September 30, 2015 by wendy
I recently came across a paper written by Mitchel Resnick, head of the Scratch team, and Eric Rosenbaum, co-creator of MaKeyMaKey, called “Designing for Tinkerability” that caught my attention. It made me wonder. What is tinkering? Why is it important? And are there tools that teach coding which promote tinkering? Let’s find out!
According to Resnick and Rosenbaum, tinkering is playful, experimental, and iterative. It allows the learner to constantly explore, try new ideas, and refine their work. Instead of starting at the top with a concrete goal and working their way down, tinkerers start at the bottom by experimenting with different possibilities and work their way up to their goal.
Tinkering is important because it promotes creative thinking and resilience. Tinkerers learn to iterate, adapt, and take risks. It may seem like tinkering is aimless and tinkerers don’t fully understand what’s happening, but as Resnick and Rosenbaum point out, they understand bits and pieces that will eventually fit into a bigger picture.
For a tool to be tinkerable, Resnick and Rosenbaum say that it must incorporate three key principles: immediate feedback, fluid experimentation, and open exploration. Here are a few websites that encourage tinkering for you to try.