Center for LifeLong Learning & Design (L3D) http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress at the University of Colorado at Boulder Tue, 15 May 2012 20:30:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Meeting 5/15/2012: Education for Everyone: Hype or Reality? http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/05/meeting-5152012-education-for-everyone-hype-or-reality/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/05/meeting-5152012-education-for-everyone-hype-or-reality/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 04:20:01 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=359 https://www.coursera.org/): Education for Everyone.

We offer courses from the top universities, for free.

Learn [...]]]> One of the “hottest” topics these days is based on reports (from  Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Michigan, Penn) that over 100 000 students sign up for classes taught about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc.. This is advertised as follows (from https://www.coursera.org/):

Education for Everyone.

We offer courses from the top universities, for free.

Learn from world-class professors, watch high quality lectures,

achieve mastery via interactive exercises,

and collaborate with a global community of students.

Our Research

The L3D/CU community has been discussing these ideas for a long time and we have done our own research and/or observed efforts at other places including:
  • Tammy Sumner’s & Clayton Lewis’ experiences with the Open University (this was discussed in a number of L3D meetings in the late 1990s)
  • Walter and Eileen Kintsch’s efforts with summary street (using an LSA-based environment to grad and assess student’s homework automatically)
  • Mike Eisenberg’s analysis of iTunesU and his interactions with President Benson
  • Jim Martin’s analysis of the Stanford’s approaches (based on his interactions with Dan Jurafsky and Peter Norvig)
  • Alex Repenning’s initiative about  “scalable game design”
  • Gerhard Fischer’s explorations of concepts such as: core competencies of residential, research based universities; “gift-wrapping” approaches; courses-as-seeds
  • CU students’ experience reports who have taken some of the Stanford’s classes and can give a first-hand account of their experiences
    • are these developments a fad or will they revolutionize learning and universities as learning institutions?
    • how interactive are these sites / lectures?
    • for which type of learning are these approaches a good fit?
    • why are some of them successful and what does success mean?
    • why should we pay attention to these developments?
    • what can we learn from these efforts for our own activities?
  • https://www.coursera.org/  – Stanford’s alternative to Udacity
  • http://www.udacity.com/  – Udacity: the company formed by Stanford people (Thrun)
  • http://www.edxonline.org/index.html — advertised as: EdX is a joint partnership between MIT and Harvard to offer online learning to millions of people around the world.
  • http://www.khanacademy.org/  – advertised as: “Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything for free; over 3,100 videos
  • http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/  – learn anything, anywhere, any time

Objective of the meeting:

·       the meeting will serve primarily as a catalyst for further conversations rather than as a road map for the future
·       there will be brief introductory remarks by  the researchers mentioned above
·       all participants will engage together in a discussion of topics including:

Some interesting websites to look at before the meeting:

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/05/meeting-5152012-education-for-everyone-hype-or-reality/feed/ 0 Meeting 4/25/2012: Jason Zietz (L3D) — Understanding the Impacts of Emotions and Decision-Making on Environmental Behaviors http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-4252012-jason-zietz-l3d-understanding-the-impacts-of-emotions-and-decision-making-on-environmental-behaviors/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-4252012-jason-zietz-l3d-understanding-the-impacts-of-emotions-and-decision-making-on-environmental-behaviors/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:17:52 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=329 Given the overwhelming evidence that current energy use by humans contributes to global warming, reducing our non-renewable energy consumption is a worthwhile endeavor.  But in order to reduce our consumption we must first better understand it, and unfortunately the implications of our usage largely go unnoticed.  This ignorance is likely rooted in the interactions most [...]]]> Given the overwhelming evidence that current energy use by humans contributes to global warming, reducing our non-renewable energy consumption is a worthwhile endeavor.  But in order to reduce our consumption we must first better understand it, and unfortunately the implications of our usage largely go unnoticed.  This ignorance is likely rooted in the interactions most of us have with our energy bills: once a month we attempt to make sense of our consumption via the nebulous kilowatt-hours (kWh) and therms for electricity and gas usage, respectively, but since we do not understand what the units actually represent and the usage cannot be tied to specific activities, we do little but pay our bill and wait until the next month to repeat the process.

We can start to address this energy ignorance by helping people to understand that their energy consumption has real-world repercussions, thus making energy usage more personally meaningful.  Presenting energy usage metrics with equivalent alternative representations of usage such as pounds of coal burned and/or pounds of CO2 emitted establishes a salient link between the energy we use and the impacts on the world around us.  These alternative representations potentially cue emotional responses that can affect the decisions that we make and ultimately lead to long-term pro-environmental behavior change.

