The Potential of the Direct Execution Paradigm: Toward the Exploitation of Media Technologies for Exploratory Learning of Abstract Content

摘要

Direct manipulation is some contemporary paradigm of human-computer interaction based on object representations which, to some extent, behave as if they were the real objects themselves. Direct manipulation is known to be useful in software engineering and as a learning paradigm for concrete features and functionalities. But what about mastery of particularly formal and abstract content? It turns out that direct manipulation proves useful for exploratory learning in cases where the content is rather formal and abstract and, therefore, is considered obnoxious by a large percentage of learners. Suitable didactic concepts based on media technologies are proposed, elaborated in some detail, implemented, and practically exemplified. The crux is to proceed from direct manipulation to direct execution.