below i have adapted the word constructionism to refer to everything that has to do with making things and especially to do with learning by making an idea that includes but goes far beyond the idea of learning by doing i shall return to the idea of constructionism but want to emphasize here what might for educational decision-makers be the most important difference between the n word constructionism and the v word constructivism the v-word refers to a theory about how math and science and everything else is learned and a proposal about how they should be taught the n-word also refers to a general principle of learning and teaching but it also includes a specific content area that was neglected in traditional schools but which is becoming a crucial knowledge area in the modern world choosing constructivism as a basis for teaching traditional subjects is a matter for professional educators to decide i personally think that the evidence is very strongly in favor of it but many teachers think otherwise and i respect their views but the constructionist content area is a different matter this is not a decision about pedagogic theory but a decision about what citizens of the future need to know in the past most people left the world only slightly different from how it was when they found it the rapid and accelerating change that marks our times means that every individual will see bigger changes every few years than previous generations saw in a lifetime so this is the choice we must make for ourselves for our children for our countries and for our planet acquire the skills needed to participate with understanding in the construction of what is new or be resigned to a life of dependency another way in which the stories in this book go beyond the description programming language plus constructivism is captured in the costa rican story by a student whose surprise at seeing a teacher learn evokes the exclamation wow i never knew that teachers have to study a crucial aspect of the logo spirit is fostering situations which the teacher has never seen before and so has to join the students as an authentic co-learner this is the common constructivist practice of setting up situations in which students are expected to make their own discoveries but where what they discover is something that the teacher already knows and either pretends not to know or exercises self-restraint in not sharing with the students neither deception nor restraint is necessary when teacher and student are faced with a real problem that arises naturally in the course of a project the problem challenges both both can give their all i like to emphasize this last point by the following analogy the best way to become a good carpenter is by participating with a good carpenter in the act of carpentering by analogy the way to become a good learner is by participating with a good learner in an act of learning in other words the student should encounter the teacher-aslearner and share the act of learning but in school this seldom happens since the teacher already knows what is being taught and so cannot authentically be learning what i see as an essential part of the logo experience is this relationship of apprenticeship in learning logo both in the sense of its computer system and of its culture of viii what is logo and who needs it seymour papert ix

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introduction activities has been shaped by striving for richness in giving rise to new and unexpected situations that will challenge teachers as much as students doubts about the feasibility of logo are often expressed by policy-makers who say but our teachers can t do that i always ask why not and policy-makers in several dozen countries have told me that it is because their teachers have limited education are not used to such ideas are conservative lazy dominated by unions you name it several of the stories in this book notably the st paul story the thai story and again the costa rican story bear on these beliefs exposing them to be somewhere between superstitions and cover stories for reluctance to change the experiences reported in the stories confirm that the skeptical policy-maker is absolutely right but only if can t do it means can t do it without getting a chance to learn how and they suggest that getting a chance to learn how might require far more than is usually offered ­ a few hours of staff development time under the guidance of a trainer from some computer company but it can be done in fact one of the more impressive features of this collection is providing insight into how seriously the logo culture approaches teachers as intellectual agents the teacher development components of the projects not only give an exceptional level of time and support but also are outstanding in conception and organization this costs but clotilde fonseca gives compelling reason to believe that there are very few countries in the world which could not do as well if they had the political will that costa rican leaders have brought to bear on education i turn next to something that many readers might perceive as inadequately represented in the stories the role of the internet and the world wide web indeed for many the low-key presence of the information highway could give the stories a slight feel of coming from another epoch how quickly we are overtaken by the latest fashions in part the perception is correct because the prominence of the web is only a few years old and because these stories are selected to show what can be done in more than just a few years it is inevitable that this component is less present than it would be in a successor volume to this written in five years time but in part the sense of being old-fashioned offers a salutary correction to an unbalanced focus on connectivity in contemporary thinking about computers and learning to explain what i mean i draw on some ideas that i developed in the 1998 colin cherry memorial lecture which you can find in the connectedfamily.com web site as you see i might want to redress the balance of attention given to the web but i certainly do not neglect its value in that lecture i complained about the harmful effect on popular culture of using the name information technology to refer to what would more properly be called digital technology in a very technical sense of information everything digital belongs to information theory but for most people the word information has a popular sense of getting something that informs but most of what computers are used for has nothing to do with information in this ordinary sense think of making a spaceship the task of designing the space shuttle would be too complex for any human mind to manage without computers and even further from the informational aspect of computing the control mechanisms to guide it make extensive use of digital chips in short i like to recognize ­ only slightly simplifying a complex issue two wings of digital technology the technology as an informational medium and the technology as a constructional medium in which garb it is more like wood and bricks and steel than like printing or television of course the two wings are equally important but popular perception is dominated by the informational wing because that is what people see and ceaselessly hear about x what is logo and who needs it seymour papert xi

