Educational quotients : Robert F. Kennedy Middle School

Educational Quotients:

Robert F. Kennedy Middle School

by

Paul Hyun Kim

Bachelor of Science University of the Arts, June 1993

Submitted to the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of

Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2002

© 2002 Paul H. Kim All rights reserved.

The author hereby grants MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.

Author

-in

Certified by

\Paul Hyun Kim, Department of Architecture January 11, 2002

Peter Testa Associate Professor of Architecture Massachusetts Institute of Technology

y MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

3U

4

2002

LIBRARIES

ROTCH

Educational Quotients:

Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School

by

Paul Hyun Kim

Submitted to the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of

Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

When architects talk of 'smart buildings' they are usually referring to the same old ones with the addition of simple prosthetics such as light sensors and small electric motors. Their smartness is invariably limited to the smartness of the trickster. I have sought to develop a strategy which traces a line between the ideal and the pragmatic; it points towards an alternative morphology where the result is not necessarily a discrete zoning of functions, nor prescription of form, but would allow for and support a flexible, dynamic organization that is responsive to the fluctuating energies of technology in space.

The complex is motivated by the need to install into the American landscape new attitudes towards study, leisure, and nature. It provides to both the student and the community with spaces that are optimized for disseminating information; these shifting interior landscapes act as parallel horizons, allowing flexible walls, spaces, and rooms to be formed and transformed by different media, as well as the space's intended function. The architectural possibility is achieved by the use of gantries, ramps, and an open plan, all structured through activities that are not restricted

by past programmatic conventions.

Thesis Supervisor: Peter Testa

Apple TFT flat panel display ribbon

Digital Streams and Spatial Ecologies

When architects talk of 'smart buildings' they are usually referring to the same old ones with the addition of simple prosthetics such as light sensors and small electric motors. Their. smartness is invariably limited to the smartness of the trickster. I have sought to develop a strategy which traces a line between the ideal and the pragmatic; it points towards an alternative morphology where the result is not necessarily a discrete zoning of functions, nor prescription of form, but would allow for and support a flexible, dynamic organization that is responsive to the fluctuating energies of technology in space.

Beoing Jch n M a ikov i c : 1 999. USA Fi mS

This pressing need to add, renovate or replace educational facilities presents an opportunity for citizens, educators and facilities planners to take a broader view of what constitutes an effective, appropriate learning environment. This is a case when a problem can truly be our friend. However, in order to realize the greatest effect of this opportunity on student achievement, those who design and build educational facilities must take into account current research about factors that can influence student achievement.

For example, the research suggests that a wide variety of classroom configurations are required to facilitate current best practices in education such as collaborative problem solving, the use of technology and the critical need for personalization. The research on learning calls for dissolving some of the traditional barriers between school and life and school and community. Finally, studies make it clear that students achieve best in environments where lifelong learning is a community value, where everyone is a learner, and where the school facility is central to the life and learning of the community, accessible not only during traditional school hours but at night and on weekends too.

Education and its exemplification in buildings and environments has always been concerned with radical ideas set in new and stimulating settings. It had to be radical, because it was a system of mass education, constantly

reinventing itself to provide more and more educational places of an ever-improving quality.

The roots of an architecture for mass education can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century, represented by Arts and Crafts movement board schools. In Europe a similar, albeit more Monastic, route can be seen going back even earlier. The original Church-based models which comprised children surrounding, and by definition subservient to, a master, gave shape to today's private and grammar schools. Other educational milieu such as the domestic home, the institutional workhorse, or even the prison, helped to provide the pattern for state schools during their early development.

Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck said "The house is a tiny city and the city is a big house". Herman Hertzberger carried the theme further saying that schools are cities where the city center is like a Student Center, homes like classrooms, streets hallways and parks as common areas. Increasingly, the school cultures will become interdisciplinary, team planned, and systematically implemented.

