Constructing Modern Knowledge @ Reggio Emilia – a million languages

The entrance to REMIDA in Reggio Emilia Italy.

Constructing Modern Knowledge is the series of conference / workshops on education and technology lead by Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez since 2008.

It has mostly been hosted in the states, and I attended the summer 2024 event in Manchester, New Hampshire and enjoyed making musical instruments with colleagues using servo motors, programming the BBC micro:bit with MicroBlocks.

We were told it might be the last in the series but were surprised to learn that Gary & Sylvia had planned to run an event at the Reggio Emilia Foundation in Reggio Emilia, Italy in April 2025 – so when it was confirmed, I jumped at the chance to go!

Unlike my summer experience, this event focussed on both the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education and the place of computation in progressive pedagogy and education, and asked the question “what role for computation?”.

And it was enlightening, uplifting and rewarding.

The Reggio Emilia approach

Although I knew of the Reggio Emilia approach, I hadn’t understood its history, its local context nor the detail of its focus on aesthetics (as opposed to anaesthetics!) in education.

The history since the close of the second world war demonstrates what can happen when a town sees children as an asset and takes care to respect their rights.

It was a delight to work in the associated Remida centre, next door to the foundation. Remida undertakes creative recycling, recovering from a network of 100 local companies about 15 tons per year of material destined for disposal, which is put back into circulation through projects and a distribution service to about 300 institutions which are associated with the Reggio Emilia approach. We were treated to talks about the approach used in schools and in particular the ‘atelier’ – a room in each school run by an additional education professional, the ‘atelierista’ often an artist or designer by training. The focus was on experiencing ‘materiality’ and the recycling centre was perfect as a venue to see first hand the way surplus materials were organised and re-distibuted to enhance children’s ‘research’ in building their knowledge.

Inside the Remida centre, with its racks of recyclable surplus materials to the left and in the background

I thoroughly enjoyed returning to childhood to explore these ideas in three workshops.

Firstly we all worked together to make pasta, and eat it…

Our Tortelli pasta in the making, stuffed with spinach and Ricotta and local Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses…

…and cooked with Tagliatelle strips made with the leftover pasta.

…secondly in a group of five, we explored ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ in light…

The letters j (in red), o (in white and purple) and y (in green) painted with torches using a slow-shutter time-lapse photograph. — A time-lapse photo of a pattern created with torches and colour filters as part of an atelier to explore light.

…and thirdly, also in a group of five we created a book, bound in brass and leather from five sheets of material chosen one each by the participants, but no words…

Front cover – ‘Secret’ through a keyhole

page 4 – a petticoat with a heart-shaped hole and a pocket

The place of computation

The combination of values regarding early childhood education, re-cycling and re-use, and civic backing for the local education system was intoxicating, but behind all the excitement there was a burning question about the place of computing and computational thinking.

Gary gave us his take on the relationship, with a solid constructionist analysis based on his lifelong love affair with Seymour Papert and his work – just lovely.

Gary Stager’s slide posing the question “how does computation fit in to progressive approaches in education?”

Gary also invited us to invent a simple Easter egg dispensing device using Micro:bit and the Hummingbird equipment – the Easter Bunny is sick, help!.

Against challenging time pressure, the group of three I was in enjoyed making this, both an ambulance for the sick bunny and a cart with eggs that would drop if it encountered an obstacle:

Conclusion

My personal takeaway was in relation to the 100 languages concept of the Reggio Emilia approach as eloquently introduced in this poem by founder Loris Malaguzzi:

No way. The hundred is there.

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi, 1996, translated by Lella Gandini

I have emboldened the lines in the middle that sing to me and that echo so much of my own work in the design of education throughout my working life.

But I couldn’t help feeling that in the computational media, genre and tools, there were so many additional ‘languages’ .

I would include programming, spreadsheets, databases, word processors, drawing packages, presentation tools, digital audio & video, hypertexts, and so much more. In each case they are tools for expressing ideas, but have the additional value of bringing support for evaluation of those ideas as the child sees what does and doesn’t work on the computer.

This feedback loop of ‘expression’ and ‘evaluation’ is what I call ‘expressive constructivism‘ in my Phd.

Furthermore, I explained how technology supports learning in both expression and evaluation.

But for me, even more potently now making the case for computation, is that we can use computation to develop our own tools – a meta-level of expression and evaluation that may make a million languages in my humble view!

Many thanks to Gary and Sylvia and the Reggio Emilia ateliers for their wonderful programme of activities and inputs, but most importantly to all the experienced, thoughtful and open educators who participated with me and made the time so fruitful with their enthusiastic efforts and deep dialogue.

