Innovative Learning Environments Seminar

Education in Curriculum & Instruction 580 / 588, Spring 1999

Philip Bell & Reed Stevens

University of Washington, College of Education

Go to the On-line Class Discussion

WEEK 10 - Last Class - 1 June 1999

GROUP PRESENTATIONS

WEEK 9 - Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) - 25 May 1999

READINGS

• Roschelle (1992) - Learning by collaborating: Convergent conceptual change
• Stevens (to appear) - Using the division of labor concept to compare computer-supported collaborative work and learning across settings
• DESIGN PAPER: Pea (1993) - Practices of distributed intelligence and designs for education

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Salomon (1995) - What Does the Design of Effective CSCL Require and How Do We Study Its Effects?
• Roschelle (1994) - Designing for cognitive communication: Epistemic fidelity or mediating collaborative inquiry?
• Roschelle (1995) - What should collaborative technology be? A perspective from Dewey and situated learning

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT CSCL

• Middle School Math Through Applications (MMAP) Project - this is the project and curriculum referenced in the Stevens article; they have information up about their curriculum and software
• CSCL97 Conference Web Site - information about the most recent CSCL conference in Toronto; web site includes all of the papers and plenary sessions that were presented -- there are a number of good papers here!
• CSCL95 Conference Web Site - information about the first CSCL conference in Bloomington; the web site includes all of the papers that were presented -- again, more good papers!
• Here's a decent treatment of the theoretical roots of CSCL and a bibliography of select CSCL-related publications
• CSCL99 Conference Web Site - here is the call for participation in the upcoming conference at Stanford, December 1999
• Here are links to select projects that have a strong CSCL component: CSILE, Belvedere, CoVis, KIE, WISE, Multimedia Forum Kiosk & SpeakEasy (several we have looked at already). There are many more projects referenced in the CSCL conference papers.

WEEK 8 - Virtual Communities - 18 May 1999

READINGS

• Riel (1995) - Cross-classroom collaboration in global learning circles
• Kling (1996) - Social Relationships in Electronic Forums: Hangouts, Salons, Workplaces and Communities
• Scardamalia & Bereiter (1991) - Higher levels of agency for children in knowledge building: A challenge for the design of new knowledge media

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Kahn - Social "Know-Who" for Building Virtual Communities
• Fernback & Thompson (1995) - Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?
• Rheingold (1993) - The Virtual Community (the entire popular press book about this subject is now on-line)

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

• "Virtual Communities on the Internet" Course (at Harvard) - includes a range of relevant readings and links
• 10 Tips for Building On-Line Communities - some "back of the envelope" type observations about fostering on-line communities
• Howard Rheingold has a list of virtual communities on the Web from 1996 in addition to his VC book
• Knowledge Garden on Virtual Communities - some miscellaneous resources about VCs

WEEK 7 - Innovative Uses of Video - 11 May 1999

READINGS

• Goldman-Segall (1998) - Introduction: Computers, cultures, and constructions & Designing Digital Learning and Research Environments (Chapter 5) in Points of viewing children's thinking: a digital ethnoographer's journey
• Stevens & Hall (1997) - Seeing Tornado: How Video Traces mediate visitor understandings of (natural?) spectacles in a science museum
• Bresnahan, Ducas, and Rubin (1994) - Cartwheeling in CamMotion
• DESIGN PAPER: Norman (1998) - Human-centered product development (Chapter 9) from The invisible computer

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Ruhleder & Jordan (1997) - Capturing Complex, Distributed Activities: Video-Based Interaction Analysis as a Component of Workplace Ethnography
• Halff - De/Composing Constellations: Reflections on the Development of a Collaborative, Multimedia Ethnographic Research Tool

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT VIDEO

• CamMotion Project - explores the instructional uses of video as a "laboratory instrument" in the classroom
• Multimedia Ethnographic Research Lab (MERLIN) - is focused on developing "theories and tools for conducting ethnographic inquiry using emerging technologies"
• ADDITIONAL VIDEO RESOURCES:
  • CVIDEO - a free software tool for aiding detailed video analysis
  • An Introduction to Video Analysis for Educational Researchers (Roschelle & Zaritsky)

WEEK 6 - Constructionism, Programming & Computational Literacy - 4 May 1999

READINGS

• Papert (1980) - Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. (Chapter 1)
• Pea & Kurland (1987) - On the cognitive effects of learning computer programming
• Koschmann, Kolodner, O'Shea, & Papert. (1997). Technology and educational reform (Journal of the Learning Sciences, Book & Review section)
• diSessa (1999) - Minds + 1: Computational Media and New Literacies. (Chapter 1: Computational media and new literacies - The very idea)

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Resnick, M. (1996) - Exploring emergence (an "active essay" that can be thought of as a specific form of "computational media"; it requires a Java-enabled browser to work)

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT COMPUTATIONAL LITERACY & CONSTRUCTIONISM

• The StarLogo Project has created a general modeling environment that is an evolved version of the original Logo environment; the software allows students to develop dynamic models of complex phenomena in the world (traffic jams, artificial ant colonies, disease transmission, ...); it comes out of the Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab
• The Boxer Project has been exploring the design of a "computational media" for "real people" (not just computer scientists) for over ten years; Boxer is a tapestry on which you can author your personal computational ideas (as opposed to "a programming environment"); their current incarnation (that runs on Macintosh) can be downloaded for trial use
• AgentSheets is a modeling and simulation tool that uses visual programming rules to create the models (rather than text declarations as in traditional programming); the software is very general and has been used to create a range of educational artifacts (including a package focused around programmable bricks called LegoSheets)
• Microworlds is a Logo-based curriculum construction kit that is commercially available; a trial version is available

