Idit Harel Caperton

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Idit Harel Caperton

Idit Harel Caperton in 2013
Born Idit Ron
(1958-09-18) September 18, 1958
Tel Aviv, Israel
Residence  United States
Fields Edtech
Entrepreneurship
Social Entrepreneurship
Innovation
Learning Sciences
Human Development
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Tel Aviv University
Known for MaMaMedia, Inc.
Globaloria
World Wide Workshop

Idit Harel Caperton, PhD (born September 18, 1958) is an Israeli-American entrepreneur known for her EdTech innovations, an award-winning author, and futurist of global learning systems.

Overview

In her academic career, Idit Caperton studied and published on the impact of computational new media technology on the social and academic development of children and their epistemology (knowledge development). Her MIT research, along with that of Seymour Papert, has contributed to the development of constructionist learning theory. As an opinion leader, she blogs monthly on Huffington Post Impact and Technology verticals,[1] as well as on Edutopia,[2] EdSurge,[3] Getting Smart,[4] U.S. News & World Report,[5] and Stanford Social Innovation Review.[6]

Caperton was the founder and CEO of MaMaMedia Inc., the executive director of the MaMaMedia Consulting Group (MCG), and is currently the founder, President, and Chair of the World Wide Workshop, best known for Globaloria. In the past two decades, both the MaMaMedia and Globaloria platforms had profound impact on children, youth, educators, and kids media and EdTech industries.[7] Idit serves on advisory boards for several universities and non-profit organizations, and is a regular featured speaker at universities and conferences worldwide.

Personal life

Idit Caperton was born Idit Ron in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her parents and their families are Holocaust survivors from Poland and Czechoslovakia and were both educators, principals, academics and published authors. She married first husband, David Harel, in 1979 (divorced in 1995). They have three children together. She married her second husband, Gaston Caperton, in 2003 (divorced 2012).

Career

Idit moved to the United States in 1982 for graduate study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts after having previously received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University. She earned two graduate degrees from Harvard: an EdM in Technology in Education (1984) and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAS) in Human Development (1985) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1988, Idit was one of the first students to receive a Ph.D. in Epistemology and Learning Research from the new MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after helping to formulate a new Constructionist educational model called "Instructional Software Design Learning Paradigm." Idit was instrumental in figuring out the role and meaning of computational technology for learning, education, and society, and in 1985, Idit and her colleagues at MIT built the first model school of the future, where every student had a PC, worked on creative programming projects, and constructed knowledge through a project-based learning and social interaction.

Constructionism

During her time at MIT, Idit co-wrote and published several grant proposals and articles with Seymour Papert (creator of the Logo programming language), and in 1991 they co-edited and published Constructionism, the first book about Constructionist learning. This book includes their articles and several other works by the first generation of MIT Media Lab researchers in the (then emerging) fields of Media Technology Arts and Sciences, and Epistemology and Learning. She continued to work as a Research Scientist and Lecturer at the Media Lab with Papert and Nicholas Negroponte until 1994, when she left to found her first start-up, MaMaMedia.

Children Designers

In 1991, she published a book, Children Designers, which won the 1991 Outstanding Book Award from the American Education Research Association.[8] Seymour Papert composed the book's Introduction. In her research, Idit introduced disadvantaged fourth-grade children from the Boston area to the Logo programming language. She then facilitated their use of the language to allow them to create their own mathematical software applications that would help third-grade peers learn fractions.[9] The students, who included children with different levels of mathematical prowess, worked on their own pieces of software for four to eight hours per week for fifteen weeks.

