Description of Project

The project spanned an entire school year, from September 1997 to June 1998. There were three stages: familiarization, applet assessment, and student design. The first and second phases established the context for the participatory design aspect of the project.

The goal of the third phase was to identify the degree to which students could adopt the design methodology required by the technology. Would it be possible for the students themselves to create their own learning resources? In order to explore this possibility, a low-tech design tool dubbed simCHET⁷ was used. Based on the visual programming environment of Java Studio⁸, it offers a facsimile environment based on paper, string and markers that supports group learning and interaction, hands-on construction and heuristic component design. Three 2 hour simCHET trials were undertaken within a period of one month.

  

Figure 1: The Java Studio construction interface