In 1999, Seymour Papert embarked on his last ambitious institutional research project when he created the constructionist, technology-rich, project-based, multi-aged Constructionist Learning Laboratory inside of Maine’s troubled prison for teens, The Maine Youth Center. Shortly after the start of the three year project, Papert outlined the Eight Big Ideas behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory. Although
“So a lot of school math was useful once upon a time, but we now have calculators and so we don’t need it. But people say that surely we don’t want to be dependent on the calculator. To which I say, “Look at this thing, these eyeglasses, that make a dramatic difference to my life
I recently found a VHS tape about Generation WHY that includes a stunning appearance by Dr. Seymour Papert, saying some very flattering things about what is now known as Generation YES and their educational approach to 21st Century student empowerment, leadership and service. The short video clip below is well worth watching. You might even
“Educational computing is usually practiced it does no good, and can even do harm because using computers in puny and trivial ways undermines their image, and reinforces false perceptions. Most children are simply not getting an opportunity to become familiar with the computer as a powerful entity they can control.” Papert, S. (1984) New Theories
“In my view, a key to the current trends of discussion about technology and education is an ironic fact about the imbalance between informational and constructional. Whereas the most qualitatively original contribution digital technology could make to education lies in redressing the imbalance, in fact the imbalance is increased by popular perception that so strongly
“Children who grow up with the opportunity to explore the jungles and the cities and the deep oceans and ancient myths and outer space will be even less likely than the players of video games to sit quietly through anything even vaguely resembling the elementary-school curriculum as we have known it up to now.” Papert,
Q: What is the point of having a curriculum? A: “I think there’s not only no point in it, but that it does incredible harm. It turns the teacher into a technician whose job is to hand out facts, not someone who’s in a human relationship with students, someone whose job it is to help
“The phrase “computer literacy” has such a devalued meaning by now that its almost impossible to rescue it. Ive been using the term “technological fluency.” I dont think we have language yet for talking about the kind of knowledge people have about or through these new technologies. Say someone is fluent in French. This doesn’t
Papert wrote the following in the second issue of Wired Magazine back in 1993! “I see then a pattern of intellectual development that I shall oversimplify by casting it in three distinct phases. The first phase is one of universally successful learning. All children show a passion for interactive exploration of their immediate world. The
“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