Learning in a Digital World
This "umbrella project" for Seymour Papert's work focuses on re-thinking
theories of development and ideas about what and how people, especially -
but not only - children should learn as a basis for fulfilled and
productive lives in the digital world. Professor Papert's writings have
formulated a number of assumptions underlying this work:
- established ideas about what children can do at specific ages are deeply colored by conditions of the pre-digital world.
- established practices of parenting must be re-examined.
- The content and methodologies of "school" need far deeper revision than they have been given by contemporary reforms.
Constructionism
We are developing "Constructionism" as a
theory of learning and education. Constructionism is based on two different senses of "construction." It is
grounded in the idea that people learn by actively constructing new knowledge, rather than having information
"poured" into their heads. Moreover, constructionism asserts that people learn with particular effectiveness
when they are engaged in constructing personally meaningful artifacts (such as computer programs, animations,
or robots).
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