Marcia Linn explained the research philosophy of U.C. Berkeley's Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) Center. "We try to have really simple theories," said Marcia Linn. "I mean we try to have theories that nobody could disagree with, but people might neccesarily think add a lot of value. But our basic focus is on trying to help students integrate their ideas, and we're pretty neutral with regard to what an idea is - any fragment or large theory, or whatever counts as an idea."
One of Linn's projects is a web-based science inquiry learning environment for grades 6 to 12. It includes embedded assessments and notes, to show how students' ideas change over time. Linn is interested in integrating knowledge and technologies - something Ulrich Hoppe focused on in his talk. A scoring rubric, she said, can test different types of knowledge. And models can acts as pivotal cases to help students organise knowledge. Good ideas link together, she said, when they are understandable, make compelling comparisons, and enable narrative accounts of science.
Linn and her team are translating these ideas into a database of design patterns (similar to the Kaleidoscope project), to use in 12 subject areas. "We are very concerned about trying to make this field more cumulative," she said. "And i think it's kind of exciting to be here at the Kaleidoscope meeting where the goal is really to build that kind of collaborative and integrative community here in Europe." Her center has already been forming partnerships in the Netherlands, Norway and Germany (with Kaleidoscope member Frank Fischer).
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