The “art of learning” or even lack of a word for the study of learning is rooted in Seymour Papert’s work. He was Resnick and Kafai’s doctoral supervisor.

The questions of “what do we want a student to learn” is an important one for educators.

What’s “cool” about the music composition example is that the computer allows learners of all ages to have experiences that connect them to hundreds or more years of cultural practice in a way that would be off-limits or impossible for most people even a few years ago. I make the point in the presentation that answering questions, conducting “research” or talking to one another is the low-hanging fruit of edtech.

I want kids to have rich experiences filled with beauty, wonder, complexity, discipline and cultural resonance.

I’ll try to answer your questions.

A) Garageband was DISCOURAGED in the learning adventure I described for obvious and less obvious reasons,

1) OBVIOUS REASON - Garageband is not cross-platform. That's a problem for my students

2) LESS OBVIOUS REASON - Garageband represents ONE form of musical composition - composition by tune-blocks or melodic  fragments (mashup if you like). I wanted students to see how computers could support entry into the community of practice of traditional music composition since there is so much history, tradition and stigma (high barrier to entry) attached.

B) The way you provide students with enough time to learn is by doing it.

C) You match resouces and materials to students by making schools material-rich environments that aspire to be the best 7-8 hours of a student’s day.

You and your readers might find my recent articles about “elements of good project-based learning” interesting – http://stager.tv/blog/?p=359