UNDERLYING GOALS

1. Identify the current shortcomings of the education system/curriculum

2. Speculate on how technology coupled with architecture can create a better learning environment

3. Propose an alternative morphology that allows for a flexible, dynamic organization that is responsive to the fluctuating energies of young children

4. Install a space that establishes new attitudes toward learning, leisure and community.

DESIGN GOALS

1. Emphasize the integration of spaces that are shared by the

2. Introduce flexible walls, spaces, and partitions to be formed and transformed by different media and programs

3. Structure the space/programmatic elements through activities which are not restricted by past conventions

4. Establish an architectural platform that provides a rich setting for learning and multiple levels of freedom to explore new ideas, feelings, beliefs, etc.

5. Allow for and allocate proper infrastructure space for new technologies

THE SITE

The Robert F. Kennedy Middle School is located in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in between both industrial and commercial zones.

Harvard Square

Robert F. Kennedy Elenentary Sehool

MiT.

The statistics of the Robert F. Kennedy Middle School are as follows: 264 children.

340' x 185' plot of land, total 77,000 sq ft=290 ft2/child.

Briggs field to the south, used by the community and the school.

Robert F. Kennedy School

Cambridge, Massachusetts Total Stadents; Existng SqLaefootage: fwsludent Raeafitielty: AfricarnAmedcan Asan Hispanic aveAmeria Viflie 251 90000 320 10.2% 34% 44,7% 4% 32A% Technology: shadentsiumputer

site

larger GIS view of Cambridge (dark grey:residential, It grey commercial)

I

Reduction, Reprogramming, and Redistribution:

The complex is motivated by the need to install into the American landscape new attitudes towards study, leisure, and nature. It provides to both the student and the community with spaces that are optimized for disseminating information; these shifting interior landscapes act as parallel horizons, allowing flexible walls, spaces, and rooms to be formed and transformed by different media, as well as the space's intended function. The architectural possibility is achieved by the use of gantries, ramps, and an open plan, all structured through activities that are not restricted by past programmatic conventions.

nguagPe 1620

l

~euredory ops1 mr eme2 00

A I ce6,000

G Ai~~ristainu i onon

o Hi 5y10,000

52,700 FT2

60,000 ft2ma

reduce reprogramme redistibute

nf1astructur. '2% ifrastuctu. 78% ntaructur 17% dnrasruct. 38% infrasructur: 18%

Z~~] ~ ws

While it is true that exploration and evaluation are prerequisite to formation of knowledge, it is equally true that knowledge formation depends also on the qualities of the context of the exploration and the kinds of the reference structures against which learners can make their evaluative judgments. In other words, exploration of the Internet-based materials or peer-discussions per se do not create conditions for a form of learning where

learners have a right to a point of view and where this view has a status.

Time 1s Is 10 se X is 40 61 208 3 4s Activity Ach~y Indoor space Outdoor Special coassroom Gymnasiumi AV irnensity

Degrees School Vode

(personsl

activity) Each levet(year)

Class teams Classes Groups IndMuals

A meaningful learning (i.e. a learning process which begins with and values the meanings which learners attribute to specific events) must begin with a question which makes sense to the learner and not to the teacher. What must make sense to the teacher, are the final products of that learning, possibly presented in a form of an argument or some project. The power of the learners' argument will therefore not lie in the specific reference systems that they evoke but in the strength of the case that their arguments build for them. Question is, how can we devise the conditions which begins with the learner and which, as a result, give rise to products that are appreciated by others? The question of the "How?" brings together the philosophical (in the broadest sense) aspects education regarding (a)

the structure of the teaching conditions, (b) their management and (c) the forms of appreciation in relation to which assessment criteria are

constructed.

In the case of on-line discussion forums, it has often been a problem that learners did not want to participate in spite of the fact that they were assessed on their participation and its quality. However, if on-line learning is about making room for learning to happen (i.e. it is about creating conditions where no form of knowledge/interaction is given a status of being better), attempts on the part of teachers to watch these discussions, assess learners on the basis of the quantity and quality of their input, seem to beat the very purpose for which on-line discussion forums are created in the first place. The strategies of watching and assessment seem to deny the very virtue of collaboration as fundamentally based in a shared need to

discover, explore, discuss, evaluate and exchange. It seems that if learners do not share or do not feel to collaborate, problems may lie somewhere else than with the learners themselves. It is possible that the problem may lie in the very nature of the conditions in which the activity of exploration might have been placed.