7 March 20258 March 2025

Textiles and programming

Two boys watching their embroidery being stitched on the machine

FOSDEM

At the beginning of February I was at FOSDEM 2025 for the weekend – a free annual event in Brussels, Belgium for software developers from all over the world to meet, share ideas and collaborate as developers of free and open source software.

I took part with friends in the FOSDEM Junior track – a collaboration between FOSDEM, Code Club, CoderDojo, developers, and volunteers to organise workshops & activities for children from age 7 to 17. In truth there were many adults and even more importantly, families, which are the target of my work in OurKidsCode. But at this event I was promoting TurtleStitch, the free and open source software I have been using for making embroidery designs. It is particularly interesting as a motivating context to develop programming skills alongside craft knowledge. Blogs from my friends Mags Amond and Pauline Maas fill out this story.

Sadly one of our group, Prof Margaret Low, was taken ill and couldn’t make it, which gave me an opportunity to stand in for her and introduce TurtleStitch on Sunday morning. The video of that session is now available. At the beginning I failed to turn my microphone on, so the first three minutes are in silence, which is a shame as it was the part of the talk in which I promoted the Textile Museum in Tilburg, The Netherlands (see below).

After the talk, I helped friends Pauline Maas and Joek van Montfort to run their workshops, which was truly enjoyable as family after family asked for my help to make their Turtlestitch design/program become reality. We had to leave the room as other sessions were timetables, so we just took the machines and worked in the corridor, much to the delight of the families.

A boy examines the embroidery machine as a man prepares the fabric in a frame — An enthusiastic programmer inspects the embroidery machine before stitching his design.

The Textile Museum

We had visited the Textile Museum with my friends the day before, Saturday, and it was my second visit in the past year. It was thrilling to be again in the old factory, which has five aspects:

A lovely cafe in which we had some authentic Dutch food;

Our group sitting around a cafe table — Me, Mags Amond, Kathryn Peake, John Hegarty, Joek van Montfort and Pauline Maas in the Textile Museum Café

A well stocked shop, perfect for unique gifts;
Exhibitions of recent textile art, some quite spectacular;

A dramatically colourful full body dress. — Exhibited at Tilburg Textile Museum – 7 WAYS TO BE T.VDB: A Safe Cocoon won Belgian artist and fashion designer Tom Van der Borght the top prize at the acclaimed Hyères fashion festival in 2020. Straddling fashion and art, the collection is a multidisciplinary self-portrait that transcends gender norms. For his mermaid blazer and skirt, he used leftover materials ranging from climbing rope to Swarovski crystals.

A workshop with live machinery, which was open for us to get up close;

A textile workshop, with artists working at a table in the foreground and machinery and colourful bobbins of thread in the background. — The workshop at Tilburg Textile Museum

Some older artefacts – the steam engine to drive machinery and a substantial collection of Jacquard looms in a room with a library of the decks of cards to program them.

An array of Jacquard looms, with punched card programs defining the weave. — An array of Jacquard looms in Tilburg Textile Museum

The workshop is really unique – designed for aspiring artists to explore the museum’s astonishing array of textile machinery, in each case supported by an experienced operator to help the artist collaboratively make the transition to competence with industrial scale equipment and production methods.

It was the museum’s workshop that inspired me the most, and in particular to propose an activity for our own plan to celebrate Turtlestitch’s tenth year this summer. We plan to mark the anniversary in Tilburg by meeting in the town library – LocHal – which is close by.

So as well as speeches, presentations, demonstrations and discussions, I suggest we emulate the Textile museum’s practice. We should invite young people who identify as artists – perhaps senior school students studying art- to meet those of us Turtlestitch enthusiasts who have invested in our own embroidery machines, and so have become amateur technicians, and learn about programming embroidery through collaboration.

Our craft knowledge, combined with their ideas and talent could make something special!

22 July 2024

Constructing Modern Music

A view from inside a cardboard model castle of the dragon that threatens it with Gary Stager looking on. — From inside a cardboard model castle – the cardboard dragon that threatens it, with Gary Stager looking on.

Music?

More of a noise really, but made by hand crafted instruments made using servo motors and BBC Micro:bits.

All part of the summer institute, making and programming, that was Constructing Modern Knowledge (CMK), held in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA from 9-12 July 2024.

I went to be amongst friends and like-minded educators such as Cynthia Solomon.

