Browse Books

Reviewer: Doris Keefe Lidtke

diSessa has written a challenging and thought-provoking book that is appropriate for any educated audience. He is deeply concerned about the minimal ways in which computers are used in schools today, especially since he envisions a tremendous potential for computers in education. He strongly believes that a new literacy, which he calls “computational literacy,” holds enormous promise for changing learning—as much as printing and algebra changed learning. He argues that, in an appropriate environment, computers can change the way students learn, make learning enjoyable, and make learning difficult things much easier. diSessa is well qualified to write such a book, having devoted the past 15 years to work in this area. This book is not about computer literacy, or even computer fluency, but goes well beyond either of these ideas to computational literacy. The author envisions an education “transformed by the computers presence so that children learn much more, learn it earlier and more easily, and, fundamentally, learn it with a pleasure and a commitment that only a privileged few now feel toward school learning.” He bases his arguments and challenges on the work he has done with the software environment Boxer. diSessa begins with the history of literacy, which forms a basis for proposing a new literacy, computational literacy. He provides excellent examples and concludes that new inscription systems and literacies ease learning, as algebra simplified the proofs of Galileos theorems, but they may also rearrange the entire intellectual terrain. New principles become fundamental and old ones become obvious. Entirely new terrain becomes accessible, and some old terrain becomes boring. He then presents a view of what the future might be like with computational literacy, extrapolating from his personal experiences and those of students and teachers he has observed using Boxer. He is particularly interested in the possibility that “teachers do far more than consume what others feel is best for them to use in the way of educational software.” He proposes tool-rich environments that “can support unprecedented new ranges of adaptation of materials to different people, places, and times.” Two central chapters deal with cognitive processes and the authors philosophy. He writes about the importance of intuitive knowledge and the importance of “committed learning, where learners feel deeply connected to the activities in which they learn.” He wants all children to learn in an environment which encourages “engaged learning,” to have opportunities to “be themselves,” and “to experience one or two tremendous intellectual accomplishments [rather] than a host of small and regulated progressions.” The most technical chapters discuss the possible design of computer systems to support computational literacy. Both the structural and functional aspects of the system are detailed. The author argues for “two-way literacies, where everyone is a creator as well as a consumer of new material forms. Reading without writing would be an absurdly limited form of literacy in modern society, but far too many people ignore the equivalent of writing for computers.” A description of Boxer is included, with an explanation of “how the process of developing learning materials may change with the advent of two-way computational media. In contrast to the dominant paradigm of top-down development by experts, the image of more organic, extended, and open forms of educational materials development, including teachers and students, is a distinctive emblem of what we have been trying to achieve with Boxer.” The book presents many of the authors experiences and the experiences of students and teachers using Boxer to accomplish tasks and to learn much more than is normally expected at their grade level. He does agree that his examples are based on the experiences of a fine teacher and above-average students, but the accomplishments are still impressive. The author delights in the accomplishments of the students and teachers with Boxer, and laments the cessation of funding of the project, which he would like to see tested in a range of schools and then disseminated widely. The book ends with a vision of education that involves this new computational medium being used on a broad scale by all children. The author is realistic in his assessment of the situation and says, “If the possible rewards of new literacies are opulent, the challenges are commensurate.” This book is a truly important contribution, because it is truly visionary. It considers what computers and an appropriate software environment might mean for students and teachers. This great vision could totally reshape education. Anyone interested in computers and education should read this thoughtful book, though it is not an easy read. One surprise in the book is how much the author writes about his own learning experiences, but this also gives his arguments reality. Set aside the time to read this book thoroughly.