Models of Learning with a Computational Medium

该项目探索、开发和测试教育的可能性， 使用一个集成的、多功能的计算介质， 包括完整的编程能力。 拳击手定义了一个高功率的工作 儿童个人和专业使用的车站环境， 90年代的教师和课程开发者。 在以前的NSF 授予，我们建立了这样一个系统的科学基础， 原则性的设计，我们建立了技术基础， 可在外地部署的执行。 新型教育模式 在学校环境中的实践，这是可能的，通过这种媒体， 将被开发和测试。 这些车型将突出Boxer的新特色 这些承诺将在秩序、内容和形式上发生重大变化， 学校科学。 特别是，它将证明，拳击手是 透明，让学生和教师更快地通过 该系统的技术方面的基本数学和科学 学习，拳击手提供了戏剧性的协同作用，让容易 结合系统的各个方面（文本编辑、数据库 能力等），特别是，方案拟订和 学习科学原理。 两种新的可推广的教育实践模式， 一个计算媒介将被建立。 第一个是关于运动的 通过在课堂上开发以产品为导向的社区实践。 这种做法将产生于一套精心设计和综合的 运动的微观世界，以及它在促进深层 概念的改变将通过学生的能力来评估， 在完成课程后了解更多信息。 第二个模型将教授 生物学等事实密集型科学的主题， 显示领域中知识的隐藏结构， 支持学习和解决问题的活动， 适合这些领域。

This project explores, develops and tests the educational possibilities of using an integrated, multi-functional computational medium that includes full programming capability. Boxer defines a high-powered work station environment for the personal and professional use of children, teachers, and curriculum developers of the 1990s. In a previous NSF grant, we established the scientific basis for such a system in a principled design, and we established the technological basis in a field-deployable implementation. Models of new kinds of educational practice in school settings that are made possible by such a medium, will be developed and tested. These models will highlight the new and special characteristics of Boxer that promise important changes in the ordering, content and form of school science. In particular, it will be demonstrated that Boxer is transparent, allowing students and teachers to get more quickly through the technical aspects of the system to basic mathematical and scientific learning, and that Boxer provides dramatic synergy in allowing easy combining of the various aspects of the system (text editing, data base capabilities, etc.), most particularly, synergy between programming and learning scientific principles. Two new generalizable models of educational practice based on the use of a computational medium will be built. The first will teach about motion by developing a product-oriented community practice in the classroom. That practice will grow out of a carefully designed and integrated set of exercise microworlds, and its effectiveness in promoting deep conceptual change will be assessed by the capability of students to learn more on completion of the course. The second model will teach topics in fact-intensive sciences like biology by using the medium to display the hidden structure of knowledge in the domain, and by supporting learning and problem solving activities specifically appropriate to such domains.