{"id":7883,"date":"2026-11-11T19:26:57","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T00:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=7883"},"modified":"2026-11-11T19:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T00:49:34","slug":"computational-making-the-new-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=7883","title":{"rendered":"Computational Making – The New Frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Register for upcoming workshops!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It has been rewarding to see so many educators embrace the spirit of learning-by-making. We’re gratified by how our book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom<\/em><\/a>, has inspired so much creativity and learner-centered practice in schools around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern \u201cmaker movement\u201d has blessed us with a greater ability to make things with both bits and atoms. With fabrication technology, we can now make all sorts of wondrous, tangible objects with speed, thrift, and precision. With code, we can make things too, and add interactivity and intelligence to physical artifacts. Sadly, the bits are too often left behind, buried under a pile of cardboard and shredded pool noodles, with the enormous learning potential of computing sacrificed. That is largely the result of adults\u2019 fear and ignorance of the empowerment associated with programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computation is the secret sauce that takes making to the next level and unlocks an infinite array of project-based learning opportunities for learners of all ages. Computational projects quite different from, and in my humble opinion, superior to digital ones. [read more about that argument here<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we adopt Stephen Wolfram\u2019s definition of computation as \u201corganizing your thoughts clearly enough that you can explain them to a sufficiently smart computer,\u201d then the implications for teaching and learning across all subjects and grade levels become immediately apparent. Computation and computational thinking become as essential in Language Arts as in STEM subjects, or even in the arts. It is time to make things with bits!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Workshops<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been leading exciting new Computational Making & Learning<\/a> workshops around the world. These workshops makes the case for learning-by-doing, explores how computation can supercharge project-based learning, revisits the pedagogical power of teacher-created microworlds in Turtle Art, SNAP!, and with Finch robots, and creates opportunities to employ generative AI chatbots as a collaborator in creating software. The day also includes a demonstration of the insanely powerful Wolfram Notebook Assistant + LLM Kit as a window onto an incredible computational future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

These workshops will be held at various locations in the coming months. Next up are Computational Making & Learning<\/a> workshops in Los Angeles<\/a> (December 4th) and San Francisco<\/a> (December 11th). Space is limited. Click here<\/strong><\/a> for more information and to reserve your spot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\"Los\n<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\n\"San\n<\/a>\n<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Powerful Ideas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After hands-on computational experiences in Turtle Art and designing microworlds<\/a> with the Snap! and the Finch robots, project time is reserved for creating computer games and messing-about with complex number theory problems \u2013 all made accessible, even to elementary school students, by computational technology. The design of teacher-created microworlds<\/a> ensures that learning objectives are within a student or group’s zone of proximal development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking teachers to work with AI to create working, interactive, attractive, and fun games creates all sorts of learning adventures. Their creativity, ingenuity, design aesthetic, and problem-solving skills are put to the test. When each participant creates software for one another, all sorts of learning are evident. Decades of experience creating constructionist learning environments where learners of all ages successfully create mind-blowing projects free of coercion or instruction gave me the courage to bet on teachers and chatbots. I am frequently dazzled by what they invent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long ago, I made the decision not to share the work of previous students with new ones. An admittedly 51-49 proposition, sharing previous projects conveys all sorts of messages about \u201ccorrect answers\u201d and may intimidate students before they even commence their projects. Over time, project sophistication and student talents progress as computational materials improve and student fluency develops. My highest responsibility as an educator is to plant the smallest seed sufficient to prime the creativity pump and generate the largest blossom or most beautiful garden. In my workshops, I model the sort of open-ended prompt-setting and project support required to nurture successful project-based learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Reach out to host your own Computational Making & Learning workshop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Back to the Future<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was blessed to learn to program computers for the first time around 1975 at Schuyler Colfax Jr. High School in Wayne, NJ where Mr. Jones taught every 7th grader to program computers, five days a week, for nine weeks. This was not vocational, gifted & talented education, or an elective. It was in the rotation between learning to make a tie rack and bake a souffl\u00e9. My otherwise ordinary suburban school district introduced computing (as a verb) to students around 1962-64. Thanks to Mr. Jones, I felt intelligent, creative, and competent for the first time. I then spent the better part of the rest of my schooling programming computers, challenging my peers, and teaching others to program. (Read more about this experience here<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For several years, my peers and I never encountered software written by someone we didn’t know. Software was something you <\/em>made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computer programming was a recreational activity. In fact, there were publications, like Creative Computing Magazine<\/em> and Compute!<\/em>, that served as inspiration to a far-flung community of recreational programmers. David Ahl, publisher of Creative Computing<\/em>, told me decades later that at its apex (c. 1984), the magazine had 400,000 subscribers. Can you imagine that? In 1984?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My four decades of advocating for personal computing across the curriculum is rooted in the hard fun of that era. One of my longtime classroom rules has been, “You can play any game you write.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often wondered under what conditions could recreational programming make a comeback. The maker movement was cause for hope that was never realized when fabrication became the focus. The widespread availability of AI chatbots is the best chance ever for democratizing computational making and recreational programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the Internet Archive and some good old-fashioned AI collaboration, I created a handbook for my workshop participants. (link below) It features twenty timeless game ideas, plus one I contributed. Of course, my workshop participants were free to use the handbook as inspiration or come up with their own ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prompt for my “students” was simply, Ask a chatbot to create a web app game that would ______<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freshly minted software designers then described what they wanted their “app” to do \u2013 rules of the game, interface features, goals, etc… The process was of course generative \u2013 try something, check the work, debug, embellish, improve… It’s a great application of the Think-Make-Improve (TMI) paradigm described in Invent To Learn<\/em><\/a>. Asking for a “web app” ensures that the software will run in any browser, either locally or if stored on a server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy to Share the Handbook with You<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The latest eBook I created is predicated on a foundation of progressive education ideals (especially constructionism), a belief that projects should be the smallest unit of a teacher\u2019s concern, a recognition that the future is computational, and awareness that artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to supercharge the range, breadth, and depth of possible student projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

