Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play (Mit Press)

At first, I felt like the book spent too much time harping Scratch, the programming language and online learning platform/community for programming that the author developed at MIT Media Lab. He likes to write opposing educational viewpoints and debate them in the early chapters.However, the tide slowly turned as the later chapters got into the Computer Clubhouse and project-based learning, showing key insight about how different types of kids learn. The analysis peaked with his division of children into two types of learners: patterners and dramatists.Patterners like building and applying their learnings to solving problems, like coding a clever algorithm, building a ferris wheel, even designing a picture-perfect UI. Dramatists derive their motivation from the story behind something; instead of building the ferris wheel when told to do so, they need to know the reasons for building it before feeling motivated enough to move forward, so they might come up with a guest persona to know whom they're serving, so they can design the best ferris wheel for them. Both types of learners, and everyone in between, gets validity and techniques in this book.Mitchel Resnick has clearly thought through different ways to motivate kids in the classroom and outside, through project-based learning and free play. He strikes a balance between guidance/instruction and autonomy, i.e. letting the kids explore and experiment after giving them some basic structure and examples to stimulate their imagination about what's possible. He shares countless classic quotes about what teachers and even product developers (LEGO) have observed, and suggests how we might apply it to classes and products in the future.The only real thing missing from the book is a discussion of economics and marketing. Too often, he interviews children or their mentors that call it a success if a child learns enough to join a company like IBM or get into a good college or internship. No mention is made of children developing a sense for how they can tailor what they create to an audience, or market what they make, so they can earn enough money or funding to support themselves during or after school. Of course, money should not be the motivation driving education or growth -- creation in itself is a joy! -- but too often, children cede to their parents or the system because they don't learn the skills they need to profit off their own products. Or maybe they learn the hard skills, but not the soft ones like teamwork, marketing, and financials. As Dr. Resnick writes repeatedly throughout, creation is great, and that joy of learning can and should persist into adulthood; early childhood education can support teamwork through communities and projects. But the success of education shouldn't be measured by whether or not they joined a big company or got into a school; while those are steps, the discussion should also consider whether or not we can prepare children to survive from their own creativity, without needing the support of a big corporation or 9-5 job.Still a great book, from which I'll share some of my favorite quotes! Highly recommended, not only for the insight into childhood educatino but also the ideas applicable to developing future curricula, lesson/product plans, a healthy creative environment, and products to motivate learning.

Used this product to learn more about project based learning.

I read this one for a book club at work. The main idea here is that today's world needs creative (not conventional) thinking, which requires different, more creative methods of learning. While there were a lot of good ideas here, plus some real-life stories from people who had success with this way of learning, I did grow weary of hearing about the MIT lab, scratch, and logo after the tenth time or so. The author has clearly devoted his life to this, and that's good, but he lays it on pretty thick. While I'm on board with the concept, I'm not sure how much I can personally use this book and its ideas (I don't have kids and I'm not a teacher) - but there's solid value here for those who can more directly apply this stuff.

Resnick provides an amazing overview of past research and his contributions to the value of creativity and creative learning. He also thoughtfully lays out concrete ways that anyone can take his ideas and do something about it. Never felt more hopeful about the future of learning as after reading this book. I also appreciate that Resnick doesn't pull any punches when criticizing views he doesn't agree with. I will recommend this book along with Mindstorms as the two most helpful texts to understanding the ins and outs of creative learning.

Excellent book! I highly recommend this for parents, educators and businesspeople! If you want to inspire creativity and innovation, this is an effective, enjoyable, inspiring guide.

In short: passion, play, projects, peers. But the whole journey was peppered with great examples from actual kids who learned through and from Scratch and it ends with some great tips for parents, educators — anyone who can be an enabler for kids to learn. It gives us a glimpse at how we can all prepare for a creative society.

A fascinating read. Required for one of my graduate classes, but wasn't a bore. Actually, I found myself reading ahead of the syllabus. A lot of useful information for educators, both current and future. Requires an open mind and potentially a willingness to change or alter your thinking. If only my own K-12 classes were run like the ways Resnik discusses in this book, maybe I would have enjoyed school. Hopefully I'll be able to integrate some of these ideas in my own classroom in the future.

Such a great read, I would invite any ambitious teacher to read this book and challenge themselves to apply the 4 p’s into their classroom.

Sound educational philosophy underpins this.Reading this shows what teaching and learning should be about. Investigative, collaborative, inclusive, experiential and fun.Shows how these values underpin the development of the Scratch Programming tool for children. However, there are wider insights for educators about how learning can be effectively facilitated.Should be a required text for all initial teacher training.

As the father of Scratch and a co-founder of Computer Clubhouse, Mitchel Resnick reflects his experience in those two projects. The spiral process of image, create, play, share and reflect is illustrated using the 4P approach. No matter parents and educators, students and learners, or designers and developers, everyone can learn something from reading this book.Definitely the reading is rewarding. It is a great book!

Resnick appelliert hier dafür, Dinge selber zu machen, zu basteln, zu entdecken und zu forschen und nicht nur zuzuschauen. Er gibt auch viele praktische Anregungen. Es ist nicht nur Pädagogik, sondern ein Lebensstil. Super!

Este é o Papa da Aprendizagem Criativa

Es un excelente libro! Esta en inglés pero muy recomendable. Llego en excelentes condiciones y en la fecha establecida.