Teach
Mandatory texts
Ackermann, E.K. (2016). “Learning to Code: What is it? What’s In It For The Kids? — A Tribute to Seymour Papert”. Trans. version from publication in Tecnologie didattiche (TD 27–2002).
Moriwaki, K., Brucker-Cohen, J. (2006). “Lessons from the scrapyard: creative uses of found materials within a workshop setting”. In AI & Society. 20:4. 506–525.
Notes on the texts
- Ackermann, E.K.: teaching coding to kids aged 5–9
- Is learning to program good / important for kids?
- Teaches kids things like mastery vs delegation, autonomy vs causation, creation vs repurposing
- Some kids like to create, be in charge and delegate, but of course not all of them
- “teaching to learn by learning to teach”
- The way we interact with technology has changed the way we learn, communicate, etc
- Programming is a very specific skill not everyone is suited to. The involved skills of delegation, creation etc can be deepened by themselves. In the future, we will likely need fewer coders, and ones with specialisation
- Moriwaki, K., Brucker-Cohen, J.: Creating “computationally designed objects” through discarded junk (Making Quatsch? :-) )
- Finding new affordances of objects through playful discovery
- “Scrapyard Challenge”
- These workshops are “a teaching strategy where safe exploration of technology can take place”
- This overcomes two problems people interested in physical computing encounter: “(1) A high ceiling of technical knowledge which must be reached before engaging in the design process (2) Cost and accessibility”
- “a DIY ethic favors direct action and independence”
Learnings from / thoughts on the texts
- Playful experimentation within a given framework is helpful
- Recontextualise pre-existing notions about things
- These methods really work with more hands-on learning styles which I would argue most people have.
Notes from the class
