Papert: Not Just Logo!
The Children's Machine - Photo by rodrigo mesquita (by)
Many of you may know Seymour Papert as the creator of Logo. If you don’t know about Logo or Seymour’s role in its development, there are some resources below.
Dr. Papert has often been recognized as the Father of Educational Computing. His impact on the early world of information technologies in schools is legendary for it was borne from his collaboration with Jean Piaget, theories of constructivism, and the ‘tutee’ concept within Tool, Tutor, and Tutee.
But Seymour has been much bigger than Logo.
What You May Not Know
But what you possibly don’t know about Seymour Papert is his significant contribution to the field of cognitive science. With Marvin Minsky, he cofounded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. He collaborated with Marvin Minsky on Perceptrons (1969), which temporarily reduced the focus on neural networks and encouraged increased study of symbolic models. Indeed, inthe early 80’s, the exploration of neural networks rebounded and became a prominent force in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and development. I don’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of these very technical arguments among the Newell & Simon cognitivists, artificial intelligence supporters, and cyberneticists. However, these times were central to the creation of the current theories of cognitive science.
Seymour Papert & Nicholas Negroponte, Founder & Chairman of 'One Laptop Per Child' - photo by Bud the Teacher (by sa nc)
The Human Side
I’ve had the good fortune of spending some time with Seymour Papert. I wish I’d had more time and I wish that I’d had more opportunities for debate with him – not about cognitive science but about cognitive psychology and his dreams for schools and children’s learning.
We were at a conference together in Israel. I helped usher him away from the throngs of people after his presentation to his hotel in another city. He was always deluged in those days and he valued his privacy. He asked me if I wouldn’t mind driving his rental car for him. He found it crazy to drive there and, of course, I was happy to oblige. On the way, we stopped in the old city and were happily walking along, browsing at the stalls. Then, I turned around and he was gone! Oh my goodness! It took me some 20-30 minutes to find him. He was contentedly sipping tea with a shopkeeper and deeply involved in a wonderful conversation about the state of the world.
I miss Seymour’s presence. He was severely injured in a motorcycle accident several years ago. His strength of passion and genius should not be missed. Read his work.
A Last Word about Logo
If you have not explored using Logo with kids, I can still recommend that you do this. I am sure it must fit a 21st Century Skill or two. :-) There are many versions available. Seymour Papert was the Chair of the Board of LCSI for many years and they have, in my opinion, made the best versions of this computer language.
Logo is a programming environment – an accessible one for all learners. Now programming doesn’t mean what you might think. Many of us believe that students should engage in some aspects of computer science for the purposes of developing rich, divergent, reflective thinking. @dougpete makes reference to this frequently.
NOTE: DON’T be scared away by the term ‘programming’! All ages can take part. Check out MicroWorlds EX and MicroWorlds Jr (the latter is for primary kids).
RESOURCES
- A Critique of Technocentrism in Thinking about the School of the Future by Seymour Papert
- The Turtle’s Long Slow Trip: Macro-educological Perspectives on Microworlds by Seymour Papert
- On the Origins of Cognitive Science: The Mechanization of the Mind by Jean-Pierre Dupuy, MIT, 2009 ISBN 978-0-262-51239-8
- MicroWorlds EX and MicroWorlds Jr
- Learning with Logo - by Gary Stager
Thanks for that story. Amazing that you got to spend some time with SP. Although, I’m really not surprised. Explains a lot actually. :)
Thx Colin. I have, over the years, been so lucky. Some say I have a horseshoe strategically placed. Other say it’s because I’m Irish.
However, as I said, I just didn’t get enough time with Seymour Papert. @garystager , as you may know, has spent a great deal of time working and discussing with Papert on many projects.
One of my most exciting moments was when Papert invited me to visit his graduate class at the Media Lab. At that time, they had just developed the ‘programmable brick’ – a Lego brick that had self-contained batteries and computer – which you could build into whatever. They had several turtles running around the floor – with different coloured lights on top. Each was programmed to respond differently to each colour. The discussion revolved around the cultural differences among peoples – some allowing others to get close. Others keeping their distance.
Cool times.
Did you ever get involved with Lego Logo stuff? I bought about 50 Lego Logo kits for North York schools back in the 80s. MicroWorlds EX Robotics continues to this day to interact with Lego Mindstorms.
I am glad that people like @garystager make the effort to educate us all about the work of this great pioneer. The lessons to be learned are still very current today.
Thanks Peter for the background on a pioneer who was at the apex of our burgeoning educational world. When I was researching for my MEd (technology in maths) in the Dark Ages (2005!), literature of any kind, and especially in new areas of study such as edtech , was not as readily available on-line as it is now. One of the few people I consistently found was Seymour Papert, and his research writings were very much a foundation of my thesis.
I never used Logo, or the “Lego my Logo” brick, but I am sure that Mr. Papert would chuckle at our solemnly calling problem solving, critical thinking and real world application 21st Century skills!
Barb
Hi Barbara,
Ask @brendasherry about the time she discovered Seymour Papert’s work and how she told me about it! It was SOOOO funny!
Yes, the “21st century skills” would probably not sit well with Seymour Papert.
If Seymour were able, we could invite him to what one of our twitter friends said to me in a DM: “perhaps we could do a folks who were doing ’21st century’ stuff in the 80’s” tweetup!
Thx you.
RT27 = Right Turn, 27 degrees…
I grew up on Logo Writer and the blinking green turtle on the black screen in my elementary school computer lab. It was my first introduction to angles and I still remember how incredibly cool it was when we learned the “repeat” command that basically converted the turtle into an electronic spirograph. Those were the days!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
– Joelle
@joellerudick
P.S. Our Social Studies curriculum has our students looking at pioneers and other historical eras… I am eagerly awaiting the integration of computation history into the curriculum. I think that kids would love it. Anyone want to collaborate? RT me. (i.e. Reply To and not ReTweet or Right Turn!)
Hey Joelle,
LogoWriter was actually my favourite Logo. Seymour wasn’t as fussy about it because of all the materials that came with it. He thought it was a little too much like an SRA lab! LOL
I was using it in the days when I was teaching grade two. There is a story or two in here that might make you smile:
http://www.peterskillen.org/Peters_Home/Articles_files/TransferringKnowledge.pdf
And, I would love to speak with you about the computation history curriculum.
AND, are you coming to ECOO. http://www.ecoo.org