by I just received this photo from a second grade teacher I worked with last month in South Korea. I spent a week teaching programming (via MicroWorlds EX) and robotics (Pico Crickets & LEGO WeDo) to first through third graders while consulting with other grade level teachers and the senior leadership team.
I also received a very sweet thank you note from a 3rd grader via Facebook (I know 3rd grader ≠ Facebook).
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.
This is awesome. The sentiment. The idea. The words.
My wife has been looking at Pico Crickets while thinking of one very special little four year old. She’s thinking it might be a wee bit of a scaffold, but might be just exactly the sort of thing that fits her in so many ways. Too young? Age independent in the hands of two constructivist-leaning educators? Thoughts?
With adult help, a 4 year-old should be able to work nicely with Pico Crickets.