Many of today's educational standards, such as those for science education, call for student use of computational tools for doing substantive inquiry-based activities to develop a better understanding of science practices. Combating the reality of poor student-to-computer ratio in schools and occasional access to technology, handheld computers (sometimes referred to as PDAs) offer an intriguing, more pervasive solution to the computer access problem given their increasing functionality and decreasing costs. However, technology aimed at learning must also be supportive of learner needs and be designed from a learner-centered perspective to develop scaffolds for those tools, with software features (e.g., prompts, process maps) that physically realize literature-based conceptual scaffolding strategies (e.g., "visualize complex tasks") aimed at supporting learners to mindfully do and learn complex new activities and content. This project explores the design and assessment of effective scaffolds for handheld-based software tools in the context of science education. While a significant research community has explored desktop-based scaffolds, we lack similar design information for handheld-based scaffolds. User interface design decisions for desktop computers do not necessarily "scale down" to handheld computers due to differences in screen size, input methods, processor speed, etc., so new design guidelines are needed to develop handheld-based scaffolds. In this study the PIs will engage in an established learner-centered design methodology to design scaffolds for four handheld-based science tools. They will classroom test those tools in Detroit middle schools, and assess the impact of those scaffolds on student science work. Design guidelines will be coupled with assessment about the "effects with" the scaffolds (i.e., how do students work with the individual scaffolds to do their work?) and the "effects of" the scaffolds (i.e., what did students learn after using the scaffolded tools?). The main outcome will be to develop and articulate design guidelines about scaffolds for handheld computers.
Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of the proposed work are: to impact HCI research by shedding light on effective and ineffective user interface decisions for the "non-desktop" computational devices that are becoming more prevalent, and also by distilling a set of design guidelines that articulate different scaffolding approaches for handheld tools and assessment information (from classroom testing) describing the impact those scaffolds had on learners; to advance discovery while promoting teaching, training and learning by integrating research activities into science education and teaching at the K-12 level: to broaden participation of under-represented groups by bringing innovative technologies to under-represented classrooms in the Detroit Public Schools; and to enhance scientific and technological understanding by disseminating the resulting software, curricula, and assessment information to teachers, school board members, and other educational policy makers.
