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)
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 |
ICMI 17 Conference, Hanoi |
2006 | |
USINFO Webchat |
2006 | |
The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences |
2006 | |
The Challenges of IDC: |
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 |
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 |
Interview |
2004 | |
BT Technology Journal |
2004 | |
MIT News |
2002 | |
Article for the Bangor Daily News |
2002 | |
Article for the Bangor Daily News |
2002 | |
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 |
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 |
Article for the Bangor Daily News |
2001 | |
Quote in New York Times article |
2000 | |
Video lecture |
2000 | |
IBM Systems Journal |
2000 | |
Essay for the National Governors’ Association Annual Meeting |
1999 | |
Time magazine special issue: “The Century’s Greatest Minds” |
1999 | |
Essay for the Milken Foundation |
1999 | |
ZineZone.com interview on how computers fundamentally change the way kids learn |
1999 | |
Videotaped speech for Vice President Al Gore’s Diversity Task Force |
1999 | |
Essay from Logo Philosophy and Implementation(Logo Computer Systems) |
1999 | |
TECHNOS Quarterly |
1998 | |
Game Developer magazine |
1998 | |
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 |
Essay in the UK Independent |
1998 | |
The Journal of the Learning Sciences |
1997 | |
Class Wars |
The Wall Street Journal |
1997 |
Logo Exchange |
1997 | |
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 |
1997 |
Interview by David S. Bennahum about how computers relate to school. |
1996 | |
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 |
Excerpt from The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
Excerpt from The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
Website accompanying the book The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap(Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
Learning story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
Learning story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
Learning Story excerpted from The Connected Family (Longstreet Press) |
1996 | |
The Washington Post Education Review |
1996 | |
Excerpted from The Children’s Machine |
1996 | |
Seymour Papert: Learning through Building and Exploring | Multimedia Today | 2/95 |
Time magazine |
1995 | |
Proposal for a program in Bucksport, Maine |
1995 | |
Written remarks for a U.S. House of Representatives panel on technology and education |
1995 | |
Congresso Ibero Americano de Informática na Educação. Vol. 4 |
1994 | |
Video |
1994 | |
Professor Papert and His Learning Machine | Profile/Interview from Education Week Teacher by David HillOriginal link | 1994 |
Obsolete Skill Set: The Three Rs – Literacy and Letteracy in the Media Ages |
Wired magazine |
1993 |
The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer (Basic Books) |
1993 | |
For the learning of mathematics (with Sherry Turkle) |
1993 | |
Logo Update, Volume 1, Number 1 – Spring 1993 |
1993 | |
Interview |
1993 | |
Education Week article about Papert |
1993 | |
Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete |
Journal of Mathematical Behavior |
1992 |
Essay (with Idit Harel) |
1991 | |
The first chapter in Constructionism, edited by Idit Harel and Seymour Papert (Ablex Publishing Corporation) |
1991 | |
NECC 1991 |
1991 | |
Why a Turtle? Thoughts from Seymour | Logo Exchange, Volume 10, Issue 1. | 1991 |
Reflections | Logo Exchange, Volume 10, Issue 1. | 1991 |
M.I.T. Media Lab Epistemology and Learning Memo No. 1 |
1990 | |
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 |
Epistomelogical Pluralism: Styles and Voices Within the Computer Culture * |
Turkle, S., & Papert, S. (1990). Epistemological pluralism: Styles and voices within the computer culture. Signs, 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 | |
Discussion between Seymour Papert and Paolo Freire about the future of education |
1980s | |
Speech about programming in Logo delivered to an audience of Costa Rican educators |
1980s | |
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 |
Teachers College Record |
1988 | |
Daedalus |
1988 | |
Excerpt from The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky (Touchstone) |
1988 | |
Children’s Environments Quarterly with Steve Ocko & Mitchel Resnick |
1988 | |
Lego, Logo, and Science |
Technology and Learning |
1988 |
Seymour Papert’s foreword to Sylvia Weir’s book, Cultivating Minds: A Logo Casebook |
1987 | |
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 |
Electronics Learning |
1986 |
The Next Step: Logo Writer |
Classroom Computer Learning |
1986 |
Proceedings of the nineteenth international Conference for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Plenary Lectures |
1986 | |
Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Logo Grammar, 1 |
Video presentation |
1986 |
Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Names and Variables, 2 |
Video presentation |
1986 |
Seymour Papert on Logo: Hurdles, Images of Recursion, 3 |
Video presentation |
1986 |
Omni Magazine – October 1985 |
1985 | |
Education; Interview: Seymour Papert on Computers New! | The New York Times – July 2, 1985 | 1985 |
Logo in the Schools |
1985 | |
Creative Computing |
1984 | |
School Psychology Review |
1984 | |
Classroom Computer Learning |
1984 | |
MIT memo |
1984 | |
Interview in Atari Connection Magazine |
1983 | |
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 |
Times Educational Supplement |
1982 | |
Creative Computing |
1981 | |
“Society will balk, but the future may demand a computer for each child.” |
Electronic Educator |
1981 |
Profile in Creative Computing |
1981 | |
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 |
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 |
In J. Wechsler (Ed.), On Aesthetics in Science (pp. 105-120). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
|
1978 | |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo No. 356 |
1975 | |
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 |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 298 |
1973 | |
Proposal to ARPA for Continuation of Micro Automation Development |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 274 |
1973 |
Computers and Automation |
1972 | |
Teaching Children to Be Mathematicians vs. Teaching About Mathematics |
International Journal of Mathematics Education and Science Technology |
1972 |
Proceedings of the ACM Conference |
1972 | |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 252 |
1972 | |
On Some Associative, Parallel and Analog Computations |
Associative Information Techniques (with Marvin Minsky) |
1971 |
“Non-Counting Automata” |
Article (with R. McNaughton) |
1971 |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 200 |
1970 | |
MIT (with Cynthia Solomon) |
1971 | |
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 |
Article about Seymour Papert in Computer Decisions – August 1970 | 1970 | |
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 |
NSF Document |
1969 | |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 167 |
1968 | |
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 |
Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics XIX |
1967 | |
MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 123 (With Marvin Minsky) |
1967 | |
J.A.C.M. (with Marvin Minsky) |
1966 | |
Topological Events |
University of Michigan Summer Conference on Theory of Automation (with R. McNaughton) |
1966 |
Embodiments of Mind by Warren S. McCulloch |
1965 | |
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 |
Sequential Convergences in Lattices |
Dissertation, University of the Witwaterstrand |
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.