Designing Educational Software for Tomorrow.
Wayne Harvey · 1985
Designed to address the management and use of computer software in education and training, this paper explores both good and poor software design, calling for improvements in the quality of educational software by attending to design considerations that ire based on general principles of learning-rather than specific educational objectives. This approach'also focuses attention on the student computer segment of the wider context inwhich learning occurs and which includes the external environment, e.g., the-school, the home, and cultural institutions, as well as other indiyiduals, e.g., parent, teacher, fellow students, who affect the interactions between the student and the computer. Topics discussed include: (1) goals for computer use in education; (2) the software design processand the source of quality productions; (3) student orientation to software; (4) student interaction with. hardware and-softWare; (5) ways to facilitate student understanding; (6) promising directions to pursue; and (7) the Advanced Instructional Technology Program at SRI International. Included are diagrams which illustrate the concepts of software types and, learning skills, educational software development, design considerations for educational, software, and the interaction of computer science and cognitive engineering. The paper concludes with a call for instructional designers to use information on how people store, manipulate, and process knowledge in the, design of educational software. (JB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. ***************-******************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION EOUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION