Pearls of Wisdom : technology for intentional reflection and learning in constructionist cooperatives

At the core of the constructionist learning paradigm is the idea that people learn through design experiences. However, in most settings, learners rarely revisit their work to reflect on design and learning processes. The practice of reflection is not integrated into regular community practice. That omission results in lost opportunities for deeper learning because reflection plays an important role in knowledge integration. In order to leverage the benefits of constructionist learning, learners must go beyond the activities of construction and reflect on their learning. This involves examining and gaining a deeper understanding of the how and why of their design process, including learning strategies. The conceptual framework of this dissertation, Cooperative Constructionism, establishes a design approach to reflection with a set of tools and methods that support reflection on learning. A Constructionist Cooperative is a community of learners where articulating and sharing of learning experiences is a regular practice. A goal of this dissertation is to explore the computational tools and practices that promote and support such activities. Using these tools, learners construct intentional-reflective artifacts, which embody their reflection on their design and learning experiences.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Chapman, Robbin Nicole, 1958-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mitchel Resnick.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38300

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38300