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For more than forty years, Seymour
Papert has been a bold, visionary thinker in developing
new understanding about how children learn and think.
The Seymour Papert Institute and the Learning Barn in
Blue Hill, Maine are capstones for his long and distinguished
career in cybernetics, artificial intelligence, applied
mathematics, digital technology and education.
A native of South Africa and an anti-apartheid activist
in the early 1950's, Papert was in his early twenties
when he joined the faculty of Witwaterstrand University.
Upon completing his Ph.D., he pursued a research fellowship
at Cambridge University in England where he began to
make the connections between mathematics and the nascent
field of artificial intelligence.
For four years, he worked in Geneva with Jean Piaget,
exploring new dimensions as a scientist in how children
learn.
In 1964 Papert was asked to join the faculty of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he helped
to found the Artificial Intelligence Lab with Marvin
Minsky. He developed the concept for computer language,
LOGO, and new ideas for computers and education with
major grants from the National Science Foundation. The
LOGO language has been adopted world-wide and adapted
for the use of new technologies for development in Africa
and Latin American countries as well as in Europe and
the USA. With Alan Kay, Papert pioneered early ideas
in the use of computers by children that led to the
development by Kay of the first concept for a laptop
computer. In 1985, he was a founding member of the Media
Laboratory at MIT with which he keeps an active association
since his change to emeritus status. In recognition
of his leadership, the Lego Company endowed the Lab
with the "Lego-Papert Chair of Learning Research".
Papert is the author of many books including Mindstorms:
Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas (1980), The Children's
Machine (1993), and The Connected Family (1996). Mindstorms
has been considered a seminal work on the subject of
computers and education.
He has been the recipient of many awards and now holds
the title of Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the
University of Maine Department of Computer Science.
In October 2001 Newsweek magazine named Papert as one
of the nation's ten top innovators in education
Although his principal work has been in the US, Papert
has led innovations in the use of digital technology
in many countries. In 1981-3 he spent two years at the
invitation of the French government on developing a
center for informatics and development. In the mid-80's
he worked with President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica to
develop a nationwide program of intensive computer use
throughout the public education system. Costa Rica,
which now has the highest literacy rate in the Americas,
continues to serve as a model for large-scale deployment
of computer technology in public education. Papert has
worked with innovators in several other Latin American
countries, in Japan and in Thailand.
In the past few years Papert has concentrated on advanced
projects nearer home. Working with educators in Iowa,
he has shown how to adapt the educational use of robotic
construction for very young children and across gender
lines. He was the primary influence in convincing Maine
Governor Angus King to boldly establish Maine as the
first state in the world to embrace one-to-
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