The Papert Archives Project project is an ongoing effort to find, transcribe, preserve, and share audio and video of Dr. Papert. Gary Stager, curator of DailyPapert.com, has done a great deal of work locating and archiving the collected writings of Seymour Papert. Will Richardson made a great early contribution to this effort.
Dr. Cynthia Solomon, Papert’s collaborator on the creation of Logo, shares amazing old videos and papers at her site Logo Things.
We are still locating text and video. If you have any of the missing documents or links to them. Please email curator [at] dailypapert.com. If you have any text, audio, or video of Dr. Papert that is not listed here or on the multimedia page, please consider sharing it.
In addition to the countless articles and videos linked below, Seymour Papert was author of three seminal books on learning, teaching, and computing that are essential reading.
- Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (1980-81)
- The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer (1993)
- The Connected Family: Briding the Digital Generation Gap (1996)
Chapter 7: Instructionism versus Constructionism, a chapter from Papert’s critically important book, The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, has appeared online.
Two other books were co-authored by Seymour Papert
- Minsky, M., & Papert, S. A. (2017). Perceptrons: An introduction to computational geometry. MIT press. (originally published in 1969) Borrow from The Internet Archive
- McNaughton, R., & Papert, S. A. (1971). Counter-Free Automata (MIT research monograph no. 65). The MIT Press. (borrowable from The Internet Archive)
MIT Logo Memos
Between 1971 and 1981, the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory published a series of papers and reports called, the Logo Memos. They are listed and archived here.
Constructionism Conference Proceedings
Beginning in 1987 a series of Logo conferences were held every two years in cities across Europe. The conference was renamed Constructionism beginning with the 2010 conference in Paris, France. Several of the links on this page feature text of the conference proceedings and even video in some cases.
Seymour Papert Video Archive
The Seymour Papert video archive may be found here.
The Daily Papert Archive of Articles and Papers by Dr. Seymour Papert
| Title | Description / Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Keynote | ICMI 17 Conference, Hanoi | 2006 |
| Professor Papert Discusses One Laptop Per Child Project | USINFO Webchat | 2006 |
| Afterword: After How Comes What | The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences | 2006 |
| The Challenges of IDC: What Have We Learned From Our Past? A conversation with Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Alan Kay,” by David Kestenbaum. |
In Communications of the ACM Volume 48, Number 1 | 2005 |
| You can’t think about thinking without thinking about thinking about something. * | Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education 5.3 | 2005 |
| Catalyzing debate about fundamental change in education | Extended Abstract Proceedings of Technology and Change in Educational Practice | 2005 |
| MSchool – Where Everything is Learned Through Music by Seymour Papert and Tod Machover * | MIT Media Lab paper | 2004 – 06 |
| Climbing to Understanding: Lessons from an Experimental Learning Environment for Adjudicated Youth. | Proceedings of the International Conference on the Learning Sciences. | 2004 |
| Seymour Papert on ABC Radio – Sunday Profile | Interview | 2004 |
| Affective Learning: A Manifesto | BT Technology Journal | 2004 |
| Papert misses ‘Big Ideas’ of the good old days in AI | MIT News | 2002 |
| Bode Miller | Article for the Bangor Daily News | 2002 |
| Computer as Condom | Article for the Bangor Daily News | 2002 |
| Hard Fun | Article for the Bangor Daily News | 2002 |
| The Turtle’s Long Slow Trip: Macro-Ecological Perspectives On Microworlds (NEW!) | Journal of Educational Computing Research, 27, 7-27. | 2002 |
| Project Based Learning (NEW!) | Edutopia | 2001 |
| It Takes a Whole State to Raise Its Schools | Article for the Bangor Daily News | 2001 |
| Change and resistance to change in education. Taking a deeper look at why school hasn’t changed * | Conference presentation in Lisbon | 2001 |
| The Learning State | Article for the Bangor Daily News | 2001 |
| Learning in Interest Worlds | A Discussion Paper on A Structural Concept for a School in a Juvenile Correctional Facility by Roberta Niehaus and Seymour Papert | 2001 |
| No Lectures or Teachers, Just Software | Quote in New York Times article | 2000 |
| Seymour Papert at Bates College | Video lecture | 2000 |
| What’s the big idea? Toward a pedagogy of idea power * | IBM Systems Journal | 2000 |
| Mr. Condom | Logo Exchange | 1999 |
| Vision for Education: The Caperton-Papert Platform | Essay for the National Governors’ Association Annual Meeting | 1999 |
| Papert on Piaget | Time magazine special issue: “The Century’s Greatest Minds” | 1999 |
| Technology in Schools | Essay for the Milken Foundation | 1999 |
| Ghost in the Machine | ZineZone.com interview on how computers fundamentally change the way kids learn | 1999 |
| Diversity in Learning: A Vision for the New Millennium | Videotaped speech for Vice President Al Gore’s Diversity Task Force | 1999 |
| What Is Logo? And Who Needs It? | Essay from Logo Philosophy and Implementation(Logo Computer Systems) | 1999 |
| The Proposed Pilot Learning Environment in the Maine Youth Center | The proposal Seymour Papert wrote for his research project inside Maine’s teen prison, The Main Youth Center. The project was officially called, “The Constructionist Learning Laboratory.” | 1999 |
| Let’s Tie the Digital Knot | TECHNOS Quarterly | 1998 |
| Does Easy Do It? Children, Games and Learning | Game Developer magazine | 1998 |
| On Generation YES and Kid Power | Video | 1998 |
| Child Power: Keys to the New Learning of the Digital Century | Videotaped speech from the 11th Colin Cherry Memorial Lecture on Communication | 1998 |
| Whose Fingers on the Button? | Essay in the UK Independent | 1998 |
| Why School Reform Is Impossible | The Journal of the Learning Sciences | 1997 |
| Class Wars Seymour Papert debates Theodore Roszak |
The Wall Street Journal | 1997 |
| Looking at Technology Through School-Colored Spectacles | Logo Exchange | 1997 |
| Educational Computing: How Are We Doing? | T.H.E. Journal | 1997 |
| Computing’s Idealist A chat with Seymour Papert, author of The Connected Family |
FamilyPC Magazine | 1997 |
| SUNDAY INTERVIEW — Seymour Papert / Computers In the Lives of Our Children / An MIT mathematician and philosopher is exploring how technology can educate the next generation — and their parents | San Francisco Chronicle SFGate.com |
1997 |
| School’s Out? | Interview by David S. Bennahum about how computers relate to school. | 1996 |
| An Exploration in the Space of Mathematics Educations | International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning | 1996 |
| Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, but Three Rights Do Make a Left | Excerpt from The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| Learning by the Skin of His Teeth | Excerpt from The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| The Wonderful Discovery of Nothing | Excerpt from The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| www.ConnectedFamily.com | Website accompanying the book The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap(Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| Now I Know Why We Have Nouns and Verbs | Learning story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| Ian’s Truck | Learning story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| My Learning Disability | Learning Story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) | 1996 |
| Computers in the Classroom: Agents of Change | The Washington Post Education Review | 1996 |
| A Word for Learning | Excerpted from The Children’s Machine | 1996 |
| Seymour Papert: Learning through Building and Exploring |
Multimedia Today | 1995 |
| The Parent Trap | Time magazine | 1995 |
| Technology Works Enterprises Proposal | Proposal for a program in Bucksport, Maine | 1995 |
| Technology in Schools: Local Fix or Global Transformation? | Written remarks for a U.S. House of Representatives panel on technology and education | 1995 |
| Advancing Logo | Logo Update | 1994 |
| What is Advanced Logo? | Logo Update | 1994 |
| Making sense of the computer’s place in the learning environment: a historical evolutionary perspective. | Congresso Ibero Americano de Informática na Educação. Vol. 4 | 1994 |
| Professor Papert and His Learning Machine | Profile/Interview from Education Week Teacher by David Hill Original link |
