Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World

multiple ways of designing a game; there was no one "right way" to start, continue, and accomplish a design task. Students used approaches of both planning and bricolage in order to solve the task in a successful manner. Most importantly, students learned not only through design, but also about design, and reached a level of reflection that went beyond traditional school thinking and learning. They were able to see their design experience within a larger context. As Rosemary concluded at the end of her game description: "Truthfully, I hope next time you play a video or computer game, you think about its maker."

This chapter is based on a presentation called "Children's Design Styles" given at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans in April 1994. The results presented here are based on my thesis research. I wish to thank my thesis committee members, David Perkins, Seymour Papert, Idit Harel, and Terry Tivnan, for their help and insightful comments. I also thank Joanne Ronkin and her students for their collaboration and great contribution to this work. Without them, this research would not have been possible. The research reported here was conducted at Project Headlight's Model School of the Future and was supported by the IBM Corporation (Grant OSP95952), the National Science Foundation (Grant 851031-0195), the MacArthur Foundation (Grant 874304), the LEGO Group, Fukutake, and Apple Computer, Inc. The preparation of this chapter was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant 8751190-MDR) and Nintendo Inc. The ideas expressed here do not necessarily reflect the positions of the supporting agencies.

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