Michael Eisenberg’s research while affiliated with University of Colorado Boulder and other places
What is this page?
This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.
The vast majority of research in educational technology focuses, justifiably, on what might be described as “short-term” (or perhaps “medium-term”) questions: how to improve an existing software system, how to assess a particular classroom innovation, and how to teach some current subject matter in a more effective fashion. From time to time, however, it is worth stepping back from such questions and taking a longer view of children’s technology: what are the larger patterns by which certain technologies become associated with children’s work? In this chapter, we examine a broad thematic pattern through which “adult” (or “professional”) technologies become progressively associated with children’s activities. As an example of how this analysis can be put to use for future design, we describe early steps in an effort to adapt a particularly powerful manufacturing technology (“pick-and-place”) for children’s crafts.
This SIG will provide child-computer interaction researchers and practitioners an opportunity to discuss topics related to ethical challenges in the design, and use of interactive technologies for children. Topics include the role of big data, the impact of technology in children's social and physical ecosystem, and the consideration of ethics in children's participation in the design of technologies, and in the conceptualization of technologies for children.
All too often, discussions of computer science education are constrained by notions unequal to the task of advancing education—notions such as “skill acquisition” or “national competitiveness”. We are told by many scholars, businesspeople, and policy-makers that computer science is necessary for students because “the workplace demands 21st-century skills”, or “many jobs will be opening up in technical areas”. These sentiments are simply too trite to motivate clear thinking about computer science education—and for that matter, they are too trite to motivate the students themselves. A more fertile foundation for discussion is to think of education as a process through which students create an intellectual autobiography—a narrative that supplies them with such things as lifelong projects and abiding interests. In approaching computer science education from this angle, it is especially helpful to begin with the many strengths and occasional weaknesses of the resurgent “maker movement” in American youth culture. By thinking of computer science as a discipline of construction and expressive creation, we can achieve a fresh perspective on increasingly stale issues such as “computational thinking”, “assessment of skills”, and “core curricula”.
In the past half century, educational technology has generally been closely associated with computers - so much so that other forms of educational technology are rarely considered. No doubt, over these past 50 years, what we think of as a computer has evolved quite a bit - from the classroom-wide instructional systems pioneered by researchers such as Patrick Suppes in the 1960s, to personal desktop computers in the 1980s, and (more recently) to portable and handheld devices. Nonetheless, all of these educational technologies share the core features of the computer: A central processing unit, a screen (if a smartphone, it might be a tiny touch-sensitive screen), a keyboard (if a tablet, perhaps displayed on the screen itself), and memory (perhaps vastly augmented by the resources of the Web). The larger field of technological innovation involves much more than computing, however - it includes mechanical, industrial, material, and electrical design, just to name a few major areas. Those elements of technological innovation today contribute to a much broader, more provocative view of the field of educational technology. By expanding our technological lens beyond the computer - by seeing technology as a dynamic ecosystem of techniques, materials, and research - we can likewise view education and learning through a more productive lens. This chapter focuses on the related areas of "tangible" and "full-body" interfaces in learning - essentially, blending computational ideas and devices with the wider landscape of other technologies (e.g., materials science, architectural engineering, mechanical design), such that the user interacts with the technology in a more embodied, more natural way - not through a keyboard and a screen, but through touch and manipulation (in the case of tangible interfaces) and large-scale gesture and bodily movement (for full-body interfaces). Until relatively recently, tangible and full-body computing have rarely been considered in discussions of educational technology.
Citations (4)
... Learning activities, knowledge construction and skill training, will be within the scope of the students' role. Therefore, learning management may involve the students' roles as follows [34][35][36]: ...
... According to Hourcade J.P. [10], in designing digital interventions, two main principles need to be considered which are usability and user experience. Adolescents have different needs, skills and motivations than adults in both of these aspects. ...
... The science forces the presence of curriculum variations [299] to respond to challenges of each learning environment and its different applications [300] with broader and more thorough knowledge [301], but as a whole, articulate a theoretical framework that accommodates programming independently of mathematics [302]. Through it growth, computer science is a science with several features [303], and a science that gives birth to practical skills in the 21 st century [304], where there is an advanced level of knowledge that makes studies possible [305]. Thus, computer science is a science that opens up the intersection of disciplines to different sciences but has a close relationship where multi-disciplines have a focal point in computer science makes it something important to others [306]. ...
... As a part of Weiser's "ubiquitous computing" [13], technology becomes ubiquitous and embedded in our daily life objects, which can be naturally interacted with, like grabbing. Tangible learning involves gesture, motion or full-body interaction and "emphasizes the use of the body in educational practice" [5]. TUI for learning emphasizes physical activities and manipulation of physical objects for learning [1]. ...