#,~ f

~ ?1W

Furthermore, even if learners do play the game of talking and talking "quality", educational environments cannot be build on the principle that some learners are good and others are bad. What is required is a critical investigation of the very categories, or values, on which we build our assumptions that our environments do indeed encourage thinking, exploration, discussions, exchange, collaboration, and hence learning. Are the places that we create truly that good and our students are simply just rebels? If part of learning is to rebel (be critical) against the world, how do our learning places make this possible? It seems that our learning environments must be built on the principles which makes meaningful

learning possible by facilitating (or encouraging) a true engagement.

For example, maybe learning is less about complying to the requirements of Mathematics and more about making Mathematics comply to the questions and problems that emerge from the struggle between various forms of legitimation i.e. various contexts of knowledge production and reproduction. We may need to reflect on questions like: 'Did Copernicus need Mathematics to create his solar model or did his question about the solar model require various forms of knowledge (incl. Mathematics) in order to make a case for a reality which was different than it was believed

by others?' Furthermore, we may need to remember that there are many

ways in which various problems can be approached and resolved. Copernicus did neither find THE method for describing the solar system nor was he the first one to document that the sun was "stationary" (cf. Sagan).

It follows therefore that our learning models should create conditions flexible enough for all to want to play rather than for those who would play no matter what game would be played. What is therefore required are principles which should have a potential, as the first step, to respond to learners' interests and to further generate more interest in all learners, all the time. Schank et all seem to have written something similar along the same lines:

"Many students may not be interested in the curriculum, but everybody is interested in the parts of the world that they believe

relate to their own existence. This basic self-interest, if it is allowed to flourish intellectually, can lead to a wide variety of discoveries motivated by curiosity based on internal needs.

If we want to allow students to pursue their own interests, we need to provide them with a way to get their questions answered. Many of the teaching architectures are, in fact, specifically designed to bring students to the point that they want to know something. How are we to help them?

One teacher cannot possibly know the answers to all questions a student might develop. The idea that any one teacher knows all there is to know is ludicrous. The one-on-thirty model of learning should be exactly the other way around--thirty teachers to one student. Students should have access to a variety of experts. They should be able to access these experts easily and quickly, and should have the opportunity to compare and contrast the different opinions of the different experts. Learning by Exploring simply means enabling students to pursue their own interests." (Roger

Schank and Chip Cleary)

http://www.is.nwu.edu/~e for e/nodes/NODE-249-pq.html

The same concerns Internet-based explorations. Whose questions direct these explorations? What means are made available to learners to ensure that these explorations will respond truly to learners' (and not teachers') assumptions about the subject matter? Who determines the subject matter and in reference to what legitimation structures? Are these explorations genuine? Do we therefore create genuine "knowers" or just good boys and girls whose only lesson will be that education is a yet another place where truth is more a matter of acting truthfully rather than being true to yourself?

Latitudinal Continuity

/

Longitudinal Simultaneity

Pure information has a split ontological status, or the ability to assume more than one distinct nature. Nicholas Negroponte spoke on this very notion of the undiminishable resources of the information age. Atoms, Negroponte said, are dedicated in nature; they cannot be put to two uses simultaneously. Bits, however, the atomic equivalents in the information age, upon which all digital information is based, are endlessly interchangeable and reusable.

An invisible but pervasive infrastructure is constructed to establish a link to other schools; as a learning environment, the spaces are dedicated to disseminating information; the very notion of 'institutionalization of learning' on the one hand is necessary to establish structure and fundamentals, but

on the other, hinders exploration and discovery at a time when those experiences are most important in ones development.

Following from this then, the four essential ingredients of this learning and teaching architecture are:

* Goal-based learning; * Role-play simulation;

" Online web-based communication and collaboration; and * Lectures and tutorials.

