“Demoting reading from its privileged position in the school curriculum is only one of many consequences of Knowledge Machines. A child who has grown up with the freedom to explore provided by such machines will not sit quietly through the standard curriculum dished out in most schools today. Already, children are made increasingly restive by the contrast between the slowness of School and the more exciting pace they experience in videogames and television. But the restiveness is only a pale precursor to what will come when they can freely enter virtual realities of animals in Africa or wars in ancient Greece.”

Seymour Papert, “Obsolete Skill Set: The 3 Rs,” Wired Magazine 1.02 (May/June 1993)

“Building and playing with castles of sand, families of dolls, houses of Lego, and collections of cards provide images of activities which are well rooted in contemporary cultures and which plausibly enter into learning processes that go beyond specific narrow skills. I do not believe that anyone fully understands what gives these activities their quality of “learning-richness.” But this does not prevent one from taking them as models in benefiting from the presence of new technologies to expand the scope of activities with that quality.

The chapters in this book offer many constructions of new learning-rich activities with an attempt to reach that quality. A conceptually simple case is the addition of new elements to LEGO construction kits and to the Logo microworlds, so that children can build more “active” models. For example, sensors, miniaturized computers that can run Logo programs, and motor controllers allow a child (in principle) to build a LEGO house with a programmable temperature control system; or to construct forms of artificial life and mobile models capable of seeking environmental conditions such as light or heat or of following or avoiding one another. Experiments carried out so far still fall a little short of this idealized description, and, moreover, have been mounted systematically only in the artificial contexts of schools or science centers. But it is perfectly plausible that further refinement of the components (combined, be it noted for further discussion below, with suitable marketing) might result in such “cybernetic” activities (as we choose to call them), thus becoming as much part of the lives of young children as playing with toys and dolls, or other more passive construction kits. It is also plausible that if this were to happen, certain concepts and ways of thinking presently regarded as far beyond children’s ken would enter into what they know “spontaneously” (in the sense in which Piaget talks about children’s spontaneous geometry or logic or whatever), while other concepts–which children do learn at school but reluctantly and not very well–would be learned with the gusto one sees in Nintendo games.

This vision advances the definition of constructionism and serves as an ideal case against which results that have been actually achieved can be judged. In particular, it illustrates the sense of the opposition I like to formulate as constructionism vs. instructionism when discussing directions for innovation and enhancement in education.”

Papert, S. and Harel, I. (1991) “Situating Constructionism” in Constructionism. NY: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Other “rare discoveries” will  be shared in the future as time and finances allow. If you have such media, please share it via The Daily Papert.

Please take the time to dig deeper into these gems. Each daily quote contains a link to the entire text or speech.

May 7, 2012

You may read the backstory for this video rare treasure is below.*

Papert, S. (2000) Online Learning and the Future of Education. Video remarks for an unknown Italian conference. Deer Isle, Maine. Previously unpublished.

Many thanks to David Wees for sponsoring this transcription of the video.

* During the summer of 2000, I traveled all night by plane and car to a remote island off the coast of Maine called Deer Isle to help lead a weeklong workshop for educators with Seymour Papert and our colleague David Cavallo. Upon arriving at the workshop site, several people met my car and said things like, “Thank God you’re here! Seymour really needs you.” That was curious, but not unusual. When I ascended the stairs to the workshop site, I encountered one of Dr. Papert’s assistants who said, “Don’t help him!”

I quickly learned that Papert was supposed to be in Italy the next day speaking at a conference. It was clearly impossible for him to be on Deer Isle and in Italy at the same time, but he had a plan.

“Gary always has a lot of video equipment with him,” said Seymour. “He will be able to film my speech and send it to Italy. Then I can call in for questions. Problem solved!”

I do tend to overpack and I did have video equipment with me. What I didn’t have was enough hard drive space to edit a long video. However, I assumed that whatever we created could be uploaded to the Web or sent to Italy in a high-quality (large) format for inclusion in the conference program.

Surprise! There was zero Internet access on Deer Isle (or much else). Dial-up net access was our only hope and it kept dropping out. So, through many successive attempts I compressed and compressed and compressed the video until it was small enough to upload via an unreliable dial-up connection, probably at 300 baud.

The result is the masterpiece you see here. Every minute or so there is a new photo of Papert to accompany the audio. And yes, he is wearing a “Salmon of the Northwest” t-shirt.

