Psychology

While Piaget's ideas have come under heavy criticism, his work has had a lasting impact on many different disciplines. The most obvious impact that Piaget made was on developmental and child psychology. Piaget is one of the major reasons this area of psychology became popular in the first place. Before him, departments of developmental psychology were an afterthought at most universities, and that's if they had one at all. This is certainly not the case today. Piaget also pioneered the idea that children and adults think differently. Before, it was assumed that they think the same.

Education

Piaget's work has dramatically influenced education, as well. Educational programs and curricula are now designed with Piaget's work in mind to ensure that students are taught age-appropriate material. It was recognized that if one were to attempt to teach a child something for which he is not developmentally ready, the task will be overly difficult, if not impossible. Piaget also emphasized the importance of children learning for themselves. He once said, "children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them something too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves". This has led teachers away from lecturing towards facilitating hands-on learning experiences.

Computer Science

A field that usually isn't associated with Piaget, but on which he had an impact nonetheless is computer science. In 1967, Seymour Papert co-invented the Logo programming language. Papert is a co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and studied directly under Piaget in Geneva learning his unique theory of development. Papert used Piaget's theory to design Logo primarily as a learning tool for children. Logo was easy to learn and helped facilitate experimentation with mathematics, science, mechanics, and many other academic subjects. The most common implementation of Logo used a robotic toy called a turtle that was controlled by software written in Logo. In the absence of an actual physical turtle, a virtual turtle that existed as an icon on a computer screen could be used. This system was the forerunner for the modern LEGO Mindstorms product, which was actually named for Papert's book Mindstorms.

Stemming from the Logo idea was Dynabook, the brainchild of Alan Kay. Kay, a scientist at Xerox's PARC at the time, got the idea for a portable, graphically-based computer system to help children learn by utilizing the ideas both Piaget and Papert had come up with. Dynabook never became an actual product, but remains a collection of concepts. Using some of the Dynabook concepts, the folks at PARC developed the Alto, the first computer with a GUI and a mouse. The concept of graphical symbols that could be manipulated by natural motor movements was a direct implementation of Piaget's stages of development. It was thought that children would first be able to physically interact with the computer. As the child developed, graphical symbols would be available once the child was able to think symbolically. When the child was ready to think logically, the computer would grow with the child and provide an ability to operate logically on the symbols already present. Finally, as the child progressed into the Formal Operational stage, the computer would allow for more advanced manipulations. While never released commercially, the Alto's revolutionary GUI and mouse were the inspiration for both the Mac and Windows operating systems that are used today.