Seymour Papert (born
February 29, 1928 in Pretoria, South Africa) is an MIT mathematician,
computer scientist, and educator. He is one of the pioneers of
artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo
programming language.
Early yearsPapert attended the
University of Witwatersrand, receiving a B.A. in 1949 and a PhD in
mathematics in 1952. He then went on to receive another PhD, also in
mathematics, at Cambridge University in 1959.[1] He was a leading
figure in the revolutionary socialist circle around Socialist Review
while living in London in the 1950s.[citation needed] He worked as a
researcher in a variety of places, including St. John's College,
Cambridge, the Henri Poincare Institute at the University of Paris,
the University of Geneva and the National Physics Laboratory in London
before becoming a research associate at MIT in 1963.[1] He held this
position until 1967, when he became professor of applied math and
director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, until 1981; he
also served as Cecil & Ida Green professor of education from
1974-1981.
Research and Theories
At MIT, Papert went on to create the
Epistemology and Learning Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. Here,
he was the developer of an original and highly influential theory on
learning called constructionism, built upon the work of Jean Piaget in
Constructivism learning theories. Papert worked with Jean Piaget
during the 1960s and is widely considered the most brilliant and
successful of Piaget's proteges; Piaget once said that "no one
understand's my ideas as well as Papert." Papert has rethought how
schools should work based on these theories of learning.
Papert has also been widely known for focusing on the impact of new
technologies on learning in general and in schools as learning
organizations in particular. To this end, Papert used Piaget's work
while developing the Logo programming language while at MIT. He
created Logo as a tool to improve the way that children think and
solve the problems. A small robot called the "Logo Turtle" was
developed and children have been encouraged to solve the problem with
the Logo turtle. A main purpose of the Logo Foundation research group
is to strengthen the ability to learn knowledge. Papert insists a
language or program that children can learn -- like Logo -- does not
have to lack functionality for expert users.
As part of his work with technology, Papert has been a proponent of
the Knowledge Machine. He is also currently one of the principals for
the One Laptop Per Child initiative to manufacture and distribute The
Children's Machine in developing nations. He has also collaborated
with Lego on their Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits.
Papert is married to Suzanne Massie Papert, who is a Russian scholar
and author of Pavlovsk, Life of a Russian Palace and Land of the
Firebird. Papert has been called by Marvin Minsky "the greatest living
mathematics educator."
Influence
Papert's work has been highly
influential to other researchers in the fields of education and
computer science. He influenced the work of Uri Wilensky in the design
of NetLogo and collaborated with him on the study of knowledge
restructurations, as well as the work of Andrea diSessa and the
development of dynaturtles. He also influenced the research of Idit
Harel Caperton, with whom he collaborated on research grants and
published together articles, and the book Constructionism. He has also
been the Advisory Board Chair of Caperton's company MaMaMedia. He also
influenced Alan Kay and the Dynabook concept, and continues to work
with Kay on various projects.
Accident in Hanoi
While attending the 17th ICMI Study
conference in Hanoi, Papert was struck by a motorcycle while crossing
a road near his hotel on Tuesday December 5, 2006. He underwent brain
surgery at the French Hospital of Hanoi on Wednesday December 6 to
remove the blood clot that had formed. By the evening of Tuesday
December 12, he was in stable but critical condition.
On December 16, 2006 he was transferred by air ambulance to Boston,
Massachusetts, and on January 23, 2007 he was transferred to a
hospital in his home state of Maine. In March 2007, he suffered an
attack of septicemia, which required treatment in the hospital until
May. Another problem occurred in April, when he had to have a heart
valve replaced due to the septicemia. As of 2008, he has fully
recovered from the septicemia and heart operation, and can think
clearly, walk "almost unaided", and communicate. However, he still has
some "some complicated speech problems", and is still undergoing
extensive rehab, although he is at home.
Selected Bibliography
Counter-free automata, 1971, ISBN
0-262-13076-9
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, 1980, ISBN
0-465-04674-6
Perceptrons, (with Marvin Minsky), MIT Press, 1969 (Enlarged edition,
1988), ISBN 0-262-63111-3
Papert, S. & Harel, I. (eds). (1991) Constructionism: research reports
and essays 1985 - 1990 by the Epistemology and Learning Research
Group, the Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ablex
Pub. Corp, Norwood, NJ.
The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer,
1992, ISBN 0-465-01063-6
The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap, 1996, ISBN
1-56352-335-3
Trauen wir uns, die Bruchrechnung abzuschaffen? Ein Lackmustest für
die Anhänger der Bildungstechnologie (2007). [Engl. Do We Dare Propose
Dumping Fractions? A Litmus Test For The Educational Technology
Community.] First published in German: In: H. Mitzlaff (Hrsg.)(2007).
Internationales Handbuch Computer (ICT), Grundschule, Kindergarten und
Neue Lernkultur, S. 19 - 29. Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, ISBN-13:
978-3834001429
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