First, goal-based learning is acknowledged as a learning. Typically, goal-based learning comprises a which includes a trigger or a precipitating event. presented as a critical event and usually requires an from students.

strong motivator of scenario or context, This event may be immediate response

The second critical ingredient of this learning architecture is role-play, both in the sense of playing a role, playing with possibilities and alternative worlds, and playing to "have fun". The strategy of learning through playing is significant, not the least because 'having fun' in the process of learning is an extremely useful motivator. More importantly, it gives students a personal stake in the proceedings. A distinction is drawn, sometimes between a "simulation" and a "game". A game will have a sense of

''winning" or "losing". The work described here is a "simulation" in that at the end of the activities, there is no "game to win or lose". Students in this web-based simulation are organized into teams playing particular roles. Students play out their roles within the context of the given crises or situation. In order to play out their roles effectively they need to do research. Data for this research is available via a large number of links on the role-play website but it is also necessary for students to do traditional library research as well as attend lectures and tutorials. The provision of resources by this mechanism serves to simplify the simulation generator software in that no elaborated schema is necessary to classify the resources to provide "resources on-demand".

This simulation is designed to create a safe and authentic environment to situate student learning in the area of political science. It has sufficient

richness in it to reflect the complexity and authenticity of the "real world". The "authenticity" in the simulation is necessary in order to ensure that there is a "personal stake" in the decisions taken in the simulation. However, it is particularly important to recognize that some students could suffer intense psychological stress during the simulation exercise because of the roles they play. Students ought to know that they are able to "escape" from this artificial world and return to the "real world". The simulation generator used for this simulation makes this possible. It provides a clear separation of the simulated from the real world. This is considered to be an important contribution of this simulation generator in comparison with the use of generic email or text-based conferencing

systems. This escape from, and re-entry into the simulated world is an important element for situating learning by providing distinctly different environments for experiential learning and reflective thinking.

The third critical ingredient of this learning architecture is the Web. The Web houses the virtual space for the role-play, enables communication and collaboration among students, and between the students and the lecturers. The Web also enables access to "just-in-time" resources by making available to students' resources (such as up-to-date news from electronic newspapers and web-sites etc.), from all over the world as and when they need them. Without this capability the content of the role-play would be significantly weaker.

structural diagrams/circulation cores

+ 1 6

'.

...

.4- 0'

The fourth critical ingredient is the traditional face-to-face lectures and tutorials. Many experienced on-line educators (Price, 1998; Hedberg &

Harper, 1998; Brown, 1998; Durham, 1998) have emphasized the importance of including face-to-face interaction in teaching with the aid of computer-mediated communication and online teaching. The importance of

incorporation of these techniques into the presentation of facts, cases communicative events that stimulate and strategies pursued by comparing one

the learning architecture is critical to and theories. They also provide reflection about actions undertaken real world events with the simulated

structural diagrams/circulation cores

Miniaturization and

Pervasive

demand

for

Extra-Infrastructure

The driving forces of technology are speed, miniaturization, simultaneity, and invisible control. Sheer pervasiveness of technology and demand for ever new ways to disseminate, display, interact with, and process information consumes the provided spaces for infrastructure, and overflows

into our everyday living and learning environments. Demand for

performance and 'high-yield' data and immersive environments require these large apparatus to be placed outside the borders of these spaces, making more space for infrastructure necessary.

Ideological Control and Curriculum

The driving force in education is primarily concerned with the forces of ideological reproduction and to maintain the status quo. Sameness and diversity are polar concepts that exist in America today. Educational institutions function to distribute ideological values and knowledge; as a larger system of institutions, schools also ultimately help produce the knowledge that is needed to maintain the dominant economic, political, and cultural arrangements in the world. De Tocqueville identified a rhetoric extolling freedom of opinion in the US, but one constructed within very narrow parameters of tolerance, limitations that act to silence many opinions long before they have been uttered.

Another goal of the project is to establish an architectural platform that provides a rich setting for learning and multiple levels of freedom to explore new ideas, feelings, beliefs, etc. The spacescape is networked, highly sensitized, and how the users negotiate and perceive it reflects it's

changeable form. It is a place where discovery and exploration is

flexible, interchangeable, and adaptable, to fit the needs of changing programs. The complex is a generous, sensual learning environment supported by technology for interactive learning.

plan view of the "Kids Room"

Toys for Tomorrow and Playtime

Playtime is among the least understood, and arguably the most essential part of a child's development. The digital revolution will transform the world of toys and play. Old toys will not only become smarter, but new ones will emerge to replace them. All toys will become connected. There will be new ways of playing, designing, learning, communicating, and storytelling. These are all activities that will occur in the new learning space; the environment, not only augmented by networked toys and artifacts, is one that can simulate other places. Desert Dunes, Swamp Mangroves, are other environments that can be transmitted and simulated

Typical Network Node

DEFINITIONS

The first consideration of adaptability and flexibility in educational spaces immediately gives rise to a number of major questions regarding:

1.The kind of educational and other changes which, if and when they occur, will affect school buildings and usage

2.The frequency and magnitude of such changes.

