Analysis

Scenario One (Current Scenario):

Claims Analysis of Scenario One

Scenario Two (Future Scenario):

Pat checks the group notebook to confirm there is indeed the Java applet designed by the Department of Transportation that has been downloaded and stored into the notebook from a previous session with his own group. The applet is a simulation of a passenger car skidding to a stop at a snowy intersection after the car's brakes have locked. Pat's group has consulted a city planner for the city of Blacksburg, and has used survey maps transferred electronically from the planner to design a simulation of one of the city's busy intersections and hopes to apply the DoT applet to their model. Pat places a videocall to the 2 middle school students and prepares the model on the "workbench" on the desktop while greeting the two younger students. Descriptions of the model, including temperature, slope of the road, amount of snow, and many other variables are displayed in a filter. Pat applies the applet conditions to that of the city intersection and runs the simulation. Much to the middle school students delight, the car skids well past the stop bar and in to the path of the oncoming traffic. "Add more snow!" yells one of the middle school students gleefully, but Pat reminds them they are to monitor the variable conditions presented in the systems filter window and that these variables must be graphed and compared to the rain conditions simulated previously. The older graph is recalled from the shared notebook and the middle school students begin comparing the output while Pat writes a note to himself in his "secure" notebook page to be more careful at this intersection. All of the output as well as graphs from the session and comments from the students involved are stored in the notebook for the rest of the group and community mentors to observe at a later session.

Claims Analysis of Scenario Two

Claims Analyses for Scenario One

• The notebook metaphor is a rich and systematic mapping of an existing artifact.
• Students can collect and store electronic messages and URLs in the notebook which begins to exploit the strength of the medium.
• The notebook is organized by outline form which imposes structure and organization.
• Lines/Sections in the outline can be updated or altered by any member of the group.
• As a text file, the outline can be transmitted electronically

• The notebook is limited to text and does not fully capitalize on electronic storage (ie., graphics, sound and video files).
• This limited functionality of the notebook corresponds to a very minor base specificity implied by adapting the existing paper artifact too strictly to an electronic representation.
• The notebook is a group document and does not contain secure private space for each individual.
• A hyperlinked document could reduce the need for a strict outline as relevant topics could be linked once found rather than ordered through revision.
• By limiting the function of the "virtual class" to the creation of an electronic notebook, existing activities and artifacts are merely recreated in electronic form rather than promoting new activities and artifacts which, in turn, become the new metaphors.

• Providing several shortcut icons with descriptive names increases the directness of the system, because the user can choose his favorite function by directly clicking the icon to launch that application.

• The icons are large and may occupy too much space on the screen which adds unwanted manipulation, such as scrolling.
• Directness is decreased if the users can not see the entire system in a single glance.
• The list of applications is unordered, which increases semantic distance.
• Providing each user with their own personal icon in the task bar may occupy too much space and may make it difficult to find a specific user if the group contains many members.

• Can give students more flexibility on work division according to each one's characteristics and abilities.
• Can support dynamic work division according to real situations.
• Students initiate their own learning in areas of their interest and through collaboration receive motivation from a variety of sources.
• Students may become responsible for their own learning.
• Teacher tasks are more focused on guiding the students.
• Students should be more engaged in the whole learning process, which is required in collaborative learning.

• Students may not quite understand the task and make unjust divisions of labor.
• Students may not know each other quite well or even themselves quite well to make a good division for cooperation;
• The changing role of teachers to facilitators may worry them.
• Some students may have difficulty accommodating to this new teaching style.

• Both the teacher and the students can extend their resources outside of their traditional classroom to include information from the internet.
• A virtual school can overcome some of the limited resources of a school and provide various kinds of electronic simulations to increase learning settings and ;
• Learning situations can occur at different locations and different times; both teachers and students can schedule their time more flexibly.

• Relatively expensive hardware and software are needed.
• The speed of data transferring may be too slow too create a true collaborative environment.
• Students may be distracted by other interesting information irrelevant to the course and lost in extraneous information.
• Learning new or different techniques needs time and training and funding.
• Some basic concepts may not be understood completely without face-to-face explanation and question-answer mechanism.
• Simulation is still different from reality; there are still needs for students to operate on "real world" objects.

• Email can be a convenient and simple way to exchange short information which allows for asynchronous collaboration.
• A single message can easily be transmitted to every student or member of a group so that communication amongst the group is strengthened.

