SeeSaw: Tutorial
Contents
This is a quick walkthrough of how to use the SeeSaw software, using Global Climate Change as a topic. It should take you about 15 minutes to complete.
Please see the example files and other documentation for more examples. And of course, you should generate your own questions.
Installation
- Download the software.
Download the latest version of the software by filling out the signup form
- Double-click on the installer to install.
You can install the files anywhere.
SYSADMIN NOTE: For systems with security software running, you'll need to install the software in a directory that allows the user to write files.
Exploring a question
- Double-click on the SeeSaw icon to start the software.
- Click on "New Project" to create a new project.
- Type in a name for your group's disk file and click "Save".
This will be the name of the disk file for your project. For example, we have called our filename "GlobalWarmingGroup".
- Type in the name of your group and group members.
If you have students in multiple periods using the software, you can also have them fill out the "Period" field.
- Click on "New Question" to create a new question.
- Type in your question.
For this example, we'll type in the question: How do we respond to the threat of global climate change?
SeeSaw is designed to help you with questions that have more than one possible solution. It can't help you answer "What is the fastest animal on earth?" It can help you consider "What can we do to protect Cheetah habitats?"
Avoid questions that already suggest solutions such as "Should I drive or walk to work?" Instead, ask "How should I get to work?" leaving the solution open.
- Select "New..." from the "Solution" popup menu to create a new solution.
Click and hold down the popup menu next to the word "SOLUTION:". A menu will appear with the "New..." option.
- Type in a solution and click "OK".
Type in the solution: Reduce fossil fuel consumption
For this example, we'll work with some known solutions. It's also possible to use SeeSaw to help you explore questions where you don't necessarily know the available solutions beforehand.
- Add another solution.
Click and hold down the "Reduce fossil fuel consumption" solution in the "Solution" popup menu and select "New..." to create a second solution.
Type in: Plant trees to absorb C02, and click "OK"
The important thing here is that you should always have at least two solutions to compare. Even yes and no questions such as "Should I drive to work?" can have the two solutions "Drive to work" and "Don't drive to work." This way you'll always have the ability to enter facts, ratings, and analyses for both sides of the solution ("with" and "without" the solution) and therefore something to compare.
You'll find in using SeeSaw that it's not unusual to suddenly think of additional solutions as you write.
- Brainstorm and type in criteria.
Brainstorm the kinds of criteria you would use to evaluate the viability of the various solutions. For this example, type in: Impact on the environment followed by Impact on the economy.
You don't have to fill out all the criteria at once. As you explore you'll find that you think of new criteria to add.
You might want to organize a classroom activity away from the computer that helps students brainstorm the various criteria and make some initial decisions about the relative importance of the criteria. Coming up with criteria is hard and requires expertise. SeeSaw doesn't support this expertise, but it helps to organize it.
- Click on the "Importance" radio buttons to rate the importance of the criteria.
The radio buttons for "Importance" go from "1. Very Low" to "7. Very High". Think about how you would rate the importance of the environment vs. the economy. For example, if you favored the environment, you might give "Impact on environment" an importance of "7. Very High" because that is your primary concern, and "Impact on economy" an importance of "4. Medium" because in your opinion economic impacts are less important than the environmental impacts of the solution garnering a lower rating, but because you are concerned that any solutions be viable economically, you don't want to rate it too low.
You can change your mind any time and readjust the importance radio buttons. In fact, you'll find as you add criteria and solutions that you might want to shift the ratings around.
Giving different values to the "Importance" of "Criteria" is one of the main ways by which you can differentiate among criteria for evaluating the solution. You are in essence ranking the importance of the criteria. So in this example, we have ranked "Impact on environment" to be more important than "Impact on economy."
- Gather "Facts" about each solution and type them in.
"Facts" are bits of information about a solution that corresponds to the criteria you've established. "Facts" and "Analyses" are used to make a distinction that is similar to "observations" vs "interpretations." In other words, "Facts" are meant to be unbiased information, while "Analyses" represent your views or interpretations of the facts.
For this example, we are trying to find facts about the criteria "impact on the environment" of the "planting trees" solution. Type in: will reduce greenhouse gas levels through carbon sinks. This is intended to be a statement that is based on scientific evidence. There's no value judgement placed on it...that will come later.
The "fact" gathering stage can be integrated with your students' classroom research. For example, students might be reading articles or doing library searches to gather facts that pertain to their solutions. In the process of doing so, they might also find additional criteria that need to be considered. This process of slowly uncovering more and more layers of complexity and developing a richer understanding of the problem is one of the main benefits of SeeSaw.
Note, if you had accidentally reselected the other solution, "Reduce fossil fuel consumption," make sure you select the "Plant trees to absorb C02" solution first before entering the fact.
- Enter more "Facts".
Type in a second fact for the criteria "impact on economy": might affect logging industry
- Reselect the "Reduce fossil fuel consumption" solution and enter facts.
Now, let's also enter facts for the other solution so that we can get ready to compare them.
Click and hold down the mouse button on the solution menu to reselect the "Reduce fossil fuel consumption" solution.
For the "Impact on the environment," enter: will lower greenhouse gas levels
For the "Impact on the economy," enter: will weaken economic growth
- Analyze the solution.
