REPLY Who wants to share models (SD6865)

[SDMAIL Magne Myrtveit]

Posted by  "Magne Myrtveit" <magne at myrtveit.com>

Dear Martin,

In order to answer your question, I need to understand what is ment by
"collaborative modeling for learning".

- what is the purpose of the process?
- what is the product(s) or deliverable(s) that comes out of the process?
- who takes part in the process?
- how is it done?
- who uses the end-result? (if there is one :-)
- ...

[Inline - reply from Martin Schaffernicht <martin at utalca.cl> ]
> Dear Magne,
> 
> Thanks Magne for these questions, I'll offer my answers.
> 
> In recent years, "collaborative" learning has become more and more 
> important/mentioned.  It refers to when students/pupils work together in 
> order to learn something.  A typical example of software are shared 
> sketchpads, but I've also seen an application that would allow several 
> tudents to jointly develop system diagrams (over the Internet).
> 
>    1. The /purpose /is allowing students to learn "better", drawing upon
>       their individually different knowledge resources and to benefit
>       from interaction.  "Better" means that they reach a learning
>       outcome more easily or that they achieve depper learning. 
>    2. The immedtiate /product /would be a simulation model that has been
>       jointly developed by several individuals.
>    3. The /participants /would be the students or pupils and one or
>       several lecturers.
>    4. I have only one example for "/how it is don/e".  With one of my
>       courses, we are currently starting to adapt David Wheat's
>       "MacroLab" model (which deals with the US economy) to the Chilean
>       economy.  There are 10 sectors or submodels, and there is a group
>       of (2-3) students assigned to each sector.  Each group has to
>       understand the current form of "their" sector and build a nev
>       version that is addapted to Chile.  They cannot to this without
>       interacting with the other groups (sectors).  Since we work with
>       the "iThink" software, how can they organize their interactions? 
>       If each group was able to maintain and share "their" sector, but
>       their part of the whoe model can be shared and interact with he
>       other sector models, they could easily do this.  However, in the
>       current situation they will need to look at two separated files,
>       which doubtlessly rises the cognitive load.  (I hope this
>       description is understandable.)
>    5. The /end-result/ (at least in the case I described) is not so much
>       the resulting model as the resulting mental models (understanding)
>       of the students.  This may look like a rather volatile end-result,
>       and its benefits would still have to be assessed (but I believe
>       this can be done).
> 
> I admit that in this case, I woud not think so much in a repository for 
> finished models.  Quite the contrary, future groups of students whould 
> have to re-do their own effort in order to construct their mental 
> models.  However, once you have sharable models that can interact (let's 
> say over the Internet), one can also think of a diferent situation.
> 
> John Morecroft's textbook starts with a fishery example where readers 
> can use the model on the CD to play and dig in.  If I could, I'd make my 
> students organize into several groups, each representing one fishery 
> firm.  They'd hve to develop their analysis of the situation and their 
> policies in the form of a model, and then the "game" or "simulation" 
> would be the reiterated interaction of their models with a separate 
> model (that implements the "physics" of the fish resources).  We would 
> then have a very clear statement of policies (the models) and a 
> simulation that shows the dynamics consequences.  In such a scenario, a 
> set of models may exist in a repository, available to be used or customized.
> 
> Still, all I'm talking about takes place in educational settings.
> 
> I hope you'll find these answers understandable,
> Martin

Dear Martin,

Thank you for very clear answers to my uninformed questions. In return, 
let me try to give some feedback from a technological point of view.

The processes you describe involve some manual work that can be made 
easier and safer with the right support from modelling software.

Some software requirements that can be derived from the needs you 
describe are listed below.

1) Manage libraries of complete or partial models

2) Import complete or partial models into existing (or new) models

3) Divide a model into parts that can be worked on independently by 
different people

4) Easy updating of consolidated models when individual pieces are 
changed, e.g., in response to updated model libraries or revisions 
received from members of the group modelling team,

In the ideal world, the libraries of complete or partial models can hold 
models developed in any of the popular SD technologies. Maybe a model 
interchange format can contribute towards that vision.

The software features we talk about would be useful not only for 
education, but businesses as well. Therefore, Dynaplan has invested some 
effort into finding solutions along the lines described here. If you are 
not too afraid of running into bugs in pre-release software, you and 
your students are welcome to test out Dynaplan Smia alpha, which 
implements solutions to the four requirements listed above.

Best regards,
Magne
Posted by  "Magne Myrtveit" <magne at myrtveit.com>
posting date  Fri, 4 Apr 2008 16:12:24 +0200