Rethinking Education: Globaloria cultivates student creativity

[Carl Webb]

March 9, 2010

Rethinking Education: Globaloria cultivates student creativity

Time:	3:15-4:45 p.m.
Description:	Dr. Idit Harel Caperton asks "How can we nurture today's disengaged students to become self-driven learners who are creative and computationally capable? How can we help youth prosper in a high-tech, global economy and learn the vital skills needed to manage their careers, multifaceted communication and large-scale, collaborative projects?" Harel Caperton, founder of the World Wide Workshop Foundation, will discuss Globaloria, a social learning network where students make games and simulations in a virtual design studio embedded in a social learning system. Inspired by constructionist learning theory, Globaloria is designed to cultivate content knowledge and computational and cross-disciplinary skills. Globaloria has recently been implemented in the East Austin College Prep Academy (EACPA). Harel Caperton is a pioneer in the use of new media for cultivating creative learning, innovation and globalization through constructionist learning theory. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she conducted research at the MIT Media Lab that led to the book "Constructionism," written with Seymour Papert. Her book "Children Designers" received the 1991 Outstanding Book Award by the American Education Research Association. In 1995, she founded MaMaMedia.com, which won numerous honors, including the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award (1999), the Global Information Infrastructure Award (1999) and the 21st-Century Achievement Award from the Computerworld Honors Program (2002).
Location:	iSchool: UTA 1.208 - 1616 Guadalupe
Contact:	Lecia J Barker at le...@ischool.utexas.edu
Sponsor:	School of Information
Admission:	Free