Now might be a good time to revive a bit of this weblog. Why now? I am so very exhausted with the way content, links, and content are scattered across social media networks. I have long thought that having this space is vital to not only owning the content, but that it gets captured and […]
Author Archives: briancsmith
R.I.P. Dr. Seymour Papert
This morning I learned that Dr. Seymour Papert died yesterday at his home in Blue Hill, Maine. Dr. Papert was a pioneer in the world of computers and children, the LOGO programming language, co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence lab (now CSAIL) and a founding faculty member of the MIT Media Lab. Papert has also been […]
Spoiling the Bunch
Apple, Inc. just confirmed Dr. Papert’s opening paragraph from Teaching Children Thinking. “The phrase “technology and education” usually means inventing new gadgets to teach the same old stuff in a thinly disguised version of the same old way. Moreover, if the gadgets are computers, the same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased towards […]
Without Sense of Hierarchy
“You realize how there’s no ceiling and how everyone is going to be able to contribute to everybody else’s learning no matter where they came from, when they got here or where they were at.” In this short (1:35) video reflection, Angela Jochum, an ICT Integration Coordinator at the Frankfurt International School, shares her experience at Constructing Modern Knowledge 2014. […]
Doing the Math
In February, a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Things interview with Joe Hudy was posted on the Make blog where he shares projects, experiences, tools and people that inspire him. In response to the tools he can’t live without question, Joey says “my calculator watch because I don’t know my multiplication and division tables.” This is […]
Gears of My Childhood
Each time I read Papert’s essay about the gears of his childhood, I feel a little remorse for some of the more episodic moments I had growing up. Though that remorse fades as I realize that all is not lost and consider my “gears” more as seeds for later realization. When I was 9 or […]
Wondering: Acceptable Research
Are schools now accepting corporate whitepapers over peer-reviewed research? If so, what are your thoughts about this?
Prescription for Play
If you know me, you know I’m a big proponent for play for children. Even big children. While I agree with what is being said in the video, we can’t ignore the modern world we live in. What constitutes play with computers? Is it video games? According to Dr. Marilyn Benoit video games aren’t what […]
Hindsight may be 20/200
Wisdom is both foresight and hindsight. Papert et. al, possessed tremendous foresight that never ceases to amaze me. I’m also amazed at the current lack of hindsight for this very work…
Learning is Making
Dale Dougherty: Making is learning. Remember John Dewey’s phrase “learn by doing.” It’s a hundred-year-old educational philosophy based on experiential learning that seems forgotten, if not forbidden, today. I see a huge opportunity to change the nature of our educational system. I’ve been a growing supporter of the Maker movement over the past couple of […]
