MAS 712: Technological Tools for Learning
Tentative Schedule and Readings

Mitchel Resnick (mres@media.mit.edu)
Spring 1997, Thursday, 1:00-3:00, E15-054 (MIT Media Lab)

Note: The schedule and readings are likely to change during the semester.

February 6: Introduction and Overview

February 13: Beyond the Centralized Mindset

• Resnick, M. (1994). Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA.
• Virtual Fishtank project overview. February 1997.

February 20: Artificial Life

• Huston, M., DeAngelis, D., and Post, W. (1988). New Computer Models Unify Ecological Theory. Bioscience, vol. 38, pp. 382-391.
• Langton, C. (1989). Artificial Life, in Artificial Life, edited by C. Langton. Addison Wesley. Redwood City, CA.
• Taylor, C., and Jefferson, D. (1993). Artificial Life as a Tool for Biological Inquiry. Artificial Life, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 1-14.
• Assignment due: Experiment with StarLogo

February 27: Ecological Learning Environments

• Csikszentmihalyi, M., and Hermanson, K. (1995). Intrinsic Motivation in Museums: What Makes Visitors Want to Learn? Museum News, May/June 1995.
• Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind (chapters 1 and 11). Basic Books. New York.
• Kay, A. (1995). Powerful Ideas Need Love Too. Written remarks to Congressional Committee Hearing.
• Resnick, M., and Rusk, N. (1996). The Computer Clubhouse: Preparing for Life in a Digital World. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, no. 3-4, pp. 431-440.
• Assignment due: Experiment with ALife software

March 6: Rethinking Simulations

• Starr, P. (1994). Seductions of Sim. American Prospect, no. 17, pp. 19-29.
• Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen (chapter 6). Simon and Schuster.

March 13: System Dynamics

• Doerr, H. (1996). Stella Ten Years Later. International Journal for Computers for Mathematical Learning, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 201-224.
• Sterman, J. (1994). Learning in and about complex systems. System Dynamics Review, vol. 10, no. 2-3, pp. 291-330.

March 20: Participatory Simulations (Guest presenter: Rick Borovoy)

• Borovoy, R., McDonald, M., Martin, F., and Resnick, M. (1996). Things that blink: Computationally augmented name tags. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, no. 3-4, pp. 488-495.

March 27: No class (spring vacation)

April 3: Status reports on final projects

April 10: Social Ecologies

• Arthur, B. (1990). Positive Feedbacks in the Economy. Scientific American, vol. 262, no. 2, pp. 92-99.
• Schelling, T. (1978). Micromotives and Macrobehavior (excerpts). Norton. New York.

April 17: Memes

• Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene (excerpts). Oxford University Press.
• Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea (excerpts). Simon & Schuster. New York.

April 24: Artificial Societies

• Epstein, J., and Axtell, R. (1996). Growing Artificial Societies. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA.

May 1: Internet as Ecology

• Best, M. (1996). Title to come.
• Kalil, T. (1996). Leveraging Cyberspace. IEEE Communications Magazine, July 1996.

May 8: Ecological Models of Mind

• diSessa, A. (1988). Knowledge in Pieces, in Constructivism in the Computer Age, edited by G. Forman and P. Pufall. Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Smith, J., diSessa, A., and Roschelle, J. (1995). Misconceptions Reconceived: A Constructivist Analysis of Knowledge in Transition. Journal of the Learning Sciences.

May 15: Final Project Presentations