1. what do you consider the main argument of the article?


The main argument of this article is that users should be active participants, not just passive consumers. The initial design of a system should employ the meta-design concept. That is, designers should plant a seed and allow the system to evolve in the hands of the users.

2. do you agree or disagree with the main argument? give a answer based on your own experiences?


Yes, we agree with this argument. From our experience, the most effective classes are ones which involve discussion/debate where one person starts a topic and others build upon this with their own opinions/ideas. This is an effective learning method because everyone participates in the education of the entire class in contrast to the lecture method, where one person (the teacher), expresses only one perspective.

3. enumerate in which situations

3.1. you acted as a designer/active contributor


In this course, we all participated in the EDC role-playing situation where we were able to help design the transporation system for a community.

3.2. you acted as a (passive) consumer


In most classes, we are passive consumers when listening to a lecture. Most forms of entertainment (television, movies, radio, books, etc.) also limit us to being only passive consumers.


3.3. situations in which you believe you should have acted differently


When receiving poor service (i.e. grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.), most often we don't complain and just accept the service as it is. Instead, if we had submitted feedback forms, then we would be active contributors because if more people did this, that would lead to improved service.





1. describe your solution (if you found one) or why you were unable to find one?


We didn't find a solution to this problem.

2. what did you learn solving (or thinking about) the problem?


The information provided was insufficient because we think if they had provided the house number and defined the standard piano-playing age (ex: 5 and older, 6 and older, etc), this would have been possible to solve.

3. what kind of knowledge was most important for solving the problem?


Given:

1. 3 kids

2. product of 3 kids' ages is 36

3. sum of 3 kids' ages is equal to the house number

Needed info:

1. house number

2. age of oldest child ("piano-playing" reference)

3. are any of the children twins?



4. are (or would be) computers helpful in solving these problems?


You could start by testing all possible combinations of factors of 36 and narrow down possible solutions, but you still would be unable to get a definitive answer without all necessary information.