LIFELONG KINDERGARTEN: DESIGN, PLAY, SHARE, LEARN

 Mitch Resnick, Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group, Media Lab at MIT

mresat signmedia.mit.edu

Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Stanford University April 30, 2010, 12:50pm, Gates B01

Kindergartens are becoming more like the rest of school. We need exactly the opposite: the rest of school -- indeed, the rest of life -- needs to become more like kindergarten. In this presentation, I'll discuss and demonstrate how new technologies can help extend kindergarten-style learning to people of all ages, enabling everyone to learn through designing, playing, and sharing. I will focus especially on our experiences with Scratch, an online community in which people program and share interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations -- -- and, in the process, learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Our ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative people who are constantly designing new opportunities for themselves and their communities.

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Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, develops new technologies and activities to engage people (especially children) in creative learning experiences. His research group helped develop the "programmable bricks" underlying the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits, the Scratch programming environment and online community, and the Computer Clubhouse network of after-school learning centers for youth from low-income communities. Resnick earned a BS in physics from Princeton, and an MS and PhD in computer science from MIT. He worked for five years as a science and technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has consulted around the world on innovative uses of new technologies in education.

The talks are open to the public. They are in the Gates Building, Room B01 in the basement. The nearest public parking is in the structure at Campus Drive and Roth Way.

View this talk on line at CS547 on Stanford OnLine.

Titles and abstracts for previous years are available by year and by speaker.