Seymour Papert - programming language for children, Logo.

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INT 163 – Duncan Fairhurst – Logo Essay (1000 Words)

It was in the late 1960`s and early 1970`s that Seymour Papert began developing a computer programming language for children, Logo. Papert had been working in Switzerland for several years assisting the famous psychologist Jean Piaget.

As part of his research Piaget had discovered that children don’t think in the same way as adults think.  In order to develop his hypothesis, Piaget constructed a now famous for stage theory of cognitive development. His research supported his belief about how children acquire their skills. Piaget broke down his theory into 4 distinct areas.

  1. Sensorimotor Development – 0 to 2 years of age.
  2. Preoperational Thinking – 2 to 7 years of age.
  3. Concrete Operations – 7 to 11 years of age.
  4. Formal Operations – over 11 years of age.

Papert found after working with Piaget that many of his own views about how children learned and acquired skills reflected what Piaget had found.  Papert thought he might be able to develop them further into a learning tool for children.

Over several years Papert developed LOGO, which became a programming language specifically designed for children. It was simple, which allowed it to be easily understood and used by children, yet powerful enough to offer solutions to many programming problems.

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One of the strongest thoughts Papert had while developing Logo was that like Piaget, he felt it was wrong to tell children that their answer was “right” or “wrong”. He felt that by the use of programming a child could discover that the best or correct way to complete a task was rarely achieved the during the first attempt. As trials continue, he argued, the child will be able to see their own development and progress. He also felt that children should be praised for offering thought out and logical answers to a problem even if their answer was ...

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