Constructionism VS Instructionism

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

Sandcastles –> go digital!

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.