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introduction and that is what refects the predominant role of informational media in their lives now let me turn to education to recognize that this onesidedness in perception of the technology has produced a deep distortion of how people think about its contribution to education this has happened because education itself has two wings which also could be called informational and constructional part of learning is getting information which might come from reading a book or listening to a teacher or by visiting sites on the web but that is only one part of education the other part is about doing things making things constructing things however here too there is an imbalance in large part because of the absence of suitable technologies the constructional side of learning has lagged in schools taking a poor second place to the dominant informational side in my view a key to the current trends of discussion about technology and education is an ironic fact about the imbalance between informational and constructional whereas the most qualitatively original contribution digital technology could make to education lies in redressing the imbalance in fact the imbalance is increased by popular perception that so strongly favors the informational sides both of schools and of computers educational reform is being seriously held back by this match between an unrecognized dichotomy in digital technology and a generally unrecognized dichotomy in the education system as a result although there is a great deal of talk about putting more control in the hands of the students and replacing teaching by facilitating in fact the image of computers in school becomes one of supporting the traditional role of teaching to bring this discussion back to the logo culture s view of the teacher i want to register my horror when i hear talk about how the web will allow every student to be taught by the best teacher in the world nothing could be further from our view in which the best teacher in the world is one who has a close and empathic relationship with students the primary way that digital technology will help is to provide more opportunity for wonderful teachers to work with wonderful students on projects where they will jointly exercise wonderfully powerful ideas this view does not in any way put down the value of the internet quite the contrary it leads to a greater recognition of its power the true power of both sides ­ the constructional and the informational sides of the digital technology comes out when the two are put together the web has been criticized ­ in my view quite rightly ­ for encouraging the superficial grasshopper mentality seen in a lot of surfing the right response to the criticism is neither to justify nor to ban surfing but to make it more purposeful by integrating the use of the internet into constructionist project work for students engaged in projects the web is a highly focused tool for finding relevant material relevant ideas and even collaborators reference to the very powerful idea of powerful idea brings me back to my promise to add a second extension to the principle of learning by doing yes doing is a good way to learn and it is made better by talking and thinking but we learn best of all by the special kind of doing that consists of constructing something outside of ourselves a child building a tower writing a story constructing a working robotic device or making a video game are all examples of constructing and the list goes on indefinitely all these activities have several features in common they are subject to the test of reality if they don t work they are a challenge to understand why and to overcome the obstacles they can be shown shared and discussed with other people but what causes some of them to be specially valued in the logo culture is their contact with powerful ideas that enables them to serve as transitional objects for the personal appropriation of the ideas in this respect it is horacio reggini s contribution to this book that stands out although others are not far behind let me tell an oversimplified historical story to make a xii what is logo and who needs it seymour papert xiii

