“Learning … happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity.”   Seymour Papert

“Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with [their own or other people’s] artifacts, and how these conversations boost self-directed learning, and ultimately facilitate the construction of new knowledge.”  Edith Ackermann

When people ask me to explain Seymour Papert’s constructionism pedagogy, I say that constructionism is “learning by making.”  However, much “learning by making” is unexpected and often unique to the learner;  it can’t always be predicted by a syllabus.  

So for the most learning to happen, makers must have many opportunities to discover and name what they are learning.  As educators, we can provide youth with thoughtfully structured opportunities to engage in conversation about their projects during the making process in order to:

• explain why and what they are making
• to develop skills at giving and receiving feedback
• increase their creative confidence
• discuss their process including research, successes & challenges along the way
• Generate ideas about how to make the project better

Whether for a simple short – or an elaborately long – maker project, our Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn (L2TT2L)  community has found that design reviews are one way to provide these opportunities.  Carefully facilitated and strategically timed design reviews can dramatically improve youth’s  learning, as well as the quality and success of projects.  Our experience is that they harness the collective imagination, the collective knowledge,  and the collective skills of our youth (and community).

Over the past 15 years of thinking together, teenage youth teachers, and college mentors have developed five different kinds of design reviews:

1. Design review for generating simple project ideas
2. Design review to evaluate initial ideas for bigger projects
3. Peer review of rapid prototypes
4. Formal community design review for proof of concept prototypes
5. Final community design review of full model: Project Expo

(more…)

“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” John Dewey

This blog post is based on my November 10th 2016 Ignite talk for Fair Chance Learning’s event in Niagara Falls with Brian Aspinall, during the Bring It Together conference. See my slide deck here.

Being a dad has affected my pedagogy. I’ve come to realize that I need to believe what I say, not just for other people’s kids, but also for my own! My 5 son and I made an air tank for his halloween firefighter costume. While doing this with him, I did a little thought experiment: Considering the incredible changes of the last 20 years, what does his life look like in the next 20 yrs if he’s never done coding? He might still be ok, but he’d have closed a door.

Along with current Twitter discussion about whether to make coding mandatory curriculum, this got me thinking: We teach thinking – not content. What does this mean for making, tinkering and coding?

Coding is awesome, but it’s not the thing. All content, including coding, is only a vehicle to teach thinking.

DEFINING SUCCESS

What defines whether a teacher has been successful? A lot of people try to tie this to test scores but I don’t think it is that simple. A less quantifiable, more nuanced answer: if – at the end of High School – a student can think well enough to TEACH THEMSELVES anything they need to learn (given enough time), then we have done our job! This is a really tough challenge, especially for elementary level teachers because we might never see this success, being so far removed from the end of each students 20 year long learning journey. (And of course, learning should be a life-long journey)

“If – at the end of High School – a student can think well enough to teach themselves anything they need to learn (given enough time), then we have done our job”

As a result teaching often feels like an experiment. Any scientist can explain how experiments have different kinds of variables, such as independent and controlled variables. When it comes to things like educators pushing coding, or 1:1 programs pushing devices being put constantly in the hands of kids, I feel like we are in a kind of grand social experiment, one that has no control variable!

We need a healthy tension between the prophets and the accountants, between the risk takers and the risk managers. This balance calls for hard choices as we consider the role of making and coding in the classroom. Choices need to be centred around the key question: “Does this further the goal of teaching children to think?”

Here’s another thought experiment. How many years until mandatory K-12 history needs to be edited to cut things out in order to make room for new history? XKCD says, “on what date will Star Wars be quoted for the last time?” Or as Galadriel says in Lord of the Rings: “some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost.”

Here are some things I think we should NOT forget, based on some reading i’ve done.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Problem discovery is more important than problem solving. If you don’t know you have a flat tire, that’s bad! But once you know – the solution is easy! In other cases, timing is everything in problem discovery. You want to find out that an astronaut needs to scratch her nose before she is stuck in a space suit. Problems, once discovered, still need to be properly defined. Is your problem that you need a car? Or can you be flexible enough to open yourself up to a world of new possibilities by defining the problem as needing a way to get from A-B?

