Here are some questions to consider for class on 3/2/99.

Regarding "How Impoverished is Existing Education Software for Microcompute rs?"

1. Educational software hasn't quite been as effective as experts predicted, due to hardware limitations and software issues stemming from the lack of interaction between educators and developers as well as differences in the typical educational model (one teacher to many students) to the computer-based model (one computer to one or a few students). What are some possible ways to approach these shortcomings? Is the fact that existing educational software is lacking due to hardware limitations (and what schools can afford), little communication between teachers and software developers, or the different educational models involved?

Regarding "Designing Screens for Learning"

2. And now for something completely different! In designing any sort of educational text, a host of issues must be taken into consideration. The designers must worry about issues ranging from the grade level approachability of the textbook to the text layout to the chapter organization. Creating a usable piece of educational software makes this task exponentially more difficult, because the application must also interact with the user in order to actually teach them something of value. Creating an computerized version of a text (a la Encarta) is simply not enough -- the interactivity must be seamlessly woven into the piece of software for it have much added value. Given that a simple textbook won't work, what is a good paradigm for a piece of educational software? And how can we determine whether or not a student is actually learning from a program? Do students really learn substantive, useful knowledge using Schank and Cleary-style software?

So yeah, ponder. I hope question #2 isn't too far off base or rambling.

fully,

-ben