Microworld

This article is in a large part a synthesis of Rieber 1996

Definitions

• Microworlds are central to some forms of exploratory learning

• In educational technology and instructional design, a microworld implements a constructivist instructional design model that lets the learner "play" within an artificial or real (e.g. a Sandbox) environment and learn by building things.

• Rieber (1996:583) defines microworlds as collection of software, that “is based on very different principles, those of invention, play, and discovery. Instead of seeking to give students knowledge passed down from one generation to the next as effeciently as possible, the aime is to give students the resources to build and refine their own knowledge in personal and meaningful ways.”

• Clements (1989:86) cited by Rieber (1996:587): “A microworld is a small playground of the mind” (p. 86).

• Alternative names according to Rieber (1996:583) are: computational media (diSessa, 1989), interactive simulations (White, 1992), participatory simulations (Wilensky & Stroup, 2002), and computer-based manipulatives (Horwitz & Christie, 2002)

• We agree with Rieber (1996) that microworlds are not the same as simulations: “However, microworlds have two important characteristics that may not be present in a simulation. First, a microworld presents the learner with the "simplest case" of the domain, even though the learner would usually be given the means to reshape the microworld to explore increasingly more sophisticated and complex ideas. Second, a microworld must match the learner's cognitive and affective state. Learners immediately know what to do with a microworld - little or no training is necessary to begin using it (imagine first "training" a child how to use a sandbox).”" (Rieber, 1996)

• “A Microworld is a term coined at the MIT Media Lab Learning and Common Sense Group . It means, literally, a tiny world inside which a student can explore alternatives, test hypotheses, and discover facts that are true about that world. It differs from a simulation in that the student is encouraged to think about it as a "real" world, and not simply as a simulation of another world (for example, the one in which we physically move about in).”" quoted from Microworlds

Computer-based microworlds offer the means to allow a much greater number of people, starting at a much younger age, to understand highly significant and applicable concepts and principles underlying all complex systems. Two scientific principles deserve special mention: the vast array of rate of change problems common to all dynamic systems (Ogborn, 1999; Roschelle, Kaput, & Stroup, 2000) and decentralized systems, such as economics, ecosystems, ant colonies, and traffic jams (to name just a few), which operate on the basis of local objects or elements following relatively simple rules as they interact, rather than being based on a centralized leader or plan (Resnick, 1991, 1999).

History

In 1980 Paper published his book "Mindstorms" and that made popular concepts developped around the programming language Logo whose design was influenced by a particular constructionist vision of education. Logo included "turtle geometry", a drawing pen in the form of a turtle that children could move and draw around on the screen or the floor. The turtle is an "object to think with", i.e. a cognitive tool. Since Logo many other environments in the same spirit have been built. E.g. MIT Lego-Logo that adds a more physical dimension in the spirit of augmented reality.

Papert (1980) gave a first formal definition of a microworld as a:“...subset of reality or a constructed reality whose structure matches that of a given cognitive mechanism so as to provide an environment where the latter can operate effectively. The concept leads to the project of inventing microworlds so structured as to allow a human learner to exercise particular powerful ideas or intellectual skills.”(p. 204)

For Papert, a microworld is based to a large degree on the way in which an individual is able to use a technological tool for the kinds of thinking and cognitive exploration that would not be possible without the technology.

But Papert knew that a learner need support structures: “...The use of the microworlds provides a model of a learning theory in which active learning consists of exploration by the learner of a microworld sufficiently bounded and transparent for constructive exploration and yet sufficiently rich for significant discovery.”(p. 208)

While it demonstrates the importance Papert placed on exploration and discovery learning, it also shows the need for a teacher or a microworld designer to identify boundaries for learning. Papert has maybe underestimated the difficulty of designing such boundaries, especially identifying where the boundaries lie for a particular child in a particular domain, but he certainly recognized the need for guidance, both in the microworld itself and in the teacher’s assistance to a child using it. As Papert (1980) writes,“...The construction of a network of microworlds provides a vision of education planning that is in important respects “opposite” to the concept of “curriculum.” This does not mean that no teaching is necessary or that there are no “behavioral objectives.” But the relationship of the teacher to learner is very different: the teacher introduces the learner to the microworld in which discoveries will be made, rather than to the discovery itself.”(p. 209)

Mindstorms contained several fundamental ideas that continue to thrive in the vocabulary and thinking of current constructivist conceptions of learning. Among the most profound is the idea of an object to think with, the Logo turtle, of course, being a prime example. Thus, the turtle becomes a way for the child to grapple with mathematical ideas usually considered too difficult or abstract. A prime role served by the turtle is the way it “concretizes” abstract ideas.

