| Project | The Progress Portfolio: Tools to promote reflective inquiry with visually-oriented investigation environments |
| Contact | Ben Loh Northwestern University |
| bloh@nwu.edu | |
| URL | http://www.ls.sesp.nwu.edu/sible/ |
| Project description | Computer-based learning environments provide unprecedented opportunities for scientific inquiry using large databases and sophisticated simulation and analytical tools. But these complex environments also create new challenges for students, who often become performance-oriented, lost in the activities of doing inquiry. This problem is compounded by the addition of computer technologies that encourage browsing. Rather than blindly forging ahead in their investigations, students need to be reflective inquirers, to periodically step back to document and monitor their progress, review their understanding and conclusions, and communicate their understanding to others. We have designed software, called the Progress Portfolio, to help students reflect on the inquiry process as they construct artifacts that represent the progress of their investigations. It provides tools to document these otherwise invisible processes: capturing states of work, documenting thoughts, observations, direction and purpose with annotation tools, organizing work through data management tools, and communicating the products of investigation through presentation tools. These inscriptions of the work process provide tangible artifacts for learning about the process of inquiry through self-reflection and social discourse. Additionally, teachers can customize the Progress Portfolio with structured workspaces and prompts to support their own ideas about what is important for inquiry. In collaboration with CILT partners, we are interested in further pursuit of an important research agenda: a better understanding of the kinds of inquiry projects and learning environments for which the Progress Portfolio is ideally suited. With design features that include the easy capture, organization, and annotation of images from the Internet or data visualization programs, we believe that the Progress Portfolio is well suited for projects typical of visualization and modeling curricula. By collaborating with developers of such curricula and tools, we can continue to learn how best to support reflective inquiry. |