Complex Learning• STAR Legacy

Problem- and project-based activities are being used with increasing frequency in K-12, college, and professional schools. On the one hand, these activities hold great promise for helping students develop a deep understanding of disciplines while simultaneously learning the skills of problem solving, collaboration, and communication. On the other hand, these complex activities also run the risk of generating lots of enthusiasm and activity with disappointing amounts of learning. STAR.Legacy is a software shell designed to help teachers and students manage the complexity of problem- and project-based learning. An important feature of STAR.Legacy is its emphasis on flexibly adaptive design; the software environment makes it easy for teachers to adapt curricula to their particular needs and interests. In addition, it allows teachers to easily place themselves, their colleagues, and their previous students into the software environment. This feature of STAR Legacy allows teachers to introduce new students to a larger learning community. A second important feature is the use of an explicit inquiry cycle that includes important components of many projects; for example, beginning with a challenge, generating initial ideas, consulting experts, studying resources, pilot-testing, revising, and public presentation.

Because STAR.Legacy is a software shell, there are a number of instances populated with different content. It is possible to down load a version of STAR.Legacy that was used in a course on educational psychology. The associated paper, available in the publications section, received an article of the year award from Educational Research and Technology Development and may help explain the different elements of the software. The software only runs on the MacIntosh platform (prior to OS-X), and unfortunately, it can no longer be authored.

The program is very large, because it includes extensive video. If you do download the file and Unstuffit, you will create two folders. The Learning by Doing folder includes the main program. Click on the LBD Legacy (CD) to begin the program. (It will open in Classic mode.) Each time you look at video in a new section of the program, the software will ask you to indicate where to find it. (The program does not automatically search your hard drive to find out where you have unstuffed the software.) Choose update preferences when it asks – that way the program will not ask you to locate other videos within that section.

link to download STAR legacy coming soon