May 8, 2012

“So there are other ways, through this computer system that have opened up, that enable somebody to get knowledge when you need it. Now this leads to, not only to a radically different idea of what kind of knowledge it is, because there’s nothing numerical and nothing about fractions in the description of the parabola that we give them.

But it is also radically opposite to the idea of the curriculum where you learn a piece of mathematics because it’s the 17th of May in your third grade year and so it’s inscribed somewhere that on this day you going to learn this. That’s no way to learn.

Not if there’s an alternative. And the alternative is, you get into situations where you need it. The problem of the educational innovator is to create those situations where you need it. And then to create the means so that you can find the knowledge when you need it for your purpose.”

Papert, S. (1996) American Prospect Speech. Cambridge, MA. June 4, 1996.

Many thanks to Brian C. Smith for his excellent transcription of this speech.

Listen to the speech here.

May 9, 2012

“…for example, Larry Cuban, the hypercritic, the king of the criticism of computers – recently, and again, in an interview with the New York Times says, ~”Well, we didn’t ask for the kids to have these computers! But you’re fundamentally mistaken if you think it will change education.”~ Why? Well, he goes on to say there is no proof that it improves – that having laptop computers improves the scores on tests. Well, I’ve got two answers to that: A trivial answer is, it would if you gave it a chance – but I’m not going to get into that game. The more important thing is that that’s got nothing to do with whether it is going to be adopted or not be adopted. It’s going to be adopted because that’s the way we do things in our world. That’s the way we do knowledge work.”

Papert. S. (2006) Transcript of Seymour Papert’s Keynote Address at ICMI 17 Conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. December 4, 2006.

This speech was made right before Dr. Papert’s tragic accident in Hanoi in December, 2006 and represents his last public address.

May 10, 2012

“So I think the number one task has to be to really create spearheads, nuclei of change where we can really demonstrate that something really different can be done – something not improvement, but radically different.”

Papert, S. (2000) Keynote Address at CUE Conference. Palm Springs, CA.

In May 2000, Seymour Papert delivered a barn-burner of a keynote address at the California Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

The venue was a tent with large fans blowing and planes flying overhead. The organization made no attempt to record the speech professionally, so what you have here is an amateur attempt to capture history with the gear I had with me. The audio quality is often inadequate.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best “talks” Papert ever gave. Preserving it in some way has been a goal of mine for many years.

“I shall describe learning paths that have led hundreds of children to becoming quite sophisticated programmers. Once programming is seen in the proper perspective, there is nothing very surprising about the fact that this should happen. Programming a computer means nothing more or less than communicating to it in a language that it and the human user can both “understand.” And learning languages is one of the things children do best. Every normal child learns to talk. Why then should a child not learn to “talk” to a computer?”

Papert, Seymour A. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas (Kindle Locations 296-300). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

“So I think the number one task has to be to really create spearheads, nuclei of change where we can really demonstrate that something really different can be done  – something not improvement, but radically different.”

Papert, S. (2000) Keynote Address at CUE Conference. Palm Springs, CA. 

In May 2000, Seymour Papert delivered a barn-burner of a keynote address at the California Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

The venue was a tent with large fans blowing and planes flying overhead. The organization made no attempt to record the speech professionally, so what you have here is an amateur attempt to capture history with the gear I had with me. The audio quality is often inadequate.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best “talks” Papert ever gave. Preserving it in some way has been a goal of mine for many years.

“…for example, Larry Cuban, the hypercritic, the king of the criticism of computers – recently, and again, in an interview with the New York Times says, ~”Well, we didn’t ask for the kids to have these computers! But you’re fundamentally mistaken if you think it will change education.”~ Why? Well, he goes on to say there is no proof that it improves – that having laptop computers improves the scores on tests. Well, I’ve got two answers to that: A trivial answer is, it would if you gave it a chance – but I’m not going to get into that game. The more important thing is that that’s got nothing to do with whether it is going to be adopted or not be adopted. It’s going to be adopted because that’s the way we do things in our world. That’s the way we do knowledge work.”

Papert. S. (2006) Transcript of Seymour Papert’s Keynote Address at ICMI 17 Conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. December 4, 2006.

This speech was made right before Dr. Papert’s tragic accident in Hanoi in December, 2006 and represents his last public address.