This talk will begin with some general discussion about how we make decisions and how they impact our behaviors, specifically those affecting consequential behaviors such as those related to environmental, health, and financial concerns.  I will then describe two studies in which alternative representations of energy usage are tested: In the first study, emotional reactions to the alternative representations of electricity usage will be explored, along with how these representations affect a person’s willingness to publicly commit to a pro-environmental action.  The second study examines how anchors and units of adjustment along with these alternative representations modify individuals’ stated willingness to take a pro-environmental action.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-4252012-jason-zietz-l3d-understanding-the-impacts-of-emotions-and-decision-making-on-environmental-behaviors/feed/ 0 Meeting 4/11/12: Holger Dick, L3D — Motivating instead of pressuring: Using smart grid technology and cultures of participation to reduce residential energy consumption http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-41112-holger-dick-l3d-motivating-instead-of-pressuring-using-smart-grid-technology-and-cultures-of-participation-to-reduce-residential-energy-consumption/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-41112-holger-dick-l3d-motivating-instead-of-pressuring-using-smart-grid-technology-and-cultures-of-participation-to-reduce-residential-energy-consumption/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:14:33 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=323 Global energy consumption is at unsustainable levels and to reduce it, renewable energies and increased energy efficiency have to be combined with changes in behavior. Common approaches to ‘motivate’ people to use less energy are increasing energy prices or starting energy competitions between consumers. Both have repeatedly been shown to actually reduce intrinsic motivation and [...]]]> Global energy consumption is at unsustainable levels and to reduce it, renewable energies and increased energy efficiency have to be combined with changes in behavior. Common approaches to ‘motivate’ people to use less energy are increasing energy prices or starting energy competitions between consumers. Both have repeatedly been shown to actually reduce intrinsic motivation and result in yo-yo effects.

I will present a novel approach to combine technologies and ideas from computer science, cognitive science, and the Smart Grid to build socio-technical systems that motivate and support people to reduce their energy consumption without requiring large financial investments or policy changes and with sustainable long-term behavior changes. I will discuss the underlying theories and assumptions and show how they can be used to motivate people to reduce their energy consumption more effectively.

The second part of the talk will be about EMPIRE (Empowering People In Reducing Energy Consumption), a web-based feedback system that is built based on this novel approach. EMPIRE is going to be deployed to CU students over the coming months for a long-term evaluations and I am going to present the system, the underlying design philosophy, and the plans and expectations for the evaluation.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/meeting-41112-holger-dick-l3d-motivating-instead-of-pressuring-using-smart-grid-technology-and-cultures-of-participation-to-reduce-residential-energy-consumption/feed/ 0 Meeting 4/4/12: Hal Eden, L3D — Energy Sustainability as a Challenge for Socio-Technical Systems http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/hal-eden-l3d-energy-sustainability-as-a-challenge-for-socio-technical-systems/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/hal-eden-l3d-energy-sustainability-as-a-challenge-for-socio-technical-systems/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:13:00 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=321
“The mission of L3D is to establish the scientific foundations for the envisionment, design, development, and assessment of socio-technical systems that serve as amplifiers of human capabilities and that will bring dramatic and transformative improvements in the ways people live, learn, work, and collaborate.”
Our areas of application have ranged across topics including the design of software and windowing environments, kitchen design, network design, citizen participation in urban planning and transportation design, and support systems for individuals with cognitive disabilities. This talk will give an overview of a more recent area of application for our approaches: The Energy Sustainability Domain.The first part of the talk will describe Our initial involvement in this area, which was based on the observation that most efforts in the Smart Grid area have been focused on new technologies and automation with less attention how to the cognitive and social aspects, coupled with new technologies, could amplify the impact of these system on sustainable behavior.The second part of the talk will describe one project that bridges between our prior work in community  engagement in urban planning and design with community aspects of understanding and improving energy-use behavior.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/04/hal-eden-l3d-energy-sustainability-as-a-challenge-for-socio-technical-systems/feed/ 0 Gerhard Fischer, Center for Lifelong Learning & Design (L3D): Context-Aware Systems — The ‘Right’ Information, at the ‘Right’ Time, in the ‘Right’ Place, in the ‘Right’ Way, to the ‘Right’ Person http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/01/gerhard-fischer-center-for-lifelong-learning-design-l3d-context-aware-systems-%e2%80%94-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-information-at-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-time-in-the-%e2%80%98right/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/01/gerhard-fischer-center-for-lifelong-learning-design-l3d-context-aware-systems-%e2%80%94-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-information-at-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-time-in-the-%e2%80%98right/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:26:26 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=316 Abstract

Based on the assumption that the scarce resource for many people in the world of today is not information but human attention, the challenge for future human-centered computer systems is not to provide more information “to anyone, at anytime, and from anywhere,” but to say “the ‘right’ information, at the ‘right’ time, in the [...]]]> Abstract

Based on the assumption that the scarce resource for many people in the world of today is not information but human attention, the challenge for future human-centered computer systems is not to provide more information “to anyone, at anytime, and from anywhere,” but to say “the ‘right’ information, at the ‘right’ time, in the ‘right’ place, in the ‘right’ way to the ‘right’ person”.

