Idit Harel

Harel moved to the United States in 1982 for graduate study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education after having previously received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University. She earned two graduate degrees from Harvard: an EdM in Technology in Education (1984) and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAS) in Human Development (1985) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1988, she earned a Ph.D in Epistemology and Learning Research from MIT after helping to formulate a new constructivist model with Seymour Papert, the "Instructional Software Design Learning Paradigm."[4]

Harel's research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the MIT Media Lab in the 1980s led to the 1991 publication of Children Designers, which won the 1991 Outstanding Book Award from the American Education Research Association, with an introduction by Harel's research collaborator, constructivist researcher Seymour Papert. Children Designers presents the results of Harel's research in which she introduced disadvantaged fourth-grade children from the Boston area to the Logo programming language, and facilitated their creation of mathematical software applications that would help third-grade peers learn fractions. Children Designers suggested implementations within schools that emphasize this project-based and student-centered approach.[5]

In 1995, Harel moved to New York City, where she founded MaMaMedia, an Internet dot-com that offered web services focused on inculcating digital literacy and creative learning skills among children and their parents who used the web games and activities offered.[6] Harel developed MaMaMedia based largely on her research in the MIT Media Lab in the educational principles of constructionism. The site provided web users with a range of "playful learning" activities and projects,[7] publishing the first print magazine for children about the Internet, MaMaMedia: A Kid's Guide to the Net.[8]

Harel founded World Wide Workshop in 2004, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that develops applications for learning with technology that combine game design and online social media experiences for youth to empower them to be inventors and leaders in the global knowledge economy. The foundation's programs aim to transform education by connecting youth to technology learning opportunities in schools and community centers, facilitating children's localized community engagement, and fostering the potential for economic development through game production experiences.[9]

Globaloria is a social learning system and educational program of the World Wide Workshop, in which participating students engage in a range of digital activities.[10] The program was established in 2006 to cultivate both students' and educators' 21st century skills and digital literacy, facilitating mastery of social media technology tools, and students' deeper understanding of curricular areas, such as science, mathematics and health.[11]

Much of Harel's published work in the 1990s and early 2000s focused on the emergence of what she has termed the "Clickerati Generation" - children born since 1991 who will grow up immersed in new media, and unable to imagine a world without Internet technology. She calls for a radical paradigm shift in the education and acculturation of this generation, emphasizing normalization of digital information and communication, and the cultivation of digital literacy skills for their successful development, citizenship, and leadership within such physical-digital blended environments.[12][13]

Through the launch of the World Wide Workshop and research on its flagship program Globaloria, Harel has advanced the use of constructionist learning within the MOOC model. She has criticized MOOCs for generally replicating the instructor-led learning model, and asserts that Globaloria's educational tools are the only constructionist MOOCs for middle and high school students. She also states that this approach is unique in simultaneously training teachers and instructors on a blended learning model.[14][15]