Idit observed, studied and quantified the effect of the experience on their mathematical understanding, computational fluency and overall learning behavior. Her research indicated that children who learn fractions using a combination of Logo programming and the techniques of Constructionist learning scored on average eight to eighteen percentage points higher on standardized post-test examinations than those taught using traditional techniques.[10] She identified the tendency of Logo-based programming to allow for individual variations in "learning, mastery, and self-expression" in children, and further called for an expansion of research into the nature of these differences by education scholars.[11] Such exploration would help to uncover the long-term benefits of similar academic pursuits. These results were later expanded upon by Yasmin Kafai who found, in a similar project with inner-city fourth graders, that learning through software design resulted in statistically significant improvements in mathematical development.[12]

MaMaMedia

Startup

In 1995, Idit moved to New York City, where she founded MaMaMedia.com (a variation on Mother of all Media), an Internet dot-com that focused on fostering digital literacy and creative learning skills for children and their parents.[13] Basing itself on the educational principles of Constructionism, the site's goal was to allow children a vast selection of "playful learning" activities and projects.[14] MaMaMedia.com is the first technological adaptation using the Internet for some of the concepts originally espoused by educational theorists such as John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Seymour Papert. In applying these theories, the site seeks to allow children worldwide the opportunity to grow creatively at their own pace from a young age. For example, children using the site can create, save, and share their own animations, cartoons, stories, digital art and games with dynamic tools provided on the website, thereby creating a global exercise in experiential education.

Development and expansion

After founding MaMaMedia, Idit developed the site's niche in the emerging Internet and print marketplaces. Between 1996 and 2000, the company published the first print magazine for children about the Internet, MaMaMedia: A Kid's Guide to the Net."MaMaMedia: A Kid's Guide to the Web". MaMaMedia.com. Retrieved 22 August 2013.  Additionally, the company formed content distribution partnerships for both its magazine and its website with notable companies such as Time Warner (specifically AOL and Road Runner), Microsoft's Web TV, WGBH-TV, Netscape, Intel, and Scholastic; as well as advertising business with Minute Maid, Nintendo, Disney, and General Mills.

The deal with AOL, announced on December 29, 1997,[15] led to a dramatic jump in traffic for the main website of MaMaMedia.com. Before the site was linked from AOL's "Kids Only" channel, the MaMaMedia.com averaged 300,000 visits per month. After the deal, however, the URL had 450,000 visits in a twelve-hour period.[16] At the end of 1999, MaMaMedia.com had about 300,000 registered members, and by early 2006 the figure had grown to over 5.7 million registered members.

As the company prepared for an initial public offering in April 2000, the dotcom bubble popped and the company remained in private hands. By 2002, MaMaMedia, which had previously generated its revenue through advertising, became profitable after downsizing and restructuring; it transformed into the MaMaMedia Consulting Group (MCG), and has been hired for consulting, along with research and development, on educational technology and global learning projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia."

World Wide Workshop

Idit is also founder and president of the World Wide Workshop, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that develops applications for learning with technology that combine game mechanics and social networking to empower youth to be inventors and leaders in the global knowledge economy. The foundation's programs transform education by connecting youth to learning, community engagement and economic development through game production.[17]

Globaloria

Globaloria is a social learning network where students develop digital literacies, STEM and Computing knowledge,[18] It was established by the World Wide Workshop Foundation in 2006 to create technology-based educational opportunities through a virtual learning network for students in developing nations and other technologically underserved communities. With a network of educational, web 2.0 platforms, students develop 21st century skills and digital literacy, master social media technology tools, and gain a deeper understanding of curricular areas, such as science, mathematics and health.[19] Its activities help students sharpen their communication and critical-thinking skills for leadership online and offline bringing them closer to the participatory and collaborative nature of work in the 21st century.[20]

Next Billion Learners

Next Billion Learners focuses on the development of creative learning software for low cost laptops, in order to support 1:1 computing worldwide. The program's goal is to give educational opportunities to the next billion learners so that they will become creative thinkers, learners and leaders with technology. As the first project in its "Next Billion Learners" initiative, the World Wide Workshop partnered with One Laptop Per Child to create the MaMaMedia Creative Center, a set of original Constructionist learning activities for young children in developing countries. The MaMaMedia Creative Center is based on award-winning, kid-tested, "hard-fun" puzzles, digital toys, and creativity tools from MaMaMedia.com, and highlight valuable edu-design principles and leverage the unique operating system and technological features of the XO Laptop, including the laptop's built-in camera, drawing and writing tools and mesh network. Children learn to invent, make, and share their own puzzles, stories, cartoons, polls, quizzes and more. Easy-to-follow lesson plans and tutorials are also offered for teachers and parents who have little or no previous experiences with computers, the Internet, and programmable media technology.

