ITR/PE: Training and Resources for Assembling Interactive Learning Systems

Sri International, Menlo Park CA

Investigators

Abstract

0205625 Christopher DiGiano SRI International, Menlo Park, CA "Training and Resources for Assembling Interactive Learning Systems" This project leverages research and development outcomes from prior NSF funding that focused on interactive mathematics education. The current project addresses three areas: 1) Research involving undergraduate education focused on investigating the training needed to produce practitioners capable of collaborative design of educational software, 2) Research into the processes used by collaborative software design teams, and 3) Research into K-12 educational impact because of the use of software produced by collaborative design teams. The project involves pre-college teachers and undergraduate and professional software developers in teams producing interactive software for K-12. In addition to primary goals of studying multidisciplinary collaborative teams and the impacts of the systems they develop on pre-college students, the project also looks at software re-use and collaborative tools needed for innovative applications of IT in education. Outcomes of this project will be insights into and understanding of: the kinds of course activities that are needed to enable effective teamwork between students with different backgrounds; course activities that will enable teams to discuss, share, and enact educational values in their software production process; the packaging of curricula into modules that are adaptable by a variety of institutions; the promotion of curricula that encourages enrollment by a broad spectrum of students in educational software development; and, the preparation of new teachers and developers for future work involving collaborative design. In addition, this project involves research into optimal design tools (the kinds of tools and resources such as design scenarios, national standards, bug lists, feature lists, and mailing lists that help teams achieve shared understanding), collaboration mechanisms and the design of tools and spaces to encourage a culture of reuse where team members borrow pedagogical ideas and technical modules from exemplary artifacts and in turn contribute useful products of their own, and a social network of human experts and coaches needed to produce educational software (i.e., best practices that can be identified for the ways experienced classroom teachers and software developers coach and support teams in developing good designs and encourage balanced participation by technical and non-technical team members). The overarching need that is addressed by the project is the shortage of standards-based, high-quality educational software for K-12 classrooms. The project aims to validate the premise that appropriate training and resources can enable a team to transform today's designs into improved designs that elicit and support higher-order mathematical thinking among the target K-12 students. Testing this hypothesis requires research in classroom impact including: exploring whether university student co-design teams can adapt and refine existing mathlet resources to produce new mathlets that engage higher-order mathematical thinking, identifying, refining, and disseminating to classrooms around the country the best mathlets from all participating institutions, expanding the adoption and utility of deployed mathlets be increased by enabling in-service teachers to configure the tools for their particular classroom needs. This project involves collaboration between several academic institutions, research organizations, and businesses.