Certain kinds of change may necessitate extension or change to the fabric and services of present systems and activities throughout no only the day but the weeks, months, and years that a school can undergo either rapid change, or slow evolution (and there are innumerable varying degrees in between). The questions become more specific, regarding:

1.The elements or components of the school building which will need to be adaptable to accommodate changes and the possibilities of replacement, removal or additions of services/platforms;

2.The constraints of the replacement, removal or additions of these elements imposed by other elements, for example by stair cores and other circulation devices, which, for all practical purposes, can be considered as non-relocatable-and how such constraints can be minimized;

'Change' can be considered as falling into these two broad categories: high

magnitude/low frequency, and low magnitude/high frequency. The

adaptive aspect of a school should not be an aim in itself; rather the key issue is how different kinds of change can be best provided for with regard to time, effort, etc. Two related but distinct concepts of change emerge and can be expressed as follows:

ADAPTABILITY: the quality of the building which allows for adaptation, which includes relocation, replacement, removal or addition in respect to the spatial requirements, services, or program of the building. In many

instances new technologies arise where high-tech veneers or projectors demand certain specific dimensions to perform effectively.

FLEXIBILITY: The quality of the building which permits variation in the activities, time-tabling, class size, etc, of the school without need for adaptation as defined-essentially low magnitude/high frequency change.

Each concept has architectural, educational, and financial implications which are particular and which require clarification. Arising out of these concepts are further important questions, namely:

1. The elements, components, attributes of school buildings which have an important bearing on the accommodation of educational or other changes, while at the same time not in themselves being adaptable as defined above.

2.The possibilities of permitting greater variation in the activity patterns permitted or facilitated by such elements, components, or attributes

Site and Community: Integration of Spaces for 'multi-use media'

The site for research is located in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the cold-war years of the 1950's and 1960's, while the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union had become a dominant force in popular culture, the site of East Cambridge was to be developed as a major development and testing site for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was then scratched for an environment that didn't undergo as much annual and rapid environmental changes in temperature and local conditions. This then opened up an opportunity to expand the residential and industrial zones existing in Cambridge; residential form the East and the North, industrial from the South along the Charles River Basin.

The existing school site is situated along the edges of a burgeoning residential, commercial, and weakening industrial zone, a mix of borders that is undergoing rapid change. It is important to consider a new school both as a new addition to the existing stock of adjacent buildings and to allow a provisional condition that is sensitive to the potential change of it's environment. As it is as much a community center as it is a school, the building is not in isolation but in relation to the other built facilities surrounding the school.

Every one of Boston/Cambridge's schools has a 'starter network'. A starter network consists of the following items: a computer lab, library, principal's office, and 4-8 classrooms, all connected to a wide-area network. Cambridge happens to be the first major urban school district in the county to have networks and high-speed Internet access throughout every school. Acknowledging that Cambridge leads the way in technology in learning, it should become a model on how other cities and towns might implement and integrate new media into their classrooms.

Time is a o as as 15 40 5 2 Actwity Actvity indoor space Otdoor Special classroom Gymnasium AV irtensity V

Degrees School wide (persons/

activity) Each level(year)

Class tears

Classes

Groups

Indivduals

TIME SCALES: A TWENTY-FOUR HOUR DAY

Usage, Density, and Volume

Above is a diagram representing the typical usage of the school and the daily activities of the students. Following a strict, authoritarian schedule does not allow for the possibilities of permitting greater variation in activity patterns that a student should be able to create on his or her self (with guidance from instructors). 'Essential to the operation of optional courses is consequent on the breaking down of subject barriers. For instance, aspects of science are related to social studies while physical education, dance, drama, and music are related to provide integrated courses in the performing arts'

9 Offer the possibility to connect computers together across the world.

It is important to draw this distinction because the function of communication is not a function of connecting computers together. To allow people to communicate is to reflect upon the different forms that communication can take and to adjust the capacity of computers to the demands of these different forms.

