Classroom networks of handheld devices have the potential to support a new genre of collaborative learning activities, enabling complex small group tasks that encourage and support the simultaneous engagement of all students. At the same time, oneto-one personal computing with intuitive touchscreen interfaces offers engaging simulations and visualization aids to individual learners. However, it is not well understood how to design effective simulations to be used by and to engage groups of students in a collaborative setting. My dissertation work is an exploration of the collaborative physics activity design space opened up by networked handheld devices. Specifically, I study the design of networked simulations with the aim of engaging students in high-level discourse about physics concepts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.