Nagarjuna Gadiraju

• Ph.D.
• Former Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Educational Technology (EdTech) can be both empowering or constraining depending upon the underpinning design. Drawing from the experiments conducted as part of a large scale EdTech intervention in India, this paper shares qualitative findings on designing digital learning environments (DLE) as tools that empower the learner. Building upon the lite...

Networked computers can potentially support classrooms to be more interactive. It can help students share representations amongst themselves and work together on a shared virtual activity space. In research on the role of shared screens or shared virtual workspace in learning settings, there has been less attention paid to contexts where learners a...

Many teaching-learning applications have a computer-mediated sharing feature and it is important that we study its role in the teaching-learning process in detail. The present study, which is a part of the larger study, probes the impact of the computer-mediated sharing feature on classroom activities. 45 students who belonged to a 4th-grade classr...

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) could be a fruitful framework for understanding processes that enable learning in a collaborative environment. How can one create a platform with connected computers which would allow the learners to create a ZPD by design? We discuss design requirements for such a platform and we present two examples to subst...

With the advent of networked computers sharing of information and artifacts have become very convenient. From online multi-player games to social networking sites, instant sharing has become the norm of the day. Educational tools are trying to harness sharing as a potential tool to engage students in learning processes. But, does sharing lead to an...

Inspired by the semantic network studies we propose additional conventions for choosing linking words and arrive at a Reference Set of semantically well-defined linking words drawn from the Knowledge Representation area of research in the domain of biology. Each linking word in the set is assigned a dimension: part-whole, class-inclusion, spatial-i...

We propose a continuum model for the degree distribution of directed networks in free and open-source software. The degree distributions of links in both the in-directed and out-directed dependency networks follow Zipf's law for the intermediate nodes, but the heavily linked nodes and the poorly linked nodes deviate from this trend and exhibit fini...

"Drosophila, like the Brahmin, is born twice; first from the egg as a maggot, then from the pupa as an imago. In both its incarnations the fly behavior undergoes profound changes with age and experience. An important problem is to distinguish between innate and acquired behavior. This is difficult and, in several aspects, an unsettled issue. Unders...

In a regular Indian classroom, we expect children to become literate, but do not allow them to speak enough or communicate with each other. In a technology aided classroom, however, the barriers to different types of communication breaks down. Chat application is one such example, which allows the children to communicate. In particular, chat create...

We propose a mathematical model to fit the degree distribution of directed dependency networks in free and open-source software. In this complex system, the intermediate scales of both the in-directed and out-directed dependency networks follow a power-law trend (specifically Zipf's law). Deviations from this feature are found both for the highly l...

A rationale and proposal for developing a primer for teaching-learning of conceptual structures is presented. The skills required and developed by an engagement of constructing and analyzing conceptual structures are richer and easier to be dealt with in school education. The teaching-learning context of CS is fundamental and important enough to in...

Although concept maps have been found to be effective in science education research, these are critiqued for being informal due to informal usage of relation and attribute names thereby resulting in ambiguity. Refined concept mapping, a development over the regular concept mapping is an approach towards introducing rigor and parsimony in representi...

Refined concept map (RCM) is comprised of node names and a well-defined, invariant, minimal set of relation names. Using RCM as a methodology, it can be applied to study the changes in the knowledge structure, as a tool for analy- sis of forms of representations. In this paper, we discuss the study conducted to test the ease and feasibility of RCM...

GNOWSYS-mode is an Emacs extension package for knowledge networking and ontology management using GNOWSYS (Gnowledge Networking and Organizing SYStem) as a server. The demonstration shows how to collaboratively build ontologies and semantic network in an intuitive plain text without any of the RDF notations, though importing and exporting in RDF is...

A continuum model has been proposed to fit the data pertaining to the directed networks in free and open-source software. While the degree distributions of links in both the in-directed and out-directed dependency networks follow Zipf's law for the intermediate nodes, the most richly linked nodes, as well as the most poorly linked nodes, deviate fr...

This essay argues for an alternative scientific foundation for accounting complex phenomena like life, cognition and evolution. The approach taken to the problem is neither reductionism, not emergentism (holism), but a third alternative called assimilationism. The analysis based on the alternative foundation indicated some counter intuitive implica...

Concept maps are found to be useful in eliciting knowledge, meaningful learning, evaluation of understanding and in studying the nature of changes taking place during cognitive development, particularly in the classroom. Several experts have claimed the effectiveness of this tool for learning science. We agree with the claim, but the effectiveness...

The purpose of this essay is to introduce a heterogeneous computing environment with a possibility of semantic and formal annotations , covering the motivation, architecture, and functionality of the system called GNOWSYS (Gnowledge Networking and Organizing System). GNOWSYS is a system to specify, publish and query about multiple logics, ontologie...

The title “Muscularity of Mind” indicates the point of view that is argued in this essay. I attempt to trace the roots of higher cognitive abilities to the physiological coupling that exists between neuro-sensory and muscular system. Most of the current discourses on the subject base their studies more on the nervous and sensory dimensions, neglect...

The main thrust of the argument of this thesis is to show the possibility of articulating a method of construction or of synthesis--as against the most common method of analysis or division--which has always been (so we shall argue) a necessary component of scientific theorization. This method will be shown to be based on a fundamental synthetic lo...

We propose, in this paper, a teaching program based on a grammar of scientific language borrowed mostly from the area of knowledge representation in computer science and logic. The paper introduces an operationizable framework for understanding knowledge using knowledge representation (KR) methodology. We start with organizing concepts based on the...

The essay is a critical review of three possible approaches in the theory of knowledge while tracing the biological roots of knowledge: empiricist, rationalist and developmentalist approaches. Piaget's genetic epistemology, a developmentalist approach, is one of the first comprehensive treatments on the question of tracing biological roots of knowl...

The essay is critically examines the conceptual problems with the influential modularity model of mind. We shall see that one of the essential characters of modules, namely informational encapsulation, is not only inessential, it ties a knot at a crucial place blocking the solution to the problem of understanding the formation of concepts from perc...

The article is about a new online resource, a collaborative portal for teachers, which publishes a network of prerequisites for teaching/learning any concept or an activity. A simple and effective method of collaboratively constructing teaching­-learning sequences is presented. The special emergent properties of the dependency network and their did...