• E-mail is not as efficient for long text, or non-text information, such as sounds, pictures or tables and limits discourse and personal expresssion to text.
• It does not support synchronous communication which may be necessary for collaboration.
• It is not possible to create an environment in e-mail shared by every member of the group.

Claims Analysis of Scenario Two

• The extended "classroom" metaphor includes students from different classes, schools, and grades as well as community members to increase relevance, student interest, and logical application to students' work.
• The extended "classroom" incorporates elements electronically that would have otherwise have been too costly, dangerous, or outright impossible to include in an existing classroom.
• The "workbench" is dramatically extended to include these electronic representations.
• The metaphors of "desk," "workbench," and even "school" may have limited application in this setting. New artifacts for learning may be necessary.

• Electronic elements, such as Java Applets, must be available for use.
• Reliance on current programming limits, such as Java Applets, imposes a need for the acceptance of Applets as a standard for model-building for educational purpose.

• The system relies upon Java Applets which can be rapid, flexible, and provide immediate feedback.
• Applets can be found from a variety of platforms, such as Macintosh, IBM, and Unix machines.

• The system may slow down as an increasing number of students access the same Applets or other files.
• The speed, and thus the degree of direct manipulation, is highly dependent upon the capacity of the network.

• Syntatic attributes are easily mastered as users can directly manipulate graphics and Applets on the canvas of the workbench with "drag and drop" manipulation as well as through importing graphics, images, video and sound clips through simple menu commands.
• The physical relationship between different objects on the workbench directly corresponds to "real world" relationships decreasing the semanitc distance between the model and real artifacts.
• The objects in the system are represented by icons which correspond directly to scientific notation and variable names.
• The "gulf of execution" and "gulf of evaluation" are greatly minimized by the system's simple functionality which allows the user to concentrate on learning goals, rather than manipulation goals.

• The objects of the system may be too simple and the user may have a false sense of accomplishment when transferred to real artifacts.
• Object size is not always proportional to real world situations.
• The student may not understand the semantic architecture at all without modelling by a skilled user, demonstrations by the system, or on-line help.
 

• Photos rather than icons can increase relevance to students.

• The photos may occupy some space in the workspace.
• This "drag and drop" application of photos may have software or hardware limitations.

Teaching aids

• Can provide a communal space, such as a web page, where the teacher can easily post announcements, project requirements, and other relevant information for all students.
• Can provide an asynchronous way of communication with no restrictions on time or location allowing students to access information as they need it.
• Help to transfer the teacher's role to a task setter, a classroom manager, and synthesizer .
• Reduce time spent on course material development and can allow the teacher to use this time for instruction or discussion with students.
• Linking does not take much space in the outline and will not confuse the outline with details. Elaboration, throught the use of following links, will only be utilized on a need basis.
• Demonstrations, through the use of Applets, can be an efficient way of learning.
• Demonstrations, through the use of Applets, can motivate interest in the learning procedure and allow students to view and review simulations as often as necessary depending upon their own interests and needs.

• The form items may be too limited and inflexibile.
• Students may miss information if they are not good at searching for information electronically, because it is different from traditional way of handing out materials, or possibly due to laziness.
• Inappropriate demonstrations with poor interface design may confuse students.

• Provides a medium for group learning; each member can add or modify the notebook's contents.
• Provides a record for group review and teacher evaluation.
• Is not restricted by time as talking and chatting.
• Providing secure sections for each individual encourages individuation in the learning process, adding personal significance to the individual's goals while seeking to master group goals.
• Providing secure sections addresses some differences in individual learning styles and rates.

• If not organized well, the contents will be a mess and can be confusing.
• Due to individual habits of making notes, different styles may be exist in the same space and decrease the quality of information shared.
• Individual storage space may be difficult to implement for great space might be occupied on the server for each individual notebook.
• Individual diversity may discourage full collaboration because at some point individual styles and personalities must compromise to form a group style.

• Can provide a method for immediate online information exchange.
• Can provide a way for solving conflicts and building agreement, which are important in collaboration.
• Response time and quality are much better than video or audio (to date) which can support increased participation amongst the group.
• Can decrease the requirements for necessary hardware and software.

• Both people must be online at the same time;
• Efficiency is also affected by people's writing and typing ability.
• Other forms of communication, such as gestures and vocal tone can not be used which may decrease the quality of communication and cooperation.
• May eliminate participation by people with disabilities.