Playing to learn, learning to think

Cathleen GalasSqueakfest 2013

Rosario, ArgentinaOctober 2013

The way it was(19th-20th century)

John DeweyAmerican philosopher, psychologist, educational reformer

1859-1952

The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas ……. Thus the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning within the subject area. (Dewey, 1897)

The way it still is?(20th century education)

The way it could be?

What is the message?

Should computer science

be part

of formal schooling?

CS will be part of the EBacc http://www.education.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/subjects-age-groups/computer-

science

April 3, 2012

Computer Science Transitions From Elective to Requirement

…..so some colleges are updating mandatory general education

courses.http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/04/03/computer-science-transitions-from-elective-to-requirement-computer-science-

transitions-from-elective-to-requirement

AustraliaLearnable.com donates $10M of training to

teach Aussie kids to code

Melbourne, Monday 19 August 2013: Australian students are today being given $10 million of technical training free from Learnable.com, a

global online learning company founded in Melbourne, which believes that every student should have the opportunity to learn to code.

Former US PresidentBill Clinton

At a time when people are saying "I want a good job - I got out of college and I couldnt find one," every single year in America there is a standing

demand for 120,000 people who are training in computer science.

US President Barack Obama"I think it makes sense, I really do," was his response to the idea posed in a live Google+ Hangout earlier today. "I want to make sure that (young people) know how to produce stuff using computers and not just consume stuff.”C/NET, February 14, 2013 http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57569503-1/obama-endorses-required-high-school-coding-classes/

Mark Zuckerberg

There just aren't enough people who are trained and

have these skills today.

Ashton Kutcher

If we want to spur job growth in the US we have to educate ourselves in the disciplines where jobs are available and where economic growth is feasible.

Is this the

WRONG Message?

Instead…

Bill Gates Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.

The skill of coding is no different from the skill of reading and writing ….. we live in a coding illiterate world where the skill of programming computers belongs to a priesthood.John Pavley, The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-pavley/learning-to-code_b_3337098.html

Steve JobsI think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.

Mark GuzdialElliot Soloway

Computer Science is more important than Calculus:

The challenge of living up to our potential

Calculus vs. Computer Science?Calculus

Generally considered part of a liberal education program

Study of rates

Rates are important to many fields

Computer Science Generally considered an “extra”

course or skill

Study of process Specification Execution Compositions limitations

Process is important to EVERYBODY

What revolutions made us ask this

question?Who started those

revolutions?

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(AI)

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Three Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

Child Development When you teach a

child something you take away forever

his chance of discovering it for

himself.”

-Jean Piagetwww.LifeLearningMagazine.com

Piaget’s “Child”

A young scientist whose purpose is to find stasis in an ever changing world.Like a Robinson Crusoe: curious, inner-driven, independent, solitary conquest.Edith Ackerman, “Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the Difference?”

Piaget to Papert

Jean Piaget Constructivism Seyjmour Papert Constructionism

Seymour Papertby growing up with a few very powerful theorems one comes to appreciate how certain ideas can be used as tools to think with over a lifetime. One learns to enjoy and to respect the power of powerful ideas. …the most powerful idea of all is the idea of powerful ideas..

Papert’s Child

Diving into unknown situations is a crucial part of

learning

Piaget Stepping

back

Papert Diving in

Diving in

Stepping back

Detachment and reflection

reengagement

Piaget and Papert“A cognitive dance”

Lev Vygotsky1896-1934, Russian

Social Constructivist Theory

(1) Children construct knowledge

(2) Learning can lead development

(3) Development cannot be separated from its social context

(4) Language plays a central role in mental development.

(ZPD) Zone of Proximal Development

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(AI)

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Three Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

Artificial Intelligence

Perceptrons and Society of the Mind

Minsky and Papert together

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(AI)

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Three Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

Computer Technologies for Education

Papert1982 1994

Powerful Papert (contd.)

” …….a property of ideas and a challenge to the School culture. On the positive side, the insight

also leads to a new vision of what technology can offer education.

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(AI)

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Three Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

WHOIs at the center of these three

revolutions?

WHOIs at the center of these three

revolutions?

Programming

is

applied logic

Programming to Learn

LOGOEtoys

Squeak

ScratchBYOBSNAP

Programming to Learn

LOGOEtoys

Squeak

ScratchBYOBSNAP

"At Learning Labs, we've spent hours and hours discussing how we can help students follow their interests and passions, and also help students learn powerful ideas and develop as systematic thinkers.” – Mitchell Resnick

The way it could be?Teachers who give …..radically different

theory of knowledge. (p. 63)

What would happen if children who can't do math grew up in Mathland, a place that is to math what France is to French? (p. 64)

...they [the children] become producers instead of consumers of educational software. (p. 107)

Why CodeCritical thinking skills

Learn to break down and solve complex problems

Programming Jobs

Programming ubiquitous—basic literacy

Programming is a language like any other (will it become the world’s language?)

The semantic web

Programming is Fun! (PAPERT-”HARD FUN!”)

“Programming is debugging. So being wrong is not so much something to

be avoided at all costs, but should be seen as a clue to the right way of

doing it. That's why it was actually an environment rather than just an

instructional program. “

Hewlett Foundation 2010

“In one survey after another, business leaders complain that the majority of U.S. job applicants are ill-equipped to solve complex problems, work in teams, or communicate effectively.”

“Hewlett envisions a new generation of schools and community colleges…harness the deeper learning skills of critical thinking, problem solving, effective communication, collaboration, and learning to learn to help students develop a strong foundation in traditional academic subjects.”

http://www.hewlett.org/2010-annual-report

New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change

by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, 2011

exploring play, innovation, and cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning

create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable, scalable, and grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people who engage with it.

EDUCATIONTECHNOLOGYLEARNING TO

EMBRACE CHANGE

Culture of Learning

Teaching Based ApproachLearning Based Approach

“We are preparing students for jobs that do not exist yet, that will use technologies that have not been invented yet, in order to solve problems that are not even problems yet.”

“Shift Happens”

www.shifthappens.wikispaces.com

EMBRACE CHANGE

EMBRACE CHANGE

CHANGE MOTIVATES AND CHALLENGES

CHANGE FORCES US TO LEARN DIFFERENTLY

How did kids learn about Harry Potter?

Learning through play and imagination

PIAGET- young children learn through play

Need for play is perceived as less as they grow older and world is more stable

HOWEVER…

Learning through play and imagination

PIAGET- young children learn through play

Need for play is perceived as less as they grow older and world is more stable

HOWEVER…

Today’s world is ever-changing, expanding

Learning through play and imagination

PIAGET- young children learn through play

Need for play is perceived as less as they grow older and world is more stable

HOWEVER…

Today’s world is ever-changing, expanding

PLAY IS A STRATEGY FOR EMBRACING CHANGE, rather than growing out of it.

There is a generic set of skills and dispositions that are characteristic of

good learners. If learners can be taught a language for these, they can

get better at “learning to learn” across different contexts.

21C SkillsCritical thinking

Problem solving

Communication

Collaboration

Creativity

innovation

Learning to Learn: 7 Dimensions of Learning Power

www.vitalhub.net/index.php?id=8

Learning to Learn: 7 Dimensions of Learning Power

www.vitalhub.net/index.php?id=8

New ways of learningThe old ways are UNABLE TO KEEP UP

with the changing world

New media makes peer – to – peer learning easier and more natural

Peer to peer is amplified: the new media purports a COLLECTIVE nature of participation

COMMUNITY—You learn in order to belong

COLLECTIVE– You belong in order to learn

The collective

Produces INQUIRY

Meaningful Learning

How do we teach and learn programming?

Mathematics was a study in which we took order and analyzed it to

understand it.

With the computer revolution…

Mathematics ceased to be only ANALYTIC

And became SYNTHETIC

Now…

We can take the understandings we have

and BUILD THINGS

Mathematics was a study in which we took order and analyzed it to understand it.

With the computer revolution…

Mathematics ceased to be only ANALYTIC

And became SYNTHETIC

Now…

We can take the understandings we have

And BUILD THINGS

(points often made by Dan Ingalls!)

Teach programming

IN CONTEXT

Learn powerful ideas learning by creating

Powerful mathematics turns into play

INQUIRY- BASED LEARNING

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3377/3272923191_d6bdde2255_m.jpg

Learning as Inquiry

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3608/3423867025_06ec0511fd_m.jpg

Inquiry-based learning is a constructivist approach, in which students have ownership of their learning.