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introduction point and introduce two epistemological words the story is about geometry which began as the name implies as the art of measuring the earth but at the beginning it was a flat two-dimensional earth no doubt part of the commerce and management of fields geometry became immensely more powerful when it took off into three dimension space pyramids could be built and the movements of the stars used for navigating the seas the effort and interest of such feats of the mind deepened thinking so much that euclid could bring geometry back to the plane in the spectacular construction of his system of axioms and proofs but here is a paradox of our educational system we want children to learn at least some of euclid but deny them the opportunity to develop the wings of the mind that led geometry to its power why would anyone do such a foolish thing i think that the answer is really quite obvious the culprit is the influence of technology to people who think that technology means stuff like computers and airplanes this will appear absurd the relevant aspects of the school geometry curriculum were established long before any of those existed but pencil and paper and chalk and slate and even sticks to draw in the sand are also technology as alan kay is fond of remarking most people just don t call it technology if it existed before they were born but its harmful results can be just as real it was that old technology that pulled geometry down to earth for it is essentially a technology for drawing static figures on flat surfaces thereby it contributed to disempowering geometry by taking away its most powerful uses and its most powerful intellectual connections not only with the stars but with the way machines work and flowers and earthquakes and with other powerful ideas i see reggini s wonderful uses of 3d logo turtles as a valiant attempt to re-empower the disempowered ideas of geometry not the only one another way in which the technology of the pencil disempowers geometry is by confining it to static drawings much of my own current work consists of extending earlier ideas about using turtles to re-empower geometric ideas by breaking the static barrier before making my final point let me review some of the features of the logo culture that i have mentioned in relation to the chapters of this book the logo programming language is far from all there is to it and in principle we could imagine using a different language but programming itself is a key element of this culture s so is the assumption that children can program at very young ages s and the assumption that children can program implies something much larger in this culture we believe correction we know that children of all ages and from all social backgrounds can do much more than they are believed capable of doing just give them the tools and the opportunity s opportunity means more than just access to computers it means an intellectual culture in which individual projects are encouraged and contact with powerful ideas is facilitated s doing that means teachers have a harder job but we believe that it is a far more interesting and creative job and we have confidence that most teachers will prefer creative to easy s but for teachers to do this job they need the opportunity to learn this requires time and intellectual support s just as we have confidence that children can do more than people expect from them we have equal confidence in teachers s we believe in a constructivist approach to learning s but more than that we have an elaborated constructionist approach not only to learning but to life s we believe that there is such a thing as becoming a good learner and therefore that teachers should do a lot of s xiv what is logo and who needs it seymour papert xv

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introduction learning in the presence of the children and in collaboration with them s we believe in making learning worth while for use now and not only for banking to use later s this requires a lot of hard work we ve been at it for thirty years to develop a rich collection of projects in which the interests of the individual child can meet the powerful ideas needed to prepare for a life in the twenty-first century and even that is not all the we behind the thirty years of hard works contains the essence of an answer to the question why are there so few educational projects like the ones represented in this book but based on a different programming tool the logo we represents a large number of people well over a hundred books have been devoted to logo many more discuss it seriously as part of more general topics several thousands of teachers have published short papers reporting something they have done with logo the real asset of logo consists of the two necessary conditions for the growth of a culture community and time looking into the future i certainly see the likelihood of new and more powerful programming systems many have been suggested but one can be sure that an alternative culture of educational programming will not emerge soon or ever such a process needs time and all indications are that likely contenders for leadership in any such movement have espoused the central principles of the logo culture this claim is not based on an arrogant belief that we the inventors of the logo philosophy are smarter than everyone else it is based on the belief that the logo philosophy was not invented at all but is the expression of the liberation of learning from the artificial constraints of pre-digital knowledge technologies xvi what is logo and who needs it?

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the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities by clotilde fonseca m s fonseca was founding director of the costa rican computers in education program and of the omar dengo foundation from 1988 to 1994 she has also been executive president of the costa rican social assistance institute the national institution in charge of anti poverty programs 1994-1995 at present ms fonseca is a professor at the university of costa rica and executive director of the omar dengo foundation she is particularly interested in the democratic uses of new technologies especially in the use of computer technology for the development of talent creativity and cognitive skills ms fonseca is the author of the book computers in costa rican public schools and of many articles in the areas of education technology and socio-economic development she has also published on aesthetic and literary topics 2 3

