Abstract
This chapter introduces an educational software oriented perspective of the Technology Enhanced Learning field, this book’s motivations and objectives, and a first general overview of its content and structure.
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Notes
- 1.
We will use the term development project for projects whose only goal is to produce an outcome (a system, a software component) to be used in effective settings, by contrast to research projects which are projects seeking to produce research advances. As we will argue in Chap. 6, development and research projects are not mutually exclusive.
- 2.
In recent years, the term Computer Science has in some places been supplanted by the term Informatics, a term giving more importance to the human and social aspect of computer systems design, usage and evaluation. However, we will stick to the term Computer Science, which is widely accepted (the term Informatics is subject to different interpretations whose discussion is not a matter of concern in this book). In this book, Computer Science refers to software design and implementation issues, and not to mathematical foundations of computing.
- 3.
A conceptualization is a differential system of notions.
- 4.
To further examine the point that pedagogical principles may be embedded in software or only impact software design see Baker, M. (2000). The roles of models in Artificial Intelligence and Education research: a prospective view. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 11(2), 122–143.
- 5.
A computer-based system is said to be tailorable if it provides its users with integrated support for modifying it in the context of its use. For an analysis of different tailoring techniques see for example: Morch, A. (1997). Three Levels of End-user Tailoring: Customization, Integration, and Extension. In: Kyng, M. & Mathiassen L. (Eds.) Computers and Design in Context (pp 51–76). Cambridge, the MIT Press.
- 6.
When unambiguous, the term teacher will be used in a generic way for teacher, tutor, facilitator, pedagogical engineer, etc.
- 7.
Jones, C., Asensio, M., & Goodyear, P. (2000). Networked learning in higher education: practitioners' perspectives. ALT-J, The Association for Learning Technology Journal, 8(2), 18–28.
- 8.
Object-oriented is an approach to design and implementation of software within which focus is on defining classes (which allow creating objects) and the relationships between these classes (e.g., inheritance). Java is an object-oriented language.
- 9.
de Jong, T. (2006). Computer simulations – Technological advances in inquiry learning. Science, 312, 532–533.
- 10.
The purpose of using theoretical examples is to highlight issues contrasting differences in perspectives while avoiding describing the details of actual systems.
- 11.
Affordances: here, aspects suggesting how (in this case) artifacts may be used.
- 12.
See de Jong, T. (2006). Computer simulations – Technological advances in inquiry learning. Science, 312, 532–533.
- 13.
The examples of analysis axes introduced here are part of the list developed in Chap. 7.
- 14.
The zone of proximal development is “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers”. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- 15.
We will come back to this list of contributions and its rationale in Chap. 6, in the context of the analysis of educational software engineering developed in that chapter.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Tchounikine, P. (2011). Introduction. In: Computer Science and Educational Software Design. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20003-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20003-8_1
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