Title: Interpersonal computers for higher education

Abstract: I will explore the design and use of interpersonal computers for higher education through the discussion of three specific examples developed and tested in our lab – a table, a lamp and a robotic display. Research in collaborative learning invites us to consider two key features for the design of computers on which several persons can interact in the same place, at the same time. Such systems should permit fluid interactions among group members and not act as an obstacle to natural collaboration but also offer means to influence ongoing interactions: augmenting the frequency of conflicts, fostering elaborated explanations, supporting mutual understanding, etc. How can the same tool be sufficiently transparent to foster natural interaction dynamics and sufficiently present to shape group processes ? These two contradictory goals act as guidelines for designing efficient interpersonal computers. 

Blog posts in this talk :

Sharing interface, space and objects by Graham Hopkins

Website of the workshop

Shareable interfaces are designed to support co-located collaboration. They include technologies such as interactive multi-touch whiteboards, walls and tables, tangibles, single display groupware or multiple personal devices used to interact with a shared representation. These technical innovations provide both opportunities and challenges to educators and designers who aim to design systems to support co-located collaborative learning. On the one hand, these technologies would intuitively seem to support collaborative activity better than the single user PC or the one-to-many PowerPoint presentation.

On the other hand, there are few design frameworks or systematic evaluations of shareable technologies to guide their design and deployment. Experience has shown that investment in technology in educational settings can be problematic in the absence of clear guidelines about its best use.

This workshop, sponsored by the ShareIT project (shareitproject.org) will draw together current themes and topics and address the potential of different sorts of shareable technologies for supporting co-located collaborative learning.

The workshop will feature 3 invited talks and several activity sessions to ground discussion and provide a shared focus. The invited speakers will be:

Edith Ackermann: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture. (http://web.media.mit.edu/~edith/)

Frederic Kaplan: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (http://www.fkaplan.com/en/index.xml)

University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Inqbate Creativity Zone: Pevensey III building (http://www.inqbate.co.uk/)

Time and Date

10am 11^th – 3pm 12^th September 2008

Amanda Harris and Nicola Yuill (Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK)

Paul Marshall, Eva Hornecker and Yvonne Rogers (Pervasive Interaction lab, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)