Global Innovation Consulting

In 2001, Idit became the executive director of a small consulting division under MaMaMedia that was incorporated into the World Wide Workshop. Her global consulting services encompass children's learning websites, educational publishing, Internet media, and online kid's channel programming. In addition to developing online activities to teach science to students in developing countries, the consulting group also created a model website for Childhood [Obsessive Compulsive Disorder]. They have built consulting and advisory relationships with MSN-TV, AOL, Schlumberger Corporation SEED, in2books, National Telemedia Council, PBSkids, GoKNow, European Union School Networks, Czech Ministry of Education, MIT Media Lab, OLPC, as well as the Hanban-MOE, East China Normal University (ECNU), and Beijing Normal University (BNU) in China.

Scholastic pursuits

Children Designers

In the 1980s and 1990s Idit undertook research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the MIT Media Lab, in which she established the ‘children as software designers’ method of learning.[21] Her research studied the Constructionist vision of computer programming as a source of learning power, particularly in an inner-city-school computer culture. Her 1991 book about this research, Children Designers, presents a shift in research methodology and educational practice by casting learners in the role of instructors and knowledge communicators rather than information recipients, and in the role of media producers rather than consumers.[11] By implementing design projects with elementary-school children,Harel explores how learners can attain new levels of insight when they develop mathematical software products for other students in their school. Idit’s lively and challenging implementation and analysis of children’s work demonstrates how design, productive activity, social context, and technical contents are essential to mathematical understanding. The young designers learned not only about mathematics and programming, but also about instructional and user interfaces, representational, pedagogical, and communicational issues-presenting a new paradigm for computer-based learning activities in schools.

Clickerati

Much of Idit's in the 1990s focused on what she calls the development of the "Clickerati Generation" (a play on the term Literati) - the new generation of young people who were born—or will be born—between 1991 and 2010. She advances the notion that children born during this time will grow up immersed in new media, and will not be able to imagine a world without Internet technology. Therefore, she contends that there is a need for a radical, global paradigm shift relating to education and acculturation of this generation in comparison to the methods used with the youth of bygone eras. In other words, where people of the past worked with print-based literature, current and future generations will click their way through technologically-based mediums of digital information and communication — and will need to be prepared adequately with digital literacy skills for their successful development, citizenship, and leadership within such physical-digital blended environments.[22]

Constructionist MOOCs

In the 2000s, Idit advanced the vision of new media technology for creative learning and global citizenship that focuses on the rising generation of young people growing up immersed in new media, through the launch of the World Wide Workshop and research on its flagship program, Globaloria, which engages youth in learning and digital literacy through social media and Web 2.0 tools. Globaloria is the only MOOC for middle and high school students, and demonstrates Idit's theory that Constructionism is necessary in any education model that aims to make children the owners of their learning.[2] She is known for criticizing MOOCs as generally replicating the instructor-led learning model, and challenging ed-tech entrepreneurs and educators to use technology in the classroom to amplify active learning.[23][24] Idit has noted one of the challenges in establishing Constructionist MOOCs in the classroom is recruiting innovative educators willing to teach as a co-learner rather than instructor.[25]

Idit also postulates that coding and software engineering is the new manufacturing economy,[26] and as such, youth benefit from developing these skills through Constructive, technology-based learning environments integrated into schools.

