Learner-centered Design: A Cognitive View of Managing Complexity in Product, Information, and Environmental Design

The issue of complexity, as applied to the way we gather information and learn, is a hallmark of this information age. The sheer amount of data, in addition to the increasingly technological way in which the data are delivered, have had profound effects on the ways in which we process information and, hopefully, learn. In this cutting edge volume, Wayne Reeves, a professor as well as consultant to Sun Microsystems, provides an overview of the field of complexity (including chaos theory, information literacy, and Knowledge Management Tools) and presents a working framework to help guide further research. Aimed particularly at researchers, professors, and students in the areas of cognitive science and library//information sciences, the book looks at a wide variety of tools that are being used to help create knowledge: indexes, abstracts, hypertext info retrieval systems and the like and evaluates their ability to help researchers gain understanding about their topics – and how that impacts on problem solving and decision making.