A core principle of constructionism was articulated by Seymour Papert in his 1980 book, Mindstorms. In reference to educational technology, he wrote:
In many schools today, the phrase “computer-aided instruction” means making the computer teach the child. One might say the computer is being used to program the child. In my vision, the child programs the computer, and in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intense contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building.
Papert created a children’s programming language to help children do just that. We’ll explore the process of programming, or coding, in this module. Instead of the typical text-based environment, as depicted in the image above, we’ll focus on block-based coding, a more user-friendly coding environment.
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