STUDING EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING PROJECTS 19751995

1
STUDING EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING PROJECTS(1975-1995
)

• Mary E. Hopper, Ph.D.
• Technology in Education
• Lesley University

2
Context, Personal Background

• Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
  Kids try to teach a computer to do their homework
  (BUT find process requires more work learning
  ) Exemplifies my view of Education ??
  Computing
• Honeywell TSS System in High School 1976-1980
  
• Paper Tape, Teletype, Phone Hook-up for
  Interactive Networked System of 11 High Schools,
  Assignments from BASIC to debugging PLATO
  StarTrek program. Collection1 Box

3
Official Project Description in Paper

• Long-term project evolved from a qualitative
  research study in the early 1990s to point of
  transition where it is today.
• Goal remains the sameImprove the viability of
  educational computing projects by identifying
  effective and sustainable strategies.
• Historically, this is a relatively common goal.
  (Taylor, 1980 McClintock, 1986 OTA, 1988).

4
Further Background

• Ph.D. Program at Purdue University, Indiana
• Illinois is next door to U. of Illinois
  geographically.
• Started inheriting more original documentation
  and lore from Bitzers PLATO system from my
  program faculty.
• Doctoral Advisor, Robert Lawler, worked on Logo
  and had extensive resources he caught on I
  collected.
• He pitched into waste baskets, I retrieved and
  saved.
• Also many other projects in U.S. mid-west like
  MECC. Collection5 Boxes

5
Unofficial Motivation for First Study

• Time to choose subject for dissertation
• I said, why not study the projects I have
  already started collecting some material about?
• He said, No, document what you learned on the
  project you have been working on and then go to
  document successful projects at MIT Brown.

6
Purdue University, Freshman Engineering
Educational Research and Information Systems,
Founded Directed by Bill LeBold, IEEE
Fellow(Mentor with Tri-appointment in 3 Schools,
EE/Psy./Ed.)

• ESCAPE Engineering Specific Career-exploration
  and Problem-solving Environment
• NSF Funded, 5000 screens info. system.
• Ported HyperCard? HyperNews/Suns, 1989-90

7
Official Motivation for First Study

• By 1990 it was clear to both of us that
  educational computing projects would soon be
  using that very quickly emerging distributed
  computing paradigm.
• Experience on a project in a distributed
  computing environment in 1989-1990 led to my
  strong belief that new projects would encounter
  problems that were a function of distributed
  computing that would threaten their success.

8
Samples of Tomorrow from Yesterday

• Decided to explore how problems of previous
  educational computing initiatives became
  intertwined with new problems that were a
  function of distributed computing (Hopper, 1993).
  
• Studied experimental educational projects using
  distributed computing environments that dated
  back to the 1970s and could be analyzed with
  hindsight by their participants by 1990s.

9
Methods of Formal Study in Paper

• Initial study took place between 1990-1993.
• In-depth interviews extensive documentation.
• (Essentially qualitative/ethnographic
  approach.)
• Historical case studies that captured
  participant's recollections, insights and hind
  sights about the development of the educational
  projects in the earliest distributed computing
  environments.

10
Pursued Multiple Perspectives

• Academic Computing System Officials/Developers
• Educational Software Project Directors
• Educational Software Project Mangers
• Educational Software Project Developers
• Students/Users

11
Brown University Institute for Research and
Information Scholarship (IRIS)

• Context32 (Intermedia ? StorySpace ? WWW)
• Participants Paul Kahn, Nicole Yankelovich,
  George Landow (Later contact with vanDam/Nelson)
• Emphatic about key of systems design for ed.
  apps, no line between user and designer ? strong
  usability.
• AUX 1.1, Project being ended as I arrived in
  1993.
• Landows grad student porting files to
  StorySpace.

12
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Athena and
Academic Computing Aero/Astro Engineering

• Athena Project, Created X-Windows Kerberos
• Funding of Ed. Projects Let 1000 Flowers Bloom
• TODOR (Athena, BLOX) / Mechanics 2.01 (cT)
• Participants Gregory Jackson, Naomi Schmidt,
  Janet Daly, Anne Lavin, Larry Bucciarelli

13
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for
Educational Computing Initiatives Civil
Engineering Department

• AthenaMuse, Multimedia Extensions to X-Windows,
  not propagated by X Consortium as was planned,
  included advanced multimedia authoring system.
  Interestingly, CERN was partner in 1980s, humm
• Physical Geology Tutor (Athena, AthenaMuse)
• Participants Steve Lerman, Ben Davis, Evelyn
  Schlusselberg, Pat Kinnicutt

14
Technology Critical in Data Collection Analysis
15
Resulted in Model Based on Analysis of
Relationships
16
Incredibly Brief Results

• Projects were characterized by simultaneous
  attention to a consistent set of key factors
  across educational, technical organizational
  contexts.
• Organizational issues more critical than
  expected!
• Continuous change and expansion of underlying
  system caused the need for change to survive.
• End of delivery or modification caused projects
  to very quickly fall from unused to unusable.

17
Results (Continued)

• To insure that the projects in distributed
  computing environments were used, updated and
  expanded, authors needed to find ways to
  continually acquire critical resource.
• Major factor in success was degree to which
  projects directors found ways to address new
  technical challenges within constraints of
  traditional academic organizational structures.

18
Discussion

• This study produced valuable advice about how to
  implement educational projects in distributed
  computing environments.
• Not surprisingly, advice was also applicable to
  educational computing projects that began to
  exploit the World Wide Web as it emerged.
• Much more detail in paper and even more online!
  
• Collection50 Boxes

19
Further Information

• Mary Hopper, Ph.D., Professor, Lesley U.,
  2003-Now
• Web http//www.theworld.com/mehopper
• Email mhopper_at_mail.lesley.edu