### Where computing and constructivism collide

Meurig Beynon
Computer Science
The University of Warwick

Seymour Papert's vision for "constructionism" established a link between Piaget's constructivist stance on learning and computer programming that has had a seminal influence on educational technology. It is a vision that has been elaborated and explored through many subsequent developments in computer-supported education: the initial adoption of `Logo` in schools; the introduction of new programming languages based on similar principles, such as `Boxer`, `Imagine Logo` and `StarLogo TNG`; the conception and implementation of virtual learning environments such as `Croquet`. And whyever not? - when we consider the potential flexibility and the experiential possibilities that modern computing technology affords, it is natural to suppose that software construction is a medium well-matched to constructivist learning.

And yet - in current practice, the integrity of the relationship between computing and constructivist learning is far from being established. The connection between "learning a traditional subject", and "learning computer programming" - even in respect of domains such as mathematics where there are clear points of connection - is scarcely unproblematic. The procedural style of programming represented in Logo has long been deprecated in computer science, and no longer enjoys the same prominence in practical engagement with computers in schools. The problems of large-scale software development testify to the difficulties of aligning learning about a domain with building software. Appreciating that "underlying Croquet is an object-oriented semantics based on active objects that have the capability of temporal reflection" stands in a most obscure relationship to educational theories of learning.

In this talk, I shall argue that realising Papert's vision for constructionism involves much more than a new generation of programming languages can deliver. To understand computing in its relation to constructivist learning requires a quite different epistemological framework - and a much broader conception of computing in which algorithms and programs no longer play the most fundamental and central role.