“So there are other ways, through this computer system that have opened up, that enable somebody to get knowledge when you need it. Now this leads to, not only to a radically different idea of what kind of knowledge it is, because there’s nothing numerical and nothing about fractions in the description of the parabola that we give them.

But it is also radically opposite to the idea of the curriculum where you learn a piece of mathematics because it’s the 17th of May in your third grade year and so it’s inscribed somewhere that on this day you going to learn this. That’s no way to learn.

Not if there’s an alternative. And the alternative is, you get into situations where you need it. The problem of the educational innovator is to create those situations where you need it. And then to create the means so that you can find the knowledge when you need it for your purpose.”

Papert, S. (1996) American Prospect Speech. Cambridge, MA. June 4, 1996.

Many thanks to Brian C. Smith for his excellent transcription of this speech.

Listen to the speech here.

Papert, S. (2000) Online Learning and the Future of Education. Video remarks for an unknown Italian conference. Deer Isle, Maine. Previously unpublished.

Many thanks to David Wees for sponsoring this transcription of the video.

* During the summer of 2000, I traveled all night by plane and car to a remote island off the coast of Maine called Deer Isle to help lead a weeklong workshop for educators with Seymour Papert and our colleague David Cavallo. Upon arriving at the workshop site, several people met my car and said things like, “Thank God you’re here! Seymour really needs you.” That was curious, but not unusual. When I ascended the stairs to the workshop site, I encountered one of Dr. Papert’s assistants who said, “Don’t help him!”

I quickly learned that Papert was supposed to be in Italy the next day speaking at a conference. It was clearly impossible for him to be on Deer Isle and in Italy at the same time, but he had a plan.

“Gary always has a lot of video equipment with him,” said Seymour. “He will be able to film my speech and send it to Italy. Then I can call in for questions. Problem solved!”

I do tend to overpack and I did have video equipment with me. What I didn’t have was enough hard drive space to edit a long video. However, I assumed that whatever we created could be uploaded to the Web or sent to Italy in a high-quality (large) format for inclusion in the conference program.

Surprise! There was zero Internet access on Deer Isle (or much else). Dial-up net access was our only hope and it kept dropping out. So, through many successive attempts I compressed and compressed and compressed the video until it was small enough to upload via an unreliable dial-up connection, probably at 300 baud.

The result is the masterpiece you see here. Every minute or so there is a new photo of Papert to accompany the audio. And yes, he is wearing a “Salmon of the Northwest” t-shirt.

Stay tuned for some powerful ideas!

The Daily Papert is curated by Gary Stager and sponsored by Constructing Modern Knowledge.

There is little in life that can take the place of experience.

- CMK 2012 guest speaker and incredibly popular filmmaker, Casey Neistat

On many occasions over several years, Dr. Papert and I would discuss the need to build bridges to the wider (non-computer-using) community of progressive educators. We discussed the idea of hosting a grand summit at which the educators we admire outside of the “edtech” world could spend sufficient time experiencing how the computer could enhance, amplify and enable modern knowledge construction. The result would be a unified front of thoughtful educators who could offer an alternative to the top-down standards-based misery that has only gotten worse in the intervening years. Papert had the wherewithal to summon all of the players to one big event at MIT, but for a variety of reasons the summit never occurred.

Five years ago, I challenged myself to create a summer institute at which the most creative computer-using educators, progressive education advocates and creative thinkers could come together for four days of learning-by-doing. Participants would put away their teacher hat, put on their learner hat and embrace powerful ideas through tinkering, collaboration and hard-fun. This would  be no ordinary “sit ‘n git” event! Participants would spend each day engaged in personally meaningful project-based learning and conversations with big thinkers.

Over the past four years, our guest speakers have included: noted science educator, Bob Tinker; Alfie Kohn; Deborah Meier; Peter Reynolds; historian, James Loewen; astronomer, Derrick Pitts and Papert protegé, Mitchel Resnick. CMK also brought the powerful ideas of Reggio Emilia to the edtech community. Seymour Papert’s friend and colleague of the past fifty years, Dr. Marvin Minsky, leads a free-wheeling “fireside chat” each year and our faculty includes Cynthia Solomon, who created Logo with Papert, and longtime collaborator, Brian Silverman, who created much of the software Papert’s work has relied on over the past thirty years. His daughter, Artemis Papert is also on the faculty. Dr. Papert’s fingerprints are all over our constructionist event.

