reacTogon

you can read about it on make:online.

it’s fascinating. if i had the chance, i would play with it for hours.

but could i afford it or access to it?

can we make a manipulative-on-a-budget? and if so, how? donald norman makes a distinction between complexity and difficulty in developing technologies. he defines complexity within the technical structure of the system and difficulty within the user’s experience. my question is how do you make the complexity and the difficulty of a technology equal? in other words, how do you make knowing how something works the same as knowing how to use it?

Child’s Play

For my masters thesis, I have decided to study/build musical toys/instruments for young children. For inspiration, I am looking to the work of developmental psychologists, neuroscientists, computer designers (both software, hardware and philosophical) and pedagogical theorists.

Currently, my research is acquainting me with the work of:

– Jeanne Bamberger
– Mitchel Resnick
– Seymour Papert
– Donald Norman
– Neil Postman
– Eric Rosenbaum
– Tod Machover
– Susan Carey
– Andrew Brown, et al

The bulk of the aforementioned work is based in Cambridge, Mass (Harvard and MIT). The work being done at MIT Media lab, especially the group Lifelong Kindergarten is extremely inspiring.

I’m trying to integrate the ideas behind exciting, kid-friendly composition software apps (Hyperscore, TuneBlocks, CreatingMusic, jam2jam) into objects intended for preschool age children. Applying Winnicot, Piaget and Vygotsky’s ideas about play-based education, these objects seek to provide a tactile learning experience as well as a profound gesture-to-sound relationship.

I will use this blog to reflect on readings, showcase awesome designs, and workshop preliminary designs of my own. Reflecting in this way allows me a way to access the theories of learning discussed in much of the literature I am reviewing. It’s true, I’m a child and I want to continue to learn like a child.

If you wanna read my rather verbose Thesis Proposal, you are certainly welcome to. But be gentle, I’m only at the beginning of a long journey.