After Genoa - tangibles on eco-modelling

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Dear Weblabs'

First of all thanks to our Italian colleagues for the hospitality during th=
e meeting.
When returning to Lisbon (two flights connection and 9 hours travelling) I =
guess I realized how impressed I was of the reaction of several people in t=
he meeting after the short presentation of Ylva on Eco-modelling tangibles,=
 and how unconfortable I felt for not having reacted (as I think I should).=
 Certainly that we need to make a (collective) effort to provide evidence o=
f the relevance of what we are all doing in the project and to convince our=
 audience(s) that our claims are educationaly soundfull. As this is a resea=
rch project, and as open-minded researchers, I think that our positioning a=
s researchers must go in the line of interrogate what evidence are we provi=
ding for the claims we are doing and discuss this openly (and this criteria=
 must certainly be equally applied to all knowledge domains) and we must su=
pport all efforts to explore new ways of representing knowledge and develop=
 powerful ideas and learning (at the end, this is what WebLabs is about).
As far as I could interprete, Ylva presented a first exploration of a kind =
of tangibles that allow children to both embody and be in the millieu of a =
phenomenon which clearly is in the domain of complex systems and ecology. B=
eing the basis to children activities a "computational world", this goes in=
 parallel with the work of Abelson and DiSessa when they were exploring vir=
tual worlds with Logo back in the 1980's (although in different time and di=
stance of the technology resources available by that time) . The added valu=
e of the line Ylva is following now, is that it brings together new ways of=
 looking at learning and cognition (see for example the way Francisco Varel=
a discusses this in his book Principles of Biological Autonomy bringing in =
the concept of "autopoiesis"; the way Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varel=
a go in Ch. 5 the natural drift of living beings in The Tree of Knowledge; =
the forms the discussion of Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores assume in Ch=
.3 and 4 into cognition as biological phenomena on Understanding Computers =
and Cognition-new frontiers for design; the way Boohan suggest creating wor=
lds from objects and events in Ogborn et al. Learning with Articial Worlds-=
Computer bases Modelling; etc).
Flying from Genoa to Paris I got from the French newspaper Liberation of 10=
 May an article on how scientists are trying to fight Homalodisca Coagulata=
 (a small fly that is terrible for several kinds of fruit) with another fly=
, La microguepe. This is a rather important problem in the field of ecology=
 as the scientists are not sure if there is some further implication of the=
 action they are taking to combat the bad fly although the probablity is lo=
w acoording to the report (see how natural is puting together randomness an=
d eco-modelling). A decision was taken to make a controled experiment in Po=
linesia and then to decide if the problem can be addressed in the same way =
in the US. It is a simple real and important problem that children can mode=
l when being exposed to the story of what is happening in those countries, =
and in doing so, deal with relevant issues in ecoliteracy, science and math=
ematics. But this has to make sense in the particular context of the Swedis=
h school (or any other country) in order to be fully appreciated by teacher=
s and children.
Certainly one needs to ask relevant and powerful research questions when lo=
oking at the experiments Ylva is doing with the tangibles. Let me offer a f=
ew suggestions:
- how do children decide what behaviours to assign to each character and wh=
y?  what is their alignment (i.e. what do they aim for, what is the expecte=
d outcome of the model built)?
- what steps can we identify in children's discussion and dialogue (e.g. re=
flecting + identifying variables and behaviours -- assigning behaviours -- =
defining quantities of characters -- putting the model in action -- observi=
ng the global behaviour of the population of characters -- telling stories =
(i.e. constructing narratives to make sense of the phenomena) -- refining t=
he model (i.e. changing the behaviours -- etc).
- how do children relate the local to the global (i.e. the local definition=
 of each character to the global population)? how is locality addressed by =
children? how do they formulate (in their repertoire) those relationships? =
how do they deal with this dimention of complexity?
- how do children "project" themselves in the field of the characters they =
build? what is specific of their location in that field (of characters) -- =
as "part of the system" in the sense of Varela or within the system -- that=
 becomes visible in the way they collaborate in the production of the globa=
l system?
- what is the nature of the ressonance of this activity of children in the =
way they address problems such as the example I got from Liberation?
- in the methodological dimension, would it be helpful to make a collective=
 interview of the group following guidelines that allow the researcher to h=
ave detailed evidence of the ways they appropriate powerful ideas in eco-mo=
delling?

I hope this is helpful. It is the way I found to support Ylva here.
All the best,
Joao Filipe

http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/docentes/jfmatos



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<DIV><FONT size=2>Dear Weblabs'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>First of all thanks to our Italian colleagues for the 
hospitality during the meeting.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>When returning to Lisbon (two flights connection and 9 hours 
travelling) I guess I realized how impressed I was&nbsp;of the reaction of 
several people in the meeting after the short presentation of Ylva on 
Eco-modelling tangibles, and how unconfortable I felt for not having reacted (as 
I think I should). Certainly that we need to make a (collective) effort to 
provide evidence of the relevance of what we are all doing in the project and to 
convince our audience(s) that our claims are educationaly soundfull. As this is 
a research project, and&nbsp;as open-minded researchers, I think that our 
positioning as researchers must go in the line of interrogate what evidence are 
we providing for the claims we are doing&nbsp;and discuss this openly (and this 
criteria must certainly be equally applied to all knowledge domains) and we must 
support all efforts to explore new ways of representing knowledge and develop 
powerful ideas and learning (at the end, this is what WebLabs is 
about).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>As far as I could interprete, Ylva presented a first 
exploration of a kind of tangibles that allow children to both embody and be in 
the millieu of a phenomenon which clearly is in the domain of complex systems 
and&nbsp;ecology. Being the basis to&nbsp;children activities&nbsp;a 
"computational world", this goes in&nbsp;parallel with the work of Abelson and 
DiSessa when they were exploring virtual worlds with Logo back in the 1980's 
(although in different time and distance of the technology resources available 
by that time)&nbsp;. The added value of the line Ylva is following now, is that 
it brings together new ways of looking at learning and cognition (see for 
example the way Francisco Varela discusses this in his book Principles of 
Biological Autonomy bringing in the concept of "autopoiesis"; the way Humberto 
Maturana and Francisco Varela go in Ch. 5 the natural drift of living beings in 
The Tree of Knowledge; the forms the discussion of Terry Winograd and Fernando 
Flores assume in Ch.3 and 4 into cognition as biological phenomena on 
Understanding Computers and Cognition-new frontiers for design; the way Boohan 
suggest creating worlds from objects and events in Ogborn et al. Learning with 
Articial Worlds-Computer bases Modelling; etc).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Flying from Genoa to Paris I got from the French newspaper 
Liberation of 10 May an article on how scientists are trying to fight 
Homalodisca Coagulata (a small fly that is terrible for several kinds of fruit) 
with another fly, La microguepe. This is a rather important problem in the field 
of ecology as the scientists are not sure if there is some further implication 
of the action they are taking to combat the bad fly although the probablity is 
low acoording to the report (see how natural is puting together randomness and 
eco-modelling). A decision was taken to make a controled experiment in Polinesia 
and then to decide if the problem can be addressed in the same way in the US. It 
is a simple real and important problem that children can model&nbsp;when being 
exposed to the story of what is happening in those countries, and in doing so, 
deal with relevant issues in ecoliteracy, science and mathematics. But this has 
to make sense in the particular context of the Swedish school (or any other 
country) in order to be fully appreciated by teachers and children.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Certainly one needs to ask relevant and powerful research 
questions when looking at the experiments Ylva is doing with the tangibles. Let 
me offer a few suggestions:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- how do children decide what behaviours to assign to each 
character and why? &nbsp;what is their alignment (i.e. what do they aim for, 
what is the expected outcome of the model built)?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- what steps can we identify in children's discussion and 
dialogue (e.g. reflecting + identifying variables and behaviours -- assigning 
behaviours -- defining quantities of characters -- putting the model in action 
-- observing the global behaviour of the population of characters -- telling 
stories (i.e. constructing narratives to make sense of the phenomena) -- 
refining the model (i.e. changing the behaviours -- etc).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- how do children relate the local to the global (i.e. the 
local definition of each character to the global population)? how is locality 
addressed by children? how do they formulate (in their repertoire) those 
relationships? how do they deal with this dimention of complexity?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- how do children "project" themselves in the field of the 
characters they build? what is specific of their location in that field (of 
characters) -- as "part of the system" in the sense of Varela or within the 
system -- that becomes visible in the way they collaborate in the production of 
the global system?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- what is the nature of the ressonance of this activity of 
children in the way they address problems such as the example I got from 
Liberation?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>- in the methodological dimension, would it be helpful to make 
a collective interview of the group following guidelines that allow the 
researcher to have detailed evidence of the ways they appropriate powerful ideas 
in eco-modelling?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>I hope this is helpful. It is the way I found to support Ylva 
here.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>All the best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Joao Filipe</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A 
href="http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/docentes/jfmatos">http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/docentes/jfmatos</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><BR></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>





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