This article develops a new theoretical framework for context-aware systems to address this challenge transcending existing frameworks that limited their concerns to particular aspects of context-awareness and paid little attention to potential pitfalls. The framework is based on insights derived from the development and assessment of a variety of different systems that we have developed over the last twenty years to explore different dimensions of context awareness.

Specific challenges, guidelines, and design trade-offs (promises and pitfalls) are derived from the framework for the design of the next generation of context-aware systems to support advanced interfaces for assisting humans (individuals and groups) to become more knowledgeable, more productive, and more creative by emphasizing context awareness as a fundamental design requirement.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2012/01/gerhard-fischer-center-for-lifelong-learning-design-l3d-context-aware-systems-%e2%80%94-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-information-at-the-%e2%80%98right%e2%80%99-time-in-the-%e2%80%98right/feed/ 1 Protected: Symposium: “Exploring Fundamental Transformations of Learning and Discovery in Cultures of Participation” http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/symposium-%e2%80%9cexploring-fundamental-transformations-of-learning-and-discovery-in-cultures-of-participation/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/symposium-%e2%80%9cexploring-fundamental-transformations-of-learning-and-discovery-in-cultures-of-participation/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:54:28 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=107

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]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/symposium-%e2%80%9cexploring-fundamental-transformations-of-learning-and-discovery-in-cultures-of-participation/feed/ 0 Meeting 12/14/2011: Jane Meyers, Department of Computer Science, CtG, L3D — Evolution of Craftopolis in Practice http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/meeting-12142011-jane-meyers-department-of-computer-science-ctg-l3d-evolution-of-craftopolis-in-practice/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/meeting-12142011-jane-meyers-department-of-computer-science-ctg-l3d-evolution-of-craftopolis-in-practice/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:09:36 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=297 For over a year and a half Craftopolis has been deployed as an activity in a local elementary school’s after school program. Throughout this time, Craftopolis, a construction kit for creating craft based interactive worlds, has evolved through feedback and suggestions from both students and undergraduate mentors from the University of Colorado. During this presentation [...]]]> For over a year and a half Craftopolis has been deployed as an activity in a local elementary school’s after school program. Throughout this time, Craftopolis, a construction kit for creating craft based interactive worlds, has evolved through feedback and suggestions from both students and undergraduate mentors from the University of Colorado. During this presentation I will briefly introduce the Craftopolis framework and discuss the successes, failures, and modifications made to the Craftopolis system during this time.

BIO:
Jane Meyers is a 5th year PhD student working in the Craft Technology Group. Her research interests include educational technology, the blending of interactive technologies and crafts, and researching methods for sharing and exploring tangible creations using Web 2.0 networks for tinkerers of every age.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/12/meeting-12142011-jane-meyers-department-of-computer-science-ctg-l3d-evolution-of-craftopolis-in-practice/feed/ 0 Meeting 11/2/2011: Thomas Herrmann, University of Bochum, Germany — Reflective Learning at Work http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/thomas-herrmann-university-of-bochum-germany-reflective-learning-at-work/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/thomas-herrmann-university-of-bochum-germany-reflective-learning-at-work/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:50:56 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=285 A model of reflective learning based on the work of Boud et al., 1985 (Reflection: Turning experience into learning) will be introduced. It serves as a starting point to differentiate triggers which initiate reflective learning at the work place, and to differentiate the material to which the reflection can refer to. A process model will be introduced which outlines how individual and collaborative reflection are intertwined. Several relevant roles and situations can be detected and substantiated on the basis of case studies in the health care sector. Typical subjects of reflection are situations where caregivers deal with challenging behavior of residents in a nursing home or where doctors conduct talks with relatives of patients. The process model can further be used to explore the characteristics of several web based applications which support collaborative reflection at work.

