Constructionism

If visualization is to be democratized, we need to provide means for non-experts to create visualizations that allow them to engage directly with datasets. We present constructive visualization a new paradigm for the simple creation of flexible, dynamic visualizations. Constructive visualization is simple—in that the skills required to build and manipulate the visualizations are akin to kindergarten play; it is expressive— in that one can build within the constraints of the chosen environment, and it also supports dynamics — in that these constructed visualizations can be rebuilt and adjusted. We describe the conceptual components and processes underlying constructive visualization, and present real-world examples to illustrate the utility of this approach. The constructive visualization approach builds on our inherent understanding and experience with physical building blocks, offering a model that enables non-experts to create entirely novel visualizations, and to engage with datasets in a manner that would not have otherwise been possible.

It is widely agreed that engaging students in authentic science practices is important for science education. Theory building is a central practice of science. Today, many scientists build theory through computational modeling. This paper characterizes the nature of student theory building in the context of computational modeling activities. Using a fine-grained grounded analysis, we identified theory-building moves in one student's goal-directed modeling in a block-based microworld. We present moves enacted during phases of model building, testing, debugging, and sense-making using a segment of transcript from the student's theory-building activity, which was focused on modeling a flu epidemic.

This paper reports on a design experiment conducted to explore the construction of meanings by 17 year old students, emerging from their interpretations and uses of algebraic like formalism. The students worked collaboratively in groups of two or three, using MoPiX, a ...

Το παρόν άρθρο έχει ως αντικείμενο τη χρήση της νέας τεχνολογίας στο πλαίσιο της εκπαιδευτικής πράξης με σκοπό την ανάδειξη της πρόσθετης παιδαγωγικής αξίας μέσα από ειδικά διαμορφωμένο κονστρακτιονιστικό ψηφιακό τεχνούργημα. Πρόκειται για την ανάλυση των σχεδιαστικών αρχών του λογισμικού «Αλφάβητα του Κόσμου», που οικοδομήθηκε στο υπολογιστικό περιβάλλον Αβάκιο 2. Το συγκεκριμένο ψηφιακό τεχνούργημα αποτελεί μια εναλλακτική πρόταση διδασκαλίας της πρώτης γραφής και ανάγνωσης στην πρώτη τάξη του Δημοτικού Σχολείου που έχει ως στόχο την εμπλοκή των μαθητών σε δραστηριότητες διερεύνησης και συνεργασίας. Η θεωρητική πλαισίωση αυτού του εγχειρήματος βασίστηκε στον Κονστρακτιονισμό, μια θεωρία μάθησης που έχει τις ρίζες της στις κονστρουκτιβιστικές θεωρίες μάθησης και στον κοινωνικό εποικοδομισμό. Ακόμη υποστηρίζει ότι η μάθηση οικοδομείται μέσα από το σχεδιασμό και τη δημιουργία τεχνουργημάτων με προσωπικό νόημα σε συνδυασμό με την αλληλεπίδραση που έχουν οι μαθητές μεταξύ τους. Στη βάση αυτή, δημιουργείται η προοπτική της ανάδειξης της πρόσθετης παιδαγωγικής αξίας της χρήσης της νέας τεχνολογίας κατά την εκπαιδευτική πράξη, μέσα από πτυχές μαθησιακών δραστηριοτήτων που συνήθως δεν καλύπτονται από την παραδοσιακή μέθοδο διδασκαλίας. ΛΕΞΕΙΣ ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: Πρώτη γραφή και ανάγνωση, Κονστρακτιονισμός, Πρόσθετη παιδαγωγική αξία. ΕΙΣΑΓΩΓΗ Είναι κοινώς αποδεκτό, ότι σημερινοί μαθητές δεν είναι πλέον οι μαθητές για τους οποίους σχεδιάστηκαν τα παραδοσιακά εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα (Prensky, 2001). Η αλλαγή αυτή οφείλεται στη ραγδαία ανάπτυξη της ψηφιακής τεχνολογίας που έχει κατακλύσει τη ζωή των παιδιών από πολύ μικρή ηλικία. Επομένως, παρατηρείται έντονα το φαινόμενο ότι οι μαθητές πριν ακόμα διδαχθούν γραφή και ανάγνωση είναι, κατά πλειοψηφία, πολύ καλοί χρήστες των σύγχρονων ψηφιακών εργαλείων. Πάνω σε αυτή τη λογική, ένα κονστρακτιονιστικό ψηφιακό δόμημα που δίνει στους μαθητές τη δυνατότητα να εκφραστούν δημιουργικά, να αλληλεπιδράσουν, να επικοινωνήσουν και να δώσουν νόημα (Κυνηγός, 2011) στη γραφή και στην ανάγνωση, πλησιάζει αρκετά το φαινόμενο των «digital natives», δηλαδή των μαθητών που χρησιμοποιούν πλέον την ψηφιακή γλώσσα ως «μητρική γλώσσα» (Prensky, 2001). Όμως, εκτός από τη ραγδαία ανάπτυξη της τεχνολογίας, η πολυπολιτισμική σύνθεση του μαθητικού πληθυσμού και η συνεκπαίδευση παιδιών που είναι φορείς ενός διαφορετικού πολιτισμικού και γλωσσικού κεφαλαίου διαμορφώνουν μια «άλλη» πραγματικότητα στο ελληνικό σχολείο (Κεσίδου, 2011), η οποία θα πρέπει να συνυπολογιστεί κατά την εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία της πρώτης γραφής και ανάγνωσης στην πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση. Σε αυτή τη βάση, το συγκεκριμένο άρθρο κινείται στο πλαίσιο μιας εναλλακτικής πρότασης μέσα από την εισαγωγή του ψηφιακού τεχνουργήματος «Αλφάβητα του Κόσμου» στην καθημερινή διδασκαλία της πρώτης γραφής και ανάγνωσης στην Α΄ τάξη του δημοτικού σχολείου. Ο κύριος σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης είναι να εξετάσει, την πρόσθετη παιδαγωγική αξία της εφαρμογής μια τέτοιας καινοτομίας στη σχολική τάξη, κυρίως ως προς τη δημιουργία νοημάτων στους μαθητές, σε σχέση με την πρώτη γραφή και ανάγνωση, δηλαδή τη συμβολική αναπαράσταση της γλώσσας, κατά τη συνεργασία τους, καθώς αλληλεπιδρούν με το ψηφιακό περιβάλλον του Μικρόκοσμου «Αλφάβητα

The Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) consistently rank among the top 10% of per capita waste producers in the world. Collectively around 120 million tons of waste is produced annually in GCC; 55% construction and demolition (C&D) waste, 20% municipal solid waste (MSW), 18% industrial waste, and 7% hazardous waste. Like other GCC nations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) generates massive amounts of MSW, C&D waste, and industrial waste. This study aims to examine 81 construction companies in the Eastern Province of KSA to determine which factors critically affect the sustainable management of C&D waste in the country. Only 39.5% of the companies studied had a pollution control plan for their projects. It was also found that only 13.6% of C&D waste is recycled and reused every year, whereas the remaining 86.4% C&D waste eventually goes to the landfills. Most of the C&D waste in the country is a promising source of potential recyclable construction materials such as gravel from debris, metals, and sand. This would not only fulfill the requirements of gravel and metal production of the KSA but also solve the waste disposal issues along with generating huge economic benefits. However, to accomplish the goal of sustainable construction waste management, it is critical to underline the various factors that might impact the construction waste management practices in the country. Keywords Construction and demolition (C&D) waste · Municipal solid waste (MSW) · Waste recycling · Landfill sites · Sustainable construction material

El Bondage, Dominación, Sumisión y Sadomasoquismo (BDSM) es una construcción social que implica diversas expresiones de la sexualidad relacionadas con el juego de roles, intercambio de poder y el sadomasoquismo. Se trata de un tema altamente estigmatizado del cual escasean recursos bibliográficos. Por tanto, nos planteamos comprender las vivencias del BDSM en la ciudad de Caracas y realizamos este estudio, bajo una metodología cualitativa, con un diseño emergente y proyectado, utilizando la técnica de entrevista a profundidad. Entre los hallazgos resalta una comunidad de practicantes del BDSM que busca crecer, darse a conocer y consolidarse, que asimismo mantiene una postura cerrada y de difícil acceso.