1994 |
| Obsolete Skill Set: The Three Rs – Literacy and Letteracy in the Media Ages | Wired magazine | 1993 |
| Preface | The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer (Basic Books) | 1993 |
| Is Programming a Good Activity for Children? | Logo Update | 1993 |
| Where’s the Elephant? | Logo Update, Volume 1, Number 1 – Spring 1993 | 1993 |
| Boston Globe Interview | Interview | 1993 |
| Inventing the Future | Education Week article about Papert | 1993 |
| Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete | Journal of Mathematical Behavior | 1992 |
| Software Design as a Learning Environment | Essay (with Idit Harel) | 1991 |
| Situating Constructionism | The first chapter in Constructionism, edited by Idit Harel and Seymour Papert (Ablex Publishing Corporation) | 1991 |
| Conference Presentation transcript (not a keynote) | NECC 1991 | 1991 |
| Why a Turtle? Thoughts from Seymour | Logo Exchange, Volume 10, Issue 1. | 1991 |
| Reflections | Logo Exchange, Volume 10, Issue 1. | 1991 |
| Computer Criticism Versus Technocentric Thinking | M.I.T. Media Lab Epistemology and Learning Memo No. 1 | 1990 |
| The Perestroika of Epistemological Politics | Published abstract for Papert’s July 1990 Word Conference on Computers in Education Conference keynote address in Sydney, Australia | 1990 |
| Perestroika and Epistemological Politics | Transcript of keynote address delivered to close the World Conference on Computers in Education in Sydney, Australia – July 1990 | 1990 |
| A Critique of Technocentrism in Thinking About the School of the Future | M.I.T. Media Lab Epistemology and Learning Memo No.2 | 1990 |
| Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and Voices Within the Computer Culture | Turkle, S., & Papert, S. (1990). Epistemological pluralism: Styles and voices within the computer culture. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 16(1), 128–157. | 1990 |
| The Lessons of Logo (New) | Long lost interview of Seymour Papert by Louise Orlando in Teaching and Computers Magazine | 1990 |
| Introduction: Constructionist Learning with Idit Harel. | 1990 | |
| The Future of School | Discussion between Seymour Papert and Paolo Freire about the future of education | 1980s |
| Event Programming in Logo | Speech about programming in Logo delivered to an audience of Costa Rican educators | 1980s |
| Constructionism vs. Instructionism | Speech to an audience of educators in Japan | 1980s |
| The Conservation of Piaget: The Computer as Grist to the Constructivist Mill | Papert, S. (1988). The Conservation of Piaget: The Computer as Grist. In G. Forman & P. B. Pufall (Eds.), Constructivism in the computer age (pp. 3-14). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. | 1988 |
| Computer as Material: Messing About With Time | Teachers College Record | 1988 |
| One AI or Many? | Daedalus | 1988 |
| Papert’s Principle | Excerpt from The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky (Touchstone) | 1988 |
| Lego, Logo, and Design * | Children’s Environments Quarterly with Steve Ocko & Mitchel Resnick | 1988 |
| Lego, Logo, and Science *may be same as above |
Technology and Learning | 1988 |
| Foreword | Seymour Papert’s foreword to Sylvia Weir’s book, Cultivating Minds: A Logo Casebook | 1987 |
| Learning Media and Learning Environments | Speech delivered at the Communications Forum, MIT, 1987 | 1987 |
Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education |
Legendary NSF proposal at the dawn of constructionism. | 1986 |
| Rapping About Wrapping | Logo Foundation article co-authored with Michael Tempel | 1986 |
| Just a Computer | Principal | 1986 |
| Logo as Trojan Horse: Rethinking Logo Philosophy in the Context of a Real School Experience | Logo 86 Conference, MIT | 1986 |
| Different Visions of Logo (Excerpt) | Classroom Computer Learning | 1986 |
| New Views on Logo | Electronic Learning | 1986 |
| The Next Step: LogoWriter | Classroom Computer Learning | 1986 |
| Beyond the Cognitive: The Other Face of Mathematics | Proceedings of the nineteenth international Conference for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Plenary Lectures | 1986 |
| Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Logo Grammar, 1 (see multimedia page) |
Video presentation | 1986 |
| Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Names and Variables, 2 (see multimedia page) |