For example, in the case of on-line learning, peer-group discussions exploit a very narrow avenue of communication. While such discussions may form learning support for some learners, the limited scope of such discussions

and the artificiality of the environment which tells learners that now is the time to talk and learn reduce the potential of communication that otherwise

can be exploited through computers and other means.

e Offer the capacity to store and retrieve information at random.

Again, the function of exploration cannot be equated with the function of storage and random access. Like communication, exploration is a complex activity which is determined by the conditions around and within the learner rather than the computer alone. To allow for a genuine exploratory learning it is to inquire about, and make available, conditions which locate the purpose of exploration and its value in learners and the demands that the challenge of critical inquiry pose on them.

e Offer the capacity to organize information in many different ways.

Creativity therefore is not a function of the software made available, or a function of teacher's appreciation of the final product. Creativity needs to be considered in the multiplicity of dimensions that contribute to one's sense of achievement. Thus for a learning environment to offer ways for creative management of information, it is necessary to make it possible for learners to approach problems and the solutions to these problems in ways that do not constrain their methods of analysis and production to a single way of doing things.

The importance of balance of Activities

With fixed numbers in a school, where all students follow the same curriculum and program, the maximum numbers engaged in any activity at one time can be closely estimated (1). However, 'optional' courses are what should be stressed, rather than simply the conventional approach, where students at a very early age are divided according to social and/or intellectual parameters, in clearly differentiated groups. The main broad categories can be seen as follows: classic education, leading to a

university education; scientific education, leading to a technical university;

and professional education, leading to office or factory work.' A wider

concept of the comprehensive school is necessary offering co-existence of a diversity within a certain age range, with the possibility of allowing free movement of students between age groups and between subjects and levels.

Lifelong Learning

Evolution of the nation's information infrastructure makes clear that it presents opportunities and challenges to people of all ages, who must learn how to assimilate new technologies into their lives. Continuous changes technology (and in the mix of activities that make up our lives) imply that people will confront the need to learn new systems or activities at multiple points during their lives, notwithstanding people's changing willingness and ability to learn over time. Making learning a part of life and the implications this has on how, under the influence of new media, human beings will think, create, work, learn, collaborate, and play in the future constitute a major consideration for the design of new learning interfaces; recognition of these concerns contributes to the rise of programmatic support for lifelong learning in a variety of contexts.

The lifelong learning challenge illustrates the need for interfaces and other elements of new technology that transcend today's 'gif-wrapping' approach to education, training, and learning, in which the tradition of rote learning is 'wrapped' in the mantle of new technologies such as multimedia or the World Wide Web (Rubin, 1996; Wasser 1996).

Lifelong learning is grounded in a variety of descriptive and prescriptive goals, such as the following:

1.Learning should take place in the context of authentic, complex problems (because learning is more effective when people understand it's impact) 2.Learning should be embedded in the pursuit of intrinsically rewarding activities. Motivation is an enduring concern.

3.Learning on-demand needs to be supported because change is inevitable, complete coverage of relevant information and knowledge is

impossible, and obsolescence of acquired skills and knowledge is unavoidable.

4.Organizational and collaborative learning must be supported to leverage limited individual human minds and to meet collective organizational needs 5.Skills and processes that support learning as a lifetime habit, that reflect a realistic view of what should be considered basic skills in a society that assumes broader use of information technology, and that transcend the school-to-work transition must be developed.

