Exploring the mathematics of motion through construction and collaboration

In this paper we give a detailed account of the design principles and construction of activities designed for learning about the relationships between position, velocity and acceleration, and corresponding kinematics graphs. Our approach is model-based, that is, it focuses attention on the idea that students constructed their own models – in the form of programs – to formalise and thus extend their existing knowledge. In these activities, students controlled the movement of objects in a programming environment, recording the motion data and plotting corresponding position-time and velocity-time graphs. They shared their findings on a specially-designed web-based collaboration system, and posted cross-site challenges to which others could react. We present learning episodes that provide evidence of students making discoveries about the relationships between different representations of motion. We conjecture that these discoveries arose from their activity in building models of motion and their participation in classroom and online communities

Real-time programming and the big ideas of computational literacy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-121).Though notoriously difficult, real-time programming offers children a rich new set of applications, and the opportunity to engage bodily knowledge and experience more centrally in intellectual enterprises. Moreover, the seemingly specialized problems of real-time programming can be seen as keys to longstanding difficulties of programming in general. I report on a critical design inquiry into the nature and potential of real-time programming by children. A cyclical process of design, prototyping and testing of computational environments has led to two design innovations: a language in which declarative and procedural descriptions of computation are given equal status, and can subsume each other to arbitrary levels of nesting [and] a "live text" environment, in which real-time display of, and intervention in, program execution are accomplished within the program text itself. Based on children's use of these tools, as well as comparative evidence from other media and domains, I argue that the coordination of discrete and continuous process should be considered a central Big Idea in programming and beyond. In addition, I offer the theoretical notion of the "steady frame" as a way to clarify the user interface requirements of real-time programming, and also to understand the role of programming in learning to construct dynamic models, theories, and representations. Implications for the role of programming in education and for the future of computational literacy are discussed.by Christopher Michael Hancock.Ph.D

A design approach to research in technology enhanced mathematics education

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A multimodal framework for computer mediated learning : the reshaping of curriculum knowledge and learning

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Music Learning with Massive Open Online Courses

Steels, Luc et al.-- Editors: Luc SteelsMassive Open Online Courses, known as MOOCs, have arisen as the logical consequence of marrying long-distance education with the web and social media. MOOCs were confidently predicted by advanced thinkers decades ago. They are undoubtedly here to stay, and provide a valuable resource for learners and teachers alike. This book focuses on music as a domain of knowledge, and has three objectives: to introduce the phenomenon of MOOCs; to present ongoing research into making MOOCs more effective and better adapted to the needs of teachers and learners; and finally to present the first steps towards 'social MOOCs’, which support the creation of learning communities in which interactions between learners go beyond correcting each other's assignments. Social MOOCs try to mimic settings for humanistic learning, such as workshops, small choirs, or groups participating in a Hackathon, in which students aided by somebody acting as a tutor learn by solving problems and helping each other. The papers in this book all discuss steps towards social MOOCs; their foundational pedagogy, platforms to create learning communities, methods for assessment and social feedback and concrete experiments. These papers are organized into five sections: background; the role of feedback; platforms for learning communities; experiences with social MOOCs; and looking backwards and looking forward. Technology is not a panacea for the enormous challenges facing today's educators and learners, but this book will be of interest to all those striving to find more effective and humane learning opportunities for a larger group of students.Funded by the European Commission's OpenAIRE2020 project.Peer reviewe

Exploration of programming by demonstration approaches for smart environments

The number of smart electronic devices like smartphones, tablet computers and embedded sensors/actuators in our domestic and work environment is constantly growing. Some of them work as a stand along devices while others already collaborate with each other. It is apparent that once a common layer for device intercommunication between major consumer device manufactures has been agreed upon, a new class of networked smart applications will rise. These applications will dynamically utilise required sensors and actuators of a smart environment to optimally achieve tasks for us human users. Inhabitants of such environments are already interacting with dozens of computers per day. A lot of research has addressed many issues in hardware and software for the future smart environments But few have focused on the users. An important research topic lies in finding simple, intuitive yet powerful enough approaches to allow end-users to create and modify the behaviour of smart environments in which they live and work according to their needs. I believe that for the ubiquitous computing environments to reach its full potential, enabling end-user programming is one of the important criteria. This thesis describes the exploration of various approaches for "Do It Yourself" philosophy in smart environment applications by providing inhabitants with the appropriate tools which empower them to build their environments in accordance to their needs and with enough room for personal creativity. To this end, I choose speech as the main input by the end users along with demonstration of certain parts of over all approach in building applications for smart environments. The resulting application is built on top of the meSchup platform developed during meSchup FP7 EU project at the VIS institute in Stuttgart which provides a middleware for seamlessly interconnecting heterogeneous devices. The resulting web application is called "Speechweaver" which combines speech, programming by demonstration and automatic code generation into usable and intuitive approach for creating and modifying the rule based behaviour of smart environments in place

Tangible programming bricks : an approach to making programming accessible to everyone

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, February 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-68).Thanks to inexpensive microprocessors, consumer electronics are getting more powerful. They offer us greater control over our environment, but in a sense they are getting too powerful for their own good. A programmable thermostat can make my home more comfortable and save energy, but only if I successfully program it to match my life-style. Graphical, direct manipulation user interfaces are step in the direction of making devices easier to program, but it is still easier to manipulate physical objects in the real world than it is to interact with virtual objects "inside" a computer display. Tangible, or graspable user interfaces help bridge the gap between the virtual world and the physical world by allowing us to manipulate digital information directly with our hands. Tangible Programming Bricks are physical building blocks for constructing simple programs. In this thesis I provide technical details of the Bricks themselves, demonstrate that they are useful for controlling a variety of digital "everyday objects," from toy cars to kitchen appliances, and set the stage for future research that will more rigorously support my hypothesis that tangible programming is easier to understand, remember, explain to others, and perform in social settings, when compared to traditional programming mechanisms.by Timothy Scott McNerney.S.M

Developing high-fidelity mental models of programming concepts using manipulatives and interactive metaphors

It is well established that both learning and teaching programming are difficult tasks. Difficulties often occur due to weak mental models and common misconceptions. This study proposes a method of teaching programming that both encourages high-fidelity mental models and attempts to minimise misconceptions in novice programmers, through the use of metaphors and manipulatives. The elements in ActionWorld with which the students interact are realizations of metaphors. By simple example, a variable has a metaphorical representation as a labelled box that can hold a value. The dissertation develops a set of metaphors which have several core requirements: metaphors should avoid causing misconceptions, they need to be high-fidelity so as to avoid failing when used with a new concept, students must be able to relate to them, and finally, they should be usable across multiple educational media. The learning style that ActionWorld supports is one which requires active participation from the student - the system acts as a foundation upon which students are encouraged to build their mental models. This teaching style is achieved by placing the student in the role of code interpreter, the code they need to interpret will not advance until they have demonstrated its meaning via use of the aforementioned metaphors. ActionWorld was developed using an iterative developmental process that consistently improved upon various aspects of the project through a continual evaluation-enhancement cycle. The primary outputs of this project include a unified set of high-fidelity metaphors, a virtual-machine API for use in similar future projects, and two metaphor-testing games. All of the aforementioned deliverables were tested using multiple quality-evaluation criteria, the results of which were consistently positive. ActionWorld and its constituent components contribute to the wide assortment of methods one might use to teach novice programmers

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity