Hands-on Test

By about week #7, you will have committed to your main intellectual tool. When you do your hands-on test, you'll need to use a different intellectual tool(s) than that one. Your choice, except you can't use Cognitive Dimensions if your main tool was Representation Benchmarks and vice versa. And you can't use the presenter's tool; read on.

On each day of the presentations, I'll pick somebody from the class list to evaluate the language/environment being presented. You'll have 24 hours to turn in an evaluation of their language/environment from the perspective of the intellectual tool(s) you're working with for the hands-on test. Each person will ultimately do one test.

Example: suppose you are taking the test over George's new language for an insurance salesman. Suppose George's main intellectual tool was CDs, and the one you are using for your term project is Information Foraging Theory. When you evaluate George's language, you can use any tool except CDs, RBs, or Information Foraging. For example, you might choose Attention Investment, the Detienne chapter, and/or Natural Programming.

How many intellectual tools: One to three is fine. Do a good job on the one(s) you choose. Depth is better than breadth.

How much to write: About 2-4 pages double-spaced (half of that if single-spaced) should be fine. Depth is better than breadth.

Constraints: don't discuss your test with anyone else.