WEEK 5 - Knowledge Representations - 27 April 1999

READINGS

• Bell (in press) - Using argument maps to make individual and group thinking visible
• Schauble, Raghavan & Glaser - The discovery and reflection notation: A graphical trace for supporting self-regulation in computer-based laboratories
• Novak - Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps As Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations (select chapters)

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Suthers, Toth & Weiner (1997) - An Integrated Approach to Implementing Collaborative Inquiry in the Classroom (in PDF format)

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATIONS

• The Belvedere Project creates tools and curriculum projects for groups to collaborate and co-construct argument representations about specific topics; check out the tour of Belvedere
• The KIE and SCOPE projects are exploring the use of the SenseMaker argumentation tool with students and natural scientists for representing the details of current scientific controversies; you can download a trial version of SenseMaker (for Mactintosh) if you want to use it for the assignment this week
• There are also some concept mapping software tools that can be downloaded -- Inspiration (with a trial version available) and various other concept mapping tools from the Meaningful Learning Research Group

WEEK 4 - Visualization - 20 April 1999

READINGS

• Gordin & Pea (1995) - Prospects for scientific visualization as an educational technology
• Nemirovsky, Tierney, & Wright (1998) - Body Motion and Graphing
• Roschelle, Kaput & Stroup (in press) - SimCalc: Accelerating students' engagement with the mathematics of change

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Gordin, Edelson & Gomez (1996) - Scientific Visualization as an Interpretive and Expressive Medium (in PDF format)
• Foley (1998) - Designing Visualization Tools for Learning (in PDF format)

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT VISUALIZATIONS

• The Simulations for Calculus Learning (SimCalc) Project - they create interactive simulations that involve an interplay of the software visualizations and physical experience; simulations are embedded into curriculum for calculus reform
• The SSciVEE Project is exploring the use of scientific visualization to support students' learning about complex science phenomena like the weather
• The Visualziation and Modeling Theme Team with the Center for Innovative Learning Technology (CILT) Project compiled an interesting list of various visualizations projects from a conference they held in 1998
• Brian Foley has been creating various visual media to enhance science learning and teaching as part of the CLP and KIE projects

WEEK 3 - Learning Partners - 13 April 1999

READINGS

• Linn, Bell & Hsi (1998) - Using the internet to enhance student understanding of science: The knowledge integration environment
• Salomon (1993) - On the nature of pedagogic computer tools: The case of the writing partner
• DESIGN PAPER: diSessa (1995) - Epistemology and systems design

OPTIONAL READINGS

• White & Frederiksen - Metacognitive Facilitation: An Approach to Making Scientific Inquiry Accessible to All, a nice description of the ThinkerTools curriculum, simulation software, and research

RELEVANT LINKS ABOUT LEARNING PARTNERS

• Knowledge Integration Environment (KIE) - the focus of the Linn et al. paper; KIE is an integrated suite of software tools (for the Macintosh platform) focused on using Web resources as part of a sustained-inquiry, project-based curriculum approach
• Web-based Integrated Science Environment (WISE) - the Web-based successor to KIE; WISE has a growing number of Web-based curriculum projects available including:
  • The How Far Does Light Go? debate project mentioned in the Linn et al. paper, and
  • A project on a current scientific controversy involving deformed frogs (also see the the Deformed Frog Curriculum Library part of the SCOPE project)
• Computer as Learning Partner Project (CLP) - a curriculum and software development effort focused on thermodynamics, light, and sound for middle school students; the central piece of software, E-LabBook, scaffolded students' lab-based inquiry by prompting them to reflect on their understanding and supporting them in the construction of pragmatic science principles as they conducted labs; view the CLP research classroom (needs the QuickTime plug-in installed)
• The ThinkerTools Project - a simulation-based curriculum used with middle school students to help them learn Newtonian mechanics; the approach uses a sequence of increasingly sophisticated microworlds to help students understand force and motion
• The BGuILE Project - a scaffolded software suite and set of classroom activities focused on helping high school students develop explanations for complex biological scenarios; if you're interested, there's a dissertation by Bill Sandoval available on-line that goes into quite a bit of detail about the project
• The Collaboratory Notebook from the CoVis Project - a scaffolded science notebook for groups of students working together

WEEK 2 - Framing Issues - 6 April 1999

READINGS

• Salomon & Almog - Educational psychology and technology: A matter of reciprocal relations
• Brown - Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings
• Dede - Testimony to the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives. Joint Hearing on Educational Technology in the 21st Century, Committee on Science and Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities, October 12, 1995.

OPTIONAL READINGS

• Collins - Toward a design science of education
• Michael Grave's essay entitled "How did we get so smart?" - he discusses how designed cognitive tools can shape our thinking (as he reviews three somewhat recent volumes)

RELEVANT LINKS

• Science and Design Traineeship Program at Berkeley - of particular note is the draft Field Guide that was jointly constructed by the SanD group
• Design Experiment Session at AERA-1998

WEEK 1 - Introduction & Overview - 1 April 1999

ARTICLE FOR DISCUSSION

• Cuban (1996) - Techno-Reformers and Classroom Teachers

Spring 1999. University of Washington.