Seymour Aubrey Papert is widely regarded as the ‘father of computing’, due to his work towards computational thinking. (#1) Papert was born on February 29th, 1928 in Pretoria, South Africa and passed away in late 2016- leaving an everlasting legacy in computational thinking but in particular for his contributions to understanding how technology can support and enhance early education. Papert received multiple decorates, including in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and specialised in multiple fields such as Artificial Intelligence but most famously ‘cognitive development’ alongside Jean Piaget.(#2) Piaget greatly influenced Papert’s work as Piaget’s ‘constructivism’ theory held heavy influence on his later work on children and learning, in which he adapted to his own ‘constructionism’. Furthermore, Papert’s theory criticised traditional and passive learning styles in education as children were constricted to a hierarchy where there was a heavy commitment to uniformity and strict guidelines which enforced information over knowledge. As such, Papert’s Logo programming language and educational philosophy known as ‘constructionism’ argued that through tinkering and making activities unstructured and interactive would create prosperous computational thinkers as it would not be viewed as a chore by teachers and students alike (#3). Papert looked to ‘program the child’ and can be compared to how a child learns to speak- through trial and error as well as feedback and correction, thus learning arises from building mental models based on experience. Papert’s work received national recognition and he collaborated with LEGO on Mindstorms, which was a line of programmable toys which customized Lego bricks that were embedded within tiny computers. This derives from many of Papert’s influential work but in particular Papert’s book ‘Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas’(1980). (#4)
Seymour Papert’s influence on the field cannot be understated as prominent figures in the contemporary field such as Mitchel Resnick who took great influence from Papert’s Logo programming language to create an accessible and interactive programming tool in early education- Scratch. Scratch addressed issues with Papert’s Logo language, these included the non-intuitive syntax and punctuation as well as the general pedantic and frankly boring marketing to the conservative education sector, which hindered its growth. (#5) Scratch was my first personal experience with programming and is the case for so many within this generation of computational thinkers. However, although Papert’s work has been adapted and improved over time, Papert foresaw the ‘Computer Revolution’ in education and was a radical of the time as computers were mostly inaccessible to the general public in the 1960s but Papert stated computers could become widespread and objects to think with even amongst the conservative traditional educational system. Judith S. Wooster’s review article in the late 80s cites Papert as the reason for some third world countries bypassing the print revolution altogether and instead implementing literacy development through computers. This is testament to Papert's work in the compututational and educational field (#6)
1823735 Computational Thinking Assignment©2023