WHOLE LEARNING: THREE COMMUNITIES MEET IN CYBERSPACE
				       
		      Extended abstract of plenary talk
				to be given at
		    Tenth Computers and Writing Conference
			      Columbia, Missouri
				   May 1994
				 Amy Bruckman


In the late 1960s, Seymour Papert and other researchers proposed the
scandalous idea that children should learn to program computers.  Computers
after all then cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each and could be
understood only by a small collection of experts with specialized knowledge.
To suggest that children use them was not only impractical but irresponsible.

Of course the idea was far from ludicrous.  Today in the MIT Health Services
pharmacy there is a computer that provides information about drug interactions
and side effects to patients.  Above the computer is a sign "DO NOT LET
CHILDREN PLAY WITH THE COMPUTER."  These days children see a computer and they
immediately think it is something good for them to play with.  In middle-class
America in the 1990s, computers are part of children's worlds.

Since those early days, a number of separate communities of researchers into
computers and learning have developed.  In the Epistemology and Learning
research group at the MIT Media Lab, we believe that children should learn to
program the computer, rather than the computer programming the child.
Programming makes certain "powerful ideas" available to children.  It gives
them new ways of understanding the world.  Furthermore, in our increasingly
technological society, programming is a new component of literacy.  We need to
help people to learn to control technology so that technology doesn't control
them.  This approach is often called "constructionism," because it emphasizes
that people learn particularly well when working on a self-selected project,
contructing something they care about.  Learning by doing is more powerful
than learning by being told.

At the same time, for over ten years a separate community of researchers has
been investigating how to use computers and computer networks to make writing
come alive for students.  It's been a real pleasure for me to be able to get
to know the computers and writing community over the last year.  I'm
especially impressed by your intellectual honesty-- the way you are all in the
habit of thinking seriously about whether your projects are successful.  And
the way in which you have been open to allow this new medium to redefine your
undertaking-- to rethink what good writing is, as Geoffrey Sirc and Thomas
Reynolds do in their inspiring essay "Seeing Students as Writers."

I'd like to also mention a third community, the "whole language" movement.
Since the late 1970s, researchers in whole language have tried to make
learning in school more like learning before school--self motivated, and
connected to the world of things the child cares about.  Researchers in whole
language tend to focus on ways to teach basic literacy to young children.
They take the radical stance that reading is inseparably connected from
writing, and teach pre-school children to express personal meanings in written
language at the same time they teach them to read.

The philosophical connections among these three communities--constructionism,
computers and writing, and whole language--are obvious.  We can connect the
three under the name "whole learning."  This is more than a matter of
networking.  Yes, we can learn from one another's experiences and apply that
knowledge to our separate own undertakings.  However, I'd like to take this a
step further and challenge us all to redefine our basic undertakings, taking a
more holistic approach to learning.

Cyberspace is the medium that brought us together.  I believe it has the
potential to bring these approaches to learning together.  In text-based
virtual worlds (or "MUDs") on the network, reading, writing, and programming
are tightly linked.  In MUDs, the most eloquent description is inert and
lifeless if it is not programmed.  The most elegant code fails to communicate
if it is not expressively written.  The medium encourages people with a
strength in one of these areas to develop an interest in the other.  It
encourages collaboration between people with different skills.

In cyberspace the supposedly separate disciplines of the humanities and the
sciences connected not only to one another, but also to the world of social
relations.  The online community provides motivation for learning, emotional
support to overcome technophobia and writer's block, technical support, and an
appreciative audience for work.

In this talk, I will review my experiments with holistic learning in two
virtual communities I am developing.  MediaMOO, a professional community for
media researchers, has been officially open since January 20th, 1993 and now
has over 1000 members from 23 countries.  My dissertation project, MOOSE
Crossing, is a MUD designed to be a learning environment for kids.  It
includes a new programming language, MOOSE, which I hope will make it easier
for people to learn to program.

REFERENCES
Bruce, B., Peyton, J. K., & Batson, T. (Eds.). (1993).  Network-Based
  Classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holdaway, D. (1979). The Foundations of Literacy. New York: Ashton Scholastic.
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New
  York: Basic Books.