Papert and Solomon readings

Papert's article talked about computer science as a grade school subject. He proposed to create an environment in which the child will become highly involved in experiences of a kind to provide rich soil for the growth of intuitions and concepts for dealing with thinking, learning, playing etc. An example that he mentioned was writing simple heuristic programs that play games of strategy or try to outguess a child playing tag with a computer controlled turtle. 

Papert also spoke about a programming language called LOGO, which he used to teach children of most ages and levels of academic performance how to use the computer. How it works is that the student will sit at a console and will give instructions to the machine and immediately get a reaction. An experiment was done with 7th graders where after three months, they could write programs to play games  and later on also worked on programs to generate random sentences. Even later, they went on to make conversational and teaching programs. 

One of the things I learned from Papert's article was about what exactly this turtle is. The name "turtle" is used for a small computer controlled vehicle, equipped with various kinds of sense, voice and writing organs. Turtles can be controlled by commands, and used to draw or move. This was interesting to me because first we used turtles in turtleblocks, and then again in python. It was helpful to know the meaning and use of these turtles.

Seymour's book, "Mindstorms" talked about how computers may affect the ways people think and learn. Computers can enhance thinking and change patterns of access to knowledge. In the introduction of the book, Seymour talks about how he will discuss ways in which the computer presence could contribute to mental processes not only instrumentally but in more essential, conceptual ways influencing how people think even when they are far removed from physical contact with a computer. He also mentions that this book is about how computers can be carriers of powerful ideas and the seeds of cultural change, how they can help people form new relationships with knowledge that cut across traditional lines separating humanities from science and knowledge of the self from both of these.

Seymour believes that children can learn to use computers in order to change the way they learn everything else. He believes that the computer presence will enable us to modify the learning environment outside the classrooms that schools will be able to learn all of the skills without presently trying to teach with pain and expense.

Seymour also talked about the turtle and calls it a computer-controlled cybernetic animal. He relates it to the LOGO environment. He describes LOGO as the computer language in which communication with the turtle takes place.

I think using computers and teaching students LOGO at the younger grades is a very good idea. I think as we go forward into modern times, technology will continue to get more advanced. I think educators will almost "have" to incorporate computers in the younger grades.