computers don’t teach people, people teach people

Evan Leibovitch threw the gauntlet at the http://www.schoolforge.net/ mailing list, asking -

I now find myself in a rather exciting situation. I am working with an organization that is considering launching an education-targeted, Linux-based netbook system. [...]

I am looking for a decent suite of educational and fun software — for student, parent and teacher — that might be bundled with such a system.

I think you know this well, but I’ll still start off with this comment – computers don’t teach people, people teach people. Its very hard to say what should be on your machine without knowing more about the context – age, geography, educational goals, institutional settings, connectivity, etc.

Still, this is a blog post, so we need a list:

1. Think of learning / teaching as knowledge work. what tools do knowledge workers need? a browser, an office suite, some tools for graphical organisation of ideas and concepts, creative tools (e.g. image processing, sketching, video editing)
2. People teach people, so give the people who teach the freedom and the support to choose their tools. make them the designers of the learning experience.
3. Beware of flashy e-learning software with over-hyped interface and hyper-conservative learning philosophy or vice versa.