“And at the same time that this massive penetration of the technology is taking place, there is a social movement afoot with great relevance for the politics of education. There is an increasing disillusion with traditional education. Some people express this by extreme action, actually withdrawing their children from schools and choosing to educate them …
My old friend, Ihor Charischak, shared this four minute clip in which Seymour Papert addresses the “suicidal” tendencies of teacher training and calls for more thought to being given to the “art of learning.” “When they went to school, the first thing they [children] had to learn was to stop learning and to begin being …
“School as we set it up is tailor-made for certain personality types. I like to think of certain scales of oppositions: like obsessional-compulsives and hysterics. This is a little over-simplified. but will help us talk quickly. Our hyperactive child is toward the extreme end of the hysteric scale. The hysteric likes generalities, likes dramatic effects, …
Video of Seymour Papert on “Idea Aversion” from 2009 interview One of theses clips should play on your device!
“I’d like to make a very clear distinction between how you think as a revolutionary, not someone who wishes to force change, but someone who looks far enough ahead and sees that there is going to be change. There is going to be fundamental change. And the big question that I would like to raise …
“And I really am worried about the fact that we are undermining mathematical rigor, in fact we are undermining all rigor, by emphasizing the engagement side of what this computer can contribute to education, and we have to do something about this or it’s going to kick back at us.” Papert, S. (2004) Keynote address …
“Isn’t it time for us to grow up? And as we grow up, we should stop seeing ourselves as specialists of computers in education, because that casts us in the role of a kind of service profession. Accepting the role allows that other people are the ones to decide the big goals of education, what …
“Here’s a little curious thing that I’ve recently become intrigued by. I worked during the 80s developing a way of children doing robotics using LEGO and eventually LEGO made this thing that they marketed under the name of my book Mindstorms which is build LEGO but instead of LEGO just being an architectural passive thing …
“Literacy refers not just to being able to read, but to having taken in a whole culture around reading, a culture which usually comes through reading. With multimedia, the role of the written word may become much less important. In the future I suspect we will be less likely to associate people who are educated …
Today’s feature is a very special addition to The Daily Papert. It is not by Seymour Papert, but is about some of his most important work, the invention of the Logo programming language for children. In 1967-68, few others imagined putting computational power in the hands of children. Two of those visionaries are honored here. …