Richard Millwood and Cynthia Solomon enjoying the morning ‘sermonette’ by Gary Stager – a rabble-rousing, amusing and thoughtful reminder of the value of what we were all there doing.

CMK is the invention of Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez, bringing together teachers who want to explore constructionism in the best possible way, by making.

Each morning, Gary would remind us of the origins of his pedagogical paradigm and re-inforce its precepts in an entertaining and informative way, reminding each of us of our evangelical duties!

A slide from Gary’s morning presentation quoting the late Edith Ackermann: “Learning is less about acquiring or transmitting information or existing ideas or values than it is about collectively designing a world that is worth living in.”

Another important aspect of the summer institute was the huge, ballroom-like space for us to work in, with one long wall filled with table after table of equipment, spare parts and tools for participants to exploit in making their projects.

The cavernous space used for CMK, with tables on the left extending the full length of the room filled with equipment and materials.

In the evenings we enjoyed a baseball game, a meal in an Argentinian restaurant, where the food was supplied on swords, and a pajama party!

Josh Burker and Richard Millwood enjoying the baseball game between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the Binghamton Rumble Ponies at the Delta Dental Stadium (you can just make out the emblematic molar on a pole over the entrance to the top left!)

We had impressive guest speakers in Stephen Wolfram, Tricia Tunstall and Melissa Walker as well as drop-ins from Eric Rosenbaum, Dan & Molly Watt and many other friends.

BUT we also had European football!

Richard Millwood (Eng-er-land!), Pauline Maas (The Netherlands) and husband watching the Euros semi-final soccer game between England and The Netherlands.

Like me, everyone I spoke to was committed to creating powerful learning experiences by handing to learners ownership & responsibility over their learning through project work. This means creating the conditions for “hard fun”, leading to meaningful & fulfilling outcomes. Gary and Sylvia’s insight was that we need to do that, not just talk about it in order to be better teachers employing the method.

In my case, I really wanted to understand how to use servos too, so on the first day, when we brainstormed project ideas, I proposed a mechanical orchestra, and luckily, two others (Timothy Patterson and Angela Buffington) wanted to join me.

We made individual instruments which each employed Micro:bit & Hummingbird driven servos to make sounds, and then attempted to coordinate them by using the broadcast radio communication between micro:bits.

We did it!

Here is the code for Tim’s instruments, using MakeCode:

Angela’s code ended up in MicroBlocks, as we scrambled to get everything working, it made the debug loop quicker with its direct coding model:

My code was for the four ‘tuned’ glasses, again in MicroBlocks:

And finally the ‘conductor’ code, in MicroBlocks:

We invited guests to obtain a ticket:

A design based on the baseball ticket:

And, ta-da!, the performance:

All in all, best summed up in Gary and Sylvia’s colourful words:
“CMK 2024 was a powerful refutation of the cruelty fuelling the latest explicit instruction craze.

7 March 202410 March 2024

Curtains for Sashiko

I was pleased to remix the Turtlestitch project which I had previously used to fix my shirt and jersey to repair a torn curtain.

Sashiko is a Japanese embroidery technique to decoratively repair and strengthen old clothes. I had written a Turtlestitch program to stitch a spider’s web to hold fabric together.

A torn curtain with embroidery stabilising material and ruler. — I started by measuring some stabilising material to slip inside the curtain.

Torn curtain material with a few hand stitches to hold it together in preparation for repair. — The torn curtain material with stabilising material inserted and held in place with a few hand stitches.

Torn curtain material with a few hand stitches and sellotape to hold it together in preparation for repair. — Sellotape added to help the embroidery machine frame hold the curtain material as I tried to make the embroidery reach the edge.

Torn curtain material with hand stitches and sellotape now clamped into an embroidery frame. — Now clamped into an embroidery frame.

Material in an embroidery machine frame being stitched with three lines of thread. — Begin stitching the spider’s web.

Material in an embroidery machine frame being stitched with nine lines of thread. — Halfway through the radial threads.

Material in an embroidery machine frame being stitched with lines of thread radiating from a point and cross-connecting lines to look like a spider's web. — Almost completed the ‘rungs’.

Material finished being stitched with lines of thread radiating from a point and cross-connecting lines to look like a spider's web. — Finished!

Material finished being stitched with lines of thread radiating from a point and cross-connecting lines to look like a spider's web hanging in a window. — Hanging in the window.

From beginning to end around an hour’s work one morning – having had the code already written and just adapted it to make a 180 degree web rather than a full circle.

Now I can relax, knowing I am unlikely to make that tear worse!