Once we’ve taught kids to properly define problems, we can introduce Wicked problems. Starting with empathy, we can use the design cycle to address real world issues with our students – and we begin to realize there are diverse problems and solutions! It’s more than just simplistically pointing to coding, electronics, and 3dprinting as the latest buzz words.

Speaking of Wicked coding problems – they aren’t solved from scratch, but with coders who borrow and tinker with others’ code. Many teachers see this as a major obstacle, since they cannot wrap their head around the idea that copying someone else’s code as your starting point is not plagiarism.

“Copying someone else’s code as your starting point is not plagiarism”

Edith Ackerman called this method of learning through programming “coding in the weak sense”. Tinkering with someone else’s work leads to mistakes and failure, which leads to learning!

Failure is how we learn.

Let me give you a concrete, tactile example, since it seems to me that our brains are hardwired to learn from failure. You learned to walk, do you think you never fell down? You can’t always hold hands. Eventually you have to let go and try to walk on your own. Did your parent/guardian say “we don’t want you to fall down anymore, guess you’re not cut out for walking”? No – we were encouraged to push through the failure and learn from those early mistakes.

What has changed as we get older? Why do we feel the need to rescue students from failure? We need to avoid rescuing kids and allow them to fail at a young age in a safe space so that they can manage it better or avoid it completely when they’re older and it matters more!

RADICAL REVISION

This is a bit of a radical concept, but I think school needs radical revision, or we may be left behind – make no mistake. If we don’t revision ourselves, corporate culture will do it for us – just like robots have replaced jobs in factories and fields.

Here’s an example of one thing that needs revisioning: school timing and organization. What is the implicit message of school bells, particularly between classes? John Gatto says this teaches kids that NOTHING is worth finishing! Sir Ken Robinson says that bells prepare kids for industrial era jobs that don’t really exist anymore. Have you noticed that on The Magic School Bus classes never have period changes?

We need to revise school culture to consider intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Montessori classrooms don’t use the word play. Meaningful purposeful work is done for it’s own intrinsic value. Who’s running the token economy in your house to get you to wash your dishes? They need to get done, whether you get gold stars or not!

“Who’s running the token economy in your house to get you to wash your dishes?”

Edith Ackerman suggests this change: schools need to be edgeless, but not formless. Students (especially at younger ages) need structure and order, but we also need to emphasize the connections between subjects to maximize student thought development.

As teachers we need to be flexible, and break out of our silos. We should create schools that allow natural classroom flow based on student voice/interest. Sal Khan of khanacademy.com says we can standardize curriculum but we can’t standardize learning. Sir Ken Robinson says not to be discouraged by a lack of change in the overall system, but make change where you are at – if you are an administrator, make change there; if you are a classroom teacher, make change there.

So you have a great idea for something? Want to start a makerspace? Coding club? Sylvia Martinez says don’t make excuses about waiting for next year. JUST DO IT!

Does that blank space look or feel awkward? Sometimes we need to pause. To reflect. We need to be OK being uncomfortable. We must model it for kids, and let them try it. NO RESCUING!

Authentic learning takes time, yet we feel we don’t have time. Remember – we don’t have to cover everything. We’ve been slaves to “The Tyranny of Keep Moving” (and be sure to cover all those tiny curriculum expectations). Let’s free ourselves! We need students to master BIG ideas. We need to take time to stop, step back and observe the learning moments pointing to long term order (success) within the apparent short term chaos.

“We’ve been slaves to “The Tyranny of Keep Moving”. Let’s free ourselves!”

We need to be realistic about our own lives and the lives we are preparing our students for. It’s not IF you fall down, but WHEN. As any good dad, I prepared my own kids before they even tried roller skating for the first time. I made sure they were prepared physically of course, got all their knee pads on, elbow guards, helmets, and so on. Then I prepared them mentally too:

“Sweetheart, when you fall down what do you need to do?”

“Get back up daddy”.

Fail early. Fail often. As Ms. Frizzle on The Magic Schoolbus says: Take chances, make mistakes. Get messy.

Teach kids to think!

