Integrating Computer Science and Movement in Education
0In his seminal 1980 book Mindstorms, Seymour Papert observes children using their own bodies to work through problems they run into with the Logo programming language:
"In Turtle work, an almost inexhaustible source of "similar situations" is available because we draw on our own behavior, our own bodies. So, when in trouble, we can play Turtle."
There is a long-running understanding among those who work in education and human development that our bodies are a conduit, and a container, for our understandings; this is sometimes called “embodied knowledge”, and owes debts to the work of many practitioners, both inside and outside of academia. As Papert’s quote shows, embodied knowledge has always been a fundamental part of computer science and of computational thinking.
How can we as practitioners, educators, and designers, liberate computation from the boundaries of keyboard and screen? How can we invite students’ full physical selves into computer science exploration, and how can we do that in a way that supports children and keeps them safe? Who is doing this work, and what can we learn from them?
In this showcase workshop, we will explore the work being done today to integrate computer science and movement; and we will exchange questions and ideas about how to carry this work forward together.