Inquiry and Design based example:

exploration and questioning

investigation into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea.

asking questions, gathering and analyzing information, generating solutions, making decisions, justifying conclusions and taking action

www.galileo.org/inquiry-what.html

Questions

HowKnowledge is constructed

through the active engagement of a learner

within an active community of practice

What does it LOOK like?Constructed

Active

Reflective

Collaborative

Inquiry based

Evolving

If you can use technology to make things you can make a lot more interesting things.

And you can learn a lot more by making them.

(Papert, 1999)

“Making the invisible a little more visible.”

Constructivism is the idea that knowledge is something you build in

your head.

Constructionism reminds us that the best way to do that is to build

something tangible—outside of your head—that is personally meaningful.

(Papert, 1990)

To understand technology ….

there’s no better way to do that then to build things. …..

as a programmer you learn to think about problems both objectively and by taking into account all outcomes.

There are only positive outcomes that can come from learning a new skill, and programming is the skill of our future.

Constructionism is not a spectator sport

Expand competencies

Challenge youth to participate as

PRODUCERS

As well as CONSUMERS of technology(Peppler & Kafai 2007)

Topics in Squeak•Cartesian coordinate geometry is employed to move the sprites around the screen, and Squeak could be used to enhance math lessons on the topic.

•Basic grammar could be taught using the sprites to represent nouns, and the commands to represent verbs, etc..

•Constructivist lessons in literature might include learners creating animations describing how they believe characters would behave if something different were to occur in a story they are reading.

•Simulations could be developed to test hypotheses or demonstrate understanding of scientific principles. (after hands on verification)

Three challenges in participatory competencies that need to be addressed in preparing youth for

full digital culture participation (Jenkins et. al. 2006)

Participation

Transparency

Ethics

Teaching and learningPiaget Papert

“dwelling in” and “stepping back” are equally important in getting such a cognitive dance going. How could people learn from their experience as long as they are totally immersed in it. ….. translate the experience into a …… model gains a life of its own, and description or a model can be addressed as if it were “not me.” From then on, a new cycle can begin, because as soon as the dialogue gets started (between me and my artifact), the stage is set for new and deeper connectedness and understanding.

Edith Ackerman

INQUIRY/Learning by DesignPrior knowledge (activate)

Background information

Define outcomes

Model design, provide frameworks

Establish general topic

Student teams, cooperative groups

Establish and communicate framework for inquiry

Number 1 science lesson:

The World is not really what it seems.

See with new eyes

The San Francisco Exploratorium

(Oppenheimer-get out of your head)

500 exhibits

Learning DispositionsWays of learning to learnStrengths and weaknessesBuilding stronger dispositions

Learning to Learn: 7 Dimensions of “Learning Power”

Changing & Learning

Meaning Making

Critical Curiosity

Creativity

Learning Relationships

Strategic Awareness

Resilience

Being Stuck & Static

Data Accumulation

Passivity

Being Rule Bound

Isolation & Dependence

Being Robotic

Fragility & Dependence

Expert interviews + factor analysis from literature meta-review: identified seven dimensions of effective “learning power”, since validated empirically with learners at many stages, ages and cultures (Deakin Crick, Broadfoot and Claxton, 2004)

www.vitalhub.net/index.php?id=8

Learning Power: ELLI

100

Learning relationships

Strategic Awareness

Changing and learning

ResilienceCreativity

Meaning Making

Critical Curiosity

ELLI: Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (Ruth Deakin Crick, U. Bristol)A web questionnaire generates a spider diagram summarising the learner’s self-perception: the basis for a mentored discussion and interventions

Professional development in schools, colleges and business: ViTaL: http://www.vitalhub.net/vp_research-elli.htm

Gender Issues

One The question is how we react to this great prejudice against

women.

The rule of law and social activism certainly are crucial. But no matter how strong the social structure, there is always that cheek-slapped moment when you are alone with the anti-woman prejudice: the joke, the leer, the disregard, the invisibility, the inescapable fact that the moment you walk through the door you are seen as lesser, no matter what your credentials.

Women represent 12% of all computer science graduates.

