Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams

Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds

Mitchel Resnick (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

184 Seiten

1997
MIT Press (Verlag)
978-0-262-68093-6 (ISBN)

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This text examines the concept of decentralization and its effects in everday culture. It considers the reasons behind resistance to decentralization, and describes computational methods - such as modelling and simulation - and activities that can help develop new perspectives on decentralization.

How does a bird flock keep its movements so graceful and synchronized? Most people assume that the bird in front leads and the others follow. In fact, bird flocks don't have leaders: they are organized without an organizer, coordinated without a coordinator. And a surprising number of other systems, from termite colonies to traffic jams to economic systems, work the same decentralized way. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams describes innovative new computational tools that can qhelp people (even young children) explore the workings of such systems-and help them move beyond the centralized mindset.

Mitchel Resnick, an expert in educational technologies, is Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab.His research group develops the Scratch programming software and online community, the world's largest coding platform for kids. He has worked closely with the LEGO company on educational ideas and products, such as the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits, and he cofounded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of after-school learning centers for youth from low-income communities.

Part 1 Foundations: introduction; the era of decentralization. Part 2 Constructions: constructionism; LEGO/logo; StarLogo; objects and parallelism. Part 3 Explorations: simulations and stimulations; slime mould; artificial ants; traffic jams; termites; turtles and frogs; turtle ecology; new turtle geometry; forest fire; recursive trees. Part 4 Reflections: the centralized mindset; beyond the centralized mindset. Part 5 Projections: growing up. Appendices: student participants; StarLogo overview.

Reihe/Serie	Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams
Verlagsort	Cambridge, Mass.
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	272 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
	Informatik ► Grafik / Design ► Digitale Bildverarbeitung
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Theorie / Studium
ISBN-10	0-262-68093-9 / 0262680939
ISBN-13	978-0-262-68093-6 / 9780262680936
Zustand	Neuware