Seymour Papert

Seymour Papert (born March 1, 1928 Pretoria, South Africa) is an MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and prominent educator. He is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language (1968).

About Papert

 * The developer of an interesting and original vision on learning called Constructionism, built upon the work of Jean Piaget (Constructivism). Rethinks how schools should work based on these theories of learning. Also focuses on the impact of new technologies on learning in general and schools as a learning organisation in particular.
 * Seymour Papert used Piaget's work while developing the Logo programming language. He created Logo as a tool to improve the way that children think and solve the problems. A small robot called “Logo Turtle” was developed and children have been encouraged to solve the problem with Logo turtle. A main purpose of the Logo Foundation research group is to strengthen the ability to learn the knowledge. Seymour Papert insists a language or program that children can learn does not have to lack functionality for expert users.
 * Papert is one of the principals for the One Laptop Per Child initiative to manufacture and distribute the $100 laptop in developing nations.
 * Has been called (by Marvin Minsky) "the greatest living mathematics educator" [cover of Mindstorms]
 * A proponent of the Knowledge Machine.
 * Worked with Jean Piaget during the 1960 and is widely considered the most brilliant and successful of Piaget's proteges. Piaget once said that "no one understand my ideas as well as Papert." [Direct Observation]
 * Influenced Alan Kay and the Dynabook concept.
 * Created the Epistemology & Learning Research Group and the MIT Media Lab
 * Influenced the research of Idit Harel Caperton - collaborated on research grants and published together articles, and the book Constructionism; and has been the Advisory Board Chair of her company MaMaMedia.
 * A collaborator with LEGO on their Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits.
 * Influenced the work of Uri Wilensky in the design of NetLogo and collaborated with him on the study of knowledge restructurations.
 * Influenced the work of Andrea diSessa and the development of dynaturtles.
 * Was a leading figure in the revolutionary socialist circle around Socialist Review while living in London in the 1950s.

Books by Papert

 * Counter-free automata, 1971, ISBN 0262130769
 * Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, 1980, ISBN 0465046746
 * Perceptrons, (with Marvin Minsky), MIT Press, 1969 (Enlarged edition, 1988), ISBN 0262631113
 * The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, 1992, ISBN 0465010636
 * The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap, 1996, ISBN 1563523353