Seymour Papert facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Seymour Papert
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Papert with a Turtle robot
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Seymour Aubrey Papert
29 February 1928 |
| Died | 31 July 2016 (aged 88) Blue Hill, Maine, U.S.
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| Fields | Cognitive science Education Mathematics Computer science |
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| Doctoral advisor | Frank Smithies |
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Seymour Aubrey Papert (born February 29, 1928 – died July 31, 2016) was a brilliant thinker from South Africa who became an American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. He spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT.
Papert was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, which is about making computers think like humans. He also helped start the idea of constructionism in education. This is a way of learning by doing and making things. He also helped create the Logo programming language with Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon.
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Seymour Papert's Early Life & Education
Seymour Papert was born into a Jewish family. He went to the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. There, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1949. Later, he received a PhD in mathematics in 1952.
He then moved to England and earned a second PhD in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1959. His supervisor there was Frank Smithies.
Papert's Career & Work
Papert worked as a researcher in many different places around the world. These included St. John's College, Cambridge, the Henri Poincaré Institute in Paris, the University of Geneva, and the National Physical Laboratory in London.
In 1963, he joined MIT as a research associate. By 1967, he became a professor of applied math. He also became the co-director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory with its founder, Professor Marvin Minsky. He held this role until 1981. From 1974 to 1981, he was also a professor of education at MIT.
Exploring Learning & Technology
Seymour Papert spent a lot of time studying how people learn. He was very interested in how new technologies could change learning, especially in schools. He believed that technology could help schools become better places for learning.
What is Constructionism?
At MIT, Papert started the Epistemology and Learning Research Group. This group later became part of the famous MIT Media Lab. Here, he developed his own theory about learning called constructionism.
This idea was built on the work of Jean Piaget, a famous thinker who studied how children learn. Papert had worked with Piaget in Geneva from 1958 to 1963. Piaget even said that "no one understands my ideas as well as Papert." Papert used these ideas to rethink how schools should work. He believed that learning should be an active process where kids build knowledge.
Creating the Logo Programming Language
Papert used Piaget's ideas when he developed the Logo programming language at MIT. He created Logo to help children think better and solve problems.
A small mobile robot called the "Logo Turtle" was also developed. Children could use Logo to program this robot and solve simple problems in a fun, playful way. The main goal of the Logo Foundation was to help people learn how to learn. Papert believed that a simple language like Logo could still be powerful enough for expert users.
Other Important Projects
Papert was a big supporter of using technology for learning. He helped with the One Laptop Per Child project. This project aimed to make and give out special laptops called "The Children's Machine" to kids in developing countries.
He also worked with the toy company Lego. Together, they created the Logo-programmable Lego Mindstorms robotics kits. These kits were even named after Papert's important 1980 book.
You can find many of Papert's articles, speeches, and interviews on a website called The Daily Papert.
Papert's Personal Life
Early in his life, Papert was an activist against apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was a system of unfair racial separation. He later chose to leave South Africa because of his beliefs. In the 1950s, while living in London, he was a leader in a group of people who believed in revolutionary socialism. He also actively protested against South African apartheid policies during his university years.
Papert was married to Dona Strauss, and later to Androula Christofides Henriques. His third wife was MIT professor Sherry Turkle. They wrote an important paper together about different ways of thinking and learning. In his later years, Papert was married to Suzanne Massie, who is an expert on Russia and an author.
Accident in Hanoi
In 2006, when Papert was 78, he had a serious brain injury. He was hit by a motor scooter while crossing the street in Hanoi, Vietnam. He was there for a math conference.
He had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot. Then, he was flown by a special air ambulance to Boston, Massachusetts. He spent about four weeks in intensive care. He later developed an infection that damaged his heart valve, which had to be replaced.
By 2008, he was back home. He could think and talk clearly and walk almost by himself. He still had some speech problems and needed a lot of help to recover. His recovery team even used some of the hands-on learning ideas that he had created!
Seymour Papert passed away at his home in Blue Hill, Maine, on July 31, 2016.
Awards & Lasting Impact
Seymour Papert's work has had a huge impact on education and computer science. His ideas influenced many other researchers. For example, Uri Wilensky used Papert's work to design NetLogo, another programming environment.
In 1981, Papert and others from the Logo group at MIT started a company called Logo Computer Systems Inc. (LCSI). He was the chairman of the board for over 20 years. With LCSI, Papert helped create award-winning programs like LogoWriter and Lego/Logo (which became Lego Mindstorms). He also influenced Alan Kay and the idea of the Dynabook, a concept for a personal computer for children.
Papert received many awards for his amazing work:
- A Guggenheim fellowship in 1980
- A Marconi International fellowship in 1981
- The Software Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994
- The Smithsonian Award from Computerworld in 1997
Marvin Minsky, a famous computer scientist, once called Papert "the greatest living mathematics educator."
The president of MIT, L. Rafael Reif, said that Seymour Papert helped change at least three fields: how children learn, artificial intelligence, and how technology and learning work together. He left a deep mark on MIT.
In 2016, his old university, the University of Witwatersrand, gave him a special honorary degree.
See also
- Artificial intelligence
- Constructionism (learning theory)
- Logo (programming language)
- One Laptop per Child
- MIT Media Lab