In 1984, they represented 37% of all computer science graduates.

http://www.girlswhocode.com/

Recoding Gender

how gender has shaped the culture of computing,

she offers a valuable historical perspective on

today’s concerns over women’s

underrepresentation in the field.

Recoding GenderWomen’s Changing Participation in ComputingBy Janet Abbate

© 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

http://appinventor.mit.edu/

East Palo Alto girls create app to clean up graffiti, trash

EPA CHICA SQUAD

http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/stories/east-palo-alto-girls-create-app-clean-graffiti-trash.html

http://girlsinict.org/sites/default/files/resources/docs/exec.sum-e.pdf

How to be a woman programmer by Ellen Ullman

The New York Times, May 18, 2013

The first requirement for programming is a passion for the work, a deep need to probe the mysterious space between human thoughts and what a machine can understand; between human desires and how machines might satisfy them.

The second requirement is a high tolerance for failure. Programming is the art of algorithm design and the craft of debugging errant code. In the words of the great John Backus, inventor of the Fortran programming language: “You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only to discover that they don’t work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/how-to-be-a-woman-programmer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

It wasn't just about solving a problem. It was about experiencing sophisticated patterns that develop in mathematics, using a scheme that children can relate to (shapes). In the "car" example on the computer, the point was that the same phenomenon can be experienced by using "paint" and a little programming, but using concepts of velocity & acceleration, 1st- & 2nd-order diff eq.'s.”

Every part of Etoys Squeak is

DECONSTRUCTIBLE

Every part can be taken apart

Ask questions—

do you think this part of the environment could be just like the objects you are manipulating?

the halos, the folders—even if you can’t get it back together, doesn’t matter

I can take it apart!

Squeak Etoysdirect pedagogical uses of the Squeak environment

community of users that form a support network for the tool

Squeakland showcase (a collective)

Squeak is open-source, all the source code for the projects is available for use to help understand develop one's own programs.

uploaded projects include tutorials explaining how to accomplish various tasks in the programming language.

References Hagood, M.C., Stevens, L. P. & Reinking, D. (2002) What do THEY Have to Teach

US? Talkin’ ‘Cross Generations! In D. E. Alvermann (Ed.) Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotm, R., Robison, A., & Weigel, M. (2006) “confronting the challenges of participation culture: Media eduation for the 21st century.” White paper. Chicago, IL: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Peppler, K.A. & Kafai, Y.B. “What video game making can teach us about learning and literacy: Alternative pathways into participatory culture,” in Akira Bab (Ed.), Situated Play: Proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Digital Games Research Association. (DiGRA) (Tokyo, Japan, September 2007) The University of Tokyo, pp. 369-376.

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. Rules of Play: Game design Fundamentals. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004. MIT

John Hagel III, John Seely Brown: Lang Davison, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things In Motion, Basic Books 2010.

Ackerman, E. , “Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference?”, IDC, 2013, NYC.

Fry, Spencer, Should You Learn to Program?, accessed October 21, 2013, http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/should-you-learn-to-program, May 25, 2013.

How to be a woman programmer by Ellen Ullman The New York Times, May 18, 2013, accessed October 21, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/how-to-be-a-woman-programmer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&.

Kafai, Y., and Resnick, M., eds. (1996) Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Papert, Seymour. (1990) “A Critique of Technocentrism in Thinking About the School of the Future,” MIT Epistemology and Learning Memo No. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory.

Papert, Seymour (1981) Mindstorms: Computers, Children and Powerful Ideas. NY: Basic Books.

Papert, Seymour (1993) The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York:Basic Books.

Stager, Gary. (2001) "Computationally-Rich Constructionism and At-Risk Learners." In Computers in Education 2001: Australian Topics – Selected Papers from the Seventh World Conference on Computers in Education. McDougall, Murnane & Chambers editors. Volume 8. Sydney: Australian Computer Society.

Stager, Gary. (2002) “Papertian Constructionism and At-Risk Learners” In the Proceedings of the 2002 National Educational Computing Conference. Eugene, OR: ISTE

Seymour Papert Tribute at IDC 2013

High resolution video of the entire session: http://vimeo.com/69471812

Contact InformationCathleen Galas

cgalas@comcast.net

Cathleengalas.com

LinkedIn: Cathleen Galas