

"Where computing and constructivism collide"
by Meurig Beynon, Department of Computer Science, Warwick University
[ www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~wmb]
Tuesday 11 December, 2.00 - 3.30

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 mediumwell-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.

READING LIST

Meurig Beynon. "Computing technology for learning - in need of a
radical new conception". In Journal of Educational Technology &
Society, 10 (1), 94-106.
http://www.ifets.info/issues.php?id=34
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/research/em/publications/papers/096/

Meurig Beynon and Antony Harfield. "Lifelong Learning, Empirical
Modelling and the Promises of Constructivism". Journal of Computers,
Volume 2, Issue 3, 43-55.
http://www.academypublisher.com/jcp/vol02/no03/jcp02034355.pdf
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/research/em/publications/papers/100/

Bruno Latour, "The Promises of Constructivism", in "Chasing
Technoscience: Matrix of Materiality" (ed. Don Ihde and Evan
Selinger), Indiana University Press 2006.
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/087.html

Brian Cantwell-Smith. "The foundations of computing", in
"Computationalism: New Directions" (ed. M. Scheutz), Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2002.
http://www.calculemus.org/lect/L-I-MNS/12/ekon-i-modele/smith-foundtns.pdf

The Croquet VLE is discussed at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_project

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Dr Phillip Kent
London Knowledge Lab - Institute of Education
23 - 29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS
p.kent@ioe.ac.uk
tel 020 7763 2156   mobile 07950 952034
www.lkl.ac.uk/technomaths
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