Following what Obama said about parents role....

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

in his interview with Damen Weaver.

Read the wording on Vincent Mespoulet's blog post here:

We started a discussion on his thread in firesidelearning, which I am moving here, at his request.

Copying:
As a parent I have to relate to Obama's quote regarding parents:
"Parents are the most important thing to any child's ability to do well in school, so making sure you're reading to your child, especially when they're young, even before they get to school so they start being used to reading, they know their alphabet, they know the basics, so even when they get to kindergarten they're already a leg up." - up to here I totally agree.
But then he is saying:
"I think it's important to make sure that kids are doing their homework and that they're not just turning on the TV all day or playing video games."
And this really stunned me.
This is so conservative for a president which is perceived revolutionary!!
Is it really all about homework VS. TV and video games??
From my experience, my kids learn A LOT from TV and games. Actually, my 9th grader remarked about my first grader just before last school year ended how he had learned more from TV than she had at school....
And then he goes on:
"I think talking to teachers and finding out from teachers directly what can be done to improve their child's performance, I think that's important, and setting a high standard, that's important. Saying if you get a B, you can do better, you can get an A. Making sure we have high expectations for all children because I think all children can do well as long as they have the support that they need."
I feel like I've seen this discussion hundreds of times. Does our child's success really depends on our high expectations and intense pushing?? What's this "performance"? Where is the room for curiosity?? I find that encouraging curiosity is so much more important than monitoring a child's performance. Who says that they should always improve their performance? Isn't it super frustrating? While if you let curiosity lead the way - there is no limit to where this child will get to. "A" would not be the limit.

Or as my daughter's class has phrased it "the sky is not the limit, it's just a stop on the way".

Vincent - please add your last comment here.

[Mike]

Or-Tal... the entire concept of homework needs to be re-thought. Too often what you get is kids rushing and practicing a skill poorly. It almost reinforces bad habits.

At best homework needs to be like most practice.... kids should be simply reviewing know skills not learning new material or trying to do things they are not sure about....

Good homework is practice on skills that have been almost perfectly mastered.... to practice something wrong is silly and to un-learn a bad habit and re-learn it correctly takes longer.

Schools continue to do this out of some old picture about learning that is way out of date.

We really need to flip this around!

be well..mike

[Ellen Pham]

Or-Tal, being from outside the US, you probably didn't catch this comment that Obama made during his campaign- his mother woke him up at 4:30 every morning to do his homework! He was talking about when he was 6 and 7 years old!

I made some comment out loud like, "uh-oh, crazy-making" and one of my kids responded, "Well Mom, none of us are growing up to be president now, are we?"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't ; )

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Well, I am not sure this is the key.
I am also not sure it's a fair comparison between education when we (generation Obama) where kids and the education now, when we have kids. The whole structure is different, of information and of education.
Not sure achievements have ever been directly related to homework in the past too. I can point out several great people, inventors, business people and more - who were terrible students as kids...

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Vincent, you wrote here
"...hmmm, the most important thing in France during this last year is that our government has launched a program about web 2.0 serious games (financing 30 millions Euros for this year), and we have also for 6 years a specific summer university dedicated to games inside e.education. Seminaries will begin next September 24th... "

We were talking about the role of games and play in Education and I think that's amazing that the French government is recognizing games' importance. I would like to know what sort of "serious games" are we talking about and if they are directed at specific populations. How would they benefit teachers and teaching? How involved are the teachers in the development of such projects?

[Vincent Mespoulet]

Hi Or-Tal,

why do you think that it's amazing ? If you read carefully theory in science of education, you'll see that games are integrated inside teaching for a long long time before Internet :). well, some examples i know in my own field: history/geography teaching. Inside classrooms, we use what we call "techniques de simulation" where students play a role. very classical, I suppose you have the same in Israel... We have a specific group of history teachers who are experts in this kind of pedagogy: LUDUS network. You don't need internet for these activities.
Now if you are interested by games in e.education, you know maybe that french developpers are very talented for cultural/educational resources. For example, 10 years ago, i worked as expert with a company "Index +" who realized a CD: Crusades. Maybe you can read in this paper i wrote (in french of course) an analysis of the use we can do with "Crusades": Crusades, the status of Enigma in Pedagogy. Here someone has copied a part of my work, without quoting me, of course... :( but you have a good bibliography for theory)... I give you deliberately this old text to show you it's not really a new dimension in education...
Of course now, possibilities are infinite with online resources. I give you here a recent example with a game for education to environment in geography: i have published a post about it in school beyond the walls and my 6th Grades used it last year: Clim' City, an online game about Sustainable Development and Global Warming.
It's easy for me to create an online game: i just wait that you create your own start up, i will work for you if you pay me :): i have many friends in Israel working as graphists/animators with Flash :) !
And try to follow my webinars to learn french this year to prepare your next visit in France: it works very well :)

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

You are right. Of course games are not new.
Think of cubs.
Everybody plays to learn and it's probably the most natural process of learning.
It's almost a chicken and egg question...

I do think, however, that for a government entity to acknowledge that and finance it, something that isn't perceived as an ordinary or regular channel of education - that is not something you get to see every day or every where.

I think the major new thing in games development and the education context is that games work on more communications channels and media formats now.
There are more options for social interaction around games once the internet is a part of it. More options for games you play when you are alone.
Creativity wears different forms both in the way the games are created and in the creativity the games encourage.

The integration of technology into the classroom is in itself a game.
And the integration of technology via games is easier, friendlier and more fun.

I think (didn't check for statistics) that there are more adults who play games today then there have been in the past.

And one last thing, J'espère que mon Français est meilleur maintenant après la visite à Paris... ;-)

[Vincent Mespoulet]

The integration of technology into the classroom is in itself a game.: i agree, and i can say more. Programming in Flash is a game too :)... i learnt programmation when i was very young ( i think that people of my age are the really first digital natives). I was around 14, i used an Apple +, and i created programs to have an automatic system of substantives declination and verbs conjugation in ancient greek :) I can't teach if i can't play...
Pour ton français, c'est parfait ! Viens en Provence la prochaine fois ;-)