Designing Learning Technology

Wed, 30 Apr 2003

Tinkerplots: Dynamic Plotting and Data Analysis
Tinkerplots is a NSF-sponsored project to create a K-12 software construction set of basic operations that allow students to build their own plots to analyze data. In some respects, Tinkerplots reminds me of TableTop, which used a similar approach to dynamically rearrange data items based on learner actions. Both tools support a more inquiry-driven approach to investigation, compared to standard Excel- or AppleWorks- style graphing and charting tools.

@13.52 #

NetLogo 1.2 Released
In slightly older news, the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling at Northwestern has released NetLogo 1.2. The update includes "a faster engine, improved support for Mac OS X, more models, alpha support for HubNet using networked laptop and desktop clients, and other enhancements."

@13.52 #

Mon, 28 Apr 2003

TAPPED IN moves to Version 2
The TAPPED IN project, a great real-time resource for teacher professional development, has begun to transition its user base to its next-generation system called TI2. Old TAPPED IN accounts are not automatically converted, so you need to go to TI2 and sign up.

@13.47 #

Upcoming Colloquium: Mapping Knowledge Domains
The National Academy of Sciences is hosting a Sackler colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains. The focus is on the growing research, resources, and techniques for exploring and mapping electronic knowledge bases. The colloquium runs from May 9 to 11, 2003, in Irvine, California.

@13.46 #

Comment on California's Education Master Plan
California has invested significant time and effort drawing up an education master plan, and is hosting an online dialogue, from May 19 to 23, to discuss the plan. Since the plan is extremely far-reaching, aiming to impact K-16 education for the next two decades, state education stakeholders are strongly encouraged to participate.

@13.46 #

Forest Management Simulation Software
The SimForest project has developed a simulation-based software prototype and associated curriculum materials to support inquiry learning in biology and ecology classes for grades 7-12 and college level. Students can plant trees from a pool of over 30 regional species, set environmental parameters such as rain fall, temperature, and soil conditions, and watch the forest plot grow and evolve over many years. The project has developed both a "black box" model and a "glass box" model, where students may inspect and modify the underlying simulation engine.

@13.46 #

Sun, 20 Apr 2003

A change of blogging tools
It took a while, but I've finished migrating Designing Learning Technology from Userland Radio to Blosxom. The migration should be seamless, in spite of the current rough appearance of this page. I've tried to follow good web practice and not break existing links. To that end, the main URL for DLT is the same. The old RSS feed is aliased to the new RSS feed, so existing syndication links (so precious to us bottom-feeders) don't break. Finally, I've left the old Radio archive online, so any links into the old posts still work. Of course, the old posts have also been imported into Blosxom, so you can get to them via the new weblog as well.

So why Blosxom? What's wrong with Radio? The problem I had with Radio is that the obstacles to posting were too high, given my work style. I didn't run Radio all the time, because it stole a significant amount of cycles on my iBook. That meant that, when I wanted to post, I'd have to launch it, wait for it to open a browser window, enter my post, and then wait for it to upload my post to this server.

That's a lot of steps, took time, and meant sending our logon to this host server via plain text, since Radio uploads via ftp. For people who can use Radio as their weblog server, Radio works great. But the combination of time-to-post and ftp security issues eventually got to be too much.

Now, with Blosxom, all I have to do when I want to post is edit a new text file. I almost always have some kind of text editor up and running, so there's virtually no obstacle to posting. I still have to upload that text file to the weblog server, but that's a task I can batch once a day or so, and I can use secure FTP to make the connection.

There are aspects of Radio I'm sure I'll miss, like the automatic ping to weblogs.com when I post, but overall, I think this change will mean that I post more. Hopefully that's a good thing...

@02.57 #

Fri, 04 Apr 2003

Radio post #176
Posting has dropped off as I deal with a work crunch and explore a weblog transition from Radio to Blosxom.

@21.01 #