Mitch Resnick

LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab

Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, explores how new technologies can engage people in creative learning experiences. Resnick’s research group developed the “programmable brick” technology that inspired the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, a worldwide network of after-school centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Resnick’s group also developed Scratch, an online community where children program and share interactive stories, games, and animations. He earned a BA in physics at Princeton University (1978), and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked as a science-technology journalist from 1978 to 1983, and he has consulted throughout the world on creative uses of computers in education. He is author of Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams (1994), co-editor of Constructionism in Practice (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling (2001). In 2011, Resnick was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education.

http://www.media.mit.edu/people/mres

Mitch is the LEGO Professor at MIT’s Media Lab, and he’s working on new technologies that will hopefully be used by LEGO in the future – it’s his job to re-invent the brick. One of his strongest beliefs is that kids ought to be learning to code, because just as LEGO is about kids creatively making something with their bricks, coding allows kids to creatively design something on a computer (or other digital device). He also spoke about the way he reconciles MIT’s open research process and LEGO’s proprietary process (as a for-profit company). Finally, Mitch gave advice on how some companies work well with academic research centers – relationships become long-lasting and productive when there is a truly shared vision between the company and the academics. This vision involves shared values, and these will sustain the relationship even when specific prototypes and projects don’t work perfectly on one end or the other, and thus these are absolutely vital.