“Because in our popular culture the informational side of the computer is the side that is most familiar and most useful, it has the tendency to strengthen that side of our education system. Now that’s good to strengthen it, but it’s also had the effect of pushing the balance over, away from the constructional side.”
Papert, S. (2004) Keynote address at the i3 1 to 1 Notebook Conference. Sydney, Australia. May 31 – June 2004. 45:45 into video.
“As long as schools confine the technology to simply improving what they are doing rather than really changing the system, nothing very significant will happen”
Papert, Seymour. (1998). “Technology in schools: to support the system or render it obsolete?” accessed (2004) at The Milken Family Foundation website.
“Just as pendulums, paints, clay, and so forth, can be “messed around with,” so can computers. Many people associate computers with a rigid style of work, but this need not be the case. Just as a pencil drawing reflects each artist’s individual intellectual style, so too does work on the computer.”
Papert, S. & Frantz, S. (1988). Computer as Material – Messing About with Time in The Teachers College Record. Spring 1988 (Volume 89, Number 3). NY.
“We don’t know how to make an alternative intellectual diet for children. We do not have this experience, it is not what our researchers in education are trained to do, nor even our teachers. And this is something we need to put more resources into and this we need to see as a goal.”
Papert, S. (2004) Keynote address at the i3 1 to 1 Notebook Conference. Sydney, Australia. May 31 – June 2004. 18:23 into video.