Remote exploratoriums: Combining network media and design environments

Abstract

Abstract-In an educational context, World Wide Web clients such as NCSA Mosaic ® are of limited value because they put learners in the role of information absorbers. Drawing on a museum analogy, learners using Mosaic can be perceived, similar to museum visitors, as passive observers of exhibits. Despite the richness of exhibits in terms of the amount of information as well as the use of multimedia, activity is restricted to navigation through real (museum) or hyper (Mosaic) spaces. More effective learning would include constructive activities that are more engaging than just browsing information spaces. Distance education could be improved by augmenting network media with design environments to create remote exploratoriums that encourage highly interactive, engaged learning experiences. In contrast to classical museums, exploratoriums, such as the one in San Francisco and several children's museums, feature handson learning exhibits that are not only observed but can be actively manipulated. The Agentsheets Remote Exploratorium is a mechanism to facilitate the easy exchange and distribution of interactive educational exhibits through the Internet. Agentsheets is a programming substrate to create design environments. In this paper, we discuss the implications of combining a network medium and a design environment in order to support distance education.

Computers in the Classroom: Moving from Tool to Medium

“…In our previous work on the Remote Explorium (Ambach, Perrone, & Repenning, 1995) we supported designers of Agentsheets applications by allowing the exchange of entire Agentsheets applications via the Web. Our experience with the Remote Explorium indicated that there was a need to exchange not only whole simulations, but application components of a finer grain, including individual agents.…”

“…At the Center for LifeLong Learning and Design, our use of technology in education has focused on blending constructionist systems, in the form of interactive simulations, with the support of network media, such as the WWW (Ambach, Perrone, & Repenning, 1995; Fischer, 1994; Fischer, 1995). Constructionism, based on the constructivist ideas of Piaget that stress that knowledge is constructed from a child's experiences in the world, proposes that people best construct new knowledge when they are engaged in personally meaningful tasks (Papert, 1993).…”

“…These mechanisms will allow the models developed in WebQuest, the Sustainable Neighborhood Game, and others to be used for sharing and collaboration over the WWW. We will explain the development and evolution of the Remote Explorium (Ambach, Perrone, & Repenning, 1995) into the Behavior Exchange (Repenning & Ambach, 1996), and the vision of Java‐based MicroAgentsheets, all created to turn the World Wide Web into a more interactive, constructionist medium for learning and collaboration.…”

Domain-Oriented Design Environments: Knowledge-Based Systems for the Real World

“…During the evolutionary growth phase, the environment developers are not present, thus making end-user modification a necessity rather than a luxury (at least for small-scale evolutionary changes). We have addressed this challenge with end-user modifiability [Eisenberg, Fischer 1994;Fischer, Girgensohn 1990], and end-user programming [Ambach, Perrone, Repenning 1995;Nardi 1993].…”

Tactile programming: a unified manipulation paradigm supporting program comprehension, composition and sharing

“…The Visual AgenTalk Behavior Exchange extends our initial system, called the Remote Explorium [24], by adding different levels of sharing granularity. Using the same tactile manipulation paradigm end users can share entire Agentsheets simulations, individual agents, rules and commands (Figure 4 3 ).…”