Hypermedia as medium

Claims and rebuttals that hypermedia (the associative, nonlinear interconnection of multimedia materials) is a fundamentally innovative means of thinking and communicating are described. This representational architecture has many advantages that make it a major advance over other media; however, it also has several intrinsic problems that severly limits its effectiveness as a medium. These advantages and limits in applications are discussed

Designing a training tool for imaging mental models

The training process can be conceptualized as the student acquiring an evolutionary sequence of classification-problem solving mental models. For example a physician learns (1) classification systems for patient symptoms, diagnostic procedures, diseases, and therapeutic interventions and (2) interrelationships among these classifications (e.g., how to use diagnostic procedures to collect data about a patient's symptoms in order to identify the disease so that therapeutic measures can be taken. This project developed functional specifications for a computer-based tool, Mental Link, that allows the evaluative imaging of such mental models. The fundamental design approach underlying this representational medium is traversal of virtual cognition space. Typically intangible cognitive entities and links among them are visible as a three-dimensional web that represents a knowledge structure. The tool has a high degree of flexibility and customizability to allow extension to other types of uses, such a front-end to an intelligent tutoring system, knowledge base, hypermedia system, or semantic network

Comments on Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes: Technologies That Facilitate Generating Knowledge and Possibly Wisdom

Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes (2009) argue that Web 2.0 media are well suited to enhancing the education research community’s purpose of generating and sharing knowledge. My response first articulates how a research infrastructure with capabilities for communal bookmarking, photo/video sharing, social networking, wikis, and mashups could enhance both the pace and quality of education scholarship, complementing federal investments in cyberinfrastructure. Then, I argue for a second, more provocative and controversial usage of this research infrastructure: an experimental attempt to generate “wisdom.” An interconnected suite of Web 2.0 tools customized for research would provide three capabilities important for wise advice: (a) a virtual setting in which stakeholders of many different types could dialogue (b) about rich artifacts grounded in practice and policy (c) with a set of social supports to encourage community norms that respect not only theoretical rigor and empirical evidence, but also interpersonal, experiential, and moral/ethical understandings

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Next steps for “Big Data” in education: Utilizing data-intensive research

Data-informed instructional methods offer tremendous promise for increasing the effectiveness of teaching, learning, and schooling. Yet-to-be-developed data science approaches have the potential to dramatically advance instruction for every student and to enhance learning for people of all ages. Next steps that emerged from a recent NSF funded Computing Research Association workshop on data-intensive research in education were: 1) mobilize communities around opportunities based on new forms of evidence, 2) infuse evidence-based decision-making throughout a system, 3) develop new forms of educational assessment, 4) re-conceptualize data generation, collection, storage, and representation processes, 5) develop new types of analytic methods, 6) build human capacity to do data science and to use its products, and 7) develop advances in privacy, security, and ethics. If these steps are taken, participants agreed that data science approaches have the potential to dramatically advance instruction for every student and to enhance learning for people of all ages. This article briefly summarizes three of these themes that are particularly relevant, yet have not received as much attention as they deserve

PC tools for project management: Programs and the state-of-the-practice

The use of microcomputer tools for NASA project management; which features are the most useful; the impact of these tools on job performance and individual style; and the prospects for new features in project management tools and related tools are addressed. High, mid, and low end PM tools are examined. The pro's and con's of the tools are assessed relative to various tasks. The strengths and weaknesses of the tools are presented through cases and demonstrations

A Multi-user virtual environment for building higher order inquiry skills in science

This study investigated novel pedagogies for helping teachers infuse inquiry into a standards-based science curriculum. Using a Multi-User Virtual Environment(MUVE) as a pedagogical vehicle, teams of middle school students collaboratively solved problems around disease in a virtual town called River City. Students interacted with “avatars” of other students, digital artifacts, and computer-based “agents” acting as mentors and colleagues in a virtual community of practice set during the time period when bacteria was just being discovered. This paper describes the results from three implementations of the River City virtual environment in 2004 with approximately 2000 students from geographical diverse urban areas. Results indicate that students were able to conduct inquiry in virtual worlds and were motivated by that process. However, results from assessments vary depending on assessment strategy employed

Exploring Ecosystems from the Inside: How Immersive Multi-user Virtual Environments Can Support Development of Epistemologically Grounded Modeling Practices in Ecosystem Science Instruction

Recent reform efforts and the next generation science standards emphasize the importance of incorporating authentic scientific practices into science instruction. Modeling can be a particularly challenging practice to address because modeling occurs within a socially structured system of representation that is specific to a domain. Further, in the process of modeling, experts interact deeply with domain-specific content knowledge and integrate modeling with other scientific practices in service of a larger investigation. It can be difficult to create learning experiences enabling students to engage in modeling practices that both honor the position of the novice along a spectrum toward more expert understanding and align well with the practices and reasoning used by experts in the domain. In this paper, we outline the challenges in teaching modeling practices specific to the domain of ecosystem science, and we present a description of a curriculum built around an immersive virtual environment that offers unique affordances for supporting student engagement in modeling practices. Illustrative examples derived from pilot studies suggest that the tools and context provided within the immersive virtual environment helped support student engagement in modeling practices that are epistemologically grounded in the field of ecosystem science

EcoMOBILE – Designing for contextualized STEM learning using mobile technologies and augmented reality

The ubiquity of mobile technologies can unlock new opportunities for “anytime, anywhere” learning, and some argue that portable mobile platforms will inherently lead to more contextualized learning experiences. However, the meaning of contextualization and how to achieve it in mobile designs bears further examination, as the greater the level of contextualization, the more difficult it may be to scale mobile designs. Context is a product of the interaction among learners, the personal, social and physical resources at hand, and mobile technologies. We examine how, through the affordances of mobile technologies, designers might emphasize different aspects of social and physical context in order to support learning. In particular, augmented reality enables students to interact—via mobile wireless devices—with virtual information, visualizations, and simulations superimposed on real-world physical landscapes. The EcoMOBILE activity considered here involved student participation in an outdoor field trip near their school using mobile broadband devices running augmented reality software. We present a case study highlighting two designs focused on a similar middle- grades science learning goal of exploring the local watershed – a place-dependent, collaborative design (“Take a Tour”) and a place-independent, individual design (“Follow the Flow”). We implemented these designs with two different teachers each with four classes of students. We present detailed comparison of the design logic and features of each experience, and a summary of feedback from interviews and student focus groups with attention to feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning. Our results showed little difference in student comments related to the contextualization of the experience, which suggests that carefully constructed, yet minimalist designs may support a perception of contextualization that comes from the perspective of the user rather than from the device. A place-independent mobile learning experience may, with minimal modification, be used in a location other than the one in which it was designed, and may still have positive effects on feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning among participants