Gerhard Fischer and Hal Eden: “Design, Learning, and Collaboration” — Spring Semester 2006
Independent Research Guidelines
Swiki Location: Independent Research
1 Objectives
1. opportunity to engage in self-directed learning in the context of an independent research exploration
1.1. this work is more conceptual than the course project and it is intended to complement the experience of the course project
1.2. it can be related to the course project, but it does not have to be!
2. please form three teams (each approximately with the same number of participants) focused respectively on: design, learning, collaboration. These are broad topics and you should define a focus for your investigation by finding and defining more specific topics in your area of investigation. Possible themes for more specific research topics are:
2.1. social creativity
2.2. meta-design
2.3. end-user development
2.4. distributed intelligence
2.5. ……………………………….
3. some suggestions:
3.1. for your information gathering process use materials from the course, books, articles, opinion pieces, the WWW,
3.2. interview people (e.g., faculty members, PhD students, friends, colleagues at work, ..) about their insights and perspectives
4. interaction between teams: the different teams should interact with each other and see how their findings and work processes can profit from each other
2 Some Suggested References
the references below can help you to get you started — but you can also use as starting points some of the papers that we have discussed in class! You should not limit yourselves to these resources.
2.1 Design
ß Norman, D. A. (1993) Things That Make Us Smart, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA.
ß National-Research-Council (2003) Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
2.2 Learning
ß Bruner, J. (1996) The Culture of Education, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
ß Gardner, H. (1991) The Unschooled Mind, Basic Books, New York.
2.3 Collaboration
ß Bennis, W. & Biederman, P. W. (1997) Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA.
ß Salomon, G. (Ed.) (1993) Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
2.4 Design/Learning/Collaboration
ß Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (2000) The Social Life of Information, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
ß Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class and How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Basic Books, New York, NY.
remark from Gerhard: if groups what to take a look at these books: I have them and you can borrow them for some time
3 Assessment
1. your contribution to this major aspect of the course will be assessed as follows:
1.1. your work material submitted, including
1.1.1. your “mastering” of the theme chosen by you
1.1.2. your originality (i.e., just copying phrases from different sources will not do)
1.2. your presentation in class
2. your work will be evaluated as a team effort — so hopefully all team members will act as “good contributors” to the collaborative effort!
4 Timetable
due date – posting in the Swiki objective remarks
2/15 articulate your interest; discuss collaboration find other students with whom you want to work and who would like to work with you
2/22 one page statement name and describe:
ß the members of your group
ß the topic category (“first come – first serve”): design, learning, or collaboration
ß the more focused area of research within your topic
ß indicate a strategy how you will conduct your research activities
3/8 first 1-3 page progress report describe the progress you have made (your information gathering phase should be completed)
any modifications to the original plan
plan for things remaining to be done
3/22 second 1-3 page progress report and discussion in class refine and extend the documents/ideas/work of the first progress report
4/17 3-5 page final report; post everything in the Swiki communicate your research in writing to the other students and instructors
copies of your presentation materials (e.g., slides)
April 17 and 19 class presentation; each team will have 2/3 of class session (ie approx 45 minutes) design a presentation providing the foundation for a class discussion
use your creativity to make this something other than just a straightforward lecture-style presentation of your paper followed by discussion
discuss how your findings relate to some of the other topics discussed in the class