{"id":3996,"date":"2017-03-31T01:59:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T06:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=3996"},"modified":"2021-06-14T11:01:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T16:01:34","slug":"when-you-wake-seymour-papert-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=3996","title":{"rendered":"When You Wake Seymour Papert Up in the Middle of the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the late Eighties, there was a Logo Conference held in Los Angeles. After a wild night reminiscent of Martin Scorsese\u2019s 1985 film, \u201cAfter Hours<\/a>,\u201d longtime Papert<\/a> collaborator Brian Silverman<\/a> and I found ourselves locked out of where we were supposed to sleep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Seymour Papert & Gary Stager in Sydney, 2004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever the problem solver, Brian said, \u201cSeymour always has a big room. We can sleep there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, we drove back across town and woke Seymour before 5 AM. Despite our discourteous invasion and before we went off to sleep, Papert offered a bit of profundity that withstands the test of time.<\/p>\n

One of the people we had been partying with earlier in the evening was teacher, turned software developer, Tom Snyder. Brian remarked something along the lines of, \u201cTom is a good guy<\/em>.\u201d Seymour disagreed and said that he viewed the world of educational technology as a triangle with Alfred Bork, Tom Snyder, and himself (Papert) in each of the vertices.\u00a0\u00a0Papert went on to say that each of the three men possess a stance that views technology as benefitting one of three constituents\u00a0in the educational system.<\/p>\n

Alfred<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>Bork<\/a> was notorious for saying that teachers had low SAT scores, were not very bright, and any future teacher shortage would be corrected by replacing teachers with teaching machines. Today\u2019s online testing, \u201cpersonalized instruction,\u201d and other dystopian systems concerned with delivery, testing, surveillance, and accountability are manifestations of Bork\u2019s fantasies.<\/p>\n

Tom Snyder<\/a> was a fledgling educational software designer in the late 1980s trying to make payroll and in need of a catchy marketing niche. He looked around and found that most classrooms had one computer. So, he decided to make software for the \u201cone computer classroom.\u201d In this scenario, the teacher was an actor, the classroom was a set, and the computer was a prop for engaging in whole class or small group problem solving. Oddly, this practical marketing slogan born from a shortage of computers thirty years ago remains an enduring metaphor for classroom computer use. The \u201cinteractive\u201d whiteboard is one example.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Choice Must Be Made<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seymour Papert believed in the late 1960s that every child would and should have a personal computer with which to mess about with powerful ideas, create, and collaborate.<\/p>\n

These three points of view described by Papert in the middle of the night described how technology is predictive and in an educational setting always grants agency to one of three actors: the system, the teacher, or the student. Papert\u2019s disciples see the greatest benefit arising from granting maximum agency to the learner. In purely arithmetic terms, the greatest return on investment (ROI) redounds to those who embrace Papert\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n

Technology is never neutral<\/a>. An incredibly clever teacher might\u00a0be able to pull a technology a little bit between the vertices in the triangle, but that doesn’t change the equation. Educators need to decide upon whom they wish to bestow agency. I’m in Papert’s corner. It is best for learners and enjoys the greatest return on investment.<\/p>\n

Parents, educators, and citizens investing in educational computing need to plant their feet and point their practice towards a specific vision.<\/p>\n

Recent addition<\/b> (January 2019)<\/p>\n

After publishing this article, I remembered one detail of the night we woke Seymour Papert. After Seymour wiped the sleep from his eyes and dropped knowledge on us, Brian Silverman asked, “Hey Seymour, can I use your bed?” Seymour pulled on some clothes and left his own hotel room pre-dawn.<\/p>\n

\n

Gary Stager is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute<\/a> for educators July 11-14, 2017, coauthor of Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom<\/a>, and curator of the Seymour Papert archive site, DailyPapert.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Register today for Constructing Modern Knowledge 2017!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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