Evaluating Educational Software I

Introduction: Beyond Cool and Lame

We'll begin Tuesday's session with some processing about Rob Curtis' talk and the presentations last Thursday. We'll then move on to the first of four sessions about interface design.

What is the right language to adopt when we discuss software used in and for education? A focus on teaching might lead us to evaluate software as a kind of lesson, or series of lessons, the objectives, motivations, activities and modes of assessment. A focus on learning might lead us to evaluate programs in the language of cognitive sciences (e.g. stressing information organization, memory, recall and the demonstration of understanding). Finally, a focus on computer science (and specifically software engineering) might lead us to talk about "use cases", "scenarios", and the "goals", "scope", "preconditions" and "end condition" of the program. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Human-Computer Interaction as a field of study is the attempt to figure out a language that captures as many of these interdisciplinary concerns as possible while maintaining a practical design program that would allow a "science" of educational software; i.e. a research community in which hypotheses about teaching and learning could be implemented in programs used in and for education, could be used by teachers and learners, and could thus be evaluated (as hypotheses) as clearly as possible. Jef Raskin's book, while not concerned primarily with education, hints at the possibilities of an adult language for educational technology evaluation, and a research paradigm (or two) for educational software.

Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface I

"As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product." (5)

Here are a few questions we might discuss as we go through the first three chapters on Tuesday:

• What do you consider an example of good design (whether in the realm of computers or not)?
• What is an example of an interface you consider "humane" (by Raskin's definition [6]) and one you do not consider humane in this sense (no need to limit yourself to computer interfaces here)
• What claims in chapter 1 do you think should be revised when learning is the primary goal of a computer program's use?
• What would be an example of a design decision in educational software motivated by Raskin's notion of "cognitive conscious"" by the "cognitive unconscious"?
• How do you reconcile Raskin's claims about the locus of attention with the motivations afforded by multimedia and multi-modal design?
• What is a program interface that you think handles "modes" pretty well?
• What claims in chapter 3 do you think should be revised when learning is the primary goal of a computer program's use?

Raskin's The Humane Interface II

We'll continue our discussion of Raskin's book with Erin's questions. As with our discussion of earlier chapters, we'll want to eventually ask how Raskin's ideas/principles should be modified or revised when we're designing for learning. For example, if we take Dewey's Experience and Education seriously, we might raise the following questions:

• Recalling Dewey's comment about "collateral learning" (EE 48), we might wonder how a computer-based "learning environment" could be designed to facilitate it.
• Recalling Dewey's distinctions between the "progressive" and "traditional" education, we might wonder how we could design educational software in ways that solicit "the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes involved in his studying." (EE 67).
• Recalling Dewey's idea of "educative experience," how can a computer-based experience "lead out into an expanding world of subject matter, a subject-matter of facts or information and of ideas." (EE 87).

Time permitting we'll look at two different designs for Web-based media players, and then Humongous Entertainment's program Big Thinkers!: First Grade.

For Tuesday: Finish Raskin's The Humane Interface