Assignment11DaraCunningham

Mindstuff: Educational Technology Beyond the Computer

The advent of a newly-interwoven material/computational technology opens up numerous paths by which the goals of Mindstorms can be effectively pursued.

The Stages of Consumer Inference Making

According to Eisenberg, the four central themes of the groundbreaking 1980 book Mindstorms, are: 1) the notion of a "transitional object" between concrete and formal reasoning; 2) "Mathland" as a cultural setting in which ideas of mathematics become natural, personalized, and humanized; 3) the notion of a "microworld"; and 4) cultural roles of new technologies. "Classic" computers are static and, while they allow for simulation and interaction, they are not physically enveloping the way educational toys or construction kits are.

Eisenberg states that "designing at the level of the room permits us, as technologists, the creative leeway to imagine new sorts of rugs, wall hangings, mobiles, windows, wind chimes, ceiling tiles, and so forth." He goes on to say the children's rooms or classrooms could be designed to provide a sense of immersion to maximize the educational, cultural, and natural aspects of this combination of computational and physical objects. "Physical objects-'objects of action,' and the various ways they afford of experiencing 'direct kinetic control'-are woven individually and idiosyncratically into children's intellectual and emotional lives." (Eisenberg)

Eisenberg's application of the themes of Mindstorms to contemporary technologies that can be used to create physical computerized artifacts with the aim of greatly improving educational "toys" for children is an idea whose time has come. Limiting these ideas to just children, education, and a single room seems too narrow. Eisenberg says that imagining a larger scope, like an entire building or neighborhood, is "too large a canvas." While it might be for educational technology, the promise of a computerized built environment on a ubiquitous scale is near if not here already. The scale has no limit.

Question Regarding this Article

Do you still feel that the imagining a larger scope for these technologies is beyond the scope of what we can do now? If so, why?

As someone who is interested in the application of pervasive computing technologies to the built environment, it seems to me that these technologies can be applied on a vast scale.