Building Blocks

De: Judith Kampfner

Narrado por: Barbara Bogaev, Judith Kampfner

Duración: 27 m

Resumen del Editor

At a Maine Youth Center, MIT professor, Seymour Papert inaugurated an experiment to radically change an education curriculum. Rooted in his ideas such as those in his book Mindstorms, Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas, Pappert collaborated with Lego and instituted a learning-by-doing program where young pupils spend their day using Legos to build programmable robots - clocks, vehicles and moving fantasy figures. Mindstorm projects are now ubiquitous. Producer Judith Kampfner explores the early piloting of the program - at a youth correctional facility. There, teens photographed their creations and wrote diaries proudly chronicling their progress. Pappert believed that the technology was a means for expression and a powerful tool to help students conceptualize. He discusses how his ideas built upon those of the educator Jean Piaget. It was a radical departure for the classic education model found at a detention center, where going to class was often a punitive measure.

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