Lifelong Kindergarten

<b>How lessons from kindergarten can help&#160;everyone develop the creative thinking skills needed to thrive in today's society.</b><p>In kindergartens these days children spend more time with math worksheets and phonics flashcards than building blocks and finger paint. Kindergarten is becoming more like the rest of school. In&#160;<i>Lifelong&#160;Kindergarten</i> learning expert Mitchel Resnick argues for exactly the opposite: the rest of school (even the rest of life) should be more like kindergarten. To thrive in today's fast-changing world people of all ages must learn to think and act creatively&#151;and the best way to do that is by focusing more on imagining creating playing sharing and reflecting just as children do in traditional kindergartens.</p><p>Drawing on&#160;experiences from more than thirty years at MIT's Media Lab Resnick discusses new technologies and strategies for engaging young people in creative learning&#160;experiences. He tells stories of how children&#160;are programming their own games stories and inventions (for example a diary security system created by a twelve-year-old girl) and&#160;collaborating through remixing crowdsourcing and large-scale group projects (such as a Halloween-themed game called <i>Night at&#160;Dreary Castle</i> produced by more than twenty kids scattered around the world). By providing young people with opportunities to work on projects&#160;based on their passions in collaboration with peers in a playful spirit we can help them prepare for a world where creative thinking is more important than&#160;ever before.</p>