Computer code and programmable objects are a ubiquitous
part of our everyday lives. Over the past 25 years critical
engagement with digital media has become a part of the art
education curriculum. However, involving art students in
utilizing processing agents as part of studio practice by learning
how to code programming languages is a rare occurrence.
This article advocates for computational thinking as an urgent
need within art education to prepare students to utilize digital
innovations and create code-based artworks. By reviewing
the constructionist origins of computational thinking for art
educational purposes, we posit that creative code can benefit
studio art practice while making broader contributions to
conceptions of computational thinking across disciplines. We
emphasize three concepts to engage in critical digital making
by recognizing code as critical text, code as open or proprietary,
and code as digital material to be performed and acted upon.

Basic Emotion theory has had a tremendous influence on the affective sciences, including music psychology, where most researchers have assumed that music expressivity is constrained to a limited set of basic emotions. Several scholars suggested that these constrains to musical expressivity are explained by the existence of a shared acoustic code to the expression of emotions in music and speech prosody. In this article we advocate for a shift from this focus on basic emotions to a constructionist account. This approach proposes that the phenomenon of perception of emotions in music arises from the interaction of music's ability to express core affects and the influence of top-down and contextual information in the listener's mind. We start by reviewing the problems with the concept of Basic Emotions, and the inconsistent evidence that supports it. We also demonstrate how decades of developmental and cross-cultural research on music and emotional speech have failed to produce convincing findings to conclude that music expressivity is built upon a set of biologically predetermined basic emotions. We then examine the cue-emotion consistencies between music and speech, and show how they support a parsimonious explanation, where musical expressivity is grounded on two dimensions of core affect (arousal and valence). Next, we explain how the fact that listeners reliably identify basic emotions in music does not arise from the existence of categorical boundaries in the stimuli, but from processes that facilitate categorical perception, such as using stereotyped stimuli and close-ended response formats, psychological processes of construction of mental prototypes, and contextual information. Finally, we outline our proposal of a constructionist account of perception of emotions in music, and spell out the ways in which this approach is able to make solve past conflicting findings. We conclude by providing explicit pointers about the methodological choices that will be vital to move beyond the popular Basic Emotion paradigm and start untangling the emergence of emotional experiences with music in the actual contexts in which they occur.

Consumers act and interact via social media networks and online brand communities, collectively generating brand culture. In this context, organisations have the opportunity to develop a cultural following. The respective task for brand managers and marketers is to understand how consumers collectively generate online brand culture? Using active and overt netnography and investigating the specific context of the Behance Network, the findings presented here demonstrate that online brand community members collectively generate brand culture in variant ways: through construction of self, emotional relationships, storytelling, and ritualistic practices. Pragmatically, this work demonstrates that online brand community members are curators of online brand culture and netnography offers a window through which to identify what actions and interactions need to be facilitated and fostered.

In the context of a design-based research effort to develop a technology-enabled constructivist algebra unit, a new activity architecture emerged that steps students through discovery levels. As they build a virtual model of a problem situation, students figure out technical principles for assuring the model’s fidelity to the situation. These construction heuristics, we find, are precisely the conceptual foundations of algebra, such as tinkering with the model to assure that the variable quantity is of consistent size throughout the model. We articulated these principles as situated intermediary learning objectives (SILOs). At each interaction level, the student discovers a SILO, and then the technology takes over by automatizing that SILO, thus freeing the student for further discovery. We call this architecture reverse scaffolding, because the cultural mediator thus relieves learners from performing what they know to do, not from what they do not know to do. In a quasi-experimental evaluation study (Grades 4 & 9; n=40), reverse-scaffolding students outperformed direct-scaffolding students, for whom the technical features were pre-automatized. We speculate on the architecture’s generalizability.