Hello Reader, We both began programming computers around fifty years ago. What has recently become possible blows our minds. We are sharing two new pieces from Gary — an essay and a working paper — to inspire deeper computational making by learners of all ages, and by the educators who teach them. GARY'S NEW ESSAY AI Fuels My Imagination Forty years ago, Brian Silverman wrote a small Apple II program called The Phantom Fishtank that let learners explore cellular automata through play. Gary...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, There are few more occasions for celebration than the publication of a new book by civil rights activist, educator, and National Book Award-winning author Johnathan Kozol — We Shall Not Bow Down: Children of Color Under Siege: An Invocation to Resist. For six decades, Kozol has given voice to children, particularly those deprived of the benefits, dignity, and opportunity society lavishes on the affluent. Everyone needs to read Kozol, regardless of where you live or your...
30 days ago • 2 min read
New White Paper - Computation and the Reggio Emilia Approach Gary Stager's new white paper, Computation and the Reggio Emilia Approach, makes the case that computation is a powerful medium for children's expression and knowledge construction — one that deepens and extends the values already at the heart of Reggio practice. Not all technology meets this goal. There is a distinction that matters enormously in practice: digital projects use computers to produce documents, images, and...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
A lot of people feel tension between exploring AI's creative possibilities and worrying about its environmental cost. One of our newsletter readers wrote to us: One of my biggest struggles is having discussions around the amazing stuff we can create but also talking about how heavy a load this is on the planet. When we present activities like this, I think we also have to be honest about the environmental load. Her concerns are valid. The media has been full of stories about AI using up...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
What's Happening in the World of CMK Fresh from working with educators and families in Australia, Gary is back on the road this spring — all roads leading to The Language of Computation – Constructing Modern Knowledge in Reggio Emilia this June. Coming Up A day-long Learning Adventures workshop at the legendary Bank Street School in NYC kicks things off, followed by a keynote at the Consortium on School Networking (CoSN) Conference in Chicago. The Future is Computational – Challenging...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Brett Moller needed tools that didn't exist. So he built them. Australian educator Brett Moller was about to take 35 students on a week-long field trip to Melbourne. He had some thoughts about tools that would make the trip go smoother and might even be a little fun! So Brett — a classroom teacher, not a software developer — designed and built a native iOS staff app, a real-time GPS boundary system, and a live scavenger hunt platform. Thirty-five Year 9 students used them. The tools ran...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Gary's Back from Australia — with Ideas If you've ever wondered what happens when Gary shows up at your school, ask the educators in Australia. He keynoted a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) conference for educators preparing teenage and adult students for jobs across the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector. He led a Family Computation, Art, and Learning workshop offering parents a glimpse into the powerful ideas possible with computational technology. He offered a new workshop...
2 months ago • 1 min read
You are invited to share your work at CMK Reggio For the first time, the Constructing Modern Knowledge institute will host an Academic Symposium alongside its signature hands-on learning experience. A limited number of short presentations will be selected from scholars, academics, and classroom educators to share their work with fellow institute participants in an intimate setting at The Language of Computation: CMK in Reggio this June. Submit a proposal for a symposium presentation here. The...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Colleague, What if you could spend five days in the birthplace of one of the world's most influential educational approaches, working alongside the visionary educators who've been demonstrating for over sixty years that children are capable, creative researchers deserving of our highest respect? Now imagine if learner-centered progressive traditions were supercharged by computation, robotics, and even AI. The Language of Computation: Constructing Modern Knowledge in Reggio Emilia returns...
5 months ago • 2 min read