Learning through Designing Elisabeth Sylvan Lifelong Kindergarten Group Hello my name is Elisabeth Sylvan. I am a PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten Group which is lead by professor Mitchel Resnick. I’m going to speak with you today about the learning activities our research group creates for children, the theory of constructionism, and how the tools provided by CBA supports learning activities.

Lifelong Kindergarten Here in the Lifelong Kindergarten Group we are inspired by the type of learning that occurs in kindergarten because these environments have the characteristics that would support constructionist learning. Some of the key issues include supporting what we call “serious play,” having supportive communities of practice, portfolio-based assessment so that children can reflect upon their own work, and providing the platform for children to be intrinsically motivated to learn. Kindergarten has many of these features. The environment is playful, so that children feel that they can choose their paths of investigation. At the same time, their investigations are supported, not guided, by an adult so that if children feel lost, frustrated or confused, they can find the support to help them pursue their playful learning goals.In this environment, children experiment with materials and create theories about what works and why. In a sense the environment is also quite serious. Serious exploration of children’s mental models occurs. This is important since we believe, based on epistilimilogical research beginning with Piaget, learning is a constructivist activity: one in which we are constantly building and adapting mental models of our world, based on our current experiences.

Digital Manipulatives                             Digital Manipulatives Based on the theory of constructionism, We build tools tools the physical and digital world to expand ways kids can design, create, and invent. These become viewable, tangible representations of the models children are experimenting with. One way we’ve combined the digital and physical worlds is through developing are “digital manipulatives.” We add digital capabilities to the traditional toys of childhood, like blocks and dominos. With our new digital versions of these toys, children can learn concepts (such as process, probability, and communication) that were previously seen as too complex for children. For instance, system blocks the project on the right side of the slide is a tool for thinking about complex systems and casuality. The interactive simulation in system blocks allows children to quickly and easily confront their own conceptions about a dynamic behavior, for example about how epidemic spreads. They arrange the cards based on their conception (which reflects their mental model), simulate, see why their conception is a misconception (based on the real-time simulation they are operating on their own). As a result, they adopt a new conception/theory of how things work.

Programmable Bricks One of our digital manipulatives is programmable bricks like the cricket. With them, children build smaller, more mobile devices that don’t require a connection with a desktop or laptop computer. The program for the brick is written on a standard computer and then transmitted to the Brick via an infrared link. Once the program is downloaded, the brick is disconnected and functions on its own. Our programmable bricks are the inspiration for Lego Mindstorms, a product in the hands of millions of children worldwide.

Personal Fabrication A current focus of our work has been upon personal fabrication, by this I mean designing and creating objects in your environment using technological tools. Tools like CAD, 3D Printers, laser cutters vacuum formers. Just as we believe that technological fluency includes understanding programming and robotics, we think that true fluency involves the ability to design and build the basic units of our world– from building blocks to circuit boards. In a variety of different settings and in a variety of ways we introduce children to these sorts of tools and then the children design and build the forms and the function themselves. There are many interesting research questions in the area of personal fabrication such as how the tools, often confusing to adults, should be presented or reconfigured for children, what are the sorts of activities appropriate for children with these tools, how do we build communities of practice around these tools, how do you engage children’s imagination to come up with new ways of working with these tools, and what do children learn from them. These are ongoing areas of research in our group’s work, along with other research in the lab including project at the South End Technology Center and other Fab Labs.