Children Designers: Interdisciplinary Constructions for Learning and Knowing Mathematics in a Computer-Rich School

by Idit Harel

Overview

In this book, the author presents a new vision of learning through design and production, and describes computer programming as a source of a learning and design power. As means of studying this extended notion of children's programming, the author implemented Instructional Software Design Projects to explore the learning that takes place when students develop complete mathematical software products designed for other students in their school. The results demonstrate that the young designers learned not only about mathematics (fractions) and programming (Logo), but also about design and user interfaces, as well as representational, pedagogical, and communicational issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780893917876
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/01/1991
Series:	Cognition and Computing Series
Pages:	462
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Design for Learning
Why, How, & Where Design for Learning
Debbie's Case
Results from the Comparative Evaulation
Discussion of Conclusions
Children Designers: What was Accomplished

Editorial Reviews

Reports on a project involving fourth grade students who wrote instructional software programs to teach other children about fractions. Students learned not only about programming and fractions, but also about design and user interface as well as representational and pedagogical issues. Paper edition (unseen), $35. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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