NOTE:

I’ve done some reading over the last two years that has got me thinking about Failure and the role it plays in learning. Here are the titles of the books that have influenced the thoughts I’ve woven together above in this post:

• John Taylor Gatto – Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
• Sal Khan – One World Schoolhouse
• Jessica Lahey – The Gift of Failure
• Ken Robinson – Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education

The Big Idea Octopus

The FabLearn Fellows have started to create translations of the Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory by Seymour Papert into various languages.

In 1999, Seymour Papert, the father of educational technology, embarked on his last ambitious institutional research project when he created the constructionist, technology-rich, project-based, multi-aged Constructionist Learning Laboratory inside of Maine’s troubled prison for teens, The Maine Youth Center. As Gary Stager shares in the book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, Papert outlined these 8 Big Ideas to help visitors understand constructionism as a living, practical approach to creating an optimal learning environment.

Update Aug 2018: After the Constructionism 2018 conference in Lithuania, new translations from Constructionism fans around the world – Galician and Korean.

Update Nov 2018: Two Polish translations (concise and expanded) and a fun diagram by Krzysztof Wiatr of the Education Lab at the Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, Poland!

Update March 2020: Now in Arabic!

Translations (including the first big idea of learning by doing) – more will be added as they are created!

Felix, Aaron, and Oskar do their very best to understand Papert’s ideas. Sometimes they understood because it is what they do everyday in the makerspace.

• German (this was translated by students, please read this post for more details!) – Die erste große Idee ist Learning by Doing. Wir lernen alle besser, wenn das Lernen Teil einer Tätigkeit ist, die wir wirklich interessant finden. Wir lernen am allerbesten, wenn wir etwas lernen selber zu machen was wir wirklich wollen. (7 more…)
• Kirundi – Iciyumviro cambere nyamukuru ni kwigira mubikorwa. Kenshi na kenshi twiga neza mugihe twiga ivyo twumva dukunze. Kukaba nkako, twiga neza cane mugihe turiko dukoresha ivyo twize mugukora ikintu dushaka kugerako. (7 more...)
• Kinyarwanda – Igitekerezo cya mbere cy’iremezo ni Kwiga unakora. Twese twiga neza iyo bijyanye no gukora ikintu kidushimisha. Twiga neza cyane iyo twize dushaka gukora ikintu dushaka. (7more…)
• Italian – Imparare facendo : Quando imparare fa parte di un’esperienza attiva ed interessante, impariamo meglio. Impariamo ancora meglio quando possiamo usare quello che abbiamo appreso per creare qualcosa che ci appassiona. (7 more…)
• Swahili – Wazo la kwanza ni kujifunza kwa kutenda. Sisi wote huwa tunajifunza vizuri wakati kujifunza ni sehemu ya kufanya kitu kinacho tuvutia. Twajifunza vizuri Zaidi tunapo tumia kile tulicho jifunza ili tufanye kile tunachokitaka (7 more…)
• Portuguese – A primeira grande ideia é aprender fazendo. Todos aprendemos melhor quando aprender é parte de algo que achamos realmente interessante fazer. Nós aprendemos melhor quando usamos o que aprendemos para fazer algo que realmente queremos. (7 more…)
• Catalan – La primera gran idea és aprendre fent. Tots aprenem millor quan l’aprenentatge és una part del fer alguna cosa que ens sembla realment interessant. Aprenem de la millor manera quan fem servir el que aprenem per fer alguna cosa que realment desitgem. (7 more…)
• Spanish – La primera gran idea es aprender haciendo. Todos aprendemos mejor cuando el aprendizaje es parte de hacer algo que nos parece realmente interesante. Aprendemos de la mejor manera cuando usamos lo que aprendemos para hacer algo que realmente deseamos. (7 more…)
• French – Le premier principe est l’apprentissage par la pratique. On apprend tous mieux quand l’apprentissage entre dans le cadre d’une activité qu’on trouve vraiment intéressant. On apprend le mieux quand on met en pratique ce que l’on a appris sur quelque chose qu’on désire vraiment.
•  Korean – #1번째 빅 아이디어는 ‘경험을 통해 학습하는 것(learning by doing)’입니다.

