The quote
Why, then, should computers in schools be limited to calculating the sum of the squares of the first twenty odd numbers and similar ‘problem-solving’ uses? Why not use them to produce some action? There is no better reason than the intellectual timidity of the teaching community, which seems to be remarkably reluctant to use computers for any purpose that does not closely resemble something that has been taught in schools for the last few centuries.
This is all the more surprising given that computer scientists are custodians of a momentous intellectual and technological revolution. The concepts of computer science – ‘cybernetics’, ‘information theory’, ‘artificial intelligence’ and all its other names – have profoundly affected thinking in biology, psychology and even the philosophy of mathematics. Machines are changing the way we live. How strange, then, that ‘computers in education’ often boils down to ‘using shiny new devices to teach the same old stuff in thinly disguised versions of the same old method.’
The commentary
Over fifty years later, as IT equipment in schools is becoming less of an issue, education still unknowingly battles its past ghosts.
I have said before that educational innovation does not mean doing the same old things with new technologies. And many voices, possibly not as many as we should, proclaim and defend this idea, which may seem novel.
Looking back at the origins of computers in education, this issue was already noted: ‘new devices teaching the same old content with the same old methods.’
In his introduction…
The quote comes from a 1971 article by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon (before I was even born!).
This work argues that computers should foster creative activities, helping students understand both their workings and other subjects. That is, to do something new, something that has not already been done with other resources.
The article outlines 20 activities that go beyond using a computer as a digital parrot. The final one playfully embraces recursion: ‘think of 20 more things to do with a computer.’
And now what…
I would like to be optimistic and think that the educational world and society in general are coming to understand this essential idea that conceives the computer as a revolutionary resource, capable of empowering our thinking.
However, the history of education is not what it teaches us. And the furious irruption of generative AI, with all its promises and apparent virtues, does not seem to help much.
Many teachers are looking for the miracle generator that in five minutes composes a learning situation. But let’s not generalise, there is also an important teaching sector that has set its sights on the clock and has understood that innovation should not be rushed. Rather, it must be thoughtful and meditated. It must go through what is more properly human and where a computer can be of great help if it is used for that purpose: creativity!
So teachers, students, mothers, fathers and citizens of the world, let us not lose hope! Let us continue to work with the tenacity of Sisyphus and the hope of the unknown Elpis to materialise this simple and powerful idea.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)