“The cost of giving every child a $750 computer with a five-year life would add only 2 percent to the average cost of educating a child in the United States. With a little R&D [research and development], the computer industry could easily halve or quarter that number.” Papert, Seymour. (1997) From Relearning Education in the […]
“A central idea behind our learning environments was that children would be able to use powerful ideas from mathematics and science as instruments of personal power. For example, geometry would become a means to create visual effects on a television screen. But achieving this often meant developing new topics in mathematics and science, an enterprise
The DailyPapert.com rarely editorializes. The point of this site is to bring the words, wisdom and powerful ideas of Dr. Seymour Papert (bio here) to educators, policy-makers and citizens concerned. Although Papert made pioneering contributions to the worlds of epistemology, mathematics, artificial intelligence, computer science, educational gaming, learning and school reform, he receives too little
“I believe that the development of the knowledge-based economy will bring recognition that the most important qualification is not technical knowledge but the ability to learn and to work independently. To foster this we need to replace lock-step curriculum-driven schools with the kind of flexible learning environment made possible by the new technologies.” Papert, Seymour.
“We do have to think also about content, we do have to think about making another kind of intellectual diet for children, we have to think about them understanding this technology in a deeper way than simply being able to use it, however magical and wonderful and that may be, for access of knowledge and
“We better recognize that laptop is just a little step in the progress towards the shift from the medium of paper, the primacy of paper-based static media to the primacy of electronic digital media, that’s going to come, it’s going to sweep the world, it’s going to change what we think we can know, how
“The best teacher is someone who brings personal knowledge, warmth and empathy to a relationship with a learner. The effect of the new technologies is to provide better conditions for such teachers to work directly with their students. Of course tele-teaching has a role, but I hope it will never be the primary form.” Papert,
“I end by mentioning two less specific “firsts” with which “Teaching Children Thinking” should be credited. At that time the concept of computers in education was synonymous with CAI (computer assisted instruction). I believe that “Teaching Children Thinking” was the first published paper to suggest that the child could be in charge of the machine
“Q: So far, we have only talked about access to the Internet. Would you speculate on how other technologies could affect American education? Dr. Papert: I was not talking about access to the Internet. I was talking about something much deeper in which computers serve as materials for construction as well as providing access to
“Some of my colleagues are disappointed that School manages to so dilute the ideas or so circumscribe their impact that they can be “integrated” into an essentially unchanged system. I have learned to see things differently through my Piaget-trained eyes. At the core of Piaget’s theory of development is the process he calls assimilation: when