Microworld
Definition
- In educational technology and instructional design, a microworld implements a constructivist instructional design model that let's the learner "play" within an artificial or real (e.g. a Sandbox) environment and learn by building things.
- * Rieber (: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 donw 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. >>
- Alternative names according to Rieber (: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 microworls 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
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 [[constructionism | 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.
Examples
- LOGO and variants like Lego-LOGO, Starlogo
References
Rieber, L. P. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Educational Technology Research & Development, 44(2), 43-58. http://it.coe.uga.edu/~lrieber/play.html