  정말 재미있는 것을 하면서 배울 때 어느 누구라도 더 잘 배울 수 있습니다. 우리가 정말로 원하는 것을 만들기 위해 우리가 알고 있는 것을 사용할 때, 우리는 가장 잘 배울 수 있습니다. (MORE)

• Galician –  A primeira gran idea é aprender facendo. Todos aprendemos mellor cando a aprendizaxe é parte de facer algo que nos parece realmente interesante. Aprendemos da mellor maneira cando usamos o que aprendemos para facer algo que realmente desexamos. (MORE)
• Polish – Pierwszą wielką ideą jest uczenie się przez tworzenie. Uczymy się lepiej, gdy uczenie się jest elementem uprawiania (przeżywania) czegoś, co nas prawdziwie interesuje. Uczymy się najskuteczniej, gdy możemy wykorzystać to, czego się nauczyliśmy, do zaspokojenia jakichś aktualnych potrzeb lub pragnień. (MORE, plus a link to an expanded article about constructionism and a fun diagram! See it all!)
• Arabic – الفكرة الكبرى الأولى هي التعلم عبر الممارسة. نتعلم جميعًا بشكل أفضل عندما يكون التعلم جزءًا من القيام بشيء نراه مثيرًا للاهتمام، ونتعلم أفضل ما في الأمر عندما نستخدم ما نتعلمه للقيام بشيء نريده حقًا.
• More to come…

And in English… The Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Lab
By Dr. Seymour Papert

The first big idea is learning by doing. We all learn better when learning is part of doing something we find really interesting. We learn best of all when we use what we learn to make something we really want.

The second big idea is technology as building material. If you can use technology to make things you can make a lot more interesting things. And you can learn a lot more by making them. This is especially true of digital technology: computers of all sorts including the computer-controlled Lego in our Lab.

The third big idea is hard fun. We learn best and we work best if we enjoy what we are doing. But fun and enjoying doesn’t mean “easy.” The best fun is hard fun. Our sports heroes work very hard at getting better at their sports. The most successful carpenter enjoys doing carpentry. The successful businessman enjoys working hard at making deals.

The fourth big idea is learning to learn. Many students get the idea that “the only way to learn is by being taught.” This is what makes them fail in school and in life. Nobody can teach you everything you need to know. You have to take charge of your own learning.

The fifth big idea is taking time – the proper time for the job. Many students at school get used to being told every five minutes or every hour: do this, then do that, now do the next thing. If someone isn’t telling them what to do they get bored. Life is not like that. To do anything important you have to learn to manage time for yourself. This is the hardest lesson for many of our students.

The sixth big idea is the biggest of all: you can’t get it right without getting it wrong. Nothing important works the first time. The only way to get it right is to look carefully at what happened when it went wrong. To succeed you need the freedom to goof on the way.

The seventh big idea is do unto ourselves what we do unto our students. We are learning all the time. We have a lot of experience of other similar projects but each one is different. We do not have a pre-conceived idea of exactly how this will work out. We enjoy what we are doing but we expect it to be hard. We expect to take the time we need to get this right. Every difficulty we run into is an opportunity to learn. The best lesson we can give our students is to let them see us struggle to learn.

The eighth big idea is we are entering a digital world where knowing about digital technology is as important as reading and writing. So learning about computers is essential for our students’ futures BUT the most important purpose is using them NOW to learn about everything else.

The story of the Constructivist Learning Laboratory is documented in Gary Stager’s doctoral dissertation, “An Investigation of Constructionism in the Maine Youth Center.” The University of Melbourne. 2006.

Instead of just writing about Papert’s 8 big ideas, I thought it could be a good opportunity for my students in school to translate Papert’s ideas into their own language. A few students from my school are “residents” of the makerspace. They don’t like anything they think of as “schooley”, especially reading, writing, and English, their first foreign language. As an experiment I printed out a few copies of Gary Stager’s PDF “Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Lab” and introduced the text as the eight commandments of our makerspace. My introduction peaked the students’ interest, and they really wanted to know what this paper meant.

Each student chose a paragraph to tackle. With the help of all tools available in the makerspace they gave their very best to translate and type the text into the computer. When they were finished we read the text and fine-tuned the translation together. So, the following German version is a product of our collaboration.

In the English room of the school the students probably would have been asked to use dictionaries for the translation work.
But they did it in the makerspace which is located three floors below. So they used leo.org, Google translator, and computers for the work.
Maybe this was more fun for them.

Felix, Aaron, and Oskar give their very best to understand Paperts ideas from the manuscript.
And sometimes they understood single sentences because of the fact that what was written is what they do everyday in the makerspace anyway.

Noah was very engaged in the translation challenge. Most of the final typing was done by him.

Acht große Ideen hinter dem „Constructionist Learning Lab“

Von Dr. Seymour Papert (1999)

Aus der Ph.D.-Dissertation “An Investigation of Constructionism in the Maine Youth Center” von Gary Stager, 2007

Übersetzung aus dem Amerikanischen von Noah Pott, Oskar Justenhoven, Felix Striemer, Sonja Goetzke, Yannick Wudtke, Manuel Ebner, Dominic, Aaron Friese, Leo Wilkesmann, Claire Anderson, Mathias Wunderlich (Freie Aktive Gesamtschule Wülfrath)

Die erste große Idee ist Learning by Doing. Wir lernen alle besser, wenn das Lernen Teil einer Tätigkeit ist, die wir wirklich interessant finden. Wir lernen am allerbesten, wenn wir etwas lernen selber zu machen was wir wirklich wollen.

Die zweite große Idee ist Technologie als Baumaterial. Wenn du für das Herstellen von Dingen Technologie benutzen kannst, kannst du viel interessantere Dinge herstellen. Und du kannst dabei viel mehr lernen. Das trifft ganz besonders auf digitale Technologie zu, also Computer aller Art, inklusive Lego-Roboter.

Die dritte große Idee ist schwieriger Spaß. Wir lernen und arbeiten am besten, wenn wir dabei Spaß haben. Aber Spaß bedeutet nicht, dass es einfach sein muss. Der beste Spaß ist schwieriger Spaß. Unsere Sportler arbeiten hart daran, in ihrem Sport besser zu werden. Die meisten Schreiner haben Spaß daran, etwas mit Holz zu machen. Der erfolgreiche Geschäftsmann liebt es, gute Geschäfte zu machen.

Die vierte große Idee ist Lernen zu lernen. Viele Schüler denken, dass die einzige Möglichkeit  zu lernen ist, unterrichtet zu werden. Das ist es, was sie in der Schule und im Leben scheitern lässt. Niemand kann Dir alles beibringen, was  Du wissen musst. Du musst Verantwortung  übernehmen  für Dein eigenes Lernen.

Die fünfte große Idee ist, sich Zeit zu nehmen, ausreichend Zeit für die Arbeit.  Viele Schüler in der Schule gewöhnen sich daran, dass ihnen alle fünf Minuten oder jede Stunde gesagt wird: tu dies, dann mach jenes, und als nächstes das. Wenn ihnen niemand sagt, was sie tun sollen, wird ihnen langweilig. Aber das Leben ist nicht so. Du musst lernen, Deine Zeit sinnvoll einzuteilen, um Deine Ziele zu erreichen. Das ist die schwierigste Lektion für viele Schüler.

Die sechste große Idee ist die größte von allen: Du kannst nicht alles richtig machen ohne etwas falsch zu machen. Nichts funktioniert gleich beim ersten Mal. Der einzige Weg, es richtig zu machen ist, sehr genau hinzuschauen, wenn es schief geht. Um Erfolg zu haben, brauchst du Freiheit auf deinem Weg, um danebenzuhauen.

Die siebte große Idee ist Wir müssen uns selbst zumuten, was wir unseren Schülern zumuten. Wir lernen die ganze Zeit. Wir haben viel Erfahrung mit einander ähnlichen Projekten, aber jedes ist anders. Wir haben keine vorbestimmte Idee, wie das genau klappen kann. Wir genießen was wir tun und sind darauf gefasst, dass es schwierig werden kann. Wir wissen, dass wir uns Zeit nehmen müssen. Jede Schwierigkeit, die wir durchlaufen, ist eine Gelegenheit zum Lernen. Die beste Lektion, die wir unseren Schülern geben können, ist, sie sehen zu lassen, dass auch wir uns anstrengen müssen, um Neues zu lernen.