Advisory boards

Idit has been active with consultation work for several non-profit educational entities. She has long served as an Advisor to TakingITGlobal, a youth-led, technology-empowered charity based in Toronto, Canada. TakingITGlobal.org operates as the online largest community of globally aware youth by providing inspiration, information and involvement opportunities. In 2006 TakingITGlobal launched its educational platform, called TIGed, with inspiration from Idit.

In 2004, she reunited with former colleagues Negroponte and Papert for One Laptop Per Child, the organization responsible for the oversight of MIT's controversial $100 laptop project. OLPC seeks to ensure that every child in the world has access to education through inexpensive computers and networks that can operate in areas with little or no existing infrastructure.

Her primary focus during 2005-2006 was the establishment of educational links between the United States and the rapidly growing technological infrastructure of China by working with individuals, corporations, and educational organizations (like Saybot, ECNU, BNU, and OLPC). In doing so, she has been a featured speaker and lecturer at numerous universities in Beijing and Shanghai. During the fall 2005 academic term, Idit and her youngest daughter lived in Shanghai while she was a visiting professor and consultant at the Software Engineering Institute at East China Normal University, where she developed and modeled a student-centered, project-based curriculum for their graduate schools.

Idit has worked with the Aspen Institute's FOCAS and Info-Tech policy programs. She is a member of the board of directors for the ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society) Institute, helping to launch the ATLAS Speaker Series in 2006. She also advised on the founding of NCWIT (National Center for Women & IT).

In 2006, Idit joined the PBS KIDS Next Generation Media Advisory Board to help define the role public service media will play in the changing digital children's media landscape.[27]

She is also an active advisor to multiple educational institutions, including William E. Macaulay Honors College, Harvard Graduate School of Leadership, and MIT Media Lab.[28]

Honors

  • 2013: Globaloria awarded Silicon Valley Education Foundation STEM Innovation Award in the Science Category[29]
  • 2013: Globaloria named Microsoft Education Laureate in The Tech Museum of Innovation Tech Awards[30]
  • 2013: Named to Disruptor Foundation Fellows[31]
  • 2011: Named “Digital Leader and Luminary” by Digital Learning Now!
  • 2010: Jessie McCanse Award for Individual Contribution to Media Literacy, by the National Telemedia Council.
  • 2005: Named Beijing Normal University Honorary Professor.
  • 2002: The Network of Educators in Science and Technology and MIT honored Dr. Idit Harel Caperton their “Award for devotion, innovation, and imagination in science and technology on behalf of children and youth around the world.”
  • 1991: Outstanding Book Award for Children Designers, by the American Education Research Association (AERA).
  • 1989: Journal of Mathematical Behavior - Special Annual Issue on Outstanding Dissertation: Interdisciplinary Constructions of Learning and Knowing Mathematics in a Computer-Rich School.

Further reading

  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "Globaloria: Students Making Game Media for Literacy and Learning." Journal of Media Literacy (2012)
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "The Instructional Software Design Project for Learning Mathematics in a Computer- Rich School." Journal of Mathematical Behavior (1989)
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "Learning about Learning." Newsweek 1989
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "And a Child Shall Lead Them: Young Kids Show the Benefits of a New Affinity with Technology." Context Magazine January 1999
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "Learning Skills for the New Millenium: The Three X's." 21st Century Learning 1996 October
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "Clickerati Kids: Who are they?." 21st Century Learning 1997 March
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "Learning New-Media Literacy." Telemedium Journal of Media Literacy (2002)
  • Harel Caperton, Idit. "“Hard Fun:” The Essence of Good Games AND Good Education." Telemedium Journal of Media Literacy (2005)

