Participation not interaction...
(we are building learning tools not teaching machines)
If we expect children to receive information that is rich with multiple media types and highly engaging but do not expect them to contribute we will only have a National Reservoir for Teaching instead of a National Grd for Learning. This is about Information Communication Technology (ICT) not Information Dissemination Technology (IDT)...
...and we will have cyber-couch potatoes to go with it! Decent bandwidth offers us cyber-athletes instead!
Give children with any decent bandwidth and they use it creatively, of course.
In the Tesco Schoolnet 2000 project, Tesco have generously supported the building of a vast server of opportunity for contribution (with careful curriculum structure and support) not a vast reservoir of content to choose between. In reply to just one letter of invitation 8,000+ schools said "yes please" to the opportunity to make a contribution.In the Nortel sponsored Learning in the New Millennium project the schools exchange material using video, stop frame animation, VR images and more. They do this asynchronously and imaginatively. In LiNM we often cannot tell the primary from secondary students, or from the scientists and engineers.
Here are two students' resumes from the LiNM conference and discussion area. You will see they have been creative with a media they see as natural.
Summary 2:
Participation is the root of critical awareness.There is no learning theory that suggest learning can happen without doing and making, not just watching and choosing.
We need creative learners not passive choosers as citizens and workers and parents...