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costa rica george bernard shaw the great english dramatist and social critic is credited with having said that at the age of five he was forced to abandon his education in order to attend school shaw s insightful statement throws light on the difference between learning and schooling a distinction that has received significant attention in recent years to most children in the developing world school offers little beyond basic instruction in the anxious race to instill basic literacy and job-related skills teachers and institutions have frequently failed to both adequately teach those skills and to respond to children s interests and cognitive development like bernard shaw many children would no doubt rather learn from more direct and vital sources furthermore in a world progressively subject to technological change these children have had little if any contact with technology to children in the developing world and in deprived areas of more developed societies technology is a distant symbol of a future that they can only observe slipping through a paradoxically technological window that of the television screen only in terms of their use as effective teaching tools but also within the context of the more complex and farreaching issues of human and national development according to seymour papert the real task of the educational community is to reformulate education itself while exploiting the computer s potential in the learning process 1987 computers and educational change the case of costa rica although the computer is still generally perceived as a mathematical and word processing machine it has increasingly been used to transform the traditional school environment and to accomplish the higher goal of more humanized forms of development one such instance has been an initiative of costa rica1 which was launched as an act of national assertion as an investment in the talent of its teachers and young people the way in which computer technology was introduced to costa rican schools exemplifies what a developing nation can accomplish given a sustained commitment to its vision of the future established in 1988 the costa rican computers in elementary education program was established to prepare a new generation of children and teachers for the challenges of the future from the beginning its main emphasis has been on the development of creativity thinking skills and problem-solving abilities long-term benefits that are expected to impact upon the country s socio-economic and technological development equity in access to technology and more qualitative forms of education have been central considerations in the program design most projects that invest in educational technology in the developing world provide computers to high-school students to develop job-related skills the 1 costa rica is a small central american nation with a population of 3.5 million inhabitants and a per capita income of us $2,721 1997 from hopes to opportunities computers on the other hand open up a new dimension they offer the means to turn elusive hopes into concrete opportunities in the words of a costa rican teacher television is a window that lets you look into the future through it we can get glimpses of what a future world for us might be like but the computer opens a door through which we can enter that future like this teacher many of us are convinced of the computer s potential as a door to development especially for young people in deprived sectors of society this is particularly the case when the computer is seen not only as a technological object a symbol of progress but as part of an emerging culture of human transformation the cost effectiveness of computers in schools must be seen not 4 the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities clotilde fonseca 5

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costa rica costa rican program broke away from the international standard model by focusing on very young children first and for cognitive rather than computer literacy or computer-assisted instruction purposes the program also broke new ground by giving priority to underprivileged rural and urban school populations organized as a joint effort of the ministry of public education and the omar dengo foundation odf the program has relied on countless individual community institutional and government resources and efforts initially it reached over 140,000 pre-school and elementary school children a year i.e 30 percent of the country s total elementary school population computer labs were originally installed in 158 rural and urban schools throughout costa rica in its first decade the program provided services to over a million children teachers and adults in all regions of the country a significant accomplishment for a developing nation with a population of 3.5 million in 1998 the program went into its second phase enabling it to reach approximately 225,000 children annually i.e one out of every two school children in the country participating schools are granted a laboratory with 20 multimedia computers organized in a local network as well as a scanner a printer and access to the internet computer labs are equipped with microworlds the basic educational software used in the program schools also have access to microsoft windows and office as well as the encarta encyclopedia and atlas these programs are used within the educational setting as well as for community-related activities the number of computers assigned to each school is based on the number of students per class not the size of the school students work at each computer in pairs thus stimulating team work and collaborative learning the odf also provides students and teachers with a telecommunications infrastructure and related support services which promote learning and exchange activities for over five years many students have been able to use email and to create and publish an electronic magazine which has a virtual editorial committee organized by children in different regions of the country the international telecommunications activities have also been very enriching they have provided new cultural experiences and generated bonds of friendship and solidarity as of 1998 with the introduction of the new computers and telecommunications platform students and teachers can develop and publish their own web materials initially students will use the computer lab s intranet to share their projects they also have access to e-mail and web services through both the internet and the program s extranet on-line and virtual learning experiences for both students and teachers are being developed networking has always been seen as an exploration and problem-solving tool to enable students and teachers to transcend geographical and cultural limitations which include the lack of libraries and other educational resources since the program has a strong educational focus the foundation also organizes intensive training and followup on how to use the computers and networking capabilities within a personally and educationally meaningful environment at present the odf annually trains 7,500 lab tutors program advisors teachers principals and educational authorities during weekends after-school hours and vacation periods the foundation also organizes courses directed to different members of the community these courses help train individuals workers and community groups to use productivity tools as well as computer and internet applications as of 1998 multimedia computers are also being installed in 70 small multigrade schools located in rural areas this new dimension of the program involves research development in the context of educational uses of computers in 6 the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities clotilde fonseca 7

