[CSEE Talk] Talk: April 6: 3:00-4:00pm: Prof. Francis Quek, Making in the classroom...

[Jian Chen]

Dear colleagues,

Please consider to come to this talk. The topic is related to
interdisciplinary areas of computing, interaction, and eduction.

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*Making in the Classroom: The Rationale, The Challenge, and The Imperative*

Francis Quek, Professor
Department of Visualization
Texas A&M University

http://TEILab.tamu.edu/quek

Location: ITE 217 conference room
Time: April 6 (Thursday): 3:00-4:00pm

*Abstract: *

Computing is increasingly focused in interaction with the physical world
rather than just in the abstract virtual world of screens and pixels.
Physical computing combines the design of physical electronics with
computation to bring about possibilities that simply interacting with
pixels behind glass cannot. One manifestation of physical computing in our
culture is seen in the Maker movement. Technologies such as 3D printing and
open source electronics and accessible computing have combined to give rise
to a Maker movement that promises to broaden participation in
technology-based innovation and production. The potential of Making to
enhance learning, especially in areas of Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) has led to calls to bring Making into education.
However, the characteristics of innovation, discovery, and student-directed
learning for which Making is prized is not easily incorporated into public
school learning. Making-based learning are thus often provided in clubs,
community Makerspaces, and workshops. This poses a severe issue of equity
as youth participants are implicitly self-selected through parents who have
the knowledge and means to enroll their children at such venues.  Taking a
human-centered perspective, we present a project where Making is integrated
with the formal curriculum of a public elementary school that serves
predominantly underrepresented populations. We will examine the rationale
for employing Making-based classroom learning and  review our strategy for
curriculum alignment. We will see how our 'double scaffolding' approach
supports both learning of STEM curricula and knowledge and skills
associated with computing and Making. Beside learning STEM material, our
approach seeks to support the development of STEM self-efficacy and
self-identities in children who may not otherwise see these possibilities
in themselves. We present results of our year-long study that show the
promise of our approach.

*Bio:*
Francis Quek is a Professor of the Department of Visualization (and by
courtesy, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor of
Psychology) at Texas A&M University. He joined Texas A&M University as an
interdisciplinary President’s Signature Hire to bridge disparities in STEM.
Formerly he has been the Director of the Center for Human-Computer
Interaction at Virginia Tech. Francis received both his B.S.E. summa cum
laude (1984) and M.S.E. (1984) in electrical engineering from the
University of Michigan.  He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the
same university in 1990. Francis is a member of the IEEE and ACM.

He performs research in Making for STEM learning, embodied interaction,
embodied learning and sensemaking, multimodal verbal/non-verbal
interaction, multimodal meeting analysis, interfaces to support learning,
vision-based interaction, multimedia databases, medical imaging, assistive
technology for the blind, human computer interaction, computer vision, and
computer graphics. He leads several multiple-disciplinary research efforts
to understand the communicative realities of multimodal interaction.


Best regards,
  -- Jian
--------------------------------------------------------
Jian Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~jichen
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