ABSTRACT
In designing computer-based educational systems our primary concern ought not to be with a dazzling new technology, nor should we be misguided by such romantically unrealistic goals and expectations as replacing teachers, textbooks, or even the physical and social learning activities of students through learner-machine interactions. Instead, the main object in the design of computational media as a new form of “intellectual bootstrapping” (Collins & Brown, 1988) ought to be its functional connection to a (partly normative) pedagogical and didactical 1 philosophy. The design must take into account the proper use and integration of the system into the comprehensive range of learning and teaching activities that take place in the “behavior setting” (Barker, 1978) of schooling.