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Idit Harel Caperton: Huffington Post Author Page". Retrieved September 9, 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harel Caperton, Idit (17 October 2012). "Before We Flip Classrooms, Let's Rethink What We're Flipping To". Edutopia. 
  3. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (20 August 2013). "What Students Learn When They Give Up Shoebox Dioramas For Video Games". 
  4. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (5 February 2013). "Let's Give Girls a Chance to Succeed in STEM". 
  5. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (19 March 2012). "High-Quality STEM Education for All: It Take a Village". Retrieved September 9, 2013. 
  6. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (25 July 2013). "Taking Games for Good to a New Level". Retrieved September 9, 2013. 
  7. ↑ Journal of Media Literacy 59 (1). National Telemedia Council. 2012. pp. 2–4. 
  8. ↑ GirlGeeks.org. "Women who inspire us, internet: Idit Harel". Retrieved March 30, 2006. 
  9. ↑ Harel, Idit (1990). "Children as software designers: a constructionist approach for learning mathematics". The Journal of Mathematical Behavior 9 (1): 4. 
  10. ↑ Harel, Idit and Papert, Seymour (1991). "Software design as a learning environment". Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-89391-785-0. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Harel, Idit (1991) [1991]. Children Designers ((pbk.) ed.). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. p. 389. ISBN 0-89391-788-5. 
  12. ↑ Kafai, Yasmin (1995) [1995]. Minds in Play ((pbk.) ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. pp. 286–309. ISBN 0-8058-1513-9. 
  13. ↑ "Company Overview of MaMaMedia Inc.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 22 August 2013. 
  14. ↑ "MaMaMedia.com helps families explore Web". The Rock River Times. Retrieved 22 August 2013. 
  15. ↑ "MaMaMedia Inc. joins forces with America Online to bring kinds unique 'playful-learning' web activities" (Press release). MaMaMedia, Inc. December 29, 1997. 
  16. ↑ "Rising interactive co. MaMaMedia signs agreement with AOL". Selling to Kids 3 (1): 4. 
  17. ↑ Sutton, Vic (30 August 2010). "Idit Harel Caperton – An Interview at the Edge of Change". education, techonology & change. Retrieved August 28, 2013. 
  18. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (19 March 2012). "High-Quality STEM Education for All: It Takes a Village and global citizenship through game design.". U.S. News & World Report. 
  19. ↑ Marcott, Amy (13 February 2013). "Alumna Develops Educational Game Changer". MIT: Slice of Life. 
  20. ↑ West Virginia Department of Education (2008). A Chronicle of West Virginia's 21st Century Learning Initiative
  21. ↑ Harel, Idit (Winter 2012). "Students Making Game Media for Literacy and Learning". The Journal of Media Literacy 59 (1): 3. 
  22. ↑ Harel, Idit (Spring 2002). "Learning new-media literacy: a new necessity for the young clickerati generation". Telemedium 48 (1): 17–26. 
  23. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (18 October 2012). "Opinion: Before We Flip Classrooms, Let’s Re-Think What We’re Flipping To". WiredAcademic. 
  24. ↑ Glader, Paul (14 December 2011). "Interview: Globaloria Founder Dr. Idit Harel Caperton On Video Games As The New Language Arts". WiredAcademic. 
  25. ↑ "Globaloria Creator Idit Harel Caperton Discusses Her Recent Visit To East Austin College Prep". Southwest Key Programs. 12 March 2012. 
  26. ↑ Harel Caperton, Idit (1 February 2012). "Learning to Make Games for Impact: Cultivating Innovative Manufacturing Skills for the Digital Economy". Center for Games & Impact. 
  27. ↑ "PBS Convenes 'Think Tank' to Help Shape the Future of Children's Public Service Media". PR Newswire. 25 April 2006. 
  28. ↑ "Idit Harel Caperton". EdSurge. Retrieved 22 August 2013. 
  29. ↑ "Silicon Valley Education Foundation Names Award Winners for STEM Innovation". World Wide Workshop. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  30. ↑ "Techmanitarians lauded for humanitarian uses of technology around the world". The Tech Museum. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  31. ↑ "The Disruptor Foundation Fellows". Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards. Retrieved 26 August 2013. 

External links

Interviews

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