Hackers, Computers, and Cooperation: A Critical History of Logo and Constructionist Learning

This paper examines the history of the learning theory “constructionism” and its most well-known implementation, Logo, to examine beliefs involving both “C’s” in CSCW: computers and cooperation. Tracing the tumultuous history of one of the first examples of computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) allows us to question some present-day assumptions regarding the universal appeal of learning to program computers that undergirds popular CSCL initiatives today, including the Scratch programming environment and the “FabLab” makerspace movement. Furthermore, teasing out the individualistic and anti-authority threads in this project and its links to present day narratives of technology development exposes the deeply atomized and even oppositional notions of collaboration in these projects and others under the auspices of CSCW today that draw on early notions of ‘hacker culture.’ These notions tend to favor a limited view of work, learning, and practice—an invisible constraint that continues to inform how we build and evaluate CSCW technologies.