On September 30, I'll be doing doing a WiZiQ session on online literacy and critical thinking. This post is a way for me to beta test WiZiQ's session embedding feature. The reason this isn't on my main blog is that Wordpress.com doesn't allow for arbitrary code embedding (i.e., they control what can be embedded, allegedly for security reasons).
Anyhoo... Feel free to come by my WiZiQ session. It should be fairly informal.
2008/09/07
Constructivism and Playfulness
Sure, it's mostly Papert's constructionism. But it led me to think about some of my favourite themes, including playfulness and constructivist approaches to learning.
Drori's presentation is quite effective in that it pushes members of the audience in the direction of their own thinking about those issues. A bit of the "don't think about pink elephants" thing. Plus a few taunts. Sounds more manipulative than planting landminds but the results may be similar.
I also like the fact that it's a far cry from the OLPC/MIT/Papert approach of "defending a worldview at all costs." Drori isn't defensive. He's not giving the impression that he holds The Key to open brains. He's not claiming that any of this is his own making, that he made a grand discovery. He just brings us on a very quick tour of some ideas about learning.
On the other hand, his approach is focused on science classics, not on broader philosophical themes. One might even guess that Drori's take is inscribed in good ol' positivism, that he has no qualms about reductionism, and that he may hold a journalist's deterministic view of technology.
I just like the fact that his TEDtalk is short and sweet.
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