Re: LOGO-L> constructionism

[mikedoyle@cix.compulink.co.uk (Mike Doyle)]

In-Reply-To: <14 Feb 98 09:33:52@omsd.cerf.fred.org>
It is clear that we construct our mental view of the world. Each person's 
view will differ, as does their taste in wallpaper. The question for 
education, and thereby Logoistes, is that of the relationship between the 
internal models we construct and the external technology we construct. 
Writing gave us a powerful medium for externalising language and reducing 
memory load. The computer, IT or ITC, choose your acronym, enables us to 
externalise more of language, or mathematics if you will, than was 
possible with paper and pen. To an educational system founded on the use 
of paper and pen the computer poses a threat. It is interesting to note 
that, whilst eulogising the Net and multimedia, mathematics educators 
perceive the humble calculator to be a problem.

It strikes me that the that constructivist or constructionist argument 
needs to focus upon what might best be constructed mentally to complement 
computer technology. That I my propose such a programme, of itself, gives 
the lied to behaviourism, which is innocent of the relationship between 
a human being's construction of internal and external worlds. 

It is important, when teaching, to help children construct mental models 
of minimum entropy. 

Micheal O Duill

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