On a desert island

I am sitting at the airport waiting to travel home from a National Science Foundation meeting. there were a hundred researchers there, all working on cutting-edge science and technology education. but for for some reason the conference orgaizers had chosen a hotel where the wireless internet was too weak to let people use their laptops during the meeting.

now perhaps this was a good thing, as this meant people couldn’t check their email or surf the web during presentations. but what struck me was that everyone’s response was to complain that they couldn’ get anything done during the meeting. they had their computers, but few people had them open. they werenearly useless without an internet connection, aparently.

in other words, when these very comeptent professionals were on a proverbial desert island, they simply stopped working.

could they have accomplished something? perhaps. but working as a professional means using professional tools–which is why epistemic games use real professional tools.

in contrast with what happens in many classrooms (and here I’m thinking particulary, though not exclusively, about some mathematics classes) where the emphasis is on learning to work “on your own” because you “might not have a [fill in the blank: computer, or calculator] some day.”

because most of these professionals had, in fact, been trained without computers. but they still couldn’t accomplish much without them.

FULL DISCLOSURE: my computer was closed too, and this is being written–painstakingly and awash in typos, from a palm pilot….