NSF Awards: 2021159
2021 (see original presentation & discussion)
Undergraduate, Graduate, Adult learners
The Center for Integrative Research in Computing and Learning Sciences (CIRCLS) is a community-based hub for NSF-funded researchers and other interested stakeholders who explore and investigate technologies, including artificial intelligence, that will be available to learners in 5-10 years. Advancing equity is a core goal in this research. Emerging technologies create a potential for dynamic supports that meet learners’ varying personal-, community-, and context-centered needs. In this video, we’ll share more about the activities of our center that broaden the audiences who participate in research on emerging technology and discuss how you can join our community.
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
On behalf of the whole CIRCLS team, I want to thank you for taking the time to watch our video. Our team looks forward to discussing topics related to emerging technologies for teaching and learning. We are especially interested in your thoughts around the following questions:
If you want to learn even more about CIRCLS, visit our website: https://circls.org/ or ask us here!
David Lockett
Dalila Dragnic-Cindric
Lorna Quandt
Aman Yadav
Professor
Thanks for sharing and creating this community on emerging technologies for teaching and learning. I am specifically interested in learning more about how you are supporting educators to think about ethical and privacy issues around technologies, in particular AI. Are there tools your team has created for K-12 educators and administrators to think about these issues?
Judi Fusco
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Hi Aman,
Thanks for your question. We are working with educators in a few different ways. We are trying to create a bridge between research and classroom practice and broaden the community of people involved in CIRCLS. We worked with a core team of educators on CIRCL (the center that preceded CIRCLS) and are now expanding that work. Here’s a link to a form we are using to see areas of interest, areas of expertise, and the kinds of activities educators might want to be involved in with us. You are welcome to share this with any educators who might be interested.
Specifically along the lines of creating resources for K-12 educators and administrators, we just completed a series of webinars with panels of practitioners, AI researchers, and developers on AI and the Future of K12 STEM Education. This page links you in to all of the resources we created around those webinars, including the archived webinars. We have created a critical AI reading list and have plans to make additional resources on these topics. In addition, the AI & Ed Policy Expertise Exchange involves practitioners and is working on policy issues. We’d love to hear more about your thoughts in this area and if you are creating or know of any resources, please share. We have spots for guest bloggers on the Educator CIRCLS site and we welcome you (or others) to join us in thinking.
Judi
Aman Yadav
Professor
Hi Judi,
Thank you for sharing the resources and how you are bridging the practice-research divide. The critical AI reading list is great! I look forward to digging into it. I am working with one of my students on how we can bring critical CS to K-12 classrooms. I would love to reach out when we have something more concrete to share via your blog.
Aman
Pati Ruiz
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Thanks, Aman. I look forward to talking more in the future and sharing your work. Great to meet you!
Pati Ruiz
+1! I work with CIRCLS on this project and I'd be happy to chat with your grad student about critical CS!
Kevin McElhaney
HI Judi and team! Wondering if it is possible to summarize some principles/insights from CIRCLS about what technology features tend to narrow (rather than widen) gaps between privileged and minoritized students. I realize this may be a very broad question--maybe the start of a discussion.
Judi Fusco
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Hi Kevin,
That is the start of a great discussion! Great question and thanks for asking. I think that we'll be talking about this at our upcoming convening and this could be the topic for a future Expertise Exchange. RETTL is funding their first projects within the next couple of months. By the way if you're interested in applying to attend the September CIRCLS convening fill out the application form.
Related -- past work done under Cyberlearning (with CIRCL, the Center that preceded CIRCLS) includes 9 Workshops focused on the Principles for the Design of Digital STEM Learning Environments. You can see the whitepapers here https://circlcenter.org/resources/synthesis-design-workshops/.
Carly Chillmon
Research Communications Manager
On the CIRCLS website, we share relevant reports and webinars that we and others have written or hosted. One of the first reports we authored was the AI and the Future of Learning: Expert Panel Report. We also held a webinar and the archive of it is available to watch on the report link. The report considers two broad questions:
Feel free to add your thoughts here around these questions.
Marcia Linn
Hi Judy and Kevin ! It's great to learn about the exciting work you are doing. Your video is thought provoking. We are eager to join you in exploring these exciting issues? See our work exploring the ways teachers collaborate to emphasize social justice in science. Enjoy, Marcia
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Hi Marcia!
Great video and project you have going. We should definitely talk about ways to share it through Educator CIRCLS. Do you have someone who might want to be a guest blogger? We'd love that. If you have other ideas, feel free to email me and we can talk more.
Best,
Judi
Erin Walker
Associate Professor
Hi everyone! I just wanted to share a little more about the AI and Education Policy Expertise Exchange currently being organized by CIRCLS. One function of CIRCLS is to connect members of our community to share their expertise with each other and build synergies across individual initiatives. Our current Expertise Exchange brings together our community of stakeholders in academia, industry, non-profits, and K-12 education to learn about and develop policy recommendations at the intersection of AI and education. Since kicking off in March, we’ve hosted speakers on national, international, and state-level policy initiatives, as well as an educator panel. The Expertise Exchange is being led by Leah Friedman, a research consultant with the University of Pittsburgh, Pooja Saxena, soon joining Cottey College as an Assistant Professor, and myself, an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
We’d like to hear from you as we continue our work on this Expertise Exchange! What AI & Ed policy initiatives do you find most important and why?
