When I was studying to become a teacher in Venezuela, one of my professors introduced me to the concept of constructionism, describing it as an evolution beyond constructivism. I distinctly remember him speaking about the visionary educator and mathematician Dr. Seymour Papert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), who spent four years working under the guidance of Jean Piaget at the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva. Papert was profoundly influenced by Piaget’s work on how children make sense of their world, with Piaget describing constructivism as the process of building a unique system of knowledge through an individual’s internal cognitive construction of ideas. Papert expanded this premise by introducing constructionism, where students produce physical constructions, more than just ideas, that can be observed and critiqued by others.

Papert articulated, “Constructionism shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as ‘building knowledge structures’ irrespective of the circumstances of the learning.” He added that this happens especially effectively in contexts where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, “whether it’s a sandcastle on the beach or a theory of the universe.” This concept of learning by doing resonated with me as a future teacher, but what attracted me the most was the endless possibilities that new technologies presented, as described by Papert in his seminal book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (1980). For some, this book became a fundamental work on technology and learning. For me, reading this book offered an incredible opportunity to combine my passion for learning and technology in a remarkably promising way.

Dr. Papert, was a visionary who, long before the advent of the personal computer era, predicted that children would use computers as creative tools to enhance learning. Central to his constructionist philosophy was the idea that children create knowledge from experience and can use digital technologies as tools to drive creativity, expanding the ways people think, express themselves, and communicate new ideas. Mitchel Resnick, a professor at M.I.T. and a former student of Dr. Papert, remarked that “Seymour Papert was the first person to see that the computer could be used to support children’s learning and development. He had the vision that the computer could enable children to actively construct knowledge.” Papert believed that when children are challenged through exploration and discovery, they can learn far more. By bringing computers and new technologies into the educational equation, the learning effect could be exponential.

Seymour Papert understood the power of human curiosity and creativity and how new technologies can enhance our potential. They remind us of the importance of experimenting and learning from our mistakes. In Mindstorms, Papert wrote, “Many children are held back in their learning because they have a model of learning in which either you ‘get it’ or you ‘got it wrong.’ But when you program a computer, it almost never works right the first time. Learning to be a competent programmer is learning to be very skilled at isolating and correcting errors (bugs)…. The question to ask about the program is not whether it is right or wrong but whether it is fixable. If this way of looking at intellectual products generalizes to the way the culture at large thinks about knowledge and its acquisition, we would all feel less intimidated by our fears of ‘being wrong.‘” Once again, we are reminded of the need for the right mindset when approaching teaching and learning. Papert also emphasizes the importance of creating a suitable learning environment—one rich in opportunities for exploration and creativity rather than one that provides students with pre-cut knowledge, whether they wish to acquire it or not.

Gary Stager, a former student of Dr. Papert, shares in his book Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom that when Seymour Papert created the Constructionist Learning Laboratory at the Maine Youth Center (within the Maine State Prison for adolescents), he outlined Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory to help visitors understand the hands-on, constructionist approach to facilitating learning.

• 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 better 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 much more interesting things. And you can learn a lot more by doing it. This is especially true with digital technology: computers of all kinds, including the computer-controlled Lego in our lab.
• The third big idea is hard fun. We learn better and work better if we enjoy what we do. But having fun and enjoying yourself doesn’t mean “easy.” The best fun is hard fun. Our sports heroes work very hard to get better at their sports. The most successful carpenter enjoys making things out of wood. The successful businessperson enjoys working hard to make deals.
• The fourth big idea is learning to learn. Many students have the idea that “the only way to learn is to be 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 the time—the proper time for the work. Many students in school are used to being told every five minutes or every hour: do this, then do that, now do the next thing. If someone doesn’t tell them what to do, they get bored. Life isn’t like that. To do something important, you have to learn how to manage your own time. 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 make mistakes along the way.
• The seventh big idea is making ourselves what we make our students. We are learning all the time. We have a lot of experience in similar projects, but each one is different. We don’t have a preconceived idea of how this will work exactly. We like what we do, but we expect it to be hard. We expect to take the time to get it right. Every difficulty we encounter 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 that we are entering a digital world where knowledge of 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 to use them NOW to learn about everything else.

This document feels more relevant today than ever, and as you can see, the first big idea is learning by doing. Papert says, “We all learn better when learning is part of doing something we find really interesting and when we learn to do something we really want.”

This approach also applies to learning a new language and acquiring new academic vocabulary. Students learn better by using the new language in new, engaging, and meaningful situations. These situations could be framed within a project aimed at creating new products or artifacts. These artifacts can take the form of PowerPoint presentations, foldables, essays, videos, etc. During the construction process, students undergo a natural metacognitive sequence as they manipulate newly created artifacts and ideas. This physical and cognitive manipulation allows students to concretely understand much more complex ideas.

New digital technologies offer an enormous range of possibilities for this, and I will cover some of them towards the end of this book. For more information on Seymour Papert’s work, I invite you to visit the website DailyPapert.com created by Dr. Gary Stager. The main idea I learned from Dr. Papert is that we need to facilitate the learning of new concepts and ideas by designing learning experiences that allow students to create final products in a playful yet challenging environment while helping them make connections and create “aha” moments.

The ideas presented by Papert have been a guiding force throughout my career, shaping my approach both in the classroom as a teacher and now as an instructional designer. His principles continue to inspire me as I create online learning experiences that foster creativity, exploration, and meaningful engagement, ensuring that students are not just passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in their learning journey.

One powerful example of Papert’s constructionist ideas in action is Scratch, a block-based visual programming language and online community developed at the MIT Media Lab. Spearheaded by Mitchel Resnick, who was a student of Dr. Seymour Papert, Scratch allows children to create their own interactive stories, games, and animations. Resnick, building on Papert’s philosophy, designed Scratch to foster creativity, collaboration, and learning by doing. The platform is a testament to Papert’s vision of using technology as a creative tool to empower students, enabling them to become active participants in their learning process. Scratch embodies the principles of constructionism by encouraging students to experiment, make mistakes, and iteratively refine their projects, thus turning abstract ideas into tangible, shareable creations.