CRA Digital Government Fellows Program

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"Synergies Between Computer Science and Education Research: Balancing Learner-Centered and Technology-Centered Approaches"

Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology

January 29, 2003
12:00 - 1:00 PM

National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Room 340
Arlington, Virginia

Abstract

What is the potential for educational research to benefit computer science? What is the potential for computer science to benefit education? In doing research on educational technology, should we begin with educational theory and leverage technologies as needed, OR begin with new technology and explore its potential to make fundamentally new types of learning experiences possible? In this talk, I will contrast results from two research projects conducted in the Electronic Learning Communities research group in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech that take these two different approaches. In Palaver Tree Online, middle school students interview older African Americans to learn about what it was like to grow up in the civil rights era. In designing the system, we began by trying to understand the practical constraints of the classroom and chose minimalist technological interventions aimed at solving particular practical and pedagogical problems. Internet technology plays a key role in making this complex learning environment work in realistic school settings. In AquaMOOSE 3D, you are a fish and you specify your motion in three dimensions via parametric equations. The different uses of Cartesian, spherical, and cylindrical coordinate systems are emphasized. In this project, we began with a new technology, 3D graphics, and started our design process by exploring its affordances to support new kinds of math learning. Creations in this environment can be quite beautiful, and our newest version emphasizes leveraging connections between math and art, having students share their creations with one another online. However, the picture is complex: systems of this nature don't necessarily fit easily within standard curricula. But note that existing curricula were strongly shaped by technologies available at the time of their development. This brings us to a higher-level question: what do we really want our future citizens to know and why? I'll conclude by arguing that these two approaches to research are both important, but have different methods and goals which need to be better understood.

Biography

Amy Bruckman is an Assistant Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She and her students in the Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) research group do research on online communities and education. Current projects include MOOSE Crossing (a text-based virtual world for kids), AquaMOOSE 3D (a graphical world designed to help teenagers learn about the behavior of mathematical functions, research supported by an NSF CAREER award), and Palaver Tree Online (in which students learn about history by interviewing elders who lived it). Amy received her PhD from the MIT Media Lab's Epistemology and Learning group in 1997, her MSVS from the Media Lab's Interactive Cinema Group in 1991, and her BA in physics from Harvard University in 1987. In 1999, she was named one of the 100 top young innovators in science and technology in the world (TR100) by Technology Review magazine. In 2002, she was awarded the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies. More information about her work is available at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/