Papert, S (1980s) Constructionism vs. Instructionism
These web pages are series of speeches that Papert gave to a Japanese audiences in the 1980s. The author talks about a student learning mathematics in particular using the programming language LOGO. The talks might have been interesting 20 years ago but I think it has lost a lot of the impact. Programming languages are not that interesting to the new generation of learners as demonstrated by the decline in student numbers in ITC subject enrollments particularly for girls McDougall, B (2008).
To explain what the author is talking about he has embedded video files in the web pages but alas these links are Real Audio Metafile (RAM). format that requires a proprietary player. On installing the player the links on the web page were found to broken so I was not able to view the videos compounding the frustration.
Paper part 4: Advanced Math and LOGO was particularly difficult to understand. I am studying to become a maths/IT secondary school teacher and have some idea of turtles due to my age. (Turtles are using a programming language to move a graphical representation of a turtle around the screen – big deal). The use of mathematics and acronyms would both inappropriate and a bit of a turn off to current learners. I agree at lot with what Papert is trying to say in that student learning by self discovery using technology is the best way for the current generation but the message got lost because the web page is out of date and requires freshening up.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:35 am
[...] to Mark’s Post, Mark, I quite agree with you. What Papert trying to make out was the point that students learn by [...]