Here's the fun part. This is where you get to express your opinion about all of these solutions, criteria, and facts. Let's start with the criteria "Impact on the environment" of the solution "Reduce fossil fuel consumption." The fact that we had entered in the previous step is that it "will lower greenhouse gas levels." And since we are environmentally inclined, we think that this is a good thing. So in the "Analysis" field, we type: reducing emissions is the best way to truly address the threat.
- Rate the solution.
Now that we have a qualitative answer for our perspective on the solution, we can also add a quantitative answer. The "Rating" field is there to allow you to express how you feel about that particular fact. For example, since our "Analysis" of "Reduce fossil fuel consumption" for the criteria "Impact on environment" was positive (e.g. we wrote "reducing emissions is the best way to truly address the threat"), then we'd want to give a positive rating. The ratings go from "-100% Strongly Against" to "100% Strongly For" with a "0% Neutral" in between. In this case, since reducing emissions is a very effective way of improving the environment, we are "Strongly For" this solution, so we click on the rightmost radio button, "100% Strongly For".
- Fill out the rest of solution.
Now let's work on the second criteria, "Impact on the economy."
For the "Facts", type: will weaken economic growth
For the "Analysis", type: Bad for business, but I don't care. Earth comes first.
Now, we could give it a "-100% Strongly Against" the viability of this solution since it's bad for business, but since our concern is primarily the environment and not business, we'll just give it a "-33% Somewhat Against" rating. In other words, we recognize that it's bad, but in our opinion the economic impact is not so bad that it shouldn't be considered. So click on the third radio button.
- Reselect "Plant trees to absorb C02" and fill out rest of solution.
To finish up the solutions, we need to enter the Ratings and Analyses for the first solution, "Plant trees to absorb C02" also.
Click and hold down the mouse button on the solution menu to reselect the "Plant trees to absorb C02" solution.
For the "Analysis" of "Impact on the environment" type: Great for the environment.
Since we care about the environment, and this solution is great for the environment, we feel strongly that this is a good solution, so click on "100% Strongly For" in the rating.
For the "Analysis" of "Impact on the economy" type: tree-related industries will suffer too. Many people out of jobs..
Since this has a negative impact, but again, not so strongly negative in our view, we give it a "-33% Somewhat Against" rating again. So click on that radio button.
- Click on "Evaluate this Solution" to "weigh" the tradeoffs.
When you "Evaluate this Solution" SeeSaw will add up all of your settings and tell you whether or not based on your perspective you favor or oppose the solution, and by how much.
This is done through a "scale" metaphor: the scale tips toward "For" or "Against" based on the calculated weights. Heavier weights means that you are more strongly for or against the problem at hand. So for this solution, it looks like we are pretty strongly for it, since the scale is tipped at "5.7".
The "weights" are calculated by multiplying the "Importance" of a criteria by it's "Rating". Think about "Importance" as the "mass" or size of the weight, and "Rating" as the degree to which that weight is slid to one side or the other of the balance scale.
- Click on "Evaluate all Solutions" to see both solutions at the same time.
This view allows you to explore the similarities and differences between the solutions.
How odd...how do we decide between two solutions if they both have the same for/against value? Since the goal of this exercise is to articulate differences between the two solutions so that we can decide between them, what can we do?
- Review and adjust the ratings.
This is the most important part of using SeeSaw. Once you have all of these solutions filled out, you need to reflect on them by weighing them and checking the results to see if they match what you believe should be right. And if they don't match, then you need to see if you can justify changing them.
For example, in our project, we might look back and compare the "Impact on the economy" of both the "Reduce fossil fuel consumption" and "Plant trees to absorb C02" solutions, and decide that our original "Analysis" of "tree-related industries will suffer too. Many people out of jobs," while true, is not nearly as significant an impact on the economy as the "will weaken economic growth" expected by the reduction of fossil fuels solution. In other words, in our opinion, reducing fossil fuels is worse for the economy than planting trees. Therefore we want to lessen the severity of the rating for the planting trees solution: So rather than the original "-33% Strongly Against" we adjust it to be "0% Neutral".
Now if we weigh the scales again, we find that we favor the planting trees solution 7.0 to 5.7.
But then upon further reflection, we realize that the problem isn't so simple. Even though planting trees might be a good solution, is it actually as effective as reducing emissions? How much do they cost relative to each other? How sustainable are the solutions? These are all additional criteria that you can then add and explore.
- Add other perspectives.
The other thing you might realize as you work through your project is that your view is not necessarily the same as the views of others. A businessperson or industrialist might have very different ratings for the solutions than someone environmentally-minded like yourself. SeeSaw defaults to having you enter information from "My Perspective," but you can just as easily add other perspectives.
To do this, click and hold down the "Perspectives" menu and select "New..." Then type in a name for the new perspective.
Notice that the criteria remain the same for the new perspective, as do the facts. The only thing that changes are the importance, ratings, and analyses. Go through the same procedure to enter data on this new perspective. When you're done, you can compare both perspectives and solutions.
- Save and quit.
One last thing before we go. We want to save the project file so that we can revisit or revise it later. Select "Save Project" from the "File" menu, and then quit the program.
This was just a brief (well, maybe not that brief...) glimpse of what SeeSaw can do. You should explore your own questions and try different approaches. Go play!