The CONSTRUIT! exploratory workshop ... How do you think it works? ... and how we think IT works

We often use computers for computations based on scientific theory. But can computers also help us to explore our world in the search for science? Our exploratory workshop will give you hands-on experience of an online computing environment for constructing mental models of what we learn through experience, experiment and imaginative thinking. This kind of learning is not just what scientists do in the lab - it is a central part of what we all do in our everyday life. Find out for yourself by exploring computer models you can make and break to shed light on natural and artificial intelligence in inventing and playing games, solving puzzles, making music, optics ... and, not least, shopping.

Our aim in this workshop at ITAG 2015 will be to show that the principles of making construals:

• are closely integrated with state-of-the-art developments in web technology
• have wide scope for application across many disciplines
• are well-suited to gamification of a novel kind
• give new scope for evaluation techniques, tracing of interaction and data capture
• are well-oriented towards a collaborative and distributed development of open educational resources.

Timetable for the session

11.00 Introduction and orientation
11.05 Making construals: principles & concepts: Introducing a construal of a purse.
11.20 Exploring other construals: Hex Colouring, The Light Box, and The Game of Nim
11.45 Questions
11.55 End

The iTAG tutorial paper, as presented at iTAG 2015, is a useful background reference.