Papert: still relevant?

Johann Sperl - Kindergarten, 1885. Neue Pinakothek, Munich.

© Please Touch Museum

In the Lifelong Kindergarten group … we believe that it is critically important for all children, from all backgrounds, to grow up knowing how to design, create, and express themselves. We are inspired by the ways children learn in kindergarten: when they create pictures with finger paint, they learn how colors mix together; when they create castles with wooden blocks, they learn about structures and stability. We want to extend this kindergarten style of learning, so that learners of all ages continue to learn through a process of designing, creating, experimenting, and exploring.

Our ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative people who are constantly inventing new opportunities for themselves and their communities.

http://llk.media.mit.edu/mission.php

Schema

“Experience of objects plays, naturally, a very important role in the establishment of dynamic structures”

From Piaget (1961) A genetic approach to the psychology of thought

Accommodation and Assimiliation

“All exchange between the organism and the environment is composed of two poles:

A) of the assimilation of the given external to the previous internal structures, and

B) of the accommodation of these structures to the given ones.”

From Piaget (1961) A genetic approach to the psychology of thought

Assimilation

ATHERTON J S (2010) Learning and Teaching; Assimilation and Accommodation [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm Accessed: 8 October 2010

Accommodation

ATHERTON J S (2010) Learning and Teaching; Assimilation and Accommodation [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm Accessed: 8 October 2010

ATHERTON J S (2009) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory

.

Play and Exploration Children learn through first hand experience in

activities they have chosen

Play allows children to test their ideas

Play lets children learn from mistakes

Play fosters imagination and flexibility of mind

Rich, enabling environments are provided

Allow children to dictate the pace, length and focus; interventions should be supportive

Recognise children’s fascination with and curiosity about what is going on in their worlds.

EYFS: Effective practice: play and exploration

Free-flow playIn free-flow play, children

Use first hand experience from life

Make up rules as they play

Symbolically represent as they play

Pretend

Are deeply involved and difficult to distract

Try out their most recently acquired skills and competenciesBruce 2004, cited in EYFS: Effective practice: play and exploration

Bee-Bots

Roamer

Probots

Some practical work Play with one of the

robots!

Working with a partner, plan a directed play activity for children in Reception using your robot.

Use a Flip video camera to capture this as role-play (you may wish to join forces with another pair)

Upload your video

Post some reflective commentary

Bee-Bot Sim

Some questions… Wouldn’t early years be better without all this

technology?

Floor turtles vs screen turtles?

Is work on a computer concrete or formal operational?

What constitutes ‘playing on a computer’?

How would you interpret free play and directed play in the context of ICT?

What about ‘educational games’?

What about commercial, off the shelf computer games?

To follow-up Read ‘Play and

Exploration: In Depth’ and address one of the discussion points on the previous slide

Consider, with your partner, how play might be used to explore aspects of your chosen text.

Watch Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? Blog your response.