[quoting Jonasson, 3 May 94.d] The preferred test is the Matching Familiar Figures Test. In fact, there is a computerized version in Dutch available from Jeroen van Merrienboer at Twente.
Dr. Jonassen; thank you very much for referring to the MFFT test; the truth is that I've been looking for this test the last couple of weeks and that there was only one library in Wisconsin which had the original version of Kagan, 1965. I never expected that one of my professors at my own University of Twente in Holland had a computerized version! Funny that a professor from America can tell me where to find a resource at my own University. Yes, I did ask several people, including from the University of Twente in Holland, how to obtain a conceptual tempo test but nobody could help me with this up till now!
I am a member of one of the several different "Electronic Performance Support Systems" projects that are currently going on at the College of Education (UGA). The goal is developing all kinds of "electronic cognitive tools" for teachers and learners. At the last weekly meeting, I proposed twe think critically about ourselves--we try to design, develop, and promote all kinds of electronic cognitive tools but do we practice what we preach? Do we ITers make use of these electronic cognitive tools ourselves? Well, of course we probably do, up till a certain extent, but it's my impression that we can improve much of our internal and external communication with the world outside of the University. My proposal is to organize a "WHAT HAVE WE GOT NOW" stack (e.g., a Hyperstudio stack--Dr. Hannafin showed us last week that kids in elementary school can handle an multimedia environment like that, so why couldn't we?) that can be used as:
A. Collaborate Think Tank
B. Collaborate Electronic Communication Platform
C. Collaborate Demo
D. Collaborate Teaching/Learning Environment for Students
Micro goal: Synchronizing learner styles between individuals.
Macro goal: Synchronizing projects and individual researchers that are busy with developing their own part of a bigger system with a lot of interrelated functions and knowledge.
I'll try to explain further. Every different (individual) research project will have it's own "room." Accessibility--everybody should be able to check out what's in it, this will trigger criticism, new ideas, and proposals for improvement. Everybody should be able to enter their own electronic room and organize and redesign their own interior. Everybody should be able to enter every other "room" at all times. With an electronic cognitive tool like this it would have been a piece of cake for me to find out about the MFFT test within a split second. I could have asked for help on a network like I did now and after that enter the electronic room of Jeroen Merrienboer in Twente, Holland, and I could have discovered this test in one of his files. Not only that, depending on the organization of this electronic room, I could have found clues that informed me about the present context of Jeroen--current research projects, etc. This information would make it much easier to get "in synch" while trying to communicate with Jeroen about my interest for his computerized MFFT test. After developing a draft version of a certain design/product, for instance an electronic alternative portfolio assessment tool, it's not only possible to show your own part but also the overall context (results and products of other related projects) in which it is being developed--for instance an Electronic Teacher Workstation.