The collaborative visualization project
Communications of the ACM - Special issue on technology in K–12 education
Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas
Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas
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To better understand the problems preventing non-traditional science students, girls and some boys, from engaging in the study of the natural world, I examine how learners become active in studying scientific issues when the issues are relevant to their lives. To invite learners into thinking about science issues, we introduced the topic of a local endangered rain forest called Clayoquot Sound. For two years, students built a range of paper and multimedia artifacts. This community of investigators made extensive use of analog and digital video, multimedia analysis tools, and the Internet. The results of this ethnography indicate that digital media can become learning environments that support personal, narrative, and relational ways of knowing the world, especially when the content addresses real-world issues. One conclusion I have made is that gender identity is a more flexible construct than has been suggested in previous empirical studies. Both girls and boys need opportunities for "genderflexing" --- for extending beyond traditional epistemological boundaries. While genderflexing, young people learn to cross over boundaries that have previously both defined and confined science education.