Assignment 1.3 - Response to "Twenty Things to Do with a Computer"

Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon's "Twenty Things to Do With a Computer" was written in 1971, when computers were in a relatively primordial form. That is to say, it didn't offer much in the way of practical advice for what to do with computers in an elementary school classroom in 2026. However, I think the biggest takeaway is that the computers offer an innovative and accessible way for students to engage with making and experimentation. 

The first example of the Turtle demonstrates how the students could 'draw' by way of robotics. While the programs and devices available today are more developed, the way students learn to engage with the tools is relevant. The Turtle is equipped with a pen, and then the students programmed it to move across a surface in a way that produces specific shapes. So, the students are making the artistic decisions in the drawing - the Turtle is merely executing it. The students, additionally, learn through trial and error, or what Papert and Solomon call, "debugging." Trial and error is critical to the learning process; in this instance, they are learning specifically to debug. The initial iteration of the heart drawing rendered a "heart with a bug," or a heart that was misshapen. Through experimentation, the students were able to rework and debug the code multiple times until they arrived at a curved, symmetrical heart, made of four "circular segments." Debugging, in a way, is a type of conversation that students can have with the computer: "If I do this, what will you do next?" 

Another example outlines how students wrote a program that plays music for a computer-operated music box using numbers in lieu of notes. It offers an accessible way for them to make music without knowing how to play a particular instrument. This brought to mind a memory from my eighth grade music class, and we had to compose a song using MIDI. Several of my classmates played instruments, but not everyone did, and MIDI was a means for our teacher to teach us how to write music. It allowed us to experiment with how different instruments sounded together without needing access to the actual instruments. 

I think that the central principles of experimentation, innovation, and accessibility in making are critical to a successful art classroom. It sounds pat, but computers and technology is consistently evolving. It's easy to get distracted by computers, or let them do our bidding. This, however, is a one-sided conversation. As long as there's a back-and-forth between the computer and the maker, then technology could support the intellectual and artistic development of students.