Papert's Informal Learning and Authenticity

In his book The Children's Machine, SeymourPapert discusses processes similar to the concept of authenticity that is developed by Anderson, but applies this concept to technology. As a reminder, according to Anderson, "authenticity" is created by having a school that is deeply embedded in the daily lives and concerns of students, as opposed to a more artificial, imposed set of concerns (one of his counter-examples to authentic schooling is of course the regime of standardized testing).

For Papert, what he wants to achieve is to maintain the natural exploratory, learning tendencies of small children and develop kinds of schools and schooling that allows this kind of "informal learning" to continue. In this sense, the authentic school is one that develops a child's natural curiosity. He contrasts this to the "abrupt transition" (12) that we currently ask children to go through as they transition from learning led by natural curiosity to learning structural as formal process. He writes:

my goal became to create an environment in which all children...could learn algebra and geometry and spelling and history in ways more like the informal learning of the unschooled toddler or the exceptional child than the educational process followed in schools (13)

Ultimately, Papert's approach to school reform in the book ends up emphasizing freedom for teachers and other stakeholders to create this kind of constructivist, student-driven learning environment than to develop technology as a tool to improve instruction. Technology is seen as a way for students to express their interests than as a tool to improve instruction in more direct ways by improving formal instructional techniques.

Papert's model of this kind of school he calls the "little school" - one that is able to respond to the cultural context and thereby suspend the temptation of formal instruction. Papert writes:

The central feature of the little school idea is that it permits a group of like-minded people--teachers, parents, and choldren--to act together on the basis of authentic, personal beliefs. Instead of imposing a common way of thinking on everyone, it allows people with a shared way of thinking to come together. (219)

And later:

The design of the learning environment has to take account of the cultural environment as well, and its implementation must make serious efforts at involvement of the communities in which it is to operate. (221)

Papert, Seymour. The children's machine: rethinking school in the age of the computer.     Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. 1993.