Video presentation | 1986 |
| Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Images of Recursion, 3 (see multimedia page) |
Video presentation | 1986 |
| Interview: Seymour Papert New! | Omni Magazine – October 1985 | 1985 |
| Education; Interview: Seymour Papert on Computers New! | The New York Times – July 2, 1985 | 1985 |
| Different Visions of Logo | Logo in the Schools | 1985 |
| Misconceptions About Logo NEW! | Creative Computing | 1984 |
| New Theories for New Learnings | School Psychology Review | 1984 |
| Computers as Mudpie | Classroom Computer Learning | 1984 |
| Microworlds: Transforming Education *New | MIT memo | 1984 |
| Seymour Papert on Education and Language | Interview in Atari Connection Magazine | 1983 |
| Seymour Papert’s “Microworld” – An Educational Utopia | Article about Papert in Education Week | 1983 |
| Debate Grows on LOGO’s Effect on Thinking Skills | Another alarmist “Logo doesn’t work” artitcle from Education Week. Discusses The Lamplighter School and Bank Street’s research. | 1983 |
| Tomorrow’s Classrooms? | Times Educational Supplement | 1982 |
| Computers and Computer Cultures | Creative Computing | 1981 |
| “Society will balk, but the future may demand a computer for each child.” | Electronic Educator | 1981 |
| Seymour Papert and the LOGO Universe | Profile in Creative Computing | 1981 |
| “New Cultures From New Technology” NEW! | Byte magazine | 1980 |
| Paper for the President’s Commission for a National Agenda for the ’80s | Paper for a commission formed by President Jimmy Carter | 1980 |
| The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Psychology | Language and Learning: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky | 1980 |
| The Gears of My Childhood | Forward to Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (Basic Books) | 1980 |
| Redefining Childhood: The Computer Presence as an Experiment in Developmental Psychology | Paper delivered at the 8th World Computer Congress | 1980 |
| Personal Computing and Its Impact on Education | Transcription of speech originally published in Proceedings of the Gerard P. Weeg Memorial Conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1978.Also appears in: Taylor, R. (1980). The computer in the school: Tutor, tool, tutee. NY: Teacher’s College Press. |
1978 |
| Information Prosthetics for the Handicapped with Sylvia Weir | MIT AI Memo #496 MIT Logo Memo #51 |
1978 |
| The Mathematical Unconscious | In J. Wechsler (Ed.), On Aesthetics in Science (pp. 105-120). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. | 1978 |
| Interim Report of the LOGO Project in the Brookline Public Schools: An Assessment and Documentation of a Children’s Computer Laboratory. | NSF Report | 1978 |
| Concepts and Artificial Intelligence | In Macnamara, J. (Ed.). (1977). Language learning and thought. Academic Press. | 1977 |
| Concepts and Artificial Intelligence and Testing for Propositional Logic | Language Learning and Thought | 1977 |
| “A Learning Environment for Children” | Computers and Communications Implications for Education | 1977 |
| Notes on the Future of Logo | Internal MIT memo | 1977 |
| Artificial Intelligence, Language and the Study of Knowledge | Cogntitive Science (with Ira Goldstein) | 1977 |
| Assessment and documentation of a children’s computer laboratory. * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 460 (with Daniel Watt) | 1977 |
| An Evaluative Study of Modern Technology in Education | MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 371 | 1976 |
| What Is Innate and Why | Conference on Ontogenetic and Phylogenetic Models | 1976 |
| Un Piaget ou Plusieurs? | Symposium on Genetic Epistemology | 1976 |
| Some Poetic and Social Criteria for Education Design | Appendix to a Proposal to the National Science Foundation | 1976 |
| A case study of a young child doing Turtle Graphics in LOGO * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 375 | 1976 |
| Logo Progress Report * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 356 | 1975 |
| Teaching Children Thinking Alternate version | Journal of Structural Language also in Taylor, R. (1980). The Computer in the School: Tutor, Tool, Tutee. NY: Teacher’s College Press. | 1975 |
| Artificial Intelligence | The Condon Lectures (with Marvin Minsky) | 1974 |
