These are my notes from the 3rd annual Constructivist Celebration, hosted by Gary Stager at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC.
Gary Stager
150 participants here todaySee constructivistconsortium.org/books for constructivist teaching resourcesTags/hashtags = constructivist celebration, constructivist consortium, #ccdc09Good ideas are incredibly fragile, bad ideas are timelessRegardless of what we’re asking educators, the level of resistance is relatively constant over time (so why not ask a lot more of the rest?)Computers are knowledge machines that allow you to go further than you could go on your ownEducational computing is about software, not hardware, because software ultimately determines what you can doThe only question we should be asking about computers in schools is “what are students doing with the computers?”Are the students programming the computer or is the computer programming them?Who has agency in the learning process?microworlds.com – design video games, not just consume themGetting the computer to do something it doesn’t already do is an important life skillElements of an effective projectPurposeTimePersonally meaningfulComplex, including serendipityConnectedDisciplineReflectionShareableAccess and constructive materials“Can you build an amusement park for kids?” is a more authentic, meaningful question/project than “Martin Luther King had a dream. What dream do you have?”Questions worth askingIs the problem solvable?Is the project monumental or substantial?Who does the project satisfy?What can they do with that?Less is moreA good prompt is worth 1,000 words – if these are in place, you can do lots more than you expectedA good prompt, challenge, problem or motivationAppropriate materialsSufficient timeSupportive culture (including expertise)Maybe we should be adopting an artist’s aesthetic more often – is the work beautiful, thoughtful, personally meaningful, sophisticated, whimsical, shareable with a respect for the audience, enduring? does it move you? (we should ask more: “why should anyone have to sit through that crap?”)Good project-based learning (PBL) has a fighting chance of being enduringTechnology mattersWhen students come back years later and say “Remember when we … ?”, they never finish the sentence with “used all of those vocabulary words in a sentence” or “studied so hard for the state assessment” – it’s invariably some enduring project that they rememberMelinda (Lindy) Kolk
Learning happens when children make thingsIf students can text message their friends to get the answers, we’re asking the wrong questionsLet’s focus on knowledge construction, not reproductionMore than one right answerCollaborativeStudent-centeredRequires high-level thinkingPeter Reynolds (author of The Dot and Ish)
Great teachers notice kidsGreat teachers are not about managing data, they’re about loving kidsGreat teachers have an idea first and notice it laterIt’s not a tiger, but it’s ‘tigerish’ – the ‘ish’ concept tells the world ‘back off, I’m trying to figure this out, and right now this is the way I do it’ – gives us some room to play, experiment, LEARNExpose kids to big ideas and encourage them to have big ideasWe often ask ‘what do you do?’ – we should ask ‘what’s your misssion?’ – adults often have trouble answering this – the sooner we ask that of kids, the betterThe best children’s books are wisdom dipped in story – they move you somehowThere are so many kids out there that don’t get captured by the testing cameraBe brave about your own artwork and be nice about others’ artwork
