An Open Letter to Dr. Seymour Papert

Dear Dr. Papert.

My name is James O'Hagan and I am an educator who focuses on technology for a school district outside of Chicago. I work with elementary school children, and am always fascinated watching children and technology interact. I also have a 4 year old and 18 month old daughters and again am fascinated with what they are capable of doing with a computer at such a young age. I am a child of the early 80s and the Apple IIe. I even used your LOGO program for hours on end.

I have been told over the past 9 years since I officially became an educator that

The World is Flat
I am a Digital Native (barely)
It is a Read-Write World

With that said, I was recently tipped to a video posted by Michael Wesch at Kansas State University, an assistant professor in cultural anthropology. In the video, Michael had his class collaborate via Google Docs to create the script and material for this video. The topic of the video was highlight the most important characteristics of students today. I think the video is very well produced, but the message seems to be provoking disagreement about how this video should be viewed.

In one camp, you have someone like David Warlick who sees the video as an excellent introduction for professional development. We have another camp who sees the video as a slam on teachers and education professionals as a whole, specifically Gary Stager invoked your name, thus the open letter.

I am curious about your ideas on the video. On the surface, I see this video as an excellent introduction to cultural anthropology. These students exhibited tremendous digital literacy skills to compile such a concise presentation with over 200 collaborators. The right brain tendencies in this left brain world are what makes this video so compelling. I did not see it as a slam on teachers, rather as a small cultural study that addresses the concerns of this particular group of students. Ultimately, the question not answered by David or Gary is what learning has taken place? As an introduction course to anthropology, to me, this is an appropriate use of technology to engage students in a way that had them attempting to think like an anthropologist.

What are your thoughts, Dr. Papert?

Thank you.

James O'Hagan