November 29, 2007: Seminar: Ben Shapiro: Design Research from the Bottom Up: New Infrastructure for School Reform

Abstract:

Educational research needs to better connect theories of learning, activity, and organization to the daily routines of practitioners. In contrast to most designed interventions to systemic change, which are top down and exogenous, I will describe my enactment of a bottom-up approach to the design and implementation of social and technical systems for school improvement. Using a case study of the design and classroom implementation of a database-backed tool for project management and peer critique in project-based Inquiry, I will trace the evolution over time of a technological system as both cause and consequence of unfolding mutual understandings between researchers and practitioners about what the problems to be solved in context are. This evolution will allow me to show how this bottom-up approach has unique affordances for design-in-context, including the development of knowledge that is valuable to both practitioners and researchers, and a stronger language for educational researchers and computer scientists to discuss needs and solutions for design and development.