Another important microworld idea is that of debugging. Unlike conventional education, where errors are to be avoided at all costs, errors in problem-solving tasks such as programming are unavoidable and therefore expected. Errors actually become a rich source of information, without which a correct solution could not be found. The use of an external artifact, such as a computational microworld, as an object to think with to extend our intellectual capabilities, coupled with a learning strategy of expecting and using errors made as a route to successful problem solving, is an integral part of all contemporary learning theories (Norman, 1993; Salomon, Perkins, & Globerson, 1991).

So, the concept of a microworld became firmly established as a place for people of all ages to explore in personally satisfying ways complex ideas from domains usually considered intellectually inaccessible to them. These same ideas continue to be championed today, as the following contemporary definition of a microworld by Andy diSessa (2000) shows:

A microworld is a genre of computational document aimed at embedding important ideas in a formthat students can readily explore. The best microworlds have an easy-to-understand set of operations that students can use to engage tasks of value to them, and in doing so, they come to understanding powerful underlying principles. You might come to understand ecology, for example, by building your own little creatures that compete with and are dependent on each other. (p. 47)

General characteristics of microworlds

All exploratory learning approaches are based on the following 4 principles:

1. Learners can and should take control of their own learning;
2. Knowledge is rich and multidimensional;
3. Learners approach the learning task in very diverse ways; and
4. It is possible for learning to feel natural and uncoaxed, that is, it does not have to be forced or contrived.

For Edwards (1995), a microworld would consist of:

• A set of computational objects that model the mathematical or physical properties of the microworld’s domain
• Links to multiple representations of the underlying properties of the model
• The ability to combine objects or operations in complexways, similar to the idea of combining words and sentences in a language
• A set of activities or challenges that are inherent or preprogrammed in the microworld; the student is challenged to solve problems, reach a goal, etc.

While such structural affordances are important, the true tests of a microworld are functional—whether it provides a legitimate and appropriate doorway to a domain for a person in a way that captures the person’s interest and curiosity (Edwards, 1995). In other words, for an interactive learning environment to be considered a microworld, a person must “get it” almost immediately—understand a simple aspect of the domain very quickly with the microworld—and then want to explore the domain further with the microworld (Rieber, 1996b).

A functional view is based on the dynamic relationship among the software, the student, and the setting. Whether or not the software can be considered a microworld depends on this interrelationship when the software is actually used. Students are expected to be able to manipulate the objects and features of the microworld “with the purpose of inducing or discovering their properties and the functioning of the system as a whole” (Edwards, 1995, p. 144). Students are also expected to be able to interpret the feedback generated by the software based on their actions and modify the microworld to achieve their goal (i.e., debugging). And students are expected to “use the objects and operations in the microworld either to create new entities or to solve specific problems or challenges (or both)” (Edwards, 1995, p. 144).

Therefore, a microworld must be defined at the interface between an individual user in a social context and a software tool possessing the following five functional attributes:

• It is domain specific;
• it provides a doorway to the domain for the user by offering a simple example of the domain that is immediately understandable by the user;
• it leads to activity that can be intrinsically motivating to the user—the user wants to participate and persist at the task for some time;
• it leads to immersive activity best characterized bywords such as play, inquiry, and invention; and
• it is situated in a constructivist philosophy of learning.

The fifth and final attribute demands that successful learning with a microworld assumes a conducive classroom environment with a very able teacher serving a dual role: teacher-asfacilitator and teacher-as-learner. The teacher’s role is critical in supporting and challenging student learning while at the same time modeling the learning process with the microworld.

In summary, while both structures and functions of a microworld are important, a functional orientation is closer to the constructivist ideals of understanding interactions with technology from the learner’s point of view. This means that the same software program may be a microworld for one person and not another. Microworlds can be classified as a type of cognitive tool in that they extend our limited cognitive abilities, similar to the way in which a physical tool, like a hammer or saw, extends our limited physical abilities (Jonassen,1996; Salomon et al., 1991). However, microworlds are domain specific and carry curricular assumptions and pedagogical recommendations for how the domain, such as mathematics or physics, ought to be taught.

Theorical basis for learning in a microworld

Representations aid problem solving in 3 ways:

1. the right representation reduces the cognitive load and allows students to use their precious working memory for higher-order tasks.
2. representations clarify the problem space for students, such as by organizing the problem and the search path.
3. a good representation reveals immediate implications.

Microworlds offer the means of maximizing all 3 benefits of representations, when used in the context of an appropriate science teaching pedagogy, such as one based on the scientific method of hypothesis generating and hypothesis testing. For example, in the ThinkerTools microworld, students directly interact with a dynamic object while having the discrete forces they impart on the object horizontally or vertically displayed on a simple, yet effective datacross. Students can also manipulate various parameters in the microworld, such as gravity and friction. ThinkerTools ably creates a problem space in which numeric, qualitative, and visual representations consistently work together.

