My article The True Twenty-first Century Literacy Is Programming is now out in the latest edition of Edutopia (Feb 2008).
To access the article online, click on the link above. To see it as it looks in the magazine, click here and than click on "The New Literacy: Computer Programing" when you see the cover.
I am especially interested in reactions to these ideas. I will leave comments open briefly as an experiment, hoping I get more comments than spam. Or you can email me at marc@games2train.com.
[update: 1 real comment, 8 spam - comments closed - sorry.]
Best,
Marc
Hi! I am a portuguese teacher (I work with 5th and 6th grades, math and sciences... since 1985) and I'm doing my thesis - master degree in educational technologies (University of Lisbon - Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science)...
When I've started my career, I 've worked with logo... Now my thesis is a kind of Action-research (kids from 5th and 6th grades) about learning the curriculum and much more using programming activities with Scratch... in a much free way (they program at school, at home... ) ... So... it was really nice for me to have found your paper in Edutopia... cause I share the central idea with you... and your words will add a strong contribution to support my will in pursuing this adventure. I strongly believe that we must begin to see education in a completely new way and not try to use technologies in a poor way, reproducing traditional paradigms... but here in Portugal it is no easy to do it... Well, I'm trying... and my kids and families are loving it (cause I try to balance freedom, with some traditional ways, so parents don´t panic with the experience... step by step).
I wrote you just to say thanks... I'll "be watching you and your writings from close". We must learn with the best, the visionaries, the futurists...