Kids

Room

High Level Vision group

Interactive Cinema group -MIT Media Laboratory

THE KID'S ROOM

A complete learning environment cannot function in ignorance of the world around. In other words, if a complete learning environment is the goal of education, then the function of that environment must be to facilitate conditions which allow learners to articulate meaningful bridges between the diversity of the challenges that the world generates around them and the specific beliefs that are used in order to maneuver between them. As argued above, it would be expected that a critical learner will build his/her ways of maneuvering on a maximally informed basis. From the educational perspective, the possibility to build such an informed basis requires reflection upon the ways in which learners would be enabled to create rich links between multiple sources of information i.e. links which would be sourced in more than one reference system/framework. An interdisciplinary

learning is an opportunity for learners to approach their beliefs from different points of concern.

/

I

Keystoning

distottion of a ptojected image that usually creates a widertop than bottom, Pre-sbrting images to compensate for irregular surfaces solves the poblem of parallax and perspective

But to promote an interdisciplinary learning puts specific demands on the holders of the disciplinary knowledge. One such a demand is to open up channels for collaboration between the disciplines. It is to open the

disciplines to other languages (or ways of organizing or codifying reality) and to make their boundaries subject to those languages. Another one is to facilitate possibilities for learners to make bridges between the various languages that define the disciplines of today. The general concern behind the task of promoting interdisciplinary learning is for educational institutions to enable learners to examine own and others' beliefs from many directions in order to give themselves the opportunity for a richer perspective on these beliefs. To use a metaphor from neuroscience, the aim is to exploit the (more or less infinite) capacities of the brain to modify its structure at

the level of thought and to take advantage of its capacity to activate a diversity of cellular groups when flooded with less familiar

information/stimuli (cf. Hundert, 1989: 240, 248). Performance Stage

One of the richest most dynamic and interactive spaces is the Performance platform. Here, using the traditional organization and infrastructure of a typical stage theatre, the students immerse themselves into a numerous array of environments, realities and fantasies; all either pleasant, scary, fun, and/or even unusual.

(Similar to Kids Room, developed by Media Lab)

(the goal of the project was to create a perceptually based, interactive, narrative space for educational and entertainment purposes).

The project integrated video, audio, light and imagery to transmit different realities and information. One of the more interesting features of the project was how the space itself helped guide children through a learning process; this technology can also be used to effectively regulate activities safely without being too restrictive.)

Minimum present hardware/infrastructure requirements for multiple users

5 PC's processing action and speech recognition,

2 Macs running video/audio output

1 UNIX to orchestrate timing of events, chronology, general

direction

6 digital video cameras

Rear-projection screens(number depends on the scale of the projection surfaces)

Various arrays of lights, sensors, and speakers

-This hardware demands some specific spatial properties to perform properly

(so one challenge is to allow for a fluid space and to maintain the performative integrity of the spaces and hardware

An interdisciplinary learning therefore does not value obedience to the principle of truth offered by each discipline (as if they were coherent in regard to such a principle) but an obedience to the principle of truth as it emerges from learners' informed inquiries.

One of the central issues facing the American educational system is the role of technology in educational achievement. In President Bill Clinton's "Goals2000" Initiative, he has made it a priority to make every school in the country connected to the Internet.

The Kids Room was an interactive narrative play space for children that would respond to their physical actions in the room (via vision-based perception systems) by showing various animations on two of the rooms walls using rear-screen projectors. Children were led through the activities in the room by a strong story that gave them many hints and a lot of feedback on their own behavior.

Problems with the implementation includes adapting the perceptual and response systems to the number of children in the room, adapting to children's 'behavioral momentum', getting their attention at the appropriate times. There were also many problems with vision-based perception, including lighting (vision requires bright light, but the rear projection screens requires dim lighting), and camera placement to avoid capturing moving images on the rear projection screens and occlusion caused by objects.

Characteristics Desired for Effective Interfaces

In exploring possible directions for developing more effective interfaces, I have identified the following characteristics, each of which is described in

detail along with approaches for achieving these goals. Those

characteristics which should be considered when designing an immersive learning environment should be:

a. Easy to understand

b. Easy to learn

c. Error tolerant

d. Flexible and adaptable

e. Appropriate and effective for the task

f. Powerful and efficient

g. Inexpensive

h. Portable

i. Compatible

j. Intelligent

k. Supportive of social and group interactions

1. Trustworthy, secure, private, safe, and reliable

Importance of community

The development of computer-supported learning environments has coincided with a growing research interest in collaborative learning. Underlying much of the current research in ways to support collaborative learning is Vygotsky's assertion that knowledge is constructed within communities. He proposed a "zone of proximal development," a range of thoughts and activities that are just out of reach of an individual but can be accomplished with guidance from an adult or the assistance of peers (Vygotsky, 1978). [See (Polman, 1997) for an application of this theory.]

