Type of Talk: Research Colloquium

Speaker Name: Dr. Idit H

arel Caperton

Speaker Affiliation: President and Founder, World Wide

Workshop Foundation

Date: Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Time: 3:15 p

.m. - 4:45 p.m.

Location: UTA 1.208

Host: Professor Lecia J. Bark

er, UTA School of Information

Talk Title: Rethinking Education: Culti

vating Computational Creativity and Inventiveness among Students, Educator

s, and School Leaders with GLOBALORIA

Talk Abstract:
How can we nu

rture today''s disengaged students to become self-driven learners who are c

reative and computationally capable? How can we help youth prosper in a hig

h-tech, global economy and learn the vital skills needed to manage their c

areers, multifaceted communication and large-scale, collaborative project

s? "We cannot wait for higher education or selective professional training

to do this," asserts our speaker, Dr. Idit Harel Caperton. "We must start
young and provide all children with ample opportunities to become proficie

nt and fluent contemporary learners with technology." To help students dev

elop sophisticated contemporary learning abilities, the World Wide Worksho

p Foundation has created Globaloria, a groundbreaking social learning netw

ork where students make games and simulations in a virtual design studio th

at''s embedded in a social learning system, and fully integrated into scho

ol curriculum. Inspired by Constructionist learning theory, Globaloria’s
platform, tools and curriculum are designed to cultivate content knowledg

e, along with computational and cross-disciplinary skills. Qualitative and
quantitative research methods are being used to assess the impact of this

innovation on teaching and learning.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Idit Harel Ca

perton is a pioneer in using new-media technology for cultivating creative

learning, innovation, and globalization through Constructionist learning

theory. She founded the World Wide Workshop in 2004 to leverage her unique

blend of award- winning research, social entrepreneurship and leadership i

n new-media learning projects to grow educational innovation around the wor

ld. In 2006 the Foundation launched the Globaloria network to implement new
ways of using social media technology and programmable Web 2.0 tools to te

ach innovative game-making and computational creative capacities to youth w

orldwide. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Harel Caperton conducted bre

akthrough research at the MIT Media Lab that led to publishing the book Con

structionism with Seymour Papert. Her book Children Designers received the

1991 Outstanding Book Award by the American Education Research Association.
In 1995, she founded MaMaMedia.com, pioneering kids’ Internet media ac

tivities, established global distribution and advertizing partnerships, a

nd won numerous honors, including the Computerworld- Smithsonian Award (19

99), the Internet industry''s coveted Global Information Infrastructure Aw

ard (1999), and the 21st-Century
Achievement Award from the Computerworl

d Honors Program (2002). In 2002, she was honored by the Network of Educat

ors in Science and Technology and MIT "for devotion, innovation, and imag

ination in science and technology on behalf of children and youth around th

e world." In 2007-08 MaMaMedia activities were reprogrammed for Nicholas Ne

groponte’s revolutionary project, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). She holds
degrees from Tel Aviv University (BA, 1982), Harvard University (EdM 198

4; CAS 1985), and MIT Media Lab (PhD, 1988). She serves on several Advis

ory Boards (Harvard, MIT, CU-ATLAS, CUNY, PBSKids, TIG, MEET, and Sa

ybot) being an esteemed adviser to commercial, governmental, higher educa

tion, and not-for-profit organizations on inventing, developing and harne

ssing innovative technology programs to transform education at all levels.