Mitchel Resnick
Encyclopedia
Mitchel Resnick is LEGO
Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab
. Resnick currently serves as the head of the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, the academic program that grants master's degree
s and Ph.Ds
at the MIT Media Lab
. Resnick's research group has developed a variety of educational tools that engage people in new types of design activities and learning experiences, including the "programmable bricks" that were the basis for the award-winning LEGO Mindstorms
and StarLogo
software. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse
, an award-winning network of learning centers for youth from under-served communities. Resnick is also a co-founder of the Center for Future Civic Media.
Resnick's group has developed a new programming
language
, called Scratch, that makes it easier for kids to create their own animated stories, video games, and interactive art. Resnick is also involved in the next generation of Programmable Bricks and in the $100 laptop project.
Resnick, a graduate of Haverford High School (Pa.), earned a BA in physics at Princeton University
(1978), and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked for five years as a science/technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has consulted widely on the uses of computers in education. Resnick was awarded a National Science Foundation
Young Investigator Award in 1993. He is author of the book Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams, co-editor of Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo (2001).
Dr. Resnick is a winner of the 2011 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education .
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
. Resnick currently serves as the head of the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, the academic program that grants master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s and Ph.Ds
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
. Resnick's research group has developed a variety of educational tools that engage people in new types of design activities and learning experiences, including the "programmable bricks" that were the basis for the award-winning LEGO Mindstorms
Lego Mindstorms
The LEGO Mindstorm series of kits contain software and hardware to create small, customizable and programmable robots. They include a programmable 'Brick' computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motors, and LEGO parts from the Technics line to create the mechanical...
and StarLogo
StarLogo
StarLogo is an agent-based simulation language developed by Mitchel Resnick, Eric Klopfer, and others at MIT Media Lab and MIT Teacher Education Program in Massachusetts. It is an extension of the Logo programming language, a dialect of Lisp...
software. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse
Computer Clubhouse
The Computer Clubhouse is a worldwide network of after-school learning settings, founded by Mitchel Resnick and Natalie Rusk of the MIT Media Lab in Boston, USA...
, an award-winning network of learning centers for youth from under-served communities. Resnick is also a co-founder of the Center for Future Civic Media.
Resnick's group has developed a new programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
, called Scratch, that makes it easier for kids to create their own animated stories, video games, and interactive art. Resnick is also involved in the next generation of Programmable Bricks and in the $100 laptop project.
Resnick, a graduate of Haverford High School (Pa.), earned a BA in physics at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
(1978), and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked for five years as a science/technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has consulted widely on the uses of computers in education. Resnick was awarded a National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
Young Investigator Award in 1993. He is author of the book Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams, co-editor of Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo (2001).
Dr. Resnick is a winner of the 2011 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education .