Computationally-Rich Constructionism and At-Risk Learners

In 1999, Maine Governor Angus King Jr. asked Seymour Papert to develop a model of what learning might look like in the future. Papert’s forty years of work with children and computing, as well as the historic impact information technology is having on society, required that this vision for the future of learning would involve computers. The result of this collaboration was the Constructionist Learning Laboratory (CLL) at the Maine Youth Center (MYC), the state facility for adjudicated youth. The intent of the CLL is to create a rich constructionist learning environment in which severely at-risk students are engaged in long-term projects based on personal interest, expertise and experience. Students use computational technologies, programmable LEGO and more traditional materials to construct knowledge through the act of constructing personally meaningful projects. Personal digital technologies offer a powerful medium for the construction of knowledge in a social setting. Earlier research supports the hypothesis that children are capable of constructing knowledge when using computational materials in a social setting. CLL projects connect student interests and experience with powerful ideas through aspects of the engineering process. Through their exploration of powerful ideas, the CLL participants make an important contribution to knowledge by helping to construct a dynamic model of constructionism. While much has been written about the theoretical basis for constructionism attempted in more traditional school settings, the CLL project offers the first opportunity to document a fullscale implementation of constructionism in a computationallyrich alternative learning environment built and directed by Papert. This research documents the activities, reflections and artefacts of students and adults learning in the Constructionist Learning Laboratory in another step towards defining constructionism as a viable learning theory.