ABSTRACT
Nobody wants to use technology to recreate education as it is, yet there is not much to distinguish what goes on in most computer-supported classrooms versus traditional classrooms. Kay (1991) has suggested that the phenomenon of reframing innovations to recreate the familiar is itself commonplace. Thus, one sees all manner of powerful technology (HyperCard, CD-ROM, Lego Logo, and so forth) used to conduct shopworn school activities: copying material from one resource into another (e.g., using HyperCard to assemble sound and visual bites produced by others), and following step-by-step procedures (e.g., creating Lego Logo machines by following steps in a manual). With new technologies, student-generated collages and reproductions appear more inventive and sophisticated—with impressive displays of sound, video, and typography—but from a cognitive perspective, it is not clear what, if any, knowledge content has been processed by the students.
