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Designing, Exploring and Interacting: Novice Activities in the Boxer Computational Medium
Abstract
The Boxer computational medium provides a new educational context. The processes of designing, exploring and interacting in
Boxer present a new form of educational activity involving new goals and needs. An account of the experience of novice programmers,
both teacher and students, is presented. The research suggests that, during the initial stages, active engagement in the Boxer
medium provides new and powerful opportunities for learning for teachers as well as students. In particular, the evolving
computer-mediated process makes overt the often tacit interactions, evaluations and assumptions about teaching and learning
and supports reflection and reconceptualisation.
... The procedure has been extensively promoted as a desirable approach to learning since its development during the 1950s and 1960s (Anthony, 1977;Bell, 1991;Blanchette & Brouard, 1995;Bruner, 1959Bruner, ,1961Bruner, ,1962Maor & Taylor, 1995;Nuthall & Snook, 1973;Sfondilias & Siegel, 1990;Shulman & Tamir, 1973;Whitehead, 1978). Since its early days, it has mutated into exploration learning (Charney, Reder, & Kusbit, 1990;Crawford, 1995;diSessa, Hoyles, Noss, & Edwards, 1995;Hoyles, 1995;Hsu, Chapelle, & Thompson, 1993;Kamouri, Kamouri, & Smith, 1986;Njoo & de Jong, 1993;Vitale, 1995), inductive learning (Holzman, Pellagrino, & Glaser, 1983;Rieber & Parmley, 1995), and other variants (Greeno, Collins, & Resnick, 1996). ...
This article reports experimental work comparing exploration and worked-examples practice in learning to use a database program. Exploration practice is based on discovery learning principles, whereas worked-examples practice arose from the development of cognitive load theory. Exploration practice was expected to place a considerable load on working memory, whereas a heavy use of worked examples was hypothesized to lead to more effective processing by reducing extraneous mental load. Students with no previous domain familiarity with databases were found to substantially benefit from worked examples in comparison to exploration. However, if students had previous familiarity with the database domain, the type of practice made no significant difference to their learning because the exploration students were able to draw on existing, well-developed domain schemas to guide their exploration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this article we want to investigate whether Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) are suitable environments for implementing so-called mathematical microworlds. For this, we recall first what constitutes such a microworld, and then investigate how CAS can be used for implementation, stating potentials as well as limitations. In order to back our hypotheses, we provide as an example the microworld "Formula 1", implemented in Maple™.
The paper explores the opportunities and challenges of learning and teaching mathematics in the information era from a Vygotskian perspective. A systemic approach is taken to an investigation of the ways in which information technologies have changed the contexts for and forms of mathematical activity in society and the challenge that this change presents to mathematics educators at all levels.
Turtle Geometry presents an innovative program of mathematical discovery that demonstrates how the effective use of personal computers can profoundly change the nature of a student's contact with mathematics. Using this book and a few simple computer programs, students can explore the properties of space by following an imaginary turtle across the screen. The concept of turtle geometry grew out of the Logo Group at MIT. Directed by Seymour Papert, author of Mindstorms, this group has done extensive work with preschool children, high school students and university undergraduates.
The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
Programming is most often viewed as a way for experts to get computers to perform complex tasks efficiently and reliably. Boxer presents an alternative image—programming as a way for nonexperts to control a reconstructible medium, much like written language, but with dramatically extended interactive capabilities.
How can we understand why a bank teller has different needs for a user interface than those of casual users of a machine teller, or why a graphic designer needs a different user interface than a secretary? This article presents a framework for the design of user interfaces that originates from the work situations in which computer-based artifacts are used: The framework deals with the role of the user interface in purposeful human work. Human activity theory is used in this analysis. The purpose of this article is to make the reader curious and hopefully open his or her eyes to a somewhat different way of thinking about the user interface. The article applies examples of real-life interfaces to support this process, but it does not include a systematic presentation of empirical results. I focus on the role of the computer application in use. Thus, it is necessary to consider human-computer interaction and other related work conditions. I deal with human experience and competence as being rooted in the practice of the group that conducts the specific work activity. The main conclusions are: The user interface cannot be seen independently of the use activity (i.e., the professional, socially organized practice of the users and the material conditions for the activity, including the object of the activity). The standard view in these situations is to deduce an ultimate set of operations from an abstract use activity and apply these to design and analysis. This article argues that the user interface fully reveals itself to us only when in use. What is a good user interface for those with a certain degree of competence may not be efficient for those with different levels of competence. I give certain general recommendations for the user interface, but I have no guarantee that such recommendations are applicable to the specific case wherein these concerns may be overruled by specific social or material concerns.
About two years ago, on a cool Southern California day, Vasili Davydov addressed a group of social scientists at the University of California, San Diego. He began his talk with a paradox. He had come, he said, to tell us about educational activity. He promised to exhibit principles that promote educational activity, and applied programs deriving from those principles. Then he laughed. "But you'll never see educational activity in the school," he said, and laughed again.
Most previous research on human cognition has focused on problem-solving, and has confined its investigations to the laboratory. As a result, it has been difficult to account for complex mental processes and their place in culture and history. In this startling - indeed, disco in forting - study, Jean Lave moves the analysis of one particular form of cognitive activity, - arithmetic problem-solving - out of the laboratory into the domain of everyday life. In so doing, she shows how mathematics in the 'real world', like all thinking, is shaped by the dynamic encounter between the culturally endowed mind and its total context, a subtle interaction that shapes 1) Both tile human subject and the world within which it acts. The study is focused on mundane daily, activities, such as grocery shopping for 'best buys' in the supermarket, dieting, and so on. Innovative in its method, fascinating in its findings, the research is above all significant in its theoretical contributions. Have offers a cogent critique of conventional cognitive theory, turning for an alternative to recent social theory, and weaving a compelling synthesis from elements of culture theory, theories of practice, and Marxist discourse. The result is a new way of understanding human thought processes, a vision of cognition as the dialectic between persons-acting, and the settings in which their activity is constituted. The book will appeal to anthropologists, for its novel theory of the relation of cognition to culture and context; to cognitive scientists and educational theorists; and to the 'plain folks' who form its subject, and who will recognize themselves in it, a rare accomplishment in the modern social sciences.
A summary of the growth of logical operational thinking in the child, with emphasis on the concrete operations of class inclusion and serialization. Harvard Book List (edited) 1971 #605 (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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