Based on our reading, class was split into the ‘minimal instruction’ group and the ‘constructionism’ group. We had to come up with a Lesson Plan for teaching fractions to 5th graders… interesting exercise but dichotomy between the two stances were not as clear.

We also did not have the student’s presentations about the readings which made the lesson less engaging.

Second half of class we heard Michelle Wilkerson from Northwestern University talk about here educational simulation softwares – DataSketch very interesting and powerful tools – but as Papert would say – you still need a skilled teacher to be able to engage and scaffold students in the process as well as debrief with meaningful discussions and displays of learning.

During the lab session we showed our redesigns:

Link to the paper, presentation and photos of prototype below:

Finally we looked more at ReactiVision and Processing – how to track fiducial markers.