Die achte große Idee ist, dass wir in eine digitale Welt eintreten, in der das Wissen um digitale Technik genauso wichtig ist wie Lesen und Schreiben. Etwas über Computer zu lernen ist für unsere Schüler sehr wichtig, ABER das wichtigste ist, dass sie JETZT Computer benutzen, um alles andere zu lernen.

As promised, herein lies the beginning stages of my first Maker project grounded in critical pedagogy guided by the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Ethnic Studies framework and the Critical Friends Protocol (CFP) with members of the Radical STEMM Educators of the Bay Area.  

Epic Middle School students engaged with the d.school design thinking process for the Felt Monster Project inspired by ceremonial masks.

Dictated by department logistics, the 6th grade class of 2016-17 started out their middle school academic career in Epic’s clean Makerspace.  While barren-looking, at first glance, the “clean” space is equipped with a whole lot of fun: couple of sewing machines, a laser cutter, 3 paper cutters, and 2 heat presses.  To figure out where to start I had to dig deep.

Fair warning: detours ahead.

Detour #1:

OUSD’s Ethnic Studies definition

Ethnic Studies is a content and pedagogy that humanizes and empowers all people by honoring histories and cultures of historically marginalized groups, by employing multiple disciplines and perspectives to critically analyze systems of oppression, and by promoting action in solidarity with others to transform students’ lives and communities.

Raised in an inter-generational, immigrant household I grew up with my grandma, a side-business seamstress in Nicaragua, so I naturally gravitated toward a sewing project.  This choice also lent itself to enrich my “Teacher Fun Facts” series at the beginning of the school year as a way to introduce myself and build community. As I introduced myself and our sewing project, I told the story of my grandmother: a single-mother of two girls working in the Office of Social Security during the day with a clothes-making side hustle, supplementing her income to send her daughters to private school.

However, instead of going straight to the sewing machines I told my students the story of how I started sewing, first hand-hemming clothes to fit me and then making my first purse.  True story: my first sewing project in 1999 was to make a purse which I regret to this day for not taking my idea of a cell phone pocket in purses to the market! So I also explained to my students this horrid first lesson as an business entrepreneurial failure.

Detour #2:

My summer peg board baby with Celine Liu, ACOE’s Core Learning Math Coach and Radical STEMM Educators co-founder, and ACOE’s MMS Director, Francisco Nieto Salazar.

To start the actual project I borrowed some sewing kits from the Alameda County of Education’s Meaning Maker Studio (ACOE MMS), where I was hired to help develop the Lending Library, teacher PD’s and space this summer.  However, before introducing the sewing kits I spent 3 weeks on basic paper and pencil sketching and algorithm lessons to establish group norms and project-based routines and procedures.  So, by the time students started using the sewing kits they had a process of checking them in/out, reporting any missing or damaged materials, sharing materials, and working together.

At ACOE’s MMS I got a chance to work and learn from these two wonderful people: Celine Liu, ACOE’s Core Learning Math Coach and Francisco Nieto Salazar,  ACOE’s MMS Guru.  Celine Liu used to run the Social Justice Math Educators of the Bay Area group.  She and I quickly bonded through our common passion of social justice and STEMM education and debuted both SJMEB and WoCSTEMM together at Teachers for Social Justice conference in October 2016.  At the conference we told of a vision to create a space for professional development and curriculum building in solidarity.

For first and second meeting I facilitated the group through d.school’s design thinking process to grow our vision through incorporating the group’s ideas.  At our third meeting we engaged with CFP and I pitched the Felt Monster project.

The Felt Monster project lended itself to hand-sewing, student personalization, and honoring histories and cultures of historically marginalized groups.

Next post, I’ll finish up with lessons learned from developing this project.  In the mean time, if you have any frameworks to sharpen my planning especially that shed light on Ethnic Studies and critical pedagogy please share in the comments section.

