The re-embodiment of learning... due to my participation in the first International Conference on Sloyd in Sweden last year, I am on mailing lists that supply information like the following:

The University of Art and Design, Western Finland design centre MUOVA has started a Leonardo da Vinci educational pilot programme, e-Craft Idea Tutor (e-CIT). The aim of the 24-month project is to develop and test a creative e-learning environment for the second grade handicraft and applied arts students and teachers in the EU area. The e-CIT project began 1st October 2005 and will last until 30 September 2007. The nine project partners are from six countries: Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Portugal and Slovenia.

In the meantime, children no longer are folding paper, using brushes to explore the texture of paper in the application of color... no longer learning the geometry of their own bodies... and yet, it is the physicality of our own beings that defines the nature of our own universe. All the principles and elements of design emerge from our physicality. The language and concepts through which we frame our existence and explore the fundamental values of life, emerge from the elbows and angles of our physical form.

Computers are the big buzz, promoted by the commercial interests that are very hopeful of selling us more and more stuff, starting with computers themselves, that promise our liberation from the joys of making, and our enslavement of dependency and incompetence. Aren't we excited about it? I would look instead toward a re-embodiment of learning... paper, scissors, glue, clay, paint, cardboard and wood. Oh, and let's not forget fibers. It was the twisting of fibers that led to the making of yarn, rope, fabric, tapestries, knots, knowledge and human intelligence. And it all has to do with the body.