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Practice into Theory: From serious work about learning in classroom environments to serious questions about the playful nature of control and coordination in computing Deborah Tatar, Virginia Tech (Click name for speaker's biography) Education and engineering have in common that they are pragmatic fields. Success in both fields is tied to various kinds of import for the world. But the goal of impact means long-term research programmes in both areas should be framed expansively. Ironically, then, pragmatism often means careful thought about underlying theory. It implies a research programme that moves between the phenomenological ("this is what we have built", "this is what we see in the world", "this is the action we are taking") and the interpretive ("this the state of affairs we would like to see", "this is how we explain the phenomena or characterize those phenomena we cannot yet explain", "this is the meaning of our action"). The current talk starts with a pressing social problem---the problem of maximizing equity and excellence in K-12 education in a system constrained by material resources, time, human capabilities, and a multiplicity of important conflicting goals--- and explores a strategy for addressing this problem: the development of handheld-based tools to support classroom learning. It describes the development and use in real classrooms of two suites of such tools. It then outlines how this pragmatic experience has led to the exploration of the nature of coordination, utilizing Tuple Spaces and the concept of playground games.
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