What approach to educational assessment and evaluation is Papert advocating in the above quote and in his other writings? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this stance. How would Roy Pea and Derek Walker critique Papert's views on assessment and evaluation?

2.       Several of the education and educational technology projects that you've learned about have their roots in theories of cognition. For example, CSILE was developed based on Scardamalia and Bereiter's previous work on reading; Learning by Design (Kolodner) and Goal-Based Scenarios (Schank) both have their roots in Case-Based Reasoning. Based on what the cognitive model was telling them, the principals of these projects designed software and/or learning activities that engage students in learning in ways the cognitive model suggests. Choose one of these projects or any other one you are familiar with that has roots in cognitive theory, and explain the theory or model of cognition it is rooted in; the cognitive model's or theory's implications for education and/or learning; and how designers used those implications in their design of software and/or classroom practice.

3.       Scaffolding and ZPD are deeply related concepts in the work of Vygotsky. But in most work on software-realized scaffolding, only the former concept is mentioned, and never the latter. But the notion of ZPD is critical: That students can achieve so-far without support, can achieve farther with the support, the difference is the Zone of Proximal Development, and it differs from student-to-student depending on their internal development.

Pick two systems that you studied that seem to implement scaffolding, and answer the following questions for each:

- What is the scaffolding that is provided?

- What is that students can do with the scaffolding that they might not be able to perform with out it?

- Design an evaluation for each system. How would you demonstrate that the software was a successful scaffold in terms of each students' ZPD?

4.       Barbara Rogoff writes that "The idea of a community of learners is based on the premise that learning occurs as people participate in shared endeavors with others, with all playing active but often assymetrical roles in sociocultural activity. This contrasts with models of learning that are based on one-sided notions of learning--either that it occurs through transmission of knowledge from experts or acquisition of knowledge by novices, with the learner or the others (respectively) in a passive role."

a. From the educational technology projects you've studied, pick one that you would describe as adult-centered, one that you would describe as child-centered, and one that strikes more of a balance between these approaches. Justify each answer--what makes the project child-centered, adult-centered, or more balanced?

b. For the child-centered and adult-centered projects you picked, how might you modify the project to fit more with Rogoff's community-of-learners model? (If you feel this is not possible, explain why.)

5.       Students have real problems learning to program. One study reported that almost 50% of the Sophomore CS majors tested at an Ivy League school were unable to write a simple program to compute the average of a set of positive integers. Yet, in the papers you studied, some students DID learn to program. Consider MOOSE Crossing, Emile, ISDP, and Agentsheets as four potential examples of getting students to program successfully.

- First, did students program successfully in these three studies? Define your criterion for success.

- In each study in which you found that students were successful, what is it that led to this success?

- Describe a system that incorporates all the best features of each of these studies. Would such a composite environment lead to successful student programming?

6.       Allan Collins and others have been pushing a model for education that they call Cognitive Apprenticeship.

a. Explain what cognitive apprenticeship is and what its roots are, focusing on Collins' intentions in defining the approach. What was he trying to achieve? What was he trying to counter?

b. Several different attempts have been made to implement cognitive apprenticeship, both with and without the computer. They often look very different from each other. Indeed, both the inventors of KIE (Knowledge Integration Environment, Marcia Linn's group, Berkeley (with Mildred the Cow)) and of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) would tell you that their approaches have roots in cognitive apprenticeship. Explain how it is possible to claim that both KIE and PBL implement kinds of cognitive apprenticeship.

7.       Compare and contrast project-based and problem-based learning.

- Clearly there is a common set of core theory and assumptions. What are these?

- However, they are not exactly the same. How do they differ?

- Envision a small 2x2 matrix, where the column headings are project-based and no project-based, and the row headings are problem-based and no problem-based. For each cell, describe an education setting where you predict students would be most successful (a) with neither problem nor project-based learning, (b) with just one or the other, and (c) if it is possible, with both problem-based and project-based learning.

8.       Mr. Smith, a freshman English instructor at a community college, is scheduled to teach _Moby Dick_ to his freshmen English students in the fall. Over the summer, he hires a graduate student to create a model of the Pequod (the whaling ship featured in the story) in a MUD. He plans to have his students connect to the MUD to increase their appreciation of the book.

a. Critique this approach. What is wrong with Mr. Smith's design?

b. Propose an alternative design, and justify your design decisions.