Link Position and Velocity

Character

Dialogue

Teacher:

Now there is something I have been wondering about. Can I show a position graph that is linked to the velocity graph?

Mentor:

Sure... in fact I'm pretty sure that Jeremy has a script to do that and we are in his "open office hours" now.

Teacher:

Who's Jeremy?

Mentor:

Oh, of course you wouldn't know that... he's the designer of MathWorlds, and he works at the University of Massachusetts, San Francisco campus. Let's page him and see if he is in his TAPPED IN office to join us....

(this cues Jeremy to wait a second until after the narrator's comments below)

Narrator:

In the process of tailoring that teachers need to carry out to make technology innovations their own, suited to their tasks, an extended community--a "knowledge network"--can be brought together virtually. This knowledge network includes developers, resource "brokers" like the Math Forum mentor we have on-line, other teachers, and learning researchers who are studying the processes of how better to support teacher learning and tailoring for educational reforms.

We argue that significant benefits derive from extended dialogs in this knowledge network that include the original developers. The primary reason is the mutual benefits achievable through such a situated exchange about learning tools and teaching. What teachers reveal in their efforts to tailor the developer's resources to fit their specific teaching challenges can offer the kinds of feedback needed by the developer to improve on the fit of their tool to real teachers' tasks. This feedback process is underutilized today.

Jeremy:

Hi, David! Who do you have with you today?

Mentor:

I have a teacher here, Al Gore, from Clinton Middle School.

Jeremy:

 Hi Al. Welcome to the Land of Make Believe. Oh, I mean the San Francisco campus of the University of Massachusetts, home of the SimCalc Project.

Mentor:

We were wondering if you have a script for hiding and showing a position graph.

Jeremy:

Well, actually I do. I'll send it to your "in box," and you can just drop it into your toolbar.

Teacher:

I got it
(opens "In Box" and drags script to toolbar).
Look--it works, too!!


 (click the script to hide and show the graph).

Narrator:

The activities we have just seen presuppose a future in which software component architecture such as Java is commonplace, where high quality Internet-based educational objects of all kinds are available over the Web for teachers' use. These ideas are not a fantasy. In pilot work, Roschelle and others recently demonstrated a suite of 22 components that can be mixed and matched for teaching the mathematics of motion (e.g., graphs, tables, notebooks, simulations, Web browsers) from five geographically distributed developers, showing the feasibility of component software development for education.

These objects in the future will encompass both software components--such as graphers, tables, computer algebra systems, simulations, data analyzers, and notebooks--and supporting materials, such as ready-to-use activities, samples of student work, and assessment rubrics. These components may be re-used, integrated and customized. And teachers' experiences with these objects will come to be reflected in the cumulative knowledge shared among later users of these objects.

This future will leverage an emerging convergence of powerful forces: networked communities, component software, and interactive media. Together, they have potential for reshaping the infrastructure for how we do learning technology development. We can provide more rapid cycles of tech innovation and refinement through use. We can capture the value represented in teachers' experiences in tailoring learning resources to their needs.