Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

5.31.07 | For an introduction fromMacArthur’s perspective, read Connie Yowell’s recent post.
ThinkeringSpaces are a new genre of networked learning environments that seek to encourage school-age children to tinker with things, both physical and virtual, reflect upon what they discover, and elaborate their ideas in ways they can share with others. Supported by a rich interactional space that makes use of multimodal technologies combined with full sensorial activities, these places take children through the dialectic experience of physical and virtual, and of actual and representational. The goal is to bridge concrete experience and abstract understanding in both physical and virtual worlds, generating new integrated knowledge and skills through cycles of engagement and reflection.  Questions we are exploring on our website include: Why is tinkering a useful way to learn? What does tinkering mean in the digital age? Why are libraries a good home for ThinkeringSpaces?