everything.study
MAS.712

Learning Creative Learning

3-0-9 units · Graduate

An introduction to the design of technologies, activities, and communities to support young people in creative learning experiences. Through readings, activities, and group discussions, explores the four P's of creative learning: projects, passion, peers, and play. Draws on examples from the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, including the Scratch programming language and online community. Special focus on how to engage learners from many different backgrounds, with many different interests.

Spring 2001 · How to Learn (Almost) Anything

Topics

  • Introduction and Overview
  • Learning Through Making
  • Learning from One Another
  • Apprenticeship Learning
  • Powerful Ideas and Fluency
  • Learning “On Your Own”
  • Choosing Your Tools (and Fluency with Tools)
  • Documenting and Evaluating Activities
  • Diane Willow: Learning as Space, Place and Environment
  • Design vs. Craft
  • Discussion of Plans for First-round Workshops
  • Reports on First and Second Round Workshops
  • Workshops for One Another
  • Final Project Reports Due, and Workshops for the Media Lab

Readings

  • “The PIE Network: Promoting Science Inquiry and Engineering through Playful Invention and Exploration with New Digital Technologies.” Proposal to the National Science Foundation, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Resnick, M., R. Berg, and M. Eisenberg. “Beyond Black Boxes: Bringing Transparency and Aesthetics Back to Scientific Investigation.” Journal of the Learning Sciences 9, no. 1 (2000): 7-30.
    Listed reading
  • WEEK #: 3 · TOPICS: Learning from One Another · Readings: Gardner, H. The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. Basic Books, 1989. Chapters 6, 10, 11, pp. 200-210.
    Reading assignment
  • WEEK #: 4 · TOPICS: Apprenticeship Learning · Readings: Brown, J. S., A. Collins, and P. Duguid. “Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning.” Educational Researcher 18, no. 1 (1989): 32-42.
    Reading assignment
  • WEEK #: 5 · TOPICS: Powerful Ideas and Fluency · Readings: Papert, S. “ What’s the Big Idea: Towards a Pedagogy of Idea Power .” IBM Systems Journal 39, no. 3-4 (1991). ↗
    Reading assignment
  • Holt, John. Learning All the Time . Addison Wesley Publishing Company, August 1, 1990. ISBN: 9780201550917.
    Listed reading
  • Martin, F. “The Art of LEGO Design.” The Robotics Practitioner: The Journal for Robot Builders 1, no. 2 (1995).
    Listed reading
  • Resnick, M., A. Bruckman, and F. Martin. “Pianos Not Stereos: Creating Computational Construction Kits.” Interactions 3, no. 6 (1996): 64-71.
    Listed reading
  • Martin, F., B. Mikhak, and B. Silverman. “ MetaCricket: A Designer’s Kit for Making Computational Devices .” IBM Systems Journal 39, no. 3-4 (2001). ↗
    Listed reading
  • Duckworth, E. “The Having of Wonderful Ideas.” Harvard Educational Review 42, no. 2 (1972): 217-231.
    Listed reading
  • Selected readings from a collection of books on the Reggio Emilia Approach :
    Listed reading
  • Katz, L. G., and B. Cesarone, eds. Reflections on the Reggio Emilia Approach . St. Paul, U.S.: Redleaf Press, 1994. ISBN: 9788886277686.
    Listed reading
  • Ceppi, G., and M. Zini, eds. Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children . Reggio: Reggio S.R.L., 1998.
    Listed reading
  • The Fountains: The Unheard Voice of Children . Reggio: Reggio S.R.L., 1995.
    Listed reading
  • Edwards, Carolyn, George Forman, and Lella Gandini, eds. The Hundred Languages of Children . Stanford, CT: Ablex Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 9781567503111.
    Listed reading
  • Tuan, Yi-Fu. Chapter 9 in Topophilia; A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, November 1, 1990. ISBN: 9780231073950.
    Listed reading
  • Orr, David W. Chapter 8 in Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World . New York: SUNY Press, January 1, 1992. ISBN: 9780791408742.
    Listed reading
  • Hiss, Tony. Chapter 2 in The Experience of Place: A New Way of Looking at and Dealing With our Radically Changing Cities and Countryside . New York, NY: Vintage Press, October 1, 1991. ISBN: 9780679735946.
    Listed reading
  • Readings Online :
    Listed reading
  • Chawla, Louise. “Ecstatic Places.” Children’s Environments Quarterly , 1990, 7 (4): 18-23.
    Listed reading
  • Vecchi, Vea. “What kind of space for living well in school?” in Ceppi, G., and M. Zini, eds. Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children . Reggio: Reggio S.R.L., 1998.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

Sources