Designing Constructionist Futures

A diverse group of scholars redefine constructionism—introduced by Seymour Papert in 1980—in light of new technologies and theories. Constructionism, first introduced by Seymour Papert in 1980, is a framework for learning to understand something by making an artifact for and with other people. A core goal of constructionists is to respect learners as creators, to enable them to engage in making meaning for themselves through construction, and to do this by democratizing access to the world's most creative and powerful tools. In this volume, an international and diverse group of scholars examine, reconstruct, and evolve the constructionist paradigm in light of new technologies and theories. Taken together, their contributions show that constructionism has advanced in educational research and practice—and also that, in turn, researchers and practitioners can learn from constructionism how to foster learning in ways that respect learners' creativity and communities. The contributors examine how constructionist design can function within contexts ranging from school and home to virtual spaces; explore ways to support learners who have been under-resourced, overlooked, or oppressed; discuss learning by collaboration; and consider the implications of learning as a creative process of construction, exploring ways to support creative enterprises within the constraints of formal classrooms. Finally, leading visionaries imagine where constructionism, design, and research will go next Contributors Konstantin Aal, Dor Abrahamson, Edith K. Ackermann, Michael Ahmadi, Emma Anderson, Edward Baafi, Stephanie Benson, Laura Benton, Matthew Berland, Marina Umaschi Bers, Paulo Blikstein, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Karen Brennan, Leah Buechley, Angela Calabrese Barton, Teresa Casort, David Cavallo, Kiera Chase, Alison Clark-Wilson, Sequoia L. Dance, Joshua A. Danish, Sayamindu Dasgupta, Michael Eisenberg, Noel Enyedy, Deborah A. Fields, Andrea Forte, Gayithri Jayathirtha, Brian Gravel, Sara M. Grimes, Idit Harel, Erica R. Halverson, Nathan Holbert, Celia Hoyles, Raquel Jimenez, Yasmin B. Kafai, Ivan Kalas, Anna Keune, Susan Klimczak, Eric Klopfer, Maximilian Krüger, Chronis Kynigos, Tim Kubik, Breanne K. Litts, Benjamin Mako Hill, Amon Millner, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Richard Noss, Seymour Papert, Kylie Peppler, Judy Perry, Mitchel Resnick, Rebecca Reynolds, Ricarose Roque, Piers Saunders, Kristin A. Searle, Kimberly M. Sheridan, Arnan Sipitakiat, R. Benjamin Shapiro, Gary S. Stager, Gunnar Stevens, Vanessa Svihla, Edna Tan, Orkan Telhan, Naomi Thompson, Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert, Anne Weibert, Michelle Hoda Wilkerson, Volker Wulf, Uri Wilensky, Jianwei Zhang

A diverse group of scholars redefine constructionism--introduced by Seymour Papert in 1980--in light of new technologies and theories. Constructionism, first introduced by Seymour Papert in 1980, is a framework for learning to understand something by making an artifact for and with other people. A core goal of constructionists is to respect learners as creators, to enable them to engage in making meaning for themselves through construction, and to do this by democratizing access to the world's most creative and powerful tools. In this volume, an international and diverse group of scholars examine, reconstruct, and evolve the constructionist paradigm in light of new technologies and theories.

Internationally refereed papers present the state of the art in computer-aided architectural design research. These papers reflect the theme of the 12th International Conference of CAADFutures, Integrating Technologies for Computer-Aided Design. Collectively, they provide the technological foundation for new ways of thinking about using computers to design. In addition, they address the education of designers themselves.

Can you imagine future learning environments devoid of the systemic inequities that stifle student learning opportunities and teacher decision-making in most classrooms today? This volume offers the necessary steps—playful, participatory, historically informed—that are required to forge a pathway from the present U.S. educational landscape to a freer tomorrow. The authors use speculative approaches to teacher education and student learning to intentionally design beyond the boundaries of traditional research and practitioner resources that seek to “fix” current schooling conditions. Building from visionary organizing and artistic traditions that have captured the popular imagination, this volume suggests new forms of engagement for diverse learners. It pragmatically explores how to work toward radical new spaces of possibility for learning and teaching. Chapters include a range of learning contexts, from problem solving in complex video game settings to innovative world-building alongside young people in schools and communities. Readers will be inspired to completely rethink what is possible when it comes to justice-oriented, culturally responsive education. Book Features: A collection of over 40 contributors explore speculative education across a range of research settings.Examples of digital learning that include videogames and online collaboration.Multiple chapters that feature co-authored research and innovation with students and teachers.Innovative design and pedagogical strategies, including a chapter re-writing policy documents based on speculative imagination.

This book is a collection of insightful and unique state-of the-art papers presented at the Computing Conference which took place in London on June 22–23, 2023. A total of 539 papers were received out of which 193 were selected for presenting after double-blind peer-review. The book covers a wide range of scientific topics including IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Computing, Data Science, Networking, Data security and Privacy, etc. The conference was successful in reaping the advantages of both online and offline modes. The goal of this conference is to give a platform to researchers with fundamental contributions and to be a premier venue for academic and industry practitioners to share new ideas and development experiences. We hope that readers find this book interesting and valuable. We also expect that the conference and its publications will be a trigger for further related research and technology improvements in this important subject.

The digital revolution necessitates, but also makes possible, radical changes in how and what we learn. This book describes a set of innovative educational research projects at the MIT Media Laboratory, illustrating how new computational technologies can transform our conceptions of learning, education, and knowledge. The book draws on real-world education experiments conducted in formal and informal contexts: from inner-city schools and university labs to neighborhoods and after-school clubhouses. The papers in this book are divided in four interrelated sections as follows: * Perspectives in Constructionism further develops the intellectual underpinnings of constructionist theory. This section looks closely at the role of perspective-taking in learning and discusses how both cognitive and affective processes play a central role in building connections between old and new knowledge. * Learning through Design analyzes the relationship between designing and learning, and discusses ways that design activities can provide personally meaningful contexts for learning. This section investigates how and why children can learn through the processes of constructing artifacts such as games, textile patterns, robots and interactive devices. * Learning in Communities focuses on the social aspects of constructionist learning, recognizing that how people learn is deeply influenced by the communities and cultures with which they interact. It examines the nature of learning in classroom, inner-city, and virtual communities. * Learning about Systems examines how students make sense of biological, technological, and mathematical systems. This section explores the conceptual and epistemological barriers to learning about feedback, self-organization, and probability, and it discusses new technological tools and activities that can help people develop new ways of thinking about these phenomena.

"A comprehensive look at how the arts (broadly conceived) can improve teaching, learning, and curriculum for all students, written in accessible language for non-academics and non-experts. It contains many evocative examples to illustrate the power of the arts to change education"--