Overall design sessions were followed by week-long sessions for full pedagogical specification, usually with several groups simultaneously. A group is about four people, with the types already mentioned. The activity is full time, not an hour or two every day by busy people primarily devoted to other things. Since we want the best possible teachers, we must use their time wisely.
Participants in our design groups are not usually experienced in interactive learning technology, except for those chosen for that background. We work in some areas, such as language teaching, where most teachers have little computer experience. With the Scientific Reasoning Series, since we are working with science, there was more experience than usual. But computer experience is not what we looked for, because the teacher's main contributions are pedagogical, not technical. We do not expect teachers to be involved with programming.
The first half morning of a week's activity acquaints designers with the process. Many experienced teachers have had little work within intense small design groups, and are not prepared for controversies. They need to understand that disagreements are expected, and that it is their job to resolve them quickly. They also need to understand desirable and undesirable aspects of the computer in learning.