Overhyping Tech & AI in Education - A Conversation with Dr. Gary Stager

As an elementary teacher by training, Dr. Gary Stager has taught
students from preschool through doctoral studies. In 1990, Gary
led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools
and played a major role in the early days of online education.
Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern
Knowledge summer institute for educators.


Gary is co-author of Invent To Learn – Making,
Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, called the
“bible of the maker movement in schools,” by Larry Magid of CBS
and The San Jose Mercury News. Invent To Learn has been
translated into nine languages. Gary’s most recent book
is Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50: Future
Visions of Education Inspired by Seymour Papert and Cynthia
Solomon’s Seminal Work.


When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn
mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to
create a high-tech alternative learning environment for
incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was
the basis for Gary’s doctoral dissertation and documented
Papert’s most-recent institutional research project.


Gary’s work has earned a Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics
Education and he collaborated on a project that won a Grammy
Award. Recently, Gary was invited by Fondazione Reggio Children
to lead public seminars, and even teach children, in Reggio
Emilia, Italy.


Gary was also on the advisory board of the NSF-funded
project, BJC4NYC: Bringing a Rigorous Computer
Science Principles Course to the Largest School System in
the US. Gary also maintains the world’s largest archive of text
and multimedia by Seymour Papert at The Daily Papert.


X: @garystager