Winter Institute
Brasil 2002
Future of Learning Group - Learning Hub Project

 

design the institute

We invite you to propose activities, design and use of space and time, add your goals and hopes for the Summer Institute, and engage in a productive discussion about learning. View and submit designs here.

Our goals for the Summer Institute are for everyone to develop a better understanding about:

• learning

• the innovative learning environments we want to create

• constructionist learning activities

• long-term projects

• use of digital technologies

• making digital technologies

To this end we are planning for workshops on learning using a variety of digital technologies, including Logo, Lego-Logo, manipulating image, music, and so on. We also are inviting people to join in our new development efforts such as extending robotics to new materials, developing programming environments for young children, making games from a variety of computational materials, and so on. If desired, there also can be some more formal talks by Seymour Papert, Edith Ackermann, David Cavallo, and others.

However, we do not know the goals of all the participants, and it is a critical component of our philosophy of learning that learning happens best when the activities follow the paths of the learners' interests. We follow an emergent design in the running of these workshops as we know from experience that new ideas and interests will emerge in the course of the activities. Therefore, we design the agenda to allow for adaptation and change during the course of the Summer Institute.

Still, we would appreciate it, and believe that it will help to strengthen the workshop, if the participants would offer their goals and ideas for the Summer Institute. This can happen through a variety of channels. We have opened a web forum for discussion of ideas. We also hope that people will enter animations or drawings of scenarios for activity, use of space, use of time, and so on. This too will be enabled through the web. We will initiate this with a simple Logo animation. It will be on-line in early June.

We hope to use this discussion to kick-off the Summer Institute. Ideas about learning and learning environments will guide the discussion. How we think of time, space, activity and the like for the Summer Institute will be relevant to our design of new learning environments. In this way we hope to use the Summer Institute as an object to think with and as a model. We hope people will take the time from their busy lives to participate.

Affordances and Constraints:

In some ways the Summer Institute is an artificial learning environment and not representative of what we prefer. For example, it will only run for 2 weeks. This inhibits the possibility for long-term projects enabling depth of experience and thought. This constrains the possibility for development of technological fluency. Still, we must remember that this is just one step and that we need to analyze our own local situations to determine how well they support such developments.

Keeping in mind that we want to:

• construct with the technologies

• hold discussions about learning based upon our experiences

• build the learning hub network

• plan for local activities

• strengthen understanding about the themes within learning hub

Please also keep in mind that the participants have different levels of experience, speak different languages, and have different interests. Information about the participants will be located at who as it becomes available.

The space is large, open and configurable. The time is for us to use as we see fit. Remember, we will be living in Mexico City for 2 weeks and have evenings for other activities, discussions, and less formal ways of building relationships.

Please take a look at the floor plan for our space.

The discussion forum is one of the entries points of our ideas.

Animated scenarios may be submitted at designs.