Paulo Blikstein – författare

How Thai farmers, teachers, and workers created new approaches to lifelong learning through constructionism—and transformed communities across the country as a result.The educational philosophy of constructionism holds that learning works best when it comes from creating things in the world and generating change on a personal, community, and even societal level. In The Society That Learns, Paulo Blikstein and Deborah Fields analyze one of the longest-running community development and educational projects in the world—the 30-year adoption of constructionism by Thai communities for the well-being of their nation. The richly documented collection of case studies in this book shows how the Thai Constructionist community applied this philosophy in transforming agricultural practices, educational methods, economic development in villages, and industrial and business processes.Drawing from diverse learning approaches such as Seymour Papert’s constructionism, Paulo Freire’s culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, and innovative Thai contributions, the book emphasizes the importance of learning as a unifying principle that leads to change on a personal, community, and societal level. As the authors show, when learners at the margins of society are equipped with the skills and agency to succeed, they can create solutions outside of formal schooling that respond to their communities’ needs. This book showcases how the Thai Constructionist community modeled the power of learning as an inherently human force that, once unleashed, empowers people to transform their lives and the lives of others.

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education.The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach,models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects.