On Tuesday we dealt with interface issues that might be considered "generic"; i.e. questions of legibility and the readability of text confront confront software designers regardless of the content area of their projects and (almost) regardless of their audience.

Today, we turn to the (more difficult) questions concerning how the interface is related to the content of the project, and how the structural features of an interface might support, enhance, or exemplify (like a poem about poetry) aspects of the content or pedagogy.

We begin with the first storyboard presentation (by the VGES group), and during the presentation everyone should prepare a page of comments to be given to the presenters at the end of the class today (this in addition to questions raised after the presentation).

Spoehr and Spoehr (1994) ("Learning to Think Historically")

Our guest today is Kathy Spoehr, Professor of Cognitive Science and Dean of the Faculty at Brown.

• Emmanuel's questions and comments.

• Why hypermedia? The history of hypertext and hypermedia systems at Brown, and the "link" as an example of a structural feature that is also a metaphor for pedagogical aims (particularly in areas of the Humanities).

• Interdisciplinarity, the link, and knowledge domains
• Professor Gee's recent comment about the role of artists in arts education.
• Are domain borders/boundaries durable and desirable?
• How does the claim about knowledge domains relate to Cuban's discussion of the effects of tradition and standards on possible futures for technology in education?
• Two notions captured by the authors' idea of "historical thinking": 1) the scope and organization of material within a discipline (hypermedia nicely conveys the transfinite sense of historical research and deliberation); 2) the role and rules for justification of judgment (as opposed to "calculation"?) in a discipline.

McGilly's introduction to Classroom Lessons (1994)

• What can cognitive learning theory tell us about the nature of "learning for understanding" and how to create and/or use technology to promote it?

• How are contemporary cognitive science claims (e.g. concerning the capacity of "working memory") justified, and how do contemporary cognitive learning theories differ from behaviorist theories in the early and middle decades of this century?

For Next Week

• Read the article by Judah Schwartz for Tuesday, and the article by Instone, Teasley and Leventhal for Thursday. Recommended strongly, but not required, are chapters 11 and 12 from Gardner.
• We'll continue storyboards, with the Classical and Museum groups presenting on Tuesday.