Welcome to EIPT 6333: Theory and Practice of Computer-Supportive Learning Environments. This class will be held every Wednesday from 7:15 to 9:55PM. Dr. Xun Ge will be the professor for this course. As the semester progresses, I will try to post as much notes and articles pertaining to the class as possible. Also, I will try to post all of my projects and assignments as well.

This course is designed as a survey course. In this course, we will have fun exploring various topics and tracing the evolution of perspectives on computers as cognitive tools by walking through two volumes of books edited by Lajoie and Derry (1993) and Lajoie (2000), but published seven years apart. The rapid development of technologies has led educators, trainers, researchers, and instructional designers to re-examine the roles of computers as cognitive tools. Paralleled with those changes is the paradigm shift on learning and instruction, from cognitivism to constructivism, which is mirrored in Lajoie's second volume. After leaving Lajoie, we will further examine different constructivist approaches in-dept in Jonassen and Land's (1999) work, which has captured the most recent practice in instructional design. From a different perspective, Wiley (2001) wil introduce us to the instructional design of "learning objects", one of the comtemporary notions growing in the field of instructional design.

1) Jonassen, D. H., & Land, S. M. (Eds.). (1999). Theoretical foundations of learning
    environments. Mahawh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

2) Lajoie, S. P. (Ed.). (2000). Computers as cognitive tools: No more walls. Vol.2.
    Mahawh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (ISBN: 0805829318)

3) Wiley, D. A. (Ed.). (2001). The instructional use of learning objects. Association for
    Educational Communications and Technology. (ISBN: 0784208921) (Electronic
    version of the book is available from the web site http://reusability.org/read/#3 for
    free donwload)