ECT Brownbag Speakers

Generative AI is increasingly shaping how we learn, work, communicate, and create. These technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for people of all ages to explore ideas, express creativity, and personalize learning. Yet many AI systems operate as “black boxes,” making it difficult to understand its decision-making. Challenges such as hallucinations, biased outputs, and deepfakes underscore the need for new forms of literacy that help users question, verify, and make sense of AI-generated content. This is especially pressing for children, who often anthropomorphize AI and overtrust its responses, forming a relational frame in which AI feels both authoritative and emotionally safe. In this talk, I will share how I design interactive tools and learning experiences that help children, families, and educators make sense of and critically engage with AI systems.

About the speaker

Aayushi Dangol is a doctoral candidate in Human-Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on how children can learn with and about artificial intelligence. She designs and studies AI literacy tools and learning experiences that help children understand how AI systems work, reflect on their social and environmental impacts, and exercise agency in AI-mediated learning environments. She earned her BA in Computer Science and Studio Art from Swarthmore College and worked as a middle school teacher before beginning her PhD.

A scalable system for audio emotional design for experimentation in immersive learning environments that leverage audio in its core experience. The work in this dissertation provides empirical evidence that emotion-driven audio designs can reliably shape emotional experience and cognitive resource demands in immersive learning environments.

About the speaker

Al Olsen is a doctoral candidate in Educational Communication and Technology at NYU, set to defend in Spring 2026, and a designer-researcher who sits at a rare intersection of games for learning, audio emotional design, and generative AI for education. Over 11+ years at NYU's CREATE Lab, he built the flagship multimedia learning research platform, DREAM, co-authored influential publications on emotional design in games (including a 212-citation paper in Learning and Instruction), and contributed to projects funded by NSF, IES, NIH, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Outside the lab, he performs and produces heavy metal under the project th6numb6r6, runs Al Olsen Records, and has founded three companies—most recently Kokoleko (2025) and Sky Byte (2024).

Publications

MAARS

Olsen, A. F., Roginska, A., & Plass, J. L. (2022, August). Multilayered Affect-Audio Research System for Virtual Reality Learning Environments. In Audio Engineering Society Conference: AES 2022 International Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality Conference. Audio Engineering Society.

AFFECTIVE QUALITIES OF AUDIO DESIGNS

Olsen, A. F., (2025). Investigating the Affective Quality of Audio Designs in Virtual Reality. In 20th International Audio Mostly Conference (AM '25), June 30-July 04, 2025, Coimbra, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 20 Pages.

https://doi.org/10.1145/3771594.3771599

Join us for an interactive session with Wonda founder and CEO Arnaud Dressen, exploring how immersive and conversational AI technologies are democratizing how students can practice and learn differently in simulated digital environments.

From virtual field trips in the Bronx for frontline care givers to cultural formulation interview practice for psychiatrists, new digital simulation tools are empowering students and professionals to improve their human-to-human communication competencies effectively and at scale.

In this session, you will:

Discover latest case studies from NYU Meyers, NYU Silver and other universities

Experience an AI-powered conversational simulation and assessment first-hand

Learn about best practises to design your own simulation-based learning activity and integrate it into your existing curriculum

The session will conclude with an open discussion and audience Q&A.

Participants interested in applying these approaches in their own courses will have the opportunity to get access to Wonda Pro and explore pilot projects with the Wonda team.

About the speaker

Arnaud Dressen is the CEO and founder of Wonda, a Paris and New York-based company that was accelerated at NYU Steinhardt in 2017.

With more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of interactive storytelling and learning technologies, Arnaud has been at the forefront of immersive media and conversational AI in higher education and professional training.

His previous ventures include founding one of the first community-driven investigative journalism platforms and producing acclaimed interactive documentaries featured at SXSW. Under his leadership, Wonda has been recognized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as one of the leading XR startups in education.

At NYU, Arnaud and his team have collaborated with multiple schools and colleges including the Silver School of Social Work, Gallatin, and, more recently, Meyers College of Nursing / HIGN, as part of a multi-year grant focused on promoting innovative pedagogy for better elderly care.

Cognitive science is the study of how people learn and make decisions. ECT’s Computational Logic Lab studies how LLMs learn and make decisions. Turns out that you can learn a lot about human learning and thinking by studying the behavior of modern Large Language Models. This brown bag will be an informal discussion of a half dozen lab projects focusing on how these generative models make ethical decisions, why most models lean to the left politically, how religious training influences model behavior, and which neurons light up when a model has to make a difficult decision.

About the speaker

W. Russell Neuman is a specialist in new media and digital education. He was the John Derby Evans Professor of Media Technology in Communication Studies and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and also taught at the University of Pennsylvania where he directed the Information and Society Program of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He served as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy working in the areas of information technology, broadband policy and technologies for border security. His recent books include The Digital Difference: Media Technology and the Theory of Communication Effects (Harvard University Press, 2016), Media, Technology, and Society: Theories of Media Evolution (University of Michigan Press, 2010). He also taught at Harvard and Yale and was one of the founding faculty of the MIT Media Laboratory. His Ph.D. is from the University of California, Berkeley and his undergraduate degree is from Cornell University. Professor Neuman’s teaching and research focus on educational outcomes, information overload, information economics, modalities of learning, learning assessment and learning outside the classroom.

Chad Coleman is an AI, Analytics & Innovation executive (ex-Google, IBM, currently at ZoomInfo)—leading multi-disciplinary teams (DS, Engineering, Product, UX, DevOps) to deliver next-gen AI solutions. His expertise aligns technical vision with executive strategy, driving rapid business transformation, equity value, and growth. He thrive in agile, non-bureaucratic environments with direct authority, delivering rapid solutions and breakthrough innovation aligned with board-level priorities. He translate complex, cutting-edge AI advances into actionable business outcomes for leadership stakeholders. AI innovations he led have streamlined operations, accelerated product launches, and generated multi-million-dollar recurring revenue. His impact at ZoomInfo, Google, IBM, and Fortune 500 clients is validated by C-suite engagement and rapid solution delivery.

Safinah Ali is an Assistant Professor at NYU Steinhardt in the Department of Administration Leadership and Technology. Prior to her appointment she gained a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. She also holds a Masters degree  in Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor's degree in Design from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

Ali Dasdan has worked with amazing teams in multiple industries, startups to big companies, both US and UK, B2B, B2C, SaaS, public and private cloud, and on-prem. He leds all of engineering and product management as a member of the executive team multiple times. Due to multiple years of industrial experience at product to research level, he has gained expert knowledge and delivered value in multiple areas such as big data, computational digital advertising (for display, video, mobile, social, search), high throughput and low latency distributed systems, machine learning, data mining, information retrieval, web search (end-to-end), data analytics, metrics, monitoring, team collaboration and knowledge management products, e-commerce search and vertical shopping, social shopping, recommendation systems, electronic design automation.

Join us for How to Play the Sondheim Way: A Parlor Game Workshop, a lecture/workshop designed for participants to discover how the playful approach to parlor games of the famed lyricist/composer Stephen Sondheim can inspire our own design practices. Based on the new book Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Games and Puzzles of the Broadway Legend, the gathering will open with an exploration of how Sondheim designed puzzles (like treasure hunts and cryptic crosswords) to create moments of clarity and designed games (like parlor and board games) to create moments of connection. Participants will then experience and analyze Sondheim-style parlor games, identifying underlying design values like playfulness, generosity, and mentorship. 

About the speaker

Barry Joseph is the Principal of Barry Joseph Consulting, a leader in innovating solutions for learning in a digital age, and the co-founder of the Games for Change Festival. As an early developer of after-school game design for youths and an adjunct instructor at New York University, Joseph has been a national leader in games-based learning and games for social impact, producing dozens of curriculums, games, and exhibits.

In the last two years, AI has quickly reshaped how design work happens by compressing timelines, blurring roles, and challenging long held assumptions about the design process. Designers are increasingly being asked not just to produce outcomes, but to articulate the value of their thinking, judgment, and decision-making.

But an even deeper shift is happening now: across industry, designers, researchers, strategists, and product leaders are in the midst of learning how to work with AI as a thought partner—not as a shortcut, and not as a replacement for their work. This shift is uneven and often messy: practices are still forming, norms are still being negotiated, and there is no single “right” way yet. The next wave of learning and innovation is around helping people learn how to think, judge, and make decisions in collaboration with AI—an area where both industry and education are still actively experimenting and learning.

In this talk, Ann Conway draws on real-world examples of applied AI to share perspectives from industry on what changes when AI enters design practice and what those changes may surface for design education. The session invites reflection on a set of emerging questions, including:

• As industry shifts from valuing outputs to valuing judgment, how should design programs think about core skills—and how those skills are assessed?

• If AI enables activities like research, synthesis, and ideation to happen in parallel or in new sequences, what does that mean for legacy models of the design process?

• As roles continue to blur across design, research, strategy, and product, what new forms of practice are emerging—and how might students prepare for them?

This talk is intended as a provocation and conversation starter, offering industry perspectives that faculty and students can use to reflect on what design education may need to question, adapt, or re-imagine in an AI-rich world.

About the speaker

Ann Conway is an ECT alumna and design strategist working at the intersection of human-centered design, customer experience, and artificial intelligence. She is the founder of Amplify Design, a customer experience strategy studio that partners with organizations to design customer-centered services and growth strategies.

Ann’s work focuses on how AI is reshaping design and research practice. She regularly teaches and advises designers, researchers, and strategists on AI-supported methods and workflows that can both accelerate and deepen their work.

The value of reflection in learning and design processes has long been emphasized in the learning sciences and HCI literature. Classrooms can serve as productive, structured spaces for children’s reflection; however, it can be challenging to motivate children to pause and reflect in informal learning contexts, where instructional norms that position adult educators as supervisors and assessors may not apply. In this talk, I will share my dissertation research, which is devoted to nurturing children's reflection in one such context — a Cooperative Inquiry co-design team at the University of Maryland (UMD KidsTeam), where a central goal is fostering equal partnerships and collaborations between child and adult designers. Leveraging a Design-Based Research approach, this project consists of two studies. In the first, I explore how child design partners at UMD KidsTeam iteratively co-design reflection tools and routines that resonate with their mental models and values. In the second, I will investigate how children engage with these co-designed techniques over time and how this may influence their developing self-concept as young designers. The talk will conclude with an overview of children's co-designed reflection prototypes from Study 1 and a discussion of next steps for this work.

About the speaker

Elana Blinder is a doctoral candidate in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