Erin Walker
Associate Professor
Over the course of 3 months, members of the AI and Education Policy Expertise Exchange have started creating actionable policy recommendations, specifically encouraging transparency and privacy in AI EdTech development as well as user agency and AI literacy for students and educators. Members are now working on converting those recommendations into policy briefs. Reach out to us to learn more or check back on the CIRCLS website where we’ll be posting more outcomes from this AI and Education Policy Expertise Exchange. This specific exchange will be wrapping up in June, but we’ll continue to host expertise exchanges in areas that are of interest to our community - which expertise exchange topics would you like to see next?
Teon Edwards
Hi, Judi and team. As you note, emerging technologies for teaching and learning can lead to exciting new innovations, but they also require careful attention to many issues, including equity. I'm currently working on the use of virtual reality for learning, as well as focusing on how assets for this emerging technology can be designed for and with neurodiverse learners. Your video here is focused on AI, but I'm wondering if you have any insights into ethics related to VR. For example, we're targeting teens and adults, as we still face major uncertainty in terms of the use of VR with younger learners. Also, we're aware that the use of VR may open up new opportunities, but obviously, simple access to the technology is a major equity barrier. Would love to hear your thoughts. Would also appreciate connecting with others in your hub facing similar challenges and questions. Thanks.
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Hi Teon!
Good to see you here! Thanks for your question. As you know you can't cover everything in a 3-minute video, but in our community we do discuss VR. We don't currently have discussion groups on going on that topic, but we have in the past.
There's a couple of things we could do... we can talk (offline) and discuss who might be good to connect with on this or we could think about offering an Expertise Exchange on the topic (if we can find a good host--hint you can self-nominate).
On another note, have you filled out the application form for the convening? We may have breakout discussions during the convening on AR/VR.
See you in a zoom soon, I bet! Thanks for watching the video!
Dalila Dragnic-Cindric
Hi, all! I am Dalila Dragnić-Cindrić, and I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at CIRCLS. I lead the Emerging Scholar CIRCLS Expertise Exchange. Emerging Scholar CIRCLS is a community of graduate students and recent graduates who are either already engaged in interdisciplinary computer and learning sciences research or are interested in this work. We focus on broadening participation in the computing and learning sciences through activities that include a mentoring series with senior researchers, professional development sessions, and affinity groups.
We invite PIs to nominate their graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who might be interested in actively participating in this vibrant community of emerging scholars. We also look forward to and welcome self-nominations from all interested students and recent graduates. We especially encourage the participation of individuals and groups who have been minoritized in the computing and learning sciences community. Please fill out this form to join this exciting community.
We look forward to welcoming you there and learning about your interests and work!
NATHAN KIMBALL
Curriculum Developer
Hi CIRCLS Team, Your video and the links in this discussion provide a treasure trove of information about AI in education and more generally emerging technologies in education. Thank you for that! And, yes, I'm glad there is attention to equity issues from the outset. Separate from that, but also relevant, is the issue of security of data and protection of students and teachers. Is this issue in CIRCLS's purview, and if so, what have been some outcomes.
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for your question about security of data and protection of students and teachers. It's something that is so important and we should all be discussing. The short answer is YES. First, we discuss it in our AI Report. Second, as you know, it's a commitment that researchers make to honor the privacy and protect our participants. It's not always the case that companies treat data the same way. Third, As we've started an AI and Ed Policy group, it's also forefront in those discussions. We don't yet have final outcomes as the work is still ongoing. (Also, we note there are many laws protecting students and not many thinking about teachers.)
As I said before, it's so important, thank you for the question. How are you all thinking about it?
Best,
Judi
p.s. I love the GRASP project!
Wendy Martin
Senior Research Scientist
Hi all!
I am a member of the CIRCLS team and a co-presenter for the video. To ensure the CIRCLS resource center is a learning organization, our team will use the Continuous Improvement Toolkit that was developed by EDC to set goals, gather and analyze data about our activities, reflect on how we are doing and make improvements. We'd love to hear your experiences with continuous improvement processes if you have use those in your organizations.
David Lockett
Albert Einstein Fellow
I am so impressed with emerging technologies and applications that are reshaping education. Technological innovations are revolutionizing the AI educational sector. AI technology is increasingly becoming commonplace in educational scenarios.
Judi Fusco
Carly Chillmon
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Thank you, David. We are so glad you are part of the work. Please share with anyone who might be interested. We do need more voices in conversation.
Eric Hamilton
Judi and team, so grateful for all of the work of CIRCLS in building community and broader participation around the bracing and exciting era we are navigating. Thank you, and especially for the AI track you are developing.
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Thank you, Eric. I know you know the importance of community building on your project. Great video, btw. I need to read the latest ENA work and learn. The AI work is needed and we do need more voices. Please point anyone interested that you know to our work.
Eric Hamilton
Eric Hamilton
Thanks for good words, and again, thank you for the community-backbone work that you and the full CIRCLS team carry out. In case I forget, we have a colleague is western Finland who may be a compelling added value. I worked with him when I was at UNESCO, and his name is escaping me, but he did important curriculum work for a big project we ran. I will look him up, but ping me if it eludes me.
Judi Fusco
Jessica Ochoa Hendrix
Hi Judi and team, thank you for such an engaging and informative video. The CIRCLS network looks like a fantastic resource and we are excited to check it out! Another resource you may be familiar with already is the Immersive Learning Research Network which has a (free to attend) conference taking place over the next few weeks- https://immersivelrn.org/ilrn2021/
Judi Fusco
Senior Researcher Stem Teaching and Learning
Thank you, Jessica! Welcome, too! I will check out the Immersive Research Network. Good to meet you!
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.