In our book, Invent To Learn \u2013 Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom<\/em><\/a>, we make the case for the value of learning-by-making, a timeless idea ushered into modernity by Seymour Papert<\/a>, Cynthia Solomon,<\/a> and their colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effective implementation of such project-based-learning begins with teacher curiosity, generosity, ingenuity, and respect for children, starting with high-quality prompt setting, an embrace of generative design, and affection for serendipity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

One need not approach artificial intelligence with ecstatic dreams or dystopian terror. Fundamentally, generative AI is just software. As Ken Kahn demonstrates so clearly in his book, The Learner\u2019s Apprentice \u2013 AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>artificial intelligence can be a simultaneous mentor and apprentice that allows even young children to solve problems their teachers have never anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathematician, software developer, and MacArthur Genius Dr. Stephen Wolfram<\/a> agrees that the future is computational. \u201cFor any discipline X, there is now or soon will be a branch of that discipline called Computational X<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em> This represents not only the more interesting (and often playful) frontier of that discipline, but the better paying segment of it as well. Powerful new block-based programming languages and AI chatbots lower the barriers to democratizing computing allowing anyone to create software \u2013 even if they are the only customer for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

All of this adds up to the modern realization of an ideal held during the early days of artificial intelligence research at places like MIT where in the late 1960s \u2013 early 1970s, AI research was deeply concerned with children, Piaget, and computational making. In fact, an unofficial slogan of the MIT AI Lab was \u201cComputers are for children.\u201d Read more here<\/a>. (https:\/\/reggio.constructingmodernknowledge.com\/roots<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Get the original<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That full circle phenomenon brings us to this \u201cproject.\u201d In 1973, David Ahl wrote a collection of games in the BASIC programming language and distributed mimeographed copies to recreational computing enthusiasts far and wide. Major hardware companies featured versions of these games on their systems, in 1978, the first commercially published version of the book, BASIC Computer Games<\/a><\/em> (PDF copy of book) was published. It was the first computer book to ever sell over 1 million copies. Think about that! 50 years ago, a computing book for hobbyist programmers sold a million copies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I share summarized ideas from that book as inspiration for children and teachers alike to collaborate with AI chatbots and \u201cmake\u201d their own computer games. Go ahead and make a game! Share it with your friends! You may be surprised by what you learn and can do with a little help from your peers and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\"Basic\n<\/a>\n\n<\/td>\n\n\n\"Microworlds\n<\/a>\n\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n\nDownload the free eBook<\/strong>\n<\/a>\n<\/td>Download the free microworlds white paper<\/a><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You May Also Enjoy Reading<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n