Here are a couple readings to discuss related to this week's theme of projects:
Natalie Rusk, Mitch Resnick, Robbie Berg, & Margaret Pezalla-Granlund (2008). New Pathways into Robotics: Strategies for Broadening Participation. Journal of Science Education and Technology, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 59-69.
Mitchel Resnick (2012): Reviving Papert's Dream. Educational Technology, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 42-46.
We also wanted to share these readings and resources for further discussion:
Seymour Papert (1994): The Children’s Machine, Chapter 7: Instructionism versus Constructionism
“Seymour helped me understand that the most important changes in education will come not from better ways to instruct but from better ways to help learners construct.” (Mitch)
Dale Dougherty: The Maker Mindset and Learning by Making
“Through MAKE magazine and Maker Faires, Dale has helped spread the constructionist vision of learning through making.” (Mitch)
Mitchel Resnick et al. (2009): Scratch: Programming for All. Communications of the ACM.
“This overview of Scratch was written for the computer science community, but is an accessible summary of our goals for Scratch and how young people have been using it.” (Natalie)
Mitchel Resnick (2012). Let’s Teach Kids to Code. TED Talk video.
“Some high school students have written to say they’ve been inspired by Mitch’s TED Talk to help teach other kids how to code.” (Natalie)
Mitchel Resnick. (2013). Learn to Code, Code to Learn. EdSurge, May 2013
“A brief summary of the ideas in Mitch’s TED Talk--on coding to learn (not just learning to code).” (Natalie)
Mitchel Resnick & Brian Silverman (2005): Some Reflections on Designing Construction Kits for Kids. Interaction Design and Children conference.
“A set of design principles, which provoked discussion and debate in last year’s local LCL class. I agree that one of them is problematic, but overall I find them helpful and interesting.” (Natalie)
This is a challenging process within the established paradigm and system. It is exciting because it is happening. With more collaborative sharings, like this course and the opened online social world, it becomes easier to find like minded tinkerers, and thus supportive environments. OK. How to scale up? 
This work from Mimi Ito's blog last year solidified many concepts for me. I keep asking, "How to reach the children that might only have exposure during the traditional school day?"
Some related reading:
http://codeorg.tumblr.com/
I would also add in Invent to Learn (Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager) to the list of places where Papert's influence is felt, and how the concept of play and discovery can come to life in classrooms in meaningful ways that embrace these ideas.
I ponder this question, too. In many conferences (too many, including DML), so many of the innovative ideas are unfolding in select, after-school programs with a small population of kids, instead of reaching a wide diversity of kids. And, despite admirable outreach efforts, many after-school programs do not expose innovative ideas to kids who need it the most, for any number of reasons. It reminds me of the Charter School debate, where officials tout them as spaces of innovation to be shared with public schools, and then that rarely happens (or in the case of the area where I live and work, it never happens). We need a model that connects innovation with classrooms, for all students.
We have a flexitime slot in the middle of our timetable each day. Students can choose to have time working with teachers on work from their classes, do some physical activity, play music or take the chance to try something different. Some of the options include robotics, lego, audio engineering, jam time (music style jam), craft club, writing club etc. A great chance for students to get access to new possibilities.
The New Pathways article is so timely for me. I'm a teacher-librarian, community service coordinator, and upper school English teacher, so none of my roles is traditionally very connected to robotics! However, I am particularly interested in getting girls and others who tend to shy away from tech and robotics involved in making and STEAM.
I have never thought of storytelling being linked to robotics, so this idea will take some time to fully form in my head. I will mull over how I might bring robotics into my Grade 11 & 12 English classes! The first thing that comes to mind is the growing fan fiction scene on the web...
You make an excellent point about access. One of my dreams where I live in China is to create a mobile learning space that includes a library and a makerspace that can be taken to schools that serve the children of migrant workers. These schools are very disadvantaged in terms of resources. I think it would be amazing to give these kids the chance to tinker!
Does anyone have a good way to save and collate highlights in an online PDF? Diigo can't highlight within PDFs and I know of no other service that does this well. I've even tried uploading PDFs to my kindle to highlight them!
"Like artists, they are motivated by internal goals, not extrinsic rewards. They are inspired by the work of others. Most importantly, they do not wait until the future to create and make. They feel an urgency to do something now— or lose the opportunity to do it at all."
So much of "The Maker Mindset" struck home for me. I love this quotation though. Dougherty makes such a good point about the hope that students will drive change in education. In my experience, students remain too passive. We can't give up though. We have to keep giving them opportunities to stretch themselves and think for themselves. It takes practice like any other new skill.
Thanks, Karen, for sharing this diagram and referencing back to Mimi's work -- that inspired me to include the clip from Mimi and the diagram in today's session!
Great! I learned and reflected more as I listened again. Thanks for sharing.
I also so loved the DML women panel, and was struck by the young woman's perspective which seemed to say, "Just go do computer science, as her mentor told her, and we can then change the program. It won't be boring forever. Once we know the program, we'll remix it and MAKE it relevant, playful and fun."
I really loved the Computer Clubhouse/Maker space tour. Funny, my two favorite clips this year have been the the walking tours: 1. The Media Center (which according to a cursory Twitter glimpse showed the loss of the Silkworm sculpture) and 2. The Boston Computer Clubhouse space! Last year's LCL course led me to read and re-read [2011YouMediaChicago report][1] The tour from the video today materialized exactly what I envisioned.
http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/youmedia-chicago-reimagining-learning-literacies-and-libraries-snapshot-year-1
Hi Karen!
I love how you described what my mentor told me, I've been trying to figure out how to word it for quite some time, and you nailed it!
Hi Jaleesa!
So exciting to hear from you, and that I interpreted your comments as you intended.
We call it chicken skin, here. Goosebumps, like when you are onto something – feeling a sense of purpose. Perhaps the buzz Phillipp mentions in the video yesterday, when receiving a letter back from the car industry after proposing the hydrogen car (love that he actually performed the chemistry in high school) is similar to how I feel after receiving your message (and Natalie's). It is reinforced by this morning's unexpected classroom visit from a colleague's daughter (home for the first time in five years) and boyfriend, both in the computer science industry. She however dropped computer science for marketing. How interesting!
~Cheers!
thanks so much. These are great.
