Seymour Papert and the $100 Laptops

Ross Mayfield highlights the less well publicised aspect of a scheme which is gathering momentum to provide millions of cheap hand powered laptop computers to third world children.

quoting David Kirkpatrick:
Can $100 Laptops Save the World?

Negroponte’s team is seeking not only a technological breakthrough but also a teaching breakthrough. They believe that illiterate kids can, with a little instruction, learn to use computers on their own and then use the laptops to teach themselves to read. After that comes math, history—you name it. Alan Kay, a Xerox Parc veteran, is working with MIT mathematician and educational theorist Seymour Papert to build software that “watches” each student and makes suggestions. Papert’s “constructionist learning” approach encourages children to reach conclusions through trial and error.

I think there’s a bit more to contructionism than just trial and error, but Ross is onto something when he says “This breaks known conventions for education and technology, which could have a far greater impact than the commoditization at play.” It would be nice to think so anyway.

Seymour Papert is the inventor of “Logo” the system which encourages children to learn through programming and is one of the few worthwhile activities left in the UK National Curriculum for ICT .

Constructionism vs. Instructionism

In the 1980s Seymour Papert delivered this transcripted speech by video to a conference of educators in Japan.

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