Ziye Wen

The Ohio State University | OSU · Department of Educational Studies

Studies suggest college students/adult learners interacting with current search tools like Google display tendency to power-browse and adhere to page-ranking order in choosing sources to supplement writing. Such limitations may limit critical reflectivity. We present a tool, ThoughtShuffler which allows users to malleably alter neighborhoods of key...

This paper investigates whether 4th and 5th grade students studying about local and systemic issues (in the U.S. and globally), respectively, in social studies classrooms through four units of technology-enriched instruction differed in their use of affect, logic, and morality related words in discussion posts. Our moderation analysis revealed whil...

This two-part in-person workshop at Carnegie Mellon University unearths potentials in applying principles of cybernetics to curriculum and educational technology design. Cybernetics is a transdiscipline enabling connections across ideas in fields such as biology, the social sciences, and computer science to understand how complex systems evolve in...

In an era marked by rapid information flows, search engine use often precedes online exploration. Search engines like Google function through reliance on over 200 signals that fine tune consumer behavior and provide ordered results. This process “adds a little something extra” to the idea of re- sults ordered by pure conceptual relationships betwee...

Immersive storytelling (IST) is usually conceptualized within the framework of technologically immersive tools such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While these tools offer some unique features (such as visual fidelity, interactivity, and embodied, first-person perspective), their level of technological immersion (based on the system’s obj...

In this study, we used a computerized text analysis tool to understand the use of logic-oriented language, emotion-oriented language, and sociomoral language derived from 662 Flipgrid videos produced by 120 fourth and fifth graders in social studies classrooms. Flipgrid is an online video-based discussion platform providing an educational version o...

Teachers and students construct dialogic spaces that mediate classroom learning. Dialogic space involves multiple voices constructed between individuals, within individuals, or from texts/media (Wegerif, 2007). Supported by technological tools, classroom dialogic spaces can expand from traditional face-to-face or person-text interactions to online...

The present study examines how 4th and 5th grade students choose between using either asynchronous text-based or video-based discussion tools when they express their opinions about controversial social issues. We particularly focus on how their choices are related to their socioeconomic status and online digital citizenship. We analyzed the modalit...

The purpose of this study was to examine whether justifying one’s own social knowledge (moral, societal, psychological) toward complex social-moral issues through collaborative argumentation was associated with the improvement of social perspective taking for elementary students. A total of 129 5th graders (52% female, Mage = 10.98) from six classr...

This qualitative study presents 27 students’ insights about four teachers’ implementation of an immersive Native American history curricular unit designed to equip students with digital skills to critically navigate complex, polarizing social issues. The Digital Civic Learning (DCL) curriculum used Google Suite and Google Classroom or Schoology to...

The current study examined the development of early adolescents’ social perspective taking (SPT) through collaborative small-group discussions. A total of 250 fifth-graders were assigned to three conditions, Collaborative Social Reasoning (CSR) discussions, Read-Aloud (RA) and Regular Instruction (RI). SPT was assessed before and after the interven...

Despite iterative learning design being increasingly implemented, such approaches are often delineated by well-defined periods of design/implementation. However, second-order cybernetics, which suggests a participatory approach to learning design, involves responsively adapting learning environments to meet students’ needs, treating them as agentic...

Visuospatial (VS) skills, or one’s ability to mentally manipulate spatial information about objects, are critical to STEM enrollment, retention, and achievement. Low level of VS skills may deter some people from joining the STEM workforce or complicate their learning experience. While there is plenty of evidence suggesting that VS skills can be imp...

In the Information Age, social media tools produce cybernetic feedback loops that respond to human agency on-the-fly, making it important to equip individuals with skills to navigate these feedback loops and traverse through a society where polarized online debates about controversial issues like climate change and vaccines are common. Educational...

The present study examines the effectiveness of a three-unit digital social studies curriculum in cultivating elementary students’ civic reasoning and decision making during the pandemic year. Eighty-seven students participated in dialogue-rich activities to collectively resolve critical civic issues. Pre-post changes in civic reasoning and decisio...

This paper investigates whether immersive technology-assisted curricula improve teacher perceptions of elementary students’ moral engagement with social issues, and capacity for collaborative dialogue and activism to understand causes of inequality. Our study is derived from a technology-assisted intervention encouraging civic reasoning about socia...

We studied the feasibility of an innovative blended learning curriculum for early adolescents intended to foster citizenship skills through collaborative dialogue. Our curriculum was implemented during the 2020-2021 academic year, which afforded an opportunity to study feasibility under constrained classroom contexts. We conducted qualitative analy...

In this conference presentation, we understand elementary school students' experiences using distributed technologies in social studies classroom. Our study was conducted with 87 students (58% 4th grade; 48% girls; 59% White, 22% Black, 14% Asian, 5% Multiracial) from five classes across two Midwestern public elementary schools (the sample from one...

The current study examined whether students’ social perspective taking (SPT) could be developed through small group argumentative discussions. A total of 250 fifth-grade students were assigned to three conditions: Collaborative Social Reasoning (CSR), Read Aloud (RA), and Regular Instruction (RI). Students’ SPT was assessed before and after the int...

In this paper, we suggest that research platforms on the present Internet should offer more diverse pathways for distributed communication, to cope with the idiosyncrasies of a post-truth society. Present platforms adhere to a first-order cybernetic approach, using rule-based systems and algorithms to guide the activity of researchers, and expose t...

Visuospatial (VS) skills are one of the cornerstones of STEM enrollment, retention, and achievement. Even though they are malleable, few comprehensive training programs exist, especially for younger populations. The current study proposes a new direction of VS training focusing on the development of visuospatial self-efficacy (VSSE) and describes t...

The current study aims to promote the development of early adolescents’ social perspective taking (SPT) by addressing two challenges confronted in the realm of social-emotional learning intervention and SPT measurement. The first challenge revolved around how SPT can be cultivated and instructed using pedagogically effective approaches in complex a...

We examined whether participating in in dialogic discussions led to improvement in students’ social knowledge. Fifth-grade students’ social reasoning was assessed before and after six weeks of discussions using an essay task. Poisson regressions with Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) showed that the amount of social knowledge generated during...

Direct instruction (PowerPoint presentations, lectures) often imposes hierarchical classroom structures where the teachers are considered experts, imparting knowledge to passive learners. However, the emergence of tools like Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) encourages the creation of democratic learning environments. We hypothesize that thes...