Furthermore, Perkins and Unger (1994) suggest that microworlds afford the integration of structuremapping frameworks based on analogies and metaphors. Similarly, a microworld can be designed so as to provide a representation that purposefully directs a student to focus on the most salient relationships of the phenomena being studied. Of course, such benefits do not come without certain costs or risks. For example, if the users do not correctly understand the mapping structure of the analogy, then the benefits will be lost and the students may potentially form misconceptions. Just providing a microworld to students, without the pedagogical underpinnings, should not be expected to lead to learning. The role of the teacher and the resulting classroom practice is crucial here. Microworlds rely on a culture of learning in which students are expected to inquire, test, and justify their understanding. “Students needs to be actively engaged in the construction and assessment of their understandings by working thoughtfully in challenging and reflective problem contexts” (p. 27). As Perkins and Unger (1994) point out, microworld designers have to articulate adequately the components and relationships among components of the domain to be learned. Next they have to construct an illustrative world exemplifying that targeted domain. Finally, the illustrativeworld should provide natural or familiar referents that, when placed in correspondence with one another and mapped to the target domain, yield a better understanding of the domain. (p. 30)

Constructionism: microworld research evolves

Constructionism is strongly rooted in student-generated projects. Projects offer a way critically to relate motivation and thinking and can be defined as “relatively long-term, problemfocused, and meaningful units of instruction that integrate concepts from a number of disciplines or fields of study” (Blumenfeld et al., 1991, p. 370). Projects have 2 essential components: a driving question or problem and activities that result in one or more artifacts (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Artifacts are “sharable and critiquable externalizations of students’ cognitive work in classrooms” and “proceed through intermediate phases and are continuously subject to revision and improvement” (Blumenfeld et al., 1991, pp. 370–371).

It is important that the driving question not be overly constrained by the teacher. Instead, students need much room to create and use their own approaches to designing and developing the project. Projects, as external artifacts, are public representations of the students’ solution. The artifacts, developed over time, reflect their understanding of the problem over time aswell. In contrast, traditional school tasks, such asworksheets, have no driving question and, thus, no authentic purpose to motivate the student to draw or rally the difficult cognitive processes necessary for complex problem- solving.

In an early constructionnism research, Harel and Papert (1991) strongly suggest that what made a difference was not Logo or any particular group of strategies but, rather, that a “total learning environment” (p. 70) was created that permitted a culture of design work to flourish. They particularly point to the affective influences of this environment. These students developed a different “relationship with fractions” (p. 71), that is, they came to like fractions and saw the relevancy of this mathematics to their everyday lives. Many reported “seeing fractions everywhere.” Harel and Papert resist any tendency to report the success as being “caused” by Logo. Instead, “learning how to program and using Logo enabled these students to become more involved in thinking about fractions knowledge” (p. 73). They point to Logo’s allowing such constructions about fractions to take place.

But, successful project-based learning is not a panacea. Success is based on many critical assumptions or characteristics and failure in any one can thwart the experience. Examples include an appreciation of the complex interrelationship between learning and motivation, an emphasis on student-driven questions or problems, and the commitment of the teacher and his/her willingness to organize the classroom to allow the complexities of project-based learning to occur and be supported (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Fortunately, the recent and continuing development of rich technological tools directly support both teachers and students in the creation and sharing of artifacts.

Students must be sufficiently motivated over a long period to gain the benefits of project-based learning: Among the factors that contribute to this motivation are “whether students find the project to be interesting and valuable, whether they perceive that they have the competence to engage in and complete the project, and whether they focus on learning rather than on outcomes and grades” (Blumenfeld et al. 1991, p. 375).

The teacher’s role is critical in all this:

• create opportunities for project-based learning,
• support and guide student learning through scaffolding and modeling,
• encourage and help students manage learning and metacognitive processes,
• help students assess their own learning and provide feedback.

Whether teachers will be able to meet these demands depends in large part on

• their own understanding of the content embedded in projects,
• their ability to teach and recognition of student difficulty in learning the content (i.e., pedagogical awarenesses),
• their willingness to assume a constructivist culture in their classrooms.

Examples of microworlds

Many microworlds have become available since 1980:

• Beguile (Reiser et al.)
• Logo and variants like Lego-LOGO, Starlogo
• Boxer (diSessa, Abelson, & Ploger, 1991),
• ThinkerTools (White, 1993),
• SimCalc (Roschelle et al., 2000),
• GenScope (Horwitz & Christie, 2000),
• WISE
• LEGO Mindstorms
• ToonTalk
• Squeak-based systems
• Model-IT (Jackson, Stratford, Krajcik, & Soloway, 1996; Spitulnik, Krajcik, & Soloway, 1999),
• StarLogo (Resnick, 1991, 1999),
• Geometer’s Sketchpad (Olive, 1998),
• Function Machine (Feurzeig, 1999),
• Stella (Forrester, 1989; Richmond & Peterson, 1996).

References

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