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costa rica the classroom the ministry of public education has also created a computers in education program for the secondary level through it computers software training and maintenance have been made available to almost all high schools in the country the coordination of elementary and high-school programs generates new opportunities for students and ensures continuity of the efforts initiated with the younger children of computers in education while enhancing the learning process the odf has promoted the academic and professional development of its teacher-training research and development staff historically the foundation has invested significantly in the permanent training of all teachers and staff this effort has had the support of the ministry of education and the university of costa rica the teacher not the technology has been the central focus of concern even though more than thirteen different options were considered during the planning phase back in 1987 the one selected was the most intensively teacher-dependent.3 this was so precisely because one of the main objectives of the program was to rekindle the teachers interest in their own professional growth and to help them value their role as apprentices it is interesting to note that when groups of young students have occasionally visited odf s training and research center their greatest surprise has been to find teachers in the process of learning as one kid put it wow i never knew teachers also have to study instead of bypassing the teacher through the use of technology as has frequently been the case the program chose to focus on teacher development by exploiting the potential of computers for this purpose a strong and systemic teacher-training and follow-up program was created see fonseca 1993 the preparation of tutors who work as lab attendants has been conceived as a continuing education effort that transcends computer-related matters much time and effort have been devoted to aspects of educational philosophy and practice teacher development has been seen as a process that requires different types of pedagogical motivational and technical inputs at different times this fundamental component has been the responsibility of a group of advisors a well-prepared 3 for a detailed analysis of how the program was created and of the central criteria for its success see clotilde fonseca computadoras en la escuela pública costarricense la puesta en marcha de una decisión san josé ediciones de la fundación omar dengo 1991 pedagogical focus and social context the costa rican computers in education program was established to bring about change both in children and teachers to promote interest in learning and to develop technological fluency in schools and communities logo was chosen as a learning and exploration environment to stimulate creativity cognitive development and collaborative work in 1998 logowriter the initial program used was replaced by microworlds a multimedia program consistent with the logo philosophy and environment which is used as a generic programming and educational tool microworlds2 is the central software used though other microsoft productivity and reference programs are also used when relevant to educational objectives children s learning activities are project-based and curriculumrelated the development of computer literacy skills is seen as a valuable by-product of higher educational goals during the first decade seymour papert and other members of the learning and epistemology group of mit s media lab have contributed to the program in the design of educational environments and teacher training strategies they have worked with odf and ministry of education personnel in order to provide a sound and practical understanding of the issues surrounding the use 2 in 1997 the costa rican ministry of education purchased a national license of microworlds thus making it possible for all students and teachers to have the software available in school at home and in other formal and informal learning and recreational environments 8 the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities clotilde fonseca 9

