Building Sandcastles

Thanks to this flickrer!

Who knew that when you were a child, playing by the seashore and hoping to dig to China, that you were infact LEARNING. But now, reading this article, it all makes sense.

Idit Harel claims that "children learn best when they are in the active roles of designer and constructor, like the kids building the sand castle on the beach". I personally agree and support this notion. I remember back to the 'simple and innocent' times where I played aimlessly with my brother on the white Bondi Beach sands, creating masterpieces like the image above. (Ok, well maybe not as good!). But I remember trying to make tunnels and bridges through the sand, and becoming frustrated when the sand would collapse around me. I soon realised that I needed to have a strong support or foundation for the bridge to actually hold up. When I realised this, after many trials and errors - I perfected the art of sand bridge making! And I guess to this day, I still can make a pretty good sand bridge!

But back to the point - this 'constructionist' approach to learning is pretty accurate. I really believe learning becomes more personal/emotional/and meaningful when the child discovers something on their own, through their own 'construction', or perhaps even 'deconstruction'.

The article futher reflects on how we as educators can use technology to support this kind of 'sandcastle learning'. Harel states that "the Net...offers a wide-open learning environment in which children can explore the world, express themselves, save their creations, revise and refine them over time and exchange ideas in ways that were simply not possible in the past. But it is not the technologies themselves that are so important; rather, what is important are the ways that we use the technologies and think about them."
YES! This is the point of it all! We shouldn't introduce children to technology just for the sake of it, we should present technologies that sustain and encourage constructionist or 'sandcastle' learning!