Action knowledge and symbolic knowledge. The computer as mediator

I begin by stating a small set of troublesome but pervasive educational issues. While these have remained in the background during our work, they have served as the impetus for developing and reflecting on possible roles for computer technology in classrooms. In the remaining sections of the paper I propose that the computer can serve as an effective mediator between action and symbol. After setting the scene in the Laboratory for Making Things, I give an extended example of how computer-as-mediator contributes to learning when played out in this rather unusual classroom.