  We build on theoretical foundations of tool-mediated learning, tool design,
and human computer interaction to develop a framework for implicit scaffolding
in learning environments. Implicit scaffolding employs affordances,
constraints, cueing, and feedback in order to frame and scaffold student
exploration without explicit guidance, and it is a particularly useful design
framework for interactive simulations in science and mathematics. A key purpose
of implicit scaffolding is to support a range of educational goals including
affect, process, and content. In particular, the use of implicit scaffolding
creates learning environments that are productive for content learning and are
able to simultaneously support the affective goals of student agency and
ownership over the learning process - goals that may not be addressed in more
directed learning environments. We describe how the framework is applied in the
context of the Energy Skate Park: Basics simulation, a simulation aimed at
middle school student learning of energy concepts. Interview data provides an
exemplar of the process by which implicit scaffolding can support productive
student exploration with a computer simulation. While we present this framework
for implicit scaffolding in the context of computer simulations, the framework
can be extended and adapted to apply to a range of tool-mediated learning
environments.
