From the Publisher:
Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book provides an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. Special features: emphasizes cost-effective methods that will help developers improve their user interfaces immediately, shows you how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects, provides step-by-step information about which methods to use at various stages during the development life cycle, and offers information on the unique issues relating to informational usability. You do not need to have previous knowledge of usability to implement the methods provided, yet all of the latest research is covered.

Usability Engineering

Preparing the books to read every day is enjoyable for many people. However, there are still many people who also don't like reading. This is a problem. But, when you can support others to start reading, it will be better. One of the books that can be recommended for new readers is experience and education. This book is not kind of difficult book to read. It can be read and understand by the new readers.

Experience and Education.

Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

How we Think

It is said that there’s nothing so practical as good theory. It may also be said that there’s nothing so theoretically interesting as good practice 1 . This is particularly true of efforts to relate constructivism as a theory of learning to the practice of instruction. Our goal in this paper is to provide a clear link between the theoretical principles of constructivism, the practice of instructional design, and the practice of teaching. We will begin with a basic characterization of constructivism identifying what we believe to be the central principles in learning and understanding. We will then identify and elaborate on eight instructional principles for the design of a constructivist learning environment. Finally, we will examine what we consider to be one of the best exemplars of a constructivist learning environment -- Problem Based Learning as described by Barrows (1985, 1986, 1992).

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Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework

Constructivism! The increase in frequency with which this word appears in the discourse of educational research, theory, and policy is truly remarkable. Unfortunately much of the discussion is at the level of slogan and cliche even bromide. "Students should construct their own knowledge" is being reverentially chanted throughout the halls of many a school/college/department of education these days, and any approach that is other than constructivist is characterized as promoting passive, rote, and sterile learning. For example, consider Rogoff's (1994) description of what she calls the adult-run model of how learning occurs:

Constructivism: Implications for the Design and Delivery of Instruction

Contents: Part I:Introduction. T.M. Duffy, D.H. Jonassen, Constructivism: New Implications for Instructional Technology. Part II:Constructivist Perspectives. A.K. Bednar, D. Cunningham, T.M. Duffy, J.D. Perry, Theory into Practice: How Do We Link? D.J. Cunningham, Assessing Constructions and Constructing Assessments: A Dialogue. D.N. Perkins, Technology Meets Constructivism: Do They Make a Marriage? R.J. Spiro, P.J. Feltovich, M.J. Jacobson, R.L. Coulson, Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-structured Domains. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University, Technology and the Design of Generative Learning Environments. Part III:Instructional Technology Perspectives. W. Dick, An Instructional Designer's View of Constructivism. M.D. Merrill, Constructivism and Instructional Design. Part IV:Clarifying the Relationship. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University, Some Thoughts About Constructivism and Instructional Design. R.J. Spiro, P.L. Feltovich, M.J. Jacobson, R.L. Coulson, Knowledge Representation, Content Specification, and the Development of Skill in Situation Specific Knowledge Assembly: Some Constructivist Issues as They Relate to Cognitive Flexibility Theory and Hypertext. T.M. Duffy, A.K. Bednar, Attempting to Come to Grips with Alternative Perspectives. D.H. Jonassen, Evaluating Constructivistic Learning. C.M. Reigeluth, Reflections on the Implications of Constructivism for Educational Technology. D.J. Cunningham, In Defense of Extremism. D.N. Perkins, What Constructivism Demands of the Learner. Part V:Reflections on the Conversation. C. Fosnot, Constructing Constructivism. W. Winn, The Assumptions of Constructivism and Instructional Design. B.S. Allen, Constructive Criticisms. S. Tobias, An Eclectic Examination of Some Issues in the Constructivist-ISD Controversy.

Constructivism and the Technology of Instruction : A Conversation

This book focuses on constructivist pedagogy and the implications of that pedagogy for the principles and strategies of instructional design and for the use of technology in instruction. A constructivist pedagogy emphasizes the "situatedness" of learning. There is always a reason for learning; learning is a tool for accomplishing something else. Our understanding of a concept is based on the context in which it is experienced. Most importantly, that context involves the larger framework orpurpose for engaging in a task. In the first half of this book the authors describe constructivist learning environments and the particular theoretical framework in which they are embedded. The second half of the book focuses on instructional design principles to bederived from constructivism, the implications for the practice of instructional design, including principles for design, and the practical issues of implementing constructivist learning environments.

Designing Environments for Constructive Learning

Apprenticeship is one of the earliest forms of learning by doing, where a student learns a task, such as weaving, masonry, or even thinking under the tutelage of an expert. Skill and knowledge development in apprenticeship can cross several disciplines, but is always set in the context of the authentic activity of solving the larger task at hand. A skill like masonry, therefore, may require knowledge of some aspects of geology, geometry, basic mathematics, structural engineering, etc. Similarly, the development of logical thought by Plato’s students was always set in the context of the larger philosophical debate and in developing rhetorical skills. Thus the larger task, the construction task, provides an organizing and unifying role and a purpose for learning.

Thomas M. Duffy

Papers

Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework

Constructivism: Implications for the Design and Delivery of Instruction

Constructivism and the Technology of Instruction : A Conversation

Designing Environments for Constructive Learning

Constructivism and the Design of Learning Environments: Context and Authentic Activities for Learning