Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. In this article, we present an argument for why projects have the potential to help people learn; indicate factors in project design that affect motivation and thought; examine difficulties that students and teachers may encounter with projects; and describe how technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thought are sustained.

Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning

In this article we focus on educational ideas and enabling technology for knowledge-building discourse. The conceptual bases of computer-supported intentional learning environments (CSILE) come from research on intentional learning, process aspects of expertise, and discourse in knowledge-building communities. These bases combine to support the following propositions: Schools need to be restructured as communities in which the construction of knowledge is supported as a collective goal, and the role of educational technology should be to replace classroom discourse patterns with those having more immediate and natural extensions to knowledge-building communities outside school walls. CSILE is described as a means for refraining classroom discourse to support knowledge building in ways extensible to out-of-school knowledgeadvancing enterprises. Some of the most fundamental problems are logistic, and it is in solving these logistic problems that we see the greatest potential for educational technology.

http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/images/5/5d/1466822.pdf

Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities

This article describes learning with media as a complementary process within which representations are constructed and procedures performed, sometimes by the learner and sometimes by the medium It reviews research on learning with books, television, computers, and multimedia environments These media are distinguished by cognitively relevant characteristics of their technologies, symbol systems, and processing capabilities Studies are examined that illustrate how these characteristics, and the instructional designs that employ them, interact with learner and task characteristics to influence the structure of mental representations and cognitive processes Of specific interest is the effect of media characteristics on the structure, formation, and modification of mental models Implications for research and practice are discussed

Learning with Media

A summary of research on PBL by Center for Excellence in Leadership for Learning at University of Indianapolis indicates that PBL: (a) has a positive effect on student content knowledge and the development of skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving; (b) benefits students by increasing their motivation and engagement; and (c) is challenging for teachers to implement, leading to the conclusion that teachers need support in order to plan and enact PBL effectively while students need support including help setting up and directing initial inquiry, organizing their time to complete tasks, and integrating technology into projects in meaningful ways (Brush & Saye, 2008; Krajcik, et al., 1998).

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A review of research on project-based learning

There are substantial similarities between deep learning and the processes by which knowledge advances in the disciplines. During the 1960s efforts to exploit these similarities gave rise to learning by discovery, guided discovery, inquiry learning, and Science: A Process Approach (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1967). Since these initial reform efforts, scholars have learned a great deal about how knowledge advances. A mere listing of keywords suggests the significance and diversity of ideas that have come to prominence since the 1960s: approaches have changed in response to some of these developments; there is a greater emphasis on collaborative rather than individual inquiry, the tentative nature of empirical laws is more often noted, and argumentation has become an important part of some approaches. But the new " knowledge of knowledge " has much larger educational implications: Ours is a knowledge-creating civilization. A growing number of " knowledge societies " (Stehr, 1994), are joined in a deliberate effort to advance all the frontiers of knowledge. Sustained knowledge advancement is seen as essential for social progress of all kinds and for the solution of societal problems. From this standpoint the fundamental task of education is to enculturate youth into this knowledge-creating civilization and to help them find a place in it. In light of this challenge, both traditional education, with its emphasis on knowledge transmission, and the newer constructivist methods, appear as limited in scope if not entirely missing the point. Knowledge building, as elaborated in this chapter, represents an attempt to refashion education in a fundamental way, so that it becomes a coherent effort to initiate students into a knowledge creating culture. Accordingly, it involves students not only

Knowledge Building: Theory, Pedagogy, and Technology

CSILE, which stands for Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments, is an educational knowledge media system. CSILE allows information in several media (text, drawings, graphs, timelines, etc.) to be entered into a common database where it is available to be retrieved, linked, commented on, rated, and so forth. The environments and operations of CSILE are designed to support students in more purposeful and mature, or intentional, processing of information. In this article eleven principles, based on recent cognitive research, are suggested for designing computer environments that support intentional learning. These principles include making knowledge-construction activities overt, maintaining attention to learning goals as opposed to other goals of an activity, providing process-relevant feedback, and giving students responsibility for contributing to each other's learning. Applications of these principles in CSILE are described, as well as observations from the first year of school try-out.

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Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments

The popularization of microcomputers makes available computer control of experiments at a price under $1,000. The Commodore PET is used as an illustration of the capabilities and problems an experimenter faces in instrumenting simple experiments with this equipment. Hardware interfacing is simple and the programming is done in BASIC. A sample experiment on instrumental conditioning is used as an example.

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Using personal computers for experimental control

The design and use of CPUs on a single inexpensive circuit are discussed. Necessary additional equipment is noted, and the potential for using the microcomputer in the laboratory is explored.

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Microcomputers for experimental psychology

PSYCHOL, a computer language for controlling psychological experiments, has been described in detail elsewhere in this journal (McLean, 1969). The reader is referred to that article for a more complete description of the features of the language. This paper presents a PSYCHOL program to control the Sternberg (1966) experiment, to allow the reader to compare PSYCHOL with the other languages discussed at the symposium.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03200172.pdf

A PSYCHOL example

As computers become more prevalent as laboratory equipment, psychologists and graduate assistants will be more likely to be involved with interfacing the experiment to the computer. This paper presents some general ideas about the design and construction of digital computer interfaces and ways to facilitate their check-out and integration into the computer system. The suggestions center around the identification of functional modules within the interface or device from the beginning of the design process. These modules are preserved in the design and construction and are tested separately where possible. Specification of the interface signals between these functional units speeds debugging of a new device and facilitates maintenance of the device at a later date if adequately documented. It is important to ensure that these signals are readily available through test points and/or indicators. The paper suggests minimal equipment necessary to construct and debug an interface. It is suggested that an interactive construction procedure may be the most successful. The device is constructed in stages, with each part being verified as it is built, A simple interface is suggested for the beginner which gives him practice and a useful debugging aid as well.

/pdf/hardware-debugging-for-on-line-psychologists-4ueov2uidm.pdf

Robert S. McLean

Papers

Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments

Using personal computers for experimental control

Microcomputers for experimental psychology

A PSYCHOL example

Hardware debugging for on-line psychologists