SOFTWARE DESIGN for LEARNING

An Annotated and Chronological Overview

 

Collaboration
A number of studies investigated alternative collaborative models such as flexible and optional collaborative interactions (Kafai & Harel, 1991b), consulting activities (Kafai & Harel, 1991a), on-line discussions (Evard, 1996b, 1998), and apprenticeship models (Ching, 2000). Harel (1991) studied also different forms of collaborative idea generation.

Gender
Prevalent gender differences in students' software designs (Kafai, 1996a) or the absence thereof (Kafai, 1998) have been another focus. In addition, Evard (1996a, 1998) examined different participation and conversation interactions in electronic discussions and Ching, Kafai, and Marshall (2000) looked at differential access to computational resources in mixed-gender software design teams.

Games
Software design activities for learning have studied the design of different artifacts such as instructional software (Harel, 1991), games (Kafai, 1995), and science simulations (Kafai, Ching, & Marshall, 1998). Games design activities have been examined as a form of play (Kafai, 1998c), as classroom activities (Kafai, 1997a and b), and as improved instructional design for learning mathematics (Kafai et al., 1998).

Planning
The complexity of the software design activities has offered great opportunities to study children's planning in context. Kafai (1996b) examined student designers different planning approaches, whereas Marshall focused on collaborative project management (2000).

Software Design
One of the initial premises of software design for learning has been to promote a different approach to programming instruction in schools (Harel, 1991; Harel and Papert, 1990). We have also studied students in different aspects of the software design enterprise such as consultants (Kafai & Harel, 1991a) and as evaluators, testers and designers (Kafai, 1998a).

Science
In science education, studies have focused on the learning of astronomy (Kafai, Ching, & Marshall, 1998), ocean life (Kafai, 1998a), and neuroscience (Kafai & Ching, in review).

Mathematics
In mathematics education, the learning of fractions (Harel, 1990, 1991; Kafai, 1995, 1997a and b) has been the central focus of investigations. Kafai et al., (1998) compared the fraction game design of teachers and students.

 

BOOK PUBLICATIONS

Harel, I. (1991). Children designers. Norwood: Ablex.

Harel, I. & Papert, S. (1991) (Eds.), Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Kafai, Y. B. (1995). Minds in play: Computer game design as a context for children's learning. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kafai, Y. B. & Resnick, M. (1996) (Eds.), Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking, and learning in a digital world. Mawhaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

Harel, I. (1990). Children as software Designers: A Constructionist Approach for Learning Mathematics. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 9(1), 3-93.


Harel, I., & Papert, S. (1990). Software design as a learning environment. Interactive Learning Environment, 1(1), 1­32.


Kafai, Y. B., & Harel, I. (1991a). Children's learning through consulting: When mathematical ideas, programming knowledge, instructional design, and playful discourse are intertwined. In I. Harel & S. Papert (Eds.), Constructionism (pp. 85­110). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.


Kafai, Y. B., & Harel, I. (1991b). Learning through design and teaching: Exploring social and collaborative aspects of Constructionism. In I. Harel & S. Papert (Eds.), Constructionism (pp. 111­140). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.


Kafai, Y. B. (1996a). Gender differences in children's constructions of video games. In Patricia M. Greenfield & Rodney R. Cocking (Eds.), Interacting with video (pp. 39­66). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Also in Yasmin B. Kafai and Mitchel Resnick (1996) (Eds.), Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking, and learning in a digital world (pp. 97­111). Mawhaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


Kafai, Y. B. (1996b). Learning through making games: Children's development of design strategies in the creation of a computational artifact. In Y. Kafai & M. Resnick (Eds.), Constructionism in Practice (pp. 71­96). Mawhaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


Kafai, Y. B. (1997a). Learning through artifacts: Communities of practice in classrooms. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Society, 10, 89-100.


Kafai, Y. B. (1997b). Designing software for learning Logo. Computers in Schools, 14(1/2), 71-82.


Kafai, Y. B. (1998a). Children as software users, designers and evaluators. In A. Druin (Ed.), The design of children's interactive technologies (pp. 123­145). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman Publishers.


Kafai, Y. B. (1998b). Video game designs by children: Consistency and variability of gender differences. In J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (pp. 90­114). Boston, MA: MIT Press. Also in M. Kinder (Ed.) (2000), Kids' media culture (pp.293­316). Durham: Duke University Press.


Kafai, Y. B. (1998c). Play and technology: Revised realities and potential perspectives. In D. P. Fromberg, & D. Bergen, (Eds.), Play from birth to twelve: Contexts, perspectives, and meanings (pp. 93­99). New York: Garland Publishing.


Kafai, Y. B., Franke, M., Ching, C. C., & Shih, J. (1998). Games as interactive learning environments fostering teachers' and students' mathematical thinking. International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 3(2), 149-193.


Kafai, Y. B., Ching, C. C., & Marshall, S. (1998). Children as designers of educational multimedia software. Computers & Education, 29(2/3), 117-126.


Kafai, Y. B. & Sutton, S. (1999). Elementary students' home computer and Internet use: Current trends and issues. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 21(3), 345-362.


Kafai, Y. B., & Ching, C. C. (accepted with revisions). Talking science/Talking design: Learning through design as a context for children's scientific discourse. The Journal of the Learning Sciences.


Evard, M. (1996a). "So Please Stop, Thank You": Girls Online. In Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Weise (Eds.), Wired Women: Gender and Social Reality in Cyberspace (pp. 188-204). Seattle: Seal Press. Also in: Evard, M. (1996b). A Community of Designers: Learning through Exchanging Questions and Answers. In Y. Kafai and M. Resnick (Eds.), Constructionism in Practice: Rethinking the Roles of Technology in Learning (pp. 223-240). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


Ching, C. C., Kafai, Y. B., & Marshall, S. (2000). Spaces for change: Gender and technology access in collaborative software design projects. Journal for Science Education and Technology 9(1), 45­56. Also in N. Yelland & A. Rubin (in press). Ghosts in the machine: Women study women and technology. New York: Peter Land Publishers.

 

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS


Harel, I. (1988). Software design for learning: Children's construction of meaning for fractions and Logo programming. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA.


Kafai, Y. B. (1993). Minds in Play: Computer Game Design as a Context for Children's Learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA.


Evard, M. (1998). Twenty Heads Are Better Than One: Communities of Children as Virtual Experts. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA.


Marshall, S. (2000). Planning in Context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Los Angles, CA.


Ching, C. C. (2000). Apprenticeship, Learning and Technology: Children as Oldtimers and Newcomers in the Culture of Learning through Design. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Los Angles, CA.

 


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