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Designing tabletop activities for inquiry-based learning: lessons from phylogenetics, neuroscience and logistics

Published: 11 November 2012 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the lessons learnt from designing learning environments for science education. More specifically, I describe four projects I designed and (or) evaluated: Walden, a multi-touch multi-displays for informal science education; the Tinker Table, a Tangible User Interface for students in logistics; Phylo-Genie, a learning scenario for collaborative learning of phylogenetics; and finally BrainExplorer, a pen-based tabletop environment that enables direct interaction with a small-scale brain. I summarize my findings by defining 3 ways in which technology can enhance knowledge building for inquiry-based learning: via a "Representational Effect", by providing rich interaction techniques and by preparing for future learning.

References

[1]
Schneider, B., Strait, M., Muller, L., Elfenbein, S., Shaer, O., Shen, C. (2012). Phylo-Genie: Engaging Students in Collaborative 'Tree- Thinking' through Tabletop Techniques. In Proc. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'12),ACM Press.
[2]
Schneider, B., Tobiasz, M., Willis, C. & Shen, C. (accepted). WALDEN: Multi-Surface Multi-Touch Simulation of Climate Change and Species Loss in Thoreau's Woods. ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces, ITS '12. Boston, MA, USA: ACM.
[3]
Schneider B., Wallace J., Pea, R. & Blickstein P. (under review). Preparing for Future Learning with a Tangible User Interface: the Case of Neuroscience. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.
[4]
Schneider, B., Jermann, P., Zufferey, G., & Dillenbourg, P. (2011). Benefits of a Tangible Interface for Collaborative Learning and Interaction. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 4(3), 222--232.
[5]
Dillenbourg, P., & Evans, M. (2011). Interactive tabletops in education. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning.
[6]
de Jong, T. (2006). COMPUTER SIMULATIONS: Technological Advances in Inquiry Learning. Science, 312, 532--533.
[7]
Ishii, H., & Ullmer, B. (1997). Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, CHI '97 (pp. 234--241). New York, NY, USA: ACM.
[8]
Meissner, C. A., Brigham, J. C., & Kelley, C. M. (2001). The influence of retrieval processes in verbal overshadowing. Memory & Cognition, 29, 176--186.
[9]
Paivio, A. (1990). Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. Oxford University Press.
[10]
Schwartz, D. L., & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A Time For Telling. Cognition and Instruction, 16, 475--5223.
[11]
Stein, B. S., & Bransford, J. D. (1979). Constraints on effective elaboration: Effects of precision and subject generation. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18(6), 769--777.
[12]
Zhang, J., & Norman, D. A. (January). Representations in distributed cognitive tasks. Cognitive Science, 18(1), 87--122.

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  1. Designing tabletop activities for inquiry-based learning: lessons from phylogenetics, neuroscience and logistics

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ITS '12: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM international conference on Interactive tabletops and surfaces
    November 2012
    430 pages
    ISBN:9781450312097
    DOI:10.1145/2396636
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Published: 11 November 2012

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    1. collaborative learning
    2. tabletops

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    ITS'12: Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces
    November 11 - 14, 2012
    Massachusetts, Cambridge, USA

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    ITS '12 Paper Acceptance Rate 24 of 63 submissions, 38%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 119 of 418 submissions, 28%

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