Ivyiyumviro 8 nyamukuru vyinyegeje inyuma ya Constructionist Learning Lab

Iciyumviro cambere nyamukuru ni kwigira mubikorwa. Kenshi na kenshi twiga neza mugihe twiga ivyo twumva dukunze. Kukaba nkako, twiga neza cane mugihe turiko dukoresha ivyo twize mugukora ikintu dushaka kugerako.

Ikindi ciyumviro cakabiri nuko ubuhinga nk’igikoresho co kwubaka. Mugihe tuzi ko ubuhinga bukoreshwa mugukora ibintu, bisigura ko ushobora gukora ibintu vyinshi kandi bikomeye ukoresheje ubuhinga. Igihe uri kubikora naho, ntiwunguka ukubikora gusa ahubwo kaba ari akaryo ko kwiga vyinshi mubijanye nivyo uriko urakora. Ibi bitahurika cane iyo dufashe akarorero kubijanye nubuhinga bwa none nubuhinga ngurukana bumenyi: mudasobwa zubwoko bwose ndetse niyo dukoresha hano muri laboratoire.

Iciyumviro ca gatatu ni Uburyohe umuntu yaruhiye. Twese twiga neza mugihe twiga ivyo dukunda kandi bituryohera. Ariko ivyo ntibisigura ko kwiga umuntu yiryohera biba vyoroshe. Kuryoherwa neza ni mugihe umuntu aryoherwa yabikoreye. Abo twemera mubijanye n’ubunonotsi bakora ijoro numurango kugira bagere aho bageze unomusi muvyo bakora. Kukaba nkako, umubaji mwiza azwi numwe akunda kubaza, eka numu dandaji mwiza nurya akunda kudandaza.

Iciyumviro cane kane ni kwiga uko biga. Abanyeshure benshi bizera ko  umuntu yiga aruko yigishijwe. Iki ninaco kibatuma bananirwa mumashure no mubuzima. Nta muntu numwe ashobora kukwigisha ivyo ushaka kumenya vyose. Nico gituma utegerezwa gufata muntoke ivyo kwiga kwawe.

Iciyumviro ca gatanu ni gufata umwanya—umwanya ukwiriye bivanye nivyo ushaka gukora. Abanyeshure benshi bamenyereye kuguma bumva uwubabwira ivyo bakora uko iminota itanu iheze, canke uko isaha iheze; kora iki, kora kiriya, hanyuma ukurikizeko kirya. Bisigura ko iyo atawuriko arababwira ico bakora, bararambwirwa. Uko siko ubuzima bumeze. Kugira ukore ikintu gikomeye, utegerezwa kumenya uko ukoresha umwanya ubwawe. Iki nicirwa kigorana gusumba ibindi kuri benshi mu banyeshure bacu.

Iciyumviro ca gatandatu ari naco kinini mubindi vyose n’uko udashobora kugishobora kitabanje kukunanira. Ntakintu gikomeye kigenda neza mukanya gato ukigitangura. Uburyo bwiza bwo kugikora neza nukubanza kuraba uko vyagenze mugihe coba warageragejwe bikanka. Kugira ushobore gukora neza ikintu, utegerezwa kwiha uburenganzira bwo kunanirwa mbere na mbere.

Iciyumviro c’indwi nuko natwe dutegerzwa gukora ivyo dusaba kunayeshure bacu gukora. Twese tuguma twiga, umwanya wose. Tuba dufise uburambe nubumenyi buva muvyo twakoze kera bias nivyo turiko turakora ubu, ariko igikorwa cose turangura kirisa. Kenshi na kenshi ntituba tubona neza ikizovamwo muvyo dukora. Kenshi dushiramwo inguvu zose kugira dushike ku mwimbu mwiza; ico twomenya nuko ingorane zose ducamwo ari ibakwe tuba tugiriwe ryo kwiga. Icigwa gikuru twoha abanyeshure bacu ni kubereka uko natwe bitugora  mukwiga.

Iciyumviro c’umunani nuko turiko twinjira mw’isi y’ubuhinga bwa none twokwita “digital world” aho kumenya ibijanye nubuhinga bwa none bifise akamaro kanini nko kumenya gusome no kwandika. Vyumvikana rero ko kwiga ibijanye no gukoresha mudasobwa ari ngirakamaro cane ariko bikaba vyiza cane mugihe intumbero nyamukru ibaye kuzikoresha mugihe ca none zidufasha kwiga kubindi vyose.

