α - Bret Victor recommended.
Ω(»,Σ,I) - Papert explores ways to interface a computer as a learning environment & philosophies of how to get the most out of learning. The book is well organized & full of nuanced information.
This book has some five star parts and some four star parts.
The five star parts are where Papert gets into the philosophy that drove the creation of LOGO - his thoughts about how learning occurs, why it's important to empower children to think about their own thinking, and his vision for a "learning society." It reads like a manifesto and goes so much past "hey, let's put computers in schools, it'll be great." He also showed me the power of thinking about environments as sources of "raw materials" for learning. There's certainly a lot more to chew on in these parts, and I need to think more and read it again.
The four star parts, for me, are anecdotes about how LOGO works towards reaching his goals. They're fun but not so inspirational.
Fuller-like optimism for the ability of computers to soften the boundaries between humanities and mathematics, to avoid "school math" planting the idea that "I don't have a head for math". How important it is that learning occurs by children constructing worlds inside their heads that they can relate to bodily experience and can manipulate themselves. An expansive view of what children can learn at an early age if given the concepts of procedure and system, and that debugging your thinking wins over being told your answer is right or wrong.
