Papert’s Prison Fab Lab: Implications for the maker movement and education design
By Gary Stager
Glossary Terms
MYC – Maine Youth Center (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
CLL – Constructionist Learning Laboratory (an environment in which knowledge was constructed inside the head of the learner through the act of making something shareable outside of their head) (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
Heuristics – using experience to learn and improve
Heuristic. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heuristic
Recidivism - a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior
Recidivism. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recidivism
Quotes
“The CLL project was built upon a desire to build an alternative learning environment unencumbered to the greatest extent possible by the policies, practices and heuristics of traditional schooling.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
The quote above and below are basically here as descriptors of the CLL project and the maker movement. How learning is meant to take place and the freedom that needs to be afforded to them for success.
“The maker/DIY movement with its emphasis on learning through direct experience, hands-on projects, tinkering and invention, is based on constructionist learning even if its members and advocates are unaware of the theory.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
“The MakerEd initiative recently received a large DARPA grant to create one thousands school-based makerspaces over the next three years.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 488)
While this is significant, there are still many schools that will not be able to benefit from this new form of education. Plus, they need to figure out how to assess the students or is it just a place they can go and play at learning or is it meant to be somewhat structured as part of the educational package.
“…the CLL was freed of all curriculum and assessment requirements by the State of Maine.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 488)
How would this work in a main stream school. Does this mean that all grade and students, just learn what they want to learn, or are they taught the basics in elementary school. What does a mainstream classroom look like? How do we know what the child has learned? Will there be important skills that the child hasn’t learned that they will need later in life, merely because they were not interested in learning about it?
“…constructive activities provide an astute educator with a window into the thinking of a learner.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
Will this change the way educators are taught? Will Universities take the time to teach teacher candidates how to assess their learners through observation and then how to tailor their teaching for these individual styles?
“…we found kids said to be illiterate who could write a 13,000 word autobiography the few days he was being released; ‘learning disabled’ kids who could engage in sophisticated engineering projects; demonstrations of remarkable ingenuity and problem solving ability; boundless empathy and kindness; child-like wonder among the ‘most dangerous’ children in society and an intense passion to learn new things and share that knowledge with others.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
Interesting how by removing youth from the restrictions and specific expectations of a traditional classroom promotes learning and community and a change in their behaviour (at least within that room).
“nothing beautiful is forced” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
This was a quote that was from Papert’s book, The Children’s Machine. It was also the quote that students believed from the text.
“Not a single CLL student was removed from the classroom for discipline reasons over three years and the recidivism rate of the facility was 70%.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 490)
This does beg the question about how many problems took place in the classroom. While they state that no child was remove they do not tell us how many disciplinary problems there were. It paints a pretty picture and suggests that there were no problems and everyone got along perfectly. Seems unlikely!
References
Stager, Gary. 2013. Papert's prison fab lab: implications for the maker movement and education design. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Pages 487-490. Retrieved November 28, 2013 from http://doi.acm.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1145/2485760.2485811
MYC – Maine Youth Center (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
CLL – Constructionist Learning Laboratory (an environment in which knowledge was constructed inside the head of the learner through the act of making something shareable outside of their head) (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
Heuristics – using experience to learn and improve
Heuristic. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heuristic
Recidivism - a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior
Recidivism. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recidivism
Quotes
“The CLL project was built upon a desire to build an alternative learning environment unencumbered to the greatest extent possible by the policies, practices and heuristics of traditional schooling.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
The quote above and below are basically here as descriptors of the CLL project and the maker movement. How learning is meant to take place and the freedom that needs to be afforded to them for success.
“The maker/DIY movement with its emphasis on learning through direct experience, hands-on projects, tinkering and invention, is based on constructionist learning even if its members and advocates are unaware of the theory.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 487)
“The MakerEd initiative recently received a large DARPA grant to create one thousands school-based makerspaces over the next three years.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 488)
While this is significant, there are still many schools that will not be able to benefit from this new form of education. Plus, they need to figure out how to assess the students or is it just a place they can go and play at learning or is it meant to be somewhat structured as part of the educational package.
“…the CLL was freed of all curriculum and assessment requirements by the State of Maine.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 488)
How would this work in a main stream school. Does this mean that all grade and students, just learn what they want to learn, or are they taught the basics in elementary school. What does a mainstream classroom look like? How do we know what the child has learned? Will there be important skills that the child hasn’t learned that they will need later in life, merely because they were not interested in learning about it?
“…constructive activities provide an astute educator with a window into the thinking of a learner.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
Will this change the way educators are taught? Will Universities take the time to teach teacher candidates how to assess their learners through observation and then how to tailor their teaching for these individual styles?
“…we found kids said to be illiterate who could write a 13,000 word autobiography the few days he was being released; ‘learning disabled’ kids who could engage in sophisticated engineering projects; demonstrations of remarkable ingenuity and problem solving ability; boundless empathy and kindness; child-like wonder among the ‘most dangerous’ children in society and an intense passion to learn new things and share that knowledge with others.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
Interesting how by removing youth from the restrictions and specific expectations of a traditional classroom promotes learning and community and a change in their behaviour (at least within that room).
“nothing beautiful is forced” (Stager, 2013, pg. 489)
This was a quote that was from Papert’s book, The Children’s Machine. It was also the quote that students believed from the text.
“Not a single CLL student was removed from the classroom for discipline reasons over three years and the recidivism rate of the facility was 70%.” (Stager, 2013, pg. 490)
This does beg the question about how many problems took place in the classroom. While they state that no child was remove they do not tell us how many disciplinary problems there were. It paints a pretty picture and suggests that there were no problems and everyone got along perfectly. Seems unlikely!
References
Stager, Gary. 2013. Papert's prison fab lab: implications for the maker movement and education design. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Pages 487-490. Retrieved November 28, 2013 from http://doi.acm.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1145/2485760.2485811