The institute is called Constructing Modern Knowledge and it celebrates its 5th anniversary this July 9-12 in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. If you are a reader of The Daily Papert, then this is the perfect professional learning opportunity for you!

Our stellar faculty is  ready to support your learning. This year’s guest speakers are mind-blowing thinkers, pioneers and creators. They include:

• The extraordinary “Do-it-Yourself” filmmaker, Casey Neistat
• Editor-in-Chief of Make Magazine and a leader of the tinkering movement Papert dreamed of, Mark Frauenfelder
• The “godmother” of the project-approach to learning, Dr. Lilian Katz
• The personification of what Papert called Kid-Power, Super-Awesome Sylvia
• and Dr. Leah Buechley will host a reception for us at the world famous MIT Meda Lab (co-founded by Seymour Papert)

CMK 2012 Guest Speakers

Our classroom is what Loris Malaguzzi of Reggio Emilia might describe as “1,000 laboratories.” There are computers, books, art supplies, toys, robotics materials, cameras, creativity software, electronic components, wearable computer, MIDI keyboards, marshmallows, drawing tablets and much more available as objects to think with. Sample the learning stories, participant recommendations and lessons from prior Constructing Modern Knowledge institutes here.

Don’t miss out on this intimiate and one-of-a-kind learning adventure! Register today!

Team discounts are available.

“Discussing laptops with local teachers reminded of my encounter in Thailand with Mr. Condom. His real name is Meechai, but he proudly accepts the nickname given in honor of his work teaching villagers in remote areas to use condoms. Statistics show that he has contributed significantly to keeping birth rate and sexually transmitted diseases under control. I was thinking about Kuhn Meechai (using the Thai for Mr.) because his tactics for teaching villagers about condoms might also teach us something about teaching everything else. I personally took from him a lesson in “teaching as creative problem solving.”

He explained his problem like this: if you stand up in a meeting of villagers and say you want to talk about anything related to sex, or birth or condoms, your audience will be gone within three minutes. So what do you do? Some people might try to convey the message without actually using the taboo words. To my mind this would be not only ineffective but also dishonest — and as I have said several times in this column true education and deception don’t mix. Meechai’s solution was as honest as it was clever: if you have just three minutes, then figure out how to use them vigorously! So he developed a three-minute routine.

He stands up at a village meeting and says directly: “Do you know what a condom is?” The tension mounts faster and faster as he produces one from his pocket and unwraps the package saying: “Watch, I’ll show you what you can do with it.” Then just as the tension is getting to breaking point he puts the condom to his mouth and blows it up like a balloon. (I’ve tried it … they blow up surprisingly big!) While everyone is still paralyzed by shock he ties it off, pulls out a magic marker, draws a funny face on it and tosses it into the crowd. Out comes another condom package. He has a collection of variations of the same theme and pretty soon gets a giggle from his audience.

Once they giggle he says “Thank you” and leaves. That’s it! If you come back a year later you find the lesson has had its effect.

I contrast this with a sex education class I witnessed in a school. Teacher produces a diagram showing the plumbing of human genitalia and gives a lesson full of physiological information. I could almost hear him ticking off in his mind the “content” that has to be “covered” in the lesson plan. Meechai didn’t teach any of this. Can we call what he did sex education? I say “yes” … he taught those villagers something far more important than facts, which they probably knew anyway or could find out. He taught them to open their minds to a subject they previously wouldn’t let in. He taught them they could play with a topic that previously made them clench their minds into a tight knot.

Kuhn Meechai’s method is relevant to much more than sex education in the villages of Thailand. It is about opening minds to learning everything. Kids whose minds resist fractions or grammar or dates in history need something more like what Meechai gives his villagers than a carefully planned lesson full of the facts laid down in some curriculum.

So what about laptops? My idea of using the computer has much in common with playfully blowing up the condom. This was not “just play” it was play with a purpose. It makes me think of Debbie a fifth grader in an experimental project conducted by my (then) Ph.D. student Idit Harel in a school in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Boston. Debbie hated math and resisted everything to do with it. Tested at the bottom of the scale. She learned to program the computer because this let her play with words and poetry, which she loved. Once she could write programs she found a way to tie fractions into words and poetry. Writing witty programs about fractions led her to allow herself to think about these previously horrible things. And to her surprise as much as anyone’s her score on a fractions test jumped into the upper part of the scale.”

Papert, S. (2002) “Computer as Condom.” Bangor Daily News. Bangor Maine.