This except from a speech by Papert in the 1980’s clearly conveys his ideas on educational innovation by the two approaches of Constructionism and Instructionism. “Instructionism is the theory that says, “To get better education, we must improve instruction. And if we’re going to use computers, we’ll make the computers do the instruction.” Whilst “Constructionism” is the view that learning is precedded from constructing knowledge. So thereby knowledge is constructed from being “teacher” over the computer.
This makes me ponder and question “What kind of teacher am I?” Do I follow the constructivist approach or am I more of an Instructionalist in my teaching?
http://www.papert.org/articles/const_inst/const_inst1.html
Have you ever built a sandcastle?? Well then you are a Constructionist! Harel depicts explicitly the nature of “Constructionism” as being consciously engaged in the building and designing of a public entity – ‘in the present moment’. Sandcastles are built upon, shared with, played with and dug around in the present moment. They cannot be extended or added to from the past or future, as they are not continuous entities. Similarly, technology is built upon in the present moment. They are shared with others, played with and are tool for digging around and finding new information. However, unlike the sandcastle they can be added to and modified over time to create better models than what previously had existed. Just like building a sandcastle – there is no boundaries; it is open ended play, hence technology is exactly the same. We are open to constructing whatever we like, where we like by engaging in open-ended play. Constructionism, emerged from Seymour Papert that encourages open-ended play which suggests that children learn best when they are in the role of a designer or constructor. So when considering the role of technology when teaching, we should be encouraging children to experiment and play and not restrict their play to certain resources. This allows them to become the constructionists of their own learning.
This review was very helpful for me to understand the key features behind using a “wiki”. Unsure exactly to what they were, I learnt that wiki’s are spaces where people are open to edit and share information on particular topics. Essentially they are collaborative pieces of writing that people have contributed to overtime. There are many benefits for using this kind of tool as a teacher. They can be used in the classroom for collaborative group projects, in the staffroom for planning workshops and even in the administrative office for creating and editing school policy documents. As it requires minimal technical support there are so many possibilities that are open to a ”wiki”. However, there are some disadvantages that include being vandalised, incorrect information being presented and spam. Another difficulty is that it does not prevent the problem of one student doing all the work in a collaborative group project. Does anyone have ideas on how this could be prevented?? I am definately keen to give “wikis” a go if given the chance on prac.
Source: Flickr Image
The Web
So intricately crafted. Glistening in the sunlight. It reflects all that a child can become from learning. They are the crafters of their learning. The more meaningful learners they become the stronger their web will become. Strong to face any challege, the web is how they learn to intertwine their lives and expand their web of meaningful learning. There is not one web that is exactly the same. Just as each web is so unique and different, every child’s learning experiences will be unique and different. As the web develops another spiral forms and a child’s learning grows to another level. It peramators are broadened. Like the spider, children learn to construct their own webs in life-that ultimately will help them become better learners and stronger participants in life.
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