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costa rica and highly motivated permanent task force that is in charge of developing training materials and modules while providing on-site and more recently virtual or online support every two years a national computers in education conference is organized by the odf the conference promotes the exchange of experiences while introducing participants to new ideas and initiatives of colleagues in other areas of the country the conference and the different training programs are part of an effort to build a strong professional culture in a new area such as educational computing a different set of attitudes and behaviors is required for the new educational context the program addresses the formation of this new culture through working not only with teachers tutors and advisors but with school principals supervisors and other educational authorities as well an important aspect related to teacher participation in the costa rican computers in education program is the gender component it is worthy of note that over 90 percent of the teachers working as tutors and 97 percent of advisors and program staff are women most of them had never had any prior experience with computer technology before joining the program this is a telling fact while it is true that in costa rica most teachers are women the fact that mostly women have chosen to become computer tutors says much about the program s capacity to respond to different teachers learning styles and sources of motivation to most of these women participating in the program has been an assertive act which raised their selfesteem and their prestige within their local and professional communities this undoubtedly creates non-traditional role models for the thousands of girls in the program besides the different project-based and curriculum-related activities other types of learning situations have become available for students and teachers these provide additional opportunities for enrichment including access to themes materials and experiences not normally present in the traditional school setting or in often deprived community or home environments like the program that encompasses them these new educational opportunities attempt to relate learning to personal productivity and to help children develop an awareness of the potential contributions they can make to their own communities perhaps the most important of these activities is the children s computers in education conference created in 1989 the children s conference gathers several hundred k-6 elementary school students in an environment that is both recreational and educational children work throughout the school year on different research and creative development projects each school selects two delegates to the conference who present their work and that of other classmates they also participate in activities ranging from new design telecommunications and robotics workshops to cultural and recreational experiences the children s conference contributes to students intellectual development while strengthening their personality and sense of autonomy kids travel speak before a group and express their own ideas and feelings the selection of children to represent their school and present work produced by other classmates allows them to experience new forms of individual and group responsibility like the program that hosts it the conference provides low-income rural and inner city children from a small developing country with a variety of learning and socializing opportunities that combine play and cognitive skills curriculum and community life art and technology personal interest and national values quite frequently conference projects have a spill-over effect typical is the case of a group of children from san isidro del general who after having presented a project on deforestation went back to their own town to organize a panel on ecological issues these children were able to bring together to a 10 the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities clotilde fonseca 11

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costa rica discussion table not only the local authorities but also owners of wood farms many of whom had been responsible for deforestation in the area as recent research indicates participation in the children s conference has a strong impact on the children s self-esteem and perception of their own future a contest held by the foundation in 1997 collected the anecdotes of former program students many of whom are now in high school or pursuing university careers these stories revealed that the conference strongly affected the children s perception of themselves and their ability to plan a successful future many of them related how their participation in the program was a starting point for change in their lives these findings are consistent with what research on the program itself has revealed throughout the years one of the primary effects of the program has been an improvement in the children s and the teachers self-esteem and future outlook an impact that was not anticipated but is central to individual growth and the capacity to learn the program has also enhanced children s creativity according to a 1993 ministry of education study fostered children s independence and increased their motivation to attend school education particularly in the developing world however this inherent subversion is not the violent political activism to which many latin american youngsters have been drawn for decades it is rather the subversion of mental patterns that lie at the base of impoverishment and that keep human talent trapped for generations this fact was clearly understood by the principal of a poor rural school in costa rica who chose to invest funds collected for a soccer field to prepare the facilities for a computer lab what these children really need he noted are soccer fields for the mind fonseca 1991 p 54 this dynamic metaphor is right on target and highly consistent with the emphasis on the mind that characterizes most of the social and economic developments of the late 20th century this is particularly the case in light of the work and power relations generated by the emerging information culture zuboff 1988 moreover the skills and training that are demanded by current changes in industry increasingly call for symbolic analysts more than the routine producers that characterized the industrial age reich 1992 computers cannot change certain human conditions nor can they overcome certain limits however when placed within a context that is both humanistic and educationally enriching they can help create change in schools and communities and in the lives of the children and teachers who inhabit them perhaps one of the more valuable contributions that the computers in elementary education program has made to the international community is showing that it is possible to obtain significant results from introducing new technological and educational opportunities to children and teachers from deprived communities the ten-year history of the costa rican program demonstrates that computers in schools and communities have a multifaceted potential to bring about changes including unexpected ones for this to happen however the the subversive power of computers allowing children and teachers to develop their own talent and potential lies at the core of the costa rican computers in education program this of course can be a highly political matter as a latin american journalist who visited the program once noted if children learn to think as these kids are doing if they become autonomous and critical they may question the system and that is dangerously subversive few people have understood as deeply as this journalist the potential for innovative uses of computers in 12 the computer in costa rica a new door to educational and social opportunities clotilde fonseca 13

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