Learning Needs

 

Research-Theories (back)

James Greeno, Allan Collins, and Lauren Resnick

  • Outline research and theories stating
    • Learning comes from the environment (situative approach)
      • students' knowledge is distributed throughout the people and environments
      • strengthening engagement will give opportunities to learn and practice
    • Learning comes from better understanding (cognitive approach)
      • very important for student to be self-motivated
      • students should build new knowledge on old knowledge and
      • students should apply their new knowledge to specific instances

       

Barbara Rogoff "Planes"

Barbara Rogoff's notion of Planes emphasizes 3 learner perspectives to be aware of when designing learning solutions.

1. The Individual - The person using the tool
2. The Other - The person the user is interacting with.
3. Socio-Cultural - The Socio-Cultural context within which the product is being used.

 

Kozma 91'- "Learning with Media"

Kozma argues for the idea that media has an influence on learning. He suggests that using various form of media as a component of instructional design can have significant impacts on cognition. Some learners can benefit from the display of text information in association with pictures and/or sound. "Various aspects of the learning process are influenced by the cognitively relevant characteristics of media: their technologies, symbol systems, and processing capabilities. …Some learners use these to build rich representations of situations…." (Kozma 91') Jason seeks to leverage the capabilities of a media rich environment to enhance the learning experience and connect students to the real world activities of scientists.

 

Lepper and Malone "Instrinsic Motivation"

Lepper and Malone argue that computer based educational activities can significantly enhance the motivation of children to learn. In particular qualities such as curiosity, control, challenge and fantasy can increase motivation and positively impact instructional effectiveness. "…. The educational value of an activity can be increased by the use of motivational devices that involve the simultaneous presentation of material across multiple modalities.(e.g. graphics and text or audio and visual channels"

 

Bellamy - Influenced by Vygotsgy

Perhaps the most significant between the Jason project and educational theory are to be found in Bellamy. Strongly influenced by Vygotsky, Bellamy argues that "educational technology should support collaboration between communities of learners, construction of artifacts, and authentic activities." (Bellamy 96')

 

Langer and Brown - "Mindful Learning"

Designers of educational curriculum should keep in mind three principles:

1. Uncertainty is powerful and can lead to creativity
2. Failure is not final and can be constructive

3. Flexibility is important and multiple perspectives should be considered