Vyakuwe
In Stager, G. An Investigation of Constructionism in the Maine Youth Center. Doctoral dissertation. The University of Melbourne. 2006.

Ibitekerezo 8 nyamukuru kubyerekeye Constructionist Learning Lab

Igitekerezo cya mbere cy’iremezo ni Kwiga unakora. Twese twiga neza iyo bijyanye no gukora ikintu kidushimisha. Twiga neza cyane iyo twize dushaka gukora ikintu dushaka.

Igitekerezo cya kabiri cy’iremezo ni Ikoranabuhanga nk’igikoresho cyubaka. Niba ushobora gukoresha ikoranabuhanga gukora ibintu, wakora byinshi bishimishije, ukanahigira byinshi. Ni ko kuri kw’ikoranabuhanga rigezweho: Mudasobwa z’amoko menshi harimo n’izigenzurwa na Lego mu nzu y’ubushakashatsi yacu.

Igitekerezo cya gatatu cy’iremezo ni ukugira ibigushimisha. Twiga kandi tugakora neza cyane iyo dukora ibyo dukunze. Ariko kwihima no gukunda ibyo ukora nti bivuga ko “biba byoroshye”. Ikigushimishije cyane kiba kinakomeye cyane. Abo tureberaho mu mikino ngororamubiri bakora cyane kugirango bakore imikino yabo neza. Umufundi ubishoboye ashimishwa no kubaka. Umucuruzi akunda gukora cyane akabona bigenda neza.

Igitekerezo cya kane cy’iremezo ni ukwiga kwiga. Benshi mu banyeshuri bazi ko uburyo bwo kwiga bwonyine ari ukwigishwa. Ibyo bituma batsindwa mu mashuri bigamo ndetse no mu buzima. Nta muntu wakwigisha ibyo ukeneye kumenya byose. Ugomba kwishyiraho umutwaro w’imyigire yawe.

Igitekerezo cya gatanu ni ugufata umwanya – umwanya nyawo w’akazi. Abanyeshuri bamenyera kubwirwa icyo bakoraburi minota itanu cyangwa isaha. Barambirwa iyo nta ubabwira icyo bagomba gukora. Ubuzima si uko bumeze. Kugirango ukore ikintu cy’ingirakamaro, ugomba kwiga uko ukoresha igihe cyawe. Iri ni isomo rikomerera benshi mu banyeshuri bacu.

Igitekerezo cya gatandatu cy’iremezo: nti wakora ibyiza utabanje gukora amakosa. Nta kintu gifite akamaro gihita gikunda ubwa mbere. Uburyo bwo kugikora neza ni ukureba impamvu byagenze nabi, ukayikosora. Kugirango ubishobore, uba ukeneye umudendezo wo gukosa.

Igitekerezo cya karindwi cy’iremezo ni gukora ibyo tubwira abanyeshuri gukora. Igihe cyose tuba twiga. Tugira ubunararibonye mu mishanga myinshi isa ariko buri umwe uba usa ukwawo. Nti tuba tuzi neza uko bizakora igihe cyabyo kigeze. Twishimira ibyo turimo gukora ariko tuba twiteze ko bizakomera. Twitega gufata umwanya ukenewe kugirango tubikore neza. Buri kintu gikomeye duhuye nacyo aba ari amahirwe yo kwiga. Isomo ryiza twaha abanyeshuri bacu ni ukubemerera ko babona twagowe no kwiga.

Igitekerezo cya munani cy’iremezo turi kwinjira mu isi y’ikoranabuhanga rishya aho kubimenya bifite akamaro nko kwandika ndetse no gusoma. Kwiga za mudasobwa rero ni ingezi ku hazaza habo ARIKO igifite akamaro kurusha ibindi ni ukuzikoresha IKI GIHE mu kwiga ibindi byose.

Byakusanyijwe bikuwe:
In Stager, G. An Investigation of Constructionism in the Maine Youth Center. Doctoral dissertation. The University of Melbourne. 2006.