During the week of June 22nd, the LOGO Summer Institute was hosted at The Hewitt School for the purpose of helping teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. Teachers from all over the country were in attendance.
The non-profit institute aims to help teachers incorporate various types of Logo programming into their curriculums. Logo is an educational programming language that focuses on using straightforward instructions to accomplish a larger task. For example, students can use simple commands, such as displaying text on a screen, to create a larger project that teaches fellow students information on any topic. Those who use Logo programming agree that it is easy to learn and understand. The institute believes in the Logo philosophy of thinking, which is based off of Constructivism.
“Constructivism conceives of learning as a process in which learners create knowledge in their minds as they interact with things and people in the world around them,” the creators of the LOGO Institute stated on their website, the most comprehensive site to read all about Logo.
This type of learning is very applicable to the technology environment because it is very hands on and different from many other learning styles.
“I was really interested in trying to find new ways to incorporate new innovative technology into the classroom, and they were presenting all these different technologies, and it’s very different than other types of professional development,” said Ms. Litvack, a middle school and high school teacher at Hewitt who attended the program.
Using Logo programming, a student is able to apply what they learn in the classroom (no matter the subject), into creative projects that they have complete control over.
“I really enjoyed being able to have an idea for something I wanted to create and then see it come alive because I learned how to program it,” said a Hewitt student ‘18 who was able to attend the institute for her first time.
One of the LOGO Institute’s main focuses is to educate teachers and other learning facilitators on the many different forms Logo programming can take and how to use it successfully with students.
“I have a really good idea about the different technologies that are out there and in what ways I can use them,” Ms. Litvack said. “I have a lot of ideas. Now the tricky part is how to use the technology more solidly.”
This is exactly what the Summer Institute hopes to achieve; they wish to educate the educators in a way that provides them with all the information they need in order to include technology in their classes.
“Our activities include(d) annual Summer Institutes where the emphasis [is] primarily on gaining knowledge of learning styles, subject matter, and materials. This background [forms] the basis for planning curriculum and classroom activities,” said Michael Tempel, a founder and facilitator of the LOGO Institute.
The LOGO Summer Institute wants to be readily available to teachers to help with their integration of technology. Although, they could not have taught everything about Logo, they accomplished a lot at our school this summer during a single week.
Like Professor Seymour Papert, one of the co-founders of the institute, once said, “You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.”