Among Dr. Seymour Papert’s vast contributions to knowledge, his framing of educational decision making through the lens of instructionism vs. constructionism may be the most profound, useful, and enduring. Any discussion, debate, controversy, or concern about education policy or decision about pedagogical approach is based on the personal stance of how you believe learning occurs. […]
Instructionism versus Constructionism Read More »
The book celebrates the 50th anniversary of a seminal paper by Cynthia Solomon and Seymour Papert. Published in 1971, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer, set the course of education for the next fifty years and beyond. I created the new book, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50, to honor the vision set forth by Papert and Solomon a half-century ago. Four dozen experts from around the world invite us to consider the original provocations, reflect on their implementation, and chart a course for the future through personal recollections, learning stories, and imaginative scenarios.
New Book Honors the Legacy of Seymour Papert Read More »
“Our school systems are being strangled by the cost of this curious epidemic of learning disability.” Seymour Papert From Papert, S., March 16, 2000. Millennial Lecture at the Muskie Archives.
Professor Seymour Papert was one of the invited speakers. Full video at https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/3004 Video: Opening of the London Knowledge Lab “Thank you and I owe you a debt too and I think the world does. I think it’s a great thing that you’re doing here. I’d like to pick on just one aspect of it
Seymour Papert’s Opening of the London Knowledge Lab (2004) Read More »
“The central question for educators is whether schools of the future will go on teaching the same curriculum, using computers to do the job better, or whether we’ll see radical change in what is taught and what is learned in schools. In my address I shall suggest that the education system will not be able
“I have had a lot of flack from people who read this column (and other things I have written) as advocating taking the hard work and discipline out of learning. I don’t blame them. I am a critic of the ways in which traditional school forces kids to learn and most attempts to introduce a
“The cost of making computers is falling rapidly. Today a very good educational computer could be manufactured for a thousand dollars. By the end of this decade a very very much more powerful computer will cost only a few hundred dollars. Thus the cost of supplying each child with a personal computer would be a
“An examination of computer use in schools today reveals that students’ interactions with computers are largely teacher-directed, workbook-oriented, for limited periods of time, and confined to learning about the machines themselves or about programming languages. Further, computers are located in separate labs and are not integrated into the standard curriculum. “Doing computer” in school is
“I noticed that a lot of the discussion of computers was dominated by questions like, just to take one example, when they do Logo kids get confused about whether “turn” in Logo means turning this way or turning that way. Yes, they do – but that’s a consequence of it being an incidental, of spending
“The word educology reminds us that we need a theory of education. One might say theories already exist. There is educational psychology; there is a theory of instruction; there are courses on the theory of how to administrate schools. But these are not theories of education as a whole. They are theories of small aspects