The droid is interesting, though I wonder if it doesn’t leave enough room for creativity. Being able to assemble electronics based on instructions is an important first step, but it might be more engaging for kids to be able to put LEDs wherever they want or add a speaker where they have their own message recorded. I do see the value in recreating a character from a popular movie franchise in terms of getting kids excited but I wonder if they are sacrificing creativity for the sake of accuracy.
BEHAVIORISM, COGNITIVISM, CONSTRUCTIVISM
“Rationalism is the view that knowledge derives from reason without the aid of the senses”
Rationalism is an interesting concept. Because I studied philosophy undergrad, much of my learning was facilitated through rationalism. I think that’s why I was drawn to philosophy in the first place. In the liberal arts, writing is often how your understanding of the material is assessed. In my politics and sociology classes, I could plug in external research I had done about any essay topic into how I understood an essay was supposed to be formatted. I could find several facts that supported my point and arrange them in a persuasive way. In philosophy, the arguments came from within. They were based on a lifetime worth of accumulated observation and my ability to pull out examples of those observations and use them as metaphors to illustrate a point. This is why I think learning philosophy would be so valuable for children. It could teach them how to use their own experiences as evidence for the decisions they make and let them develop a process for assessing their beliefs and solving problems.