Abstract
Although Logo was expressly designed as a Mathematical language for use in Education its early versions were very logic-orientated. With the addition of Seymour Papert’s ‘turtle’ the system became far more accessible to students and teachers. This paper explores some of the educational ideas behind its development and describes its first use in schools in Australia through reminiscences by two of the co-authors, Sandra Wills and Anne McDougall. The paper concludes with a reflection that educational research has not been able to prove the educational benefits of a ground-breaking approach that empowered students with computers. However, many rich case studies of successful implementation by passionate teachers abound in the literature to provide inspiration to teachers working with the new digital natives.
Keywords
Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
References
Abelson, H., Bamberger, J., Goldstein, I., Papert, S.: Logo progress report 1973–1975. Cambridge, Mass., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AI Memo 356, p. 22. ERIC ED 128 181 (1976)
Adams, P.: Various Computers in the Kindergarten. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years on, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 81–87 (1985,1996)
Adams, T.: Towards a Theory of Microworlds. Logo in Australia: Ten Years on, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, 13–24 (1985,1996)
Best, N.: MicroWorlds in a Year Seven Class. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 70–77 (1997)
Betts, J.: Teaching Programming Without Teaching Programming. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds (1997)
Brown, J.S., Rubinstein, R.: Recursive functional programming for the student in the humanities and social sciences, Irvine, California, University of California, UCI–ICS–TR–27a. ERIC ED 108 664, p. 53 (1974)
Carter, P.: Thinking Logo: An Introduction to (the Universe through) Programming. Loxleys, South Australia (1987)
Carter, P.: Step by Step: Logo Legged Locomotion. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Computers in Education Amsterdam, North-Holland, pp. 743–746 (1990)
Chapman, T.: Logo and MicroWorlds at Westall Primary School: A 4 Year Tale. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 101–108 (1997)
Clarke, V.: Logo Tool Kits. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years on, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 38–45 (1985)
Dowling, C.: Logo and Language Development. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years on, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 31–37 (1985)
Duncan, C.: Microworlds: Making the Connections between the Abstract Concepts in Elementary Science. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 109–121 (1997)
Evans, P.: What is Logo? Deakin University Press, Geelong (1992)
Feurzeig, W., Kukas, G., Faflick, P., Grant, R., Lukas, J.D., Morgan, C.R., Weiner, W.B., Wexelblat, P.M.: An Introductory LOGO Teaching Sequence: LOGO Teaching Sequence on Logic, ERIC ED 057 579, p. 329. Beranek and Newman, Cambridge (1971)
Feurzeig, W., Papert, S., Bollm, M., Grant, R., Solomon, C.: Programming-Languages as a Conceptual Framework for Teaching Mathematics. Final report of the first fifteen months of the Logo project, p. 329. Beranek and Newman. R–1889, Washington, D.C (1969)
Gibbons, P.: A Cognitive Processing Account of Individual Differences in Novice Logo Programmers’ Conceptualisation and Use of Recursion. Journal of Educational Computing Research 13(3), 211–226 (1995a)
Gibbons, P.: Recursion: An Analysis of Individual Differences in Logo Programming. Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney (1995b)
Gibbons, P.: Logo Learning: What the Learners Say. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, pp. 7–19. Computing in Education Group of Victoria, Melbourne (1997)
Hopkins, J.: Stars and Sprites. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, pp. 133–141. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1997)
Hopkins, J., McDougall, A.: Constructionist Learning and Teaching in a Computer Clubhouse Environment. In: McDougall, A., Murnane, J., Stacey, C., Dowling, C. (eds.) ICT and the Teacher of the Future, pp. 65–66. Australian Computer Society, Sydney (2003)
Johnson, D.C.: Algorithmics and programming in the school mathematics curriculum: support is waning—is there still a case to be made? Education and Information Technologies 5, 201–214 (2000)
Jones, A.: Logo in Preservice Teacher Training: An Australian Experiment. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, pp. 54–61. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1985)
Kemeny, J., Kurtz, T.: The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System. National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. (1967)
Lipson, D.E.: Gearing Up for Robotics: An Investigation into the acquisition of the concepts associated with gears by teachers in a constructionist robotics environment. In: Proceedings of the International Federation for Information Processing TC3 Conference, Milan (September 2008)
McDougall, A.: Teaching and Learning about Recursion. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, pp. 46–53. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1985)
McDougall, A.: Student Difficulties in Programming with Recursion in Logo. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Back to the Future, Forward to the Past, pp. 108–115. Computer Education Group of Victoria, Melbourne (1990a)
