The closing days of April and the first days of May are traditionally reserved for “Screen-Free Week”, which this year runs from Monday 29 April through Sunday 5 May. (They used to be called “TV Turnoff Week” but that was in the far bygone years before smart phones, tablets, laptops, and YouTube.)
To mark this annual event, I penned a two-part article last year on the role of technology in Waldorf schools for Center & Periphery, the quarterly online newsletter of the Center for Anthroposophy (www.centerforanthroposophy.org).
With the help of our colleagues at the website WaldorfToday.com, this article––playfully entitled “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Mind Over Machinery”––was published in a revised edition that by now has received a much wider readership here and abroad. It even got translated into a Hebrew edition for an Israeli website (www.rimon-edu.org.il)
The article addresses the following key question: At which point should computers and other forms of media technology be introduced into the classroom –– or, for that matter, at home? Read here for a two-layered response to this vexed question.
“Today “media” is such common (and sometimes abused) currency that we all know––or think we know––what we mean by it. Let’s explore different aspects of what by now we call “the media”, especially in their relationship to technology as vehicles or platforms for education. . . .” Read here
Thanks for mentioning the Hebrew translation of your article, which was translated by one of the fathers at our Rimon Waldorf School in northern Israel. This translated version has since made its way through the Israeli Waldorf community and has been linked to by many of the local Waldorf/Anthroposophy websites.