THE FRIENDS AND FOES OF DEEPER LEARNING IN SCIENCE WITH TECHNOLOGY

The project Miracle (Mixed Reality Interactions across Contexts of Learning) explores new ways of learning across sites - such as in a science museum, at home and at school - and use different types of hardware technologies (IPODs, IPADs, and portable computers) and software (simulators, videos, process structuring, and student digital portfolios) to promote deeper learning. This article centres on the use of portable computers and the use of a three-levelled simulator.

In the study reported here, the students (15-17 years old) are in the middle of a 12 hours project over 4 weeks. The learning goals for the project are related to the competence aims in "The budding researcher" of using e.g. simulators to "illustrate and explain natural science phenomena and test hypotheses" and in "Energy for the future" to "carry out experiments with [...] heat pumps, explain the main features of how these work and make simple calculations about their degrees of efficiency" (see http://www.udir.no/kl06/NAT1-03/Hele/?lplang=eng).

Four groups of 3 and 4 students are observed by video camera as they use a simulator of a heat pump in a 1.5 hours session in the context of the larger project. They have been presented for the three physical laws that govern the heat pump and have also done physical experiments earlier in the project that illustrate the three laws. Their task in this session is to explain the functionality of a heat pump by using a simulator. They are asked to explain each component, and draw on their earlier physical experiments to show how physical laws govern the heat pump.

Employing a socio-constructivist perspective this study explores how the students are able to engage in interactive and collective sense-making and the challenges they face, using previous knowledge and experiences in the project to engage in deeper learning processes. The research question of the study is: How can simulators be used and designed as a bridge between experiences gained in the physical world and the laws of science in conceptual learning? (i.e. provide a link between theory and practice)

The preliminary findings from the study indicates that the students are able to make use of the simulations to engage in deeper learning and to apply theoretical laws to explain functionality of the heat pump, given certain conditions. First and foremost, this is a sense-making process that needs time to develop. The students repeat and reiterate, going through material and interactive procedures several times with indications of them gradually enhancing their understanding. They are able to move from superficial procedural knowledge that they can recite, to deeper knowledge of how the laws operate. How far the different students and groups are able to come in this process varies, but most of the students move significant steps. Secondly, the design of the simulator between existing experiences and practice on the one side, and theory of physics on the other, is crucial. The data indicates that the process moves forwards as the students use the simulator to link prior knowledge and experiences with the three laws relevant for the heat pump. Also, the study points forward to simulator design, exploring the mix of science content and interaction as the students use the simulator. The combination becomes a kind of operational readout strategy (diSessa 2006) that the students develop using the simulator.