Rieber 2004

I really like the Rieber (2004) chapter about Microworlds. The author provides a clear description of microworlds starting from its historical origin, the Logo's root. although it is not the key purpose of the article, it also address the needs of design-based research, which we will discussed in the future.

I like the section about the characteristics of microworld, which include the structural affordance and the functional characteristis. actually, the functional affordances such as computational objects, multiple representations, combinations of objects, and challanges to solve problems, sounds quite a lot like the characteristics of simulation. However, the functional attributes makes microworld distinct from simulation. If microworld is characterized by its structural affordances, and its functional characteristics, and the structural affordances of microworld are the same as those of the simulations, then, we may say microworld is a subset of simulation.

The author also spend some time to described about the pedagogical approach called constructionism. As the author suggestion, it is a pedagogical apporach. the first thing comes up in my mind is project-based learning where students are constructing something through project. Since it is a pedagogical approach, it is different from constructivism which is an epistemology.

The author also mentioned about the "non-significant findings" in GenScope research. Seems like the non-significant results were rooted from the measurement issues. In other words, the measurement instrument of the learning outcomes from Microworld should not be the traditional paper-and-pencil tests. I agree that the traditional paper-and-pencil tests should not be appropriate for the learning outcomes of microworld. Using learning a language as an example, if someone immerse himself/herself in a new country, and able to speak the langauge reasonably well. Does it mean he/she can perform well in grammar tests? My point is that we should think about appropriate measurement for these new pedagogical approaches. However, can we create an instructment that is equally appropriate for new pedagogical approaches and traditional approaches so that our comparision is bias free? I don't know yet. However, I believe the argument for the 21st century skills is the measurement is not appropriate for 21st century.