McDougall, A.: Children, Recursion and Logo Programming: An Investigation of Papert’s Conjecture about the Variability of Piagetian Stages in Computer-Rich Cultures. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Computers in Education, pp. 415–418. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1990b)
McDougall, A. (ed.): Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1996)
McDougall, A., Adams, T., Adams, P.: Learning Logo on the Apple II. Prentice-Hall, Melbourne (1982)
McDougall, A., Betts, J.: Logo Supporting the P – 12 Curriculum in a Technology Immersion School. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, pp. 92–100. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1997)
McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.): Learning in Logo Microworlds, Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1997)
Murnane, J.S.: Models of recursion. Computers & Education 16, 197–201 (1991)
Murnane, J.S.: To iterate or to recurse? Computers & Education 19, 387–394 (1992)
Murnane, J.S.: Programming Languages for Beginners. Lambert, Saarbrucken (2010) ISBN: 978–383836987–7
Murnane, J.S., McDougall, A.: Bad Computer Science in Beginners Programming Courses: “Considered Harmful”? A case study of the Tufts graphical programming language. In: Watson, D., Benzie, D., D. (eds.) Imagining the future for ICT and Education. IFIP WG 3.1, 3.3, & 3.5 Joint Conference, Ålesund, Norway: 329-340, June 26-30, pp. 13978–13982 (2006); ISBN: 1082-92186-33-6 FISBN: 13978-82-92186-33-6, Published online by Springer and in CD-ROM format
Murnane, J.S., Warner, J.W.: An empirical study of secondary students’ expression of algorithms in natural language. In: McDougall, A., Murnane, J.S., Chambers, D. (eds.) 7th IFIP World Conference on Computers in Education. Computers in Education 2001: Australian Topics, vol. 8, pp. 81–86. Australian Computer Society, Bedford Park (2001)
Nevile, L.: Some Comments on Logo after Ten Years. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, pp. 101–108. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1985)
Nevile, L., Dowling, C.: Let’s Talk Apple Turtle. Prentice-Hall, Sydney (1983)
Newell, B.: Turtles Speak Mathematics. Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra (1988a)
Newell, B.: Turtle Confusion. Curriculum Development Centre, Australia (1988b)
Oakley, J. (ed.): Logo in Australia: Selected Readings, Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1996)
Oakley, J., McDougall, A.: Young Children as Programmers: Fantasy or Flight? In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, pp. 32–51. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1997)
Papert, S.: Teaching Children Thinking. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 241, ERIC ED 077 241 (1971a)
Papert, S.: Teaching children to be mathematicians vs teaching about mathematics. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. p. 26, ERIC ED 077 243 (1971b)
Papert, S., Solomon, C.: Twenty things to do with a computer. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, p. 240, ERIC ED 077 240 (1971)
Papert, S.: Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. Basic Books, New York (1980)
Richardson, J.: Logo in Australia: 21 Years On. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, pp. 3–6. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1997)
Ross, P., Howe, J.: Teaching mathematics through programming: ten years on. In: Lewis, R., Tagg, D. (eds.) Computers in Education, vol. 1, pp. 143–148. North-Holland (1981)
Squires, D., Sellman, R.: Designing Computer Based Microworlds. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, pp. 25–30. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1985)
Vincent, J.: The role of visually rich technology in facilitating children’s writing. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 17(3), 242–250 (2001)
Vincent, J.: MicroWorlds and the Integrated Brain. In: McDougall, A., Murnane, J., Chambers, D. (eds.) Computers in Education 2001: Australian Topics, pp. 131–137. Australian Computer Society, Sydney (2002)
Vincent, J., McDougall, A., Azinian, H.: Visualisation, multimodality and learning with information technolgy. In: McDougall, A., Murnane, J., Jones, A., Reynolds, N. (eds.) Researching IT in Education, pp. 192–199. Oxford, Routledge (2010)
Weyer, S.A., Cannara, A.B.: Children learning computer programming: experiences with languages, curricula and programming devices. Stanford, Calf., Stanford University. p. 228, Technical Report No. 250. ERIC ED 111 347 (1975)
Wills, S.: Computer Education in Tasmanian Schools: ACS Lecture of the Year. Australian Computer Bulletin 4(7), 22–28 (1980)
Wills, S.: Computer Education in Australian Schools. Australian Computer Bulletin 5(4), 4–5 (1981)
Wills, S.: Doodle Design Debug: Process vs Content Issues in Classroom Computing. In: McDougall, A. (ed.) Logo in Australia: Ten Years On, pp. 1–12. Computing in Education Group of Victoria (1985)
Yelland, N., Masters, J.: 21 Years of Logo: Logo for the 21st Century. In: McDougall, A., Dowling, C. (eds.) Learning in Logo Microworlds, Computing in Education Group of Victoria, pp. 122–132 (1997)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McDougall, A., Murnane, J.S., Wills, S. (2014). The Educational Programming Language Logo: Its Nature and Its Use in Australia. In: Tatnall, A., Davey, B. (eds) Reflections on the History of Computers in Education. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 424. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55119-2_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55119-2_28
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-55118-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-55119-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)