Children Designers: Interdisciplinary Constructions for Learning and Knowing Mathematics in a Computer-Rich School »

In this book, the author presents a new vision of learning through design and production, and describes computer programming as a source of a learning and design power. As means of studying this extended notion of children's programming, the author implemented "Instructional Software Design Projects" to explore the learning that takes place when students develop complete mathematical software products designed for other students in their school. The results demonstrate that the young designers learned not only about mathematics (fractions) and programming (Logo), but also about design and user interfaces, as well as representational, pedagogical, and communicational issues.

Booknews

Reports on a project involving fourth grade students who wrote instructional software programs to teach other children about fractions. Students learned not only about programming and fractions, but also about design and user interface as well as representational and pedagogical issues. Paper edition (unseen), $35. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Design for Learning

Why, How, & Where Design for Learning

Debbie's Case

Results from the Comparative Evaulation

Discussion of Conclusions

Children Designers: What was Accomplished