EAGER: Collaborative Research: Virtual STEM Buddies for Personalized Learning Experiences in Free Choice Informal Learning Settings

EAGER：协作研究：虚拟 STEM 伙伴在自由选择的非正式学习环境中提供个性化学习体验

• 批准号: 1513382
• 负责人: Kyle Johnsen
• 金额: $ 7.87万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1513382&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Collaborative; Research; Virtual; STEM

The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that will help envision the next generation of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. This project investigates how to provide customized instructional scaffolding to young kids to learn science in unstructured, out-of-school environments. The innovation is in using 'virtual STEM buddies' (VSBs), a computerized character that functions as both a mentor and a peer, and interacts with a child across exhibits within a children's museum to help them learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Research will examine how to design and build such technologies, and how the 'virtual buddy' fits into other learning interactions (such as those between parent and child, or between museum guide and child). The VSB, an intelligent embodied agent, will be built and pilot tested at the Children's Museum of Atlanta, with engineering research focusing on how to ensure the agent can align with the learner's knowledge and passions in what Crowley and Jacobs term 'islands of expertise'. Key features will include assessment of and alignment to the youth's prior knowledge; an interaction tailored to social construction of knowledge and continuity over time (so that the agent evolves with the child); and opportunistic instruction based on teachable moments both within and outside the museum. Engineering research will explore, in conjunction with participatory design, technologies for visitor identification (barcode, RFID, biometrics), user experience design to explore input methods in the noisy environment of a children's museum, and mechanisms to handle 'bottlenecking' of visitors (i.e., to allow an acceptable multi-user experience if multiple children want to access the VSB technology at an exhibit). The learning research will focus on discourse of youth in the museum with adults and peers, and will be augmented with a brief post exhibit attitudinal survey based on the "Changes in Attitudes about the Relevance of Science" instrument.

网络学习和未来的学习技术计划资助的工作将有助于设想下一代学习技术，并促进我们对人们在技术丰富的环境中学习的了解。该项目调查了如何向年幼的孩子提供定制的教学脚手架，以在非结构化的校外环境中学习科学。创新是在使用“虚拟STEM伙伴”（VSB）的情况下，这是一种既是导师又是同伴的计算机角色，并与儿童博物馆中的一个展览中的孩子互动，以帮助他们学习科学，技术，工程和数学。研究将研究如何设计和构建此类技术，以及“虚拟伙伴”如何适合其他学习互动（例如父母和子女之间的互动，或博物馆指南与儿童之间的互动）。 VSB是一位聪明的体现特工，将在亚特兰大儿童博物馆进行建造和试点测试，工程研究的重点是确保如何确保特工可以与Crowley和Jacobs术语“专业知识岛”中学习者的知识和激情保持一致。关键特征将包括对年轻人的先验知识的评估和一致；一种量身定制的互动，该互动是随着时间的流逝的社会知识和连续性的（使孩子与孩子一起演变的）；以及基于博物馆内外的可教导时刻的机会主义指导。 Engineering research will explore, in conjunction with participatory design, technologies for visitor identification (barcode, RFID, biometrics), user experience design to explore input methods in the noisy environment of a children's museum, and mechanisms to handle 'bottlenecking' of visitors (i.e., to allow an acceptable multi-user experience if multiple children want to access the VSB technology at an exhibit).学习研究将集中在与成人和同龄人的博物馆中的青年话语上，并根据“对科学相关性的态度变化”的简短展览会进行态度调查。