Jochen "Jeff" Rick
Supporting Collaborative Learning with Interactive Tabletops
30th November 2011, 4:00pm
Entrée libre et gratuite.
Amphi Grenat, Télécom ParisTech - 46 rue Barrault Paris 13 - Metro Corvisart
(how to get there ?)
Abstract
Interactive tabletops allow multiple users to interact with the same large horizontal display concurrently through touch input, pen input, or moving physical objects whose position and orientation can be tracked. Based on their support for direct manipulation and multiple entry points, there is growing excitement about this technology's potential to support small group work (2-4 learners per tabletop). For instance, SMART Technologies is already selling a commercial product aimed at the classroom.
In this presentation, I provide an introduction to the research on supporting collaborative learning with interactive tabletops. I provide concrete examples from my own research on developing tabletop applications and evaluating children's use of these applications. I will address several important questions: How does the age of the participants impact the use of the technology and the nature of the collaboration? What is the value of direct manipulation? What is the value of multiple entry points? How do individual group dynamics affect the collaboration?
Biography
Jochen "Jeff" Rick is on the faculty of the Department of Educational Technology, Saarland University, Germany. His research interests are in designing innovative applications for leading-edge technologies to support collaborative learning through active inquiry, exploration, and construction. During a three year postdoc at the Open University, he developed several innovative applications for interactive tabletops, demonstrating the potential of that technology to support co-located collaborative learning. In 2007, he received a PhD in Computer Science in the area of Learning Sciences and Technology from Georgia Tech. His latest research focuses on tablets and an ecology of multiple multi-touch devices. He is the leader of the STELLAR theme team "Multiple Surfaces for Collaborative Learning."