LaCOLLA: Middleware for Self-Sufficient Online Collaboration
The LaCOLLA middleware makes it possible for collaborators to interact using their own resources and not depend on a centralized regime. By contributing their own resources, group members can organize and communicate using a federated peer-to-peer model. Utilizing LaCOLLA middleware, the group can function regardless of whether a member removes resources and despite network or node failures or disconnection. This capacity for self-organization, together with location transparency, lets applicati
Narrative Evolution: Learning from Students' Talk about Species Variation
Learners do not always enjoy productive interactions with Multimedia Interactive Learning Environments. Their attention can be distracted away from the educational focus intended by designers and teachers through poor design and operational inadequacy. In this paper we describe a study of groups of learners using a multimedia CD-ROM research tool called Galapagos. This tool was developed to enable us to observe groups of learners interacting with different versions of the same multimedia content
LifeWorks
This site explores careers in health and medical sciences. See interviews with more than 70 professionals -- a chemist, dentist, dietician, epidemiologist, lab technologist, medical illustrator, microbiologist, nurse, pharmacist, social worker, veterinarian, and others. Learn what their typical workday involves and why they chose their career. Find out which careers match your interests and skills.
Do two heads search better than one? Effects of student collaboration on Web search behavior and sea
This study compared Pairs of students with Single students in Web search tasks. The underlying hypothesis was that peer-to-peer collaboration encourages students to articulate their thoughts, which in turn has a facilitative effect on the regulation of the search process as well as search outcomes. Both hypotheses were supported by the results. Pairs located the target information more often and in less time than Singles did. Pairs also employed a richer repertoire of search strategies and were
Flexible navigation for the pedagogical hypermedia design and evaluation improvement
We are working on a method, called CEPIAH, for the design and the evaluation of pedagogical hypermedia. We propose a web based system used to help teachers to design hypermedia documents and to evaluate their prototypes. Having already elaborated a methodology for the evaluation of interactive pedagogical hypermedia (EMPI), the experience and the acknowledgement we have is able to upgrade the design help. To help the designer in his instructional Web site creation we developed an interactive gui
On Determinism from the course History of Information
This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as 'the information age.' We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs. In every instance, we'll be concerned with both what and when and how and why, and we will keep returning to the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect socie
Foundations and opportunities for an interdisciplinary science of learning
In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences are poised for a "decade of synergy." We focus on several key traditions of theory and research with the potential for mutually influencing one another in ways that can transform how we think about the science of learning, as well as how future educators and scientists are trained.
Narratives and their significance for childrens communication about their world
In this article I will give a description and a definition of narrative through historical review. This forms a background to my other purpose, to describe and discuss the importance of using storytelling as a tool for meaning making for the individual. In this text I will also raise the significance of stories as a tool for society to mediate culturally important messages to the individual and thereby shed light upon the dialectics between the individual and the collective.,part of Kaleidoscope
The CoVis Project: Building a Large-Scale Science Education Testbed
This paper describes the construction and research program of the Learning Through Collaborative Visualization (CoVis) Project. a testbed for exploring science education reform with telecommunications technology. The CoVis testbed is contrasted with other forms of cducational research in an "ecolo~yo f paradigms." which argues that testbeds are in fact a new setting for research with different requirements and challenges for the researcher. Two extended examples of telecommunications research ar
Using the World Wide Web to Build Learning Communities in K- 12
Social accounts of learning and human knowledge have led to attempts to reorganize schools as learning communities. This paper examines the utility of World Wide Web (WWW) for aiding in the construction of school-based and work-based learning communities An ordered list of interactions is provided to characterize the depth of students entry into new learning communities. Current offerings on the WWW are then surveyed in terms of these categories. Finally, proposals are advanced for enhancing the
Constructivism in the Collaboratory
Great attention has been paid recently to the capabilities of computers to provide environments in which active learners can construct their own understanding through open-ended interaction. Yet discussion of constructivist learning environments has commonly focused on the learner as an individual, learning in isolation from other learners. For example, Perkins (1991) characterizes a learning environment as being composed of five facets: information banks, symbol pads, construction kits, phenome
Computers and Excellence in the Future of Education
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Creatures of Habit: A Computational System to Enhance and Illuminate the Development of Scientific T
Creatures of Habit is a computer-based microworld designed to engage middle-to-high school students in the process of scientific inquiry. The system depicts a universe of interacting programmable “creatures” whose individual behavior is guided by simple rules that may model naive psychology, physical laws, chemical affinities, and other domains. Students can create or revise creature rules and explore the resulting (and often surprising) emergent behaviors within “artificial ecosystems”;
On the cognitive effects of learning computer programming
This paper critically examines current thinking about whether learning computer programming promotes the development of general higher mental functions. We show how the available evidence, and the underlying assumptions about the process of learning to program, fail to address this issue adequately. Our analysis is based on a developmental cognitive science perspective on learning program, incorporating developmental and cognitive science considerations of the mental activities involved in progr
Teaching Reading To Students with ADD/H
This Advice sheet is aimed at children with Special needs (Attention Deficit Disorder). It offers strategies for developing these children's' reading skills.
An innovative teaching and learning environment for school mathematics
The paper presents the main characteristics, the background reference, and educational aims of an innovative teaching and learning environment designed and implemented for promoting arithmetic problems solving skills in children of compulsory school.
The project is partially funded by the European Community Research and Development Project ITALES "Innovative Teaching and Learning Environments for Schools" (IST 2000-23356).
The research addresses a sector (that of arithmetic problem solving) whi
Using the Washing Machine
This activity outlines the skills taught in preparing students for independent use of a household appliance. It is suitable for students in the Moderate / Mild Special Needs range.
Sequenced PE Activity
A sequenced Physical Education activity giving opportunities to explore gross motor skills. Suitable for students with mild/moderate special needs.
Italian Reading Comprehension 1
Journalistic passage dealing with some contemporary issues (poor job prospects, difficulties in finding accommodation, etc.) with questions to test comprehension skills.
Ball Skills
A holistic approach to gross motor skills in a social context. Apart from the growth of confidence in the particular motor skills, ball games are an easy way of becoming more integrated into the peer group. Skills in this area also bring a growth in self-esteem and the opportunity to become involved on teams and in inter-school events.