Recently, there has been an interest in looking beyond the learner as an individual member of a community and thinking instead about the learner as one component in a larger system. The model 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 asymmetrical roles" (Rogoff, 1994). The introduction by Lave (1991) of communities of practice argued for the definition of communities as coherent learning units. "Activities can be distributed among a group of students, such that distinctions that might be hard for an individual student to maintain can be encoded in the organization. The organization becomes an interpretive frame that provides the basis for a change in understanding" (Newman, 1989). The idea behind distributed cognition is that a community can be the unit of learning and that knowledge can be constructed by the group as a whole rather than just by individuals in a group. Communities themselves can participate in knowledge-building activities in which the whole community is involved in the construction and elaboration of knowledge. Though the popular image in the domain of science is that of a single, brilliant scientist working long hours at his bench until he comes to some epiphany, in fact the practice of science is a good example of a distributed community working to amass information, solve problems, and plan future experiments. Roschelle talks about the importance of social construction of knowledge in scientific domains in terms of learning to practice science.

"Learning to be a scientist is as much a matter of (1) forms of participation in social activity and (2) negotiation of shared meanings, as it is of (3) internalizing scientific representations and operations" (Roschelle, 1996).

Bibliography

Brosterman, N. (1997). Inventing Kindergarten. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Brown, A., & Campione, J. (1990). Interactive learning environments and the teaching of science and mathematics. In M. Gardner, J. Greeno, F. Reif, A. Schoenfeld, A. diSessa, & E. Stage (Eds.), Toward a Scientific Practice of Science Education (pp. 111-140). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Assoc.

Bruckman, A. (1997). MOOSE crossing: Construction, community, and learning in networked

virtual world for kids. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Cambridge, MA.

Confrey, J., & Doerr, H. (1994). Student modelers. Interactive Learning Environments, 4(3),

199-217.

Derry, S., & Lajoie, S. (1993). A middle camp for (un)intelligent instructional computing. In S.

Lajoie & S. Derry (Eds.), Computers as Cognitive Tools (pp. 1-14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Assoc.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.

diSessa, A. (1988). Knowledge in pieces. In G. Forman & P. Pufall (Eds.), Constructivism in the

Computer Age (pp. 49-70). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Assoc.

Edelson, D., O'Neill, K., Gomez, L., & D'Amico, L. (1995). A design for effective support of inquiry and collaboration. In J. Schnase & E. Cunnius (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (pp. 107-111). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum,

Assoc.

Eylon, B., Ronen, M., & Ganiel, U. (1996). Computer simulations as tools for teaching and

learning: Using a simulation environment in optics. Journal of Science Education and Technology,

5(2), 93-110.

Feiner, S., MacIntyre, B., & Seligmann, D. (1993). Knowledge-based augmented reality.

Communications of the ACM, 36(7), 52-62.

Fischer, K. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87(6), 477-531.

Goldman, S. (1996). Mediating microworlds: Collaboration on high school science activities. In T.

Koschmann (Ed.), CSCL: Theory and Practice of an Emerging Paradigm (pp. 45-82). Mahwah,

NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Assoc.

Granott, N. (1998). Unit of analysis in transit: From the individual's knowledge to the ensemble process. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 5(1), 42-66.

Hewitt, J., & Scardamalia, M. (1996). Design principles for the support of distributed processes.

Paper presented at AERA Annual Meeting, New Orleans.

Resnick, M., & Wilensky, U. (1997). Diving into complexity: Developing probabilistic decentralized thinking through role-playing activities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7(2).

Seidner, C. (1975). Teaching with simulations and games. In R. Dukes & C. Seidner (Eds.),

Learning with Simulations and Games (pp. 11-45). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

White, B. (1993). ThinkerTools: Causal models, conceptual change, and science education.

Cognition and Instruction, 10(1), 1-100