Bio: Thomas Herrmann is a professor of Information and Technology Management at the Institute of Applied Work Science (IAW), University of Bochum, Germany since 2004, and a fellow of the Electrical Engineering Department. Current research interests include design methods for socio-technical systems in the areas of knowledge management, (work-)process management, computer supported collaborative learning, and concepts of social software for innovation support and collaborative learning.
]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/thomas-herrmann-university-of-bochum-germany-reflective-learning-at-work/feed/ 0 Meeting 10/19/2011: Prof. Scott McCrickard, Virginia Tech — Collaborating with Claims in Interaction Design http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/meeting-10192011-prof-scott-mccrickard-virginia-tech-%e2%80%94-collaborating-with-claims-in-interaction-design/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/meeting-10192011-prof-scott-mccrickard-virginia-tech-%e2%80%94-collaborating-with-claims-in-interaction-design/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 05:14:59 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=191 This talk and discussion will explore how the capture and reuse of claims can help share knowledge across diverse populations of designers, resulting in measurably better user interfaces for emerging mobile platforms. The talk will differentiate claims from other knowledge capture mechanisms and will highlight examples of how claims capture and reuse can enable knowledge-sharing [...]]]> This talk and discussion will explore how the capture and reuse of claims can help share knowledge across diverse populations of designers, resulting in measurably better user interfaces for emerging mobile platforms. The talk will differentiate claims from other knowledge capture mechanisms and will highlight examples of how claims capture and reuse can enable knowledge-sharing in design. It is expected that the discussion will explore the possibilities and limitations of this approach in relation to the design efforts and methodologies under way at the University of Colorado and elsewhere.

BIO
Scott McCrickard is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a member of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. He is currently on sabbatical for the 2011-2012 academic year at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research is on the design of mobile interfaces, toward understanding how designers capture, share, and reuse design knowledge. He has received best paper awards from the Internet Research Journal, the IFIP Interact Conference, and the Advances in Computer-Human Interactions Conference. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina in mathematical science, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech in computer science.

]]> http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/meeting-10192011-prof-scott-mccrickard-virginia-tech-%e2%80%94-collaborating-with-claims-in-interaction-design/feed/ 1 Meeting 8/24/2011: Navid Ahmadi — Enabling Online Social End-User Programming http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/meeting-8242011-navid-ahmadi-enabling-online-social-end-user-programming/ http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/2011/10/meeting-8242011-navid-ahmadi-enabling-online-social-end-user-programming/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 21:27:19 +0000 Jason Zietz http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/wordpress/?p=171 Learning how to program is tough. In several decades of research, end-user programming tools and methods have been developed to lower the learning barrier and make programming accessible to wider range of users. However, learning and using programming has remained a solitary activity to end users. As a result of lack of computer support for collaborative learning of programming skills, collaboration is limited to face-to-face and general-purpose computer communication channels such as forums and instant messaging.

My goal is to leverage the social dimension of end-user programming both for educational and general purposes. My approach is to employ participative culture of Web 2.0 to cultivate social programming. By incorporating an online end-user programming environment into the existing online social networking Websites, users will be able to learn, create and share their own programming artifacts within the communities they belong to. I focus on enabling online users to program computer games. Games are known as highly engaging applications to motivate end users in learning programming skills throughout the game design process.

I will demonstrate three software components I have been developing throughout my research to enable online social EUP:

1- Online Game Design: AgentWeb, a fully Web-based game design and programming environment. Targeted for the masses, AgentWeb provides visual programming language and runtime system for developing games inside the browser. Built using open Web technologies, AgentWeb is a cross-platform end-user programming environment, accessible on all hardware and OS platforms.

2- Asynchronous Collaborative Game Design: An early version of a social game design Website with AgentWeb at its core which lets users develop, share, explore, learn, and customize games as they play, skipping the upload/download barrier. When completed, the Website fully integrates into Facebook, allowing users to program within their own existing communities. This also helps me lower down the difficulties of community building in my research.

3- Synchronous Collaborative Game Design: An early prototype of a real-time collaborative AgentWeb which enables multiple users to remotely design and program a game at the same time. Using a similar approach to Google Docs, any changes made by one users are received by other users at real time. Users are informed of changes through an awareness component. The real-time collaborative environment enables exploring distributed peer learning scenarios in end-user programming, an area which has remained unexplored.

I will present some of the pilot studies on AgentWeb and discuss further study plans and challenges.

Bio: Navid Ahmadi has been a Ph.D. student since November 2006 in the faculty of Informatics, at University of Lugano, Switzerland. He is interested in enabling collaborative and social end-user programming on the Web. His research relies upon Web 2.0, Domain-specific languages, CSCW, and end-user programming. He is also interested in Visual Interfaces, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing, Semantic Web, and Service-Oriented Computing. He has initiated WEUP (End-User Programming on the Web), an open-source project to develop an infrastructure for enabling end users to build their own interactive applications on the Web.
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