{"id":152,"date":"2012-03-12T19:05:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T02:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec533eportfolio\/?page_id=152"},"modified":"2012-04-02T16:25:15","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T23:25:15","slug":"netlogo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec533eportfolio\/e-folio-assignments\/netlogo\/","title":{"rendered":"Info-Vis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn many schools today, the phrase \u201ccomputer-aided instruction\u201d means making the computer teach the child.\u00a0 One might say the computer is being used to program<\/em> the child.\u00a0 In my vision, the child programs the computer<\/em> and, in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, for mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building.\u201d\u00a0 (Papert, 1980; p. 5)<\/p>\n

\u201cInfo-Vis\u201d is short for Information Visualization and refers to the concept that student learning is enhanced when they are given the opportunity to see or create visual representations of abstract concepts.\u00a0 The variety of online applications and simulations available that offer this capability are staggering.\u00a0 One could spend hours upon hours just previewing and practicing with different simulation sites.\u00a0 This lesson was an opportunity to look more closely at one of those sites and to interact with a few others through our classmates\u2019 contributions.\u00a0 My partner and I chose NetLogo<\/a> as our information visualisation activity.<\/p>\n

NetLogo is a simulation software that was developed by Uri Wilensky<\/a> and was designed to help students understand difficult concepts in science and social sciences by allowing them to manipulate variables at a micro level and see how this results in changes at a macro level (Stieff & Wilensky, 2003).\u00a0 NegLogo can be used to promote higher order thinking and to encourage students to construct their own understandings of how systems interact.\u00a0 Stieff and Wilensky (2003) found that students thinking shifted from relying on rote procedures to \u201cmore thorough attempts at conceptual reasoning and logical justification of answers\u201d (p. 293).<\/p>\n

The activity, Graphing Linear Functions and Quadratics with NetLogo,<\/a> that my partner and I designed with NetLogo for high school math students involved students using the simulation Pursuit<\/em> (Wilensky, 1998) to investigate linear functions.\u00a0 The students used the simulation to investigate what different types of functions looked like and then went into the code to change the slope and y-intercept.\u00a0 The activity was constructivist in nature and incorporated peer collaboration and class discussions.\u00a0 Although NetLogo gave a very visual representation of the interaction between slope and the direction of the line, I feel that using graphing calculators would have been simpler and easier for the students to navigate in, while being equally visual.\u00a0 A second activity that we developed involved using Pursuit as a mathematics 12 review<\/a> of graphing functions.\u00a0 The nature of the Pursuit (Wilensky, 1998) program leant itself to this activity.<\/p>\n

In general, I had difficulty relating NetLogo to authentic mathematics experiences.\u00a0 While it could work, as they activities we created suggest, there are other, simpler simulations that would work equally well.\u00a0 Graphing calculators, Illuminations, and Model It are just a few of the other options.\u00a0 With graphing calculators it is easier to alter variables and concentrate on what you are investigating without getting lost in the programming aspect.\u00a0 However, I thought that the simulations for science were very visual, interactive and allowed for more predictions and knowledge construction that the math activities.<\/p>\n

Part of my lack of enthusiasm for the mathematical uses of NetLogo probably stems from the potential I see in the original LOGO<\/a> program and how it was intended to be used.\u00a0 The original intent of LOGO was to use the affordances of the easy programming language for children to learn how to speak math \u2013 a type of mathematical immersion program.\u00a0 Seymour Papert, one of the original creators of LOGO, said that, \u201cThe idea of \u201ctalking mathematics\u201d to a computer can be generalized to a view of learning mathematics in \u201cMathland\u201d; that is to say, in a context which is to learning mathematics what living in France is to learning French.\u201d (p. 6).\u00a0 He saw the use of LOGO to develop mathematical concepts as an opportunity for children to explore how mathematics works by teaching it to the computer; by making them think about what they are trying to get the computer to do, they are made to think about mathematics in a new way.\u00a0 For Papert, the heart of the exercise was the programming, not using simulations and just altering the programming here and there to see what effect it had.\u00a0 Truly understanding how to explain the math to the computer was what created the deeper learning and understanding of mathematics.\u00a0 \u201cAnd in teaching the computer how to think, children embark on an exploration about how them themselves think … Thinking about thinking turns the child into an epistemologist, an experience not even shared by most adults.\u201d (Papert, 1980; p. 19)<\/p>\n

Information visualization is an important aspect of students\u2019 education.\u00a0 Being able to picture abstract concepts can make them more concrete and understandable.\u00a0 This is particularly true for visual learners, but is important for all of us.\u00a0 In my classroom, it has reinforced and renewed my efforts to integrate applets and exploration with graphing calculators.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the issue availability of technology limits how often, if at all, I can put the online simulations into the hands of my students, but they can still be powerful tools for class exploration as a whole.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas<\/em>. New York: Basic Books.<\/p>\n

Stieff, M. & Wilensky, U. (2003).\u00a0 Connect chemistry \u2013 Incorporating interactive simulations into the chemistry classroom.\u00a0 Journal of Science Education and Technology, 12<\/em>(3), 285-302.<\/p>\n

Wilensky, U. (1998). NetLogo Pursuit model. http:\/\/ccl.northwestern.edu\/netlogo\/models\/Pursuit<\/a>. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.<\/p>\n

Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http:\/\/ccl.northwestern.edu\/netlogo\/<\/a>. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.<\/p>\n

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