(2003-11-21) Constructionism

Blue Oxen thread on Constructionism. ... is both a theory of learning and a strategy for education. Constructionism is based on two types of "construction." First, it asserts that learning is an active process, in which people actively construct knowledge from their experiences in the world. People don't get ideas; they make them. (This idea is based on the Constructivist theories of Jean Piaget.) To this, constructionism adds the idea that people construct new knowledge with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in constructing personally-meaningful products. They might be constructing sand castles, poems, Lego machines (Mitchel Resnick, 1994), or computer programs (Harel, 1991; Kafai, 1995). What's important is that they are actively engaged in creating something that is Meaningful to themselves or to others around them." (Stimulating Learning Projects)