undesigned

This morning on my way to work I was thinking about what I would like to see in the developers forum of the Math Tools DL. The following issues seem most pertinent to me: user interface design, user centered design, cross platform issues, authoring tools for teachers, free and open software, software reuse, and strengths of instructional software. There lots already written about some of these and some written about all of them. In my spare time I will gather and synthesize what I am aware of and add my two cents.

• User interface design � What are the principles and processes can be followed when designing user interfaces to increase their usability?
• User centered design / action research / design research � What processes can be followed to put developers in contact with users to efficiently gather data to inform their designs?
• Cross platform issues � What are the common problems that developers encounter when trying to develop mathlets for multiple platforms? What are the ways that developers often approach these problems?
• Authoring tools for teachers � What are the functionalities and characteristics of authoring tools that are accessible by teachers?
• Free and open software � What are the different options available for licensing software to and from others? What are the business models that the various licensing support?
• Software reuse � What is out there that can be reused? What do mathlet developers want to be able to reuse? Where can I find software that I can reuse? If I want to provide software that can be reused, what issues should I consider?
• Strengths of instructional software � What are the strengths of instructional software in general and for math specifically that can be taken advantage of? (dynamic representations, linked representations, learner modeling, instructional feedback, problem sequencing, automated testing, collaboration over distances)

Posted on September 25th, 2003 by joel
Filed under: authoring tools, interactive online math