By Heather Catchpole

In conversation with Mitch Resnick, founder of Scratch

Heather Catchpole, Director of Refraction Media (HC): What’s your vision for the classroom of the future?

Mitch Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (MR):

I think the most important things aren’t so much the technology itself, but the approach to learning.

We’ll probably still be trying to do 50 years from now what we are today, that is, to figure out how is it that we can provide opportunities for children to engage in creative activities and develop as creative thinkers?

And, in some ways (American philosopher and educational reformer) John Dewey was talking about this a hundred years ago. I think technology could provide us with some new avenues to help people develop as creative thinkers, but I think the real challenges are how we organise the learning environment.

The way that I sometimes frame this is through this four guiding principles of Projects, Passions, Peers, and Play. And, in some ways it’s new terminology, but it’s the same types of things that mathematician and educator Seymour Papert was arguing for 50 years ago. And the challenge is how to put it into practice.