| Uses of Technology to Enhance Education | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 298 | 1973 |
| Proposal to ARPA For Continued Research on A.I. for 1973 By Marvin Minsky & Seymour Papert |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 284 | 1973 |
| Proposal to ARPA for Continuation of Micro Automation Development | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 274 | 1973 |
| A Computer Laboratory for Elementary Schools | Computers and Automation | 1972 |
| Teaching Children to Be Mathematicians vs. Teaching About Mathematics | International Journal of Mathematics Education and Science Technology | 1972 |
| On Making a Theorem for a Child NEW! | Proceedings of the ACM Conference | 1972 |
| Artificial Intelligence Progress Report * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 252 | 1972 |
| Proposal to ARPA for Research on Artificial Intelligence at M.I.T., 1971-1972 by Seymour Papert and Marvin Minsky |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 245 | 1971 |
| On Some Associative, Parallel and Analog Computations | Associative Information Techniques (with Marvin Minsky) | 1971 |
| “Non-Counting Automata” | Article (with R. McNaughton) | 1971 |
| Twenty Things to do With a Computer * | MIT (with Cynthia Solomon) | 1971 |
| Progress Report 1968-1969 * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 200 | 1970 |
| Proposal to ARPA for Research on Artificial Intelligence at MIT, 1970-1971. * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 185 | 1970 |
| Decision Makers | Article about Seymour Papert in Computer Decisions – August 1970 | 1970 |
| Nim: A Game Playing Program | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 254 | 1970 |
| After-Dinner Address: The Fun of Failures * | Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 156.2 | 1969 |
| Perceptrons (book) | Book (with Marvin Minsky) | 1969 |
| Programming-Languages as a Conceptual Framework for Teaching Mathematics. Final Report on the First Fifteen Months of the LOGO Project | NSF Document | 1969 |
| Linear Separation and Learning | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 167 | 1968 |
| The Artificial Intelligence of Hubert L. Dreyfus * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 154 | 1968 |
| The Syntactic Monoid of a Regular Event | Algebraic Theory of Machines (with R. McNaughton) | 1968 |
| Cybernetique et Epistemologie | Presses Universitaires de France (with G. Cellerier and G. Voyat) | 1968 |
| Le Temps et l’Epistemologie Genetique | Etudes d’ Epistemologie Genetique (with G. Voyat) | 1968 |
| Chapters in Encyclopedia de la Pleiade | Encyclopedia de la Pleiade (Gallimard) | 1968 |
| Linearly Unrecognizable Patterns | Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics XIX | 1967 |
| Computer Tracking of Eye Motions * | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 123 (With Marvin Minsky) | 1967 |
| The Summer Vision Project | MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 100 | 1966 |
| Unrecognizable Sets of Numbers | J.A.C.M. (with Marvin Minsky) | 1966 |
| Topological Events | University of Michigan Summer Conference on Theory of Automation (with R. McNaughton) | 1966 |
| Introduction | Embodiments of Mind by Warren S. McCulloch | 1965 |
| An Abstract Theory of Topological Subspaces NEW | Proc. Camb. Phil. Society | 1964 |
| Stereoscopic Synthesis as a Technique for Localizing Visual Mechanisms | R.L.F. | 1964 |
| Sur l’Illusion de Muller-Lyer | Annee Psychologique (with Jean Piaget) | 1964 |
| Mathematical Appendix | The Behavioral Basis of Perception by J.B. Taylor | 1963 |
| Sur la Logique Piagetienne | Etudes D’Epistemologie Genetique | 1962 |
| Centrally Produced Visual Illusions | Nature | 1961 |
| Distorted Stereoscopic Vision | Technical Paper, National Physical Laboratory (with G.N. Seagrim) | 1960 |
| Redundancy and Linear Logical Nets | Procedures of First Bionics Symposium | 1960 |
| Which Lattices are Lattices of Open Sets | Proc. Cam. Phil. Society | 1959 |
| Lattices in Logic and Topology | Dissertation, Cambridge University | 1959 |
| Sur les Treillis Para-Topologiques | C.R. Seminaire Ehresmann (with D. Papert) | 1957 |
| A Theory of Perceptual Constancy | British Journal of Psychology (with J. G. Taylor) | 1956 |
The Papert Archives Project project is an ongoing effort to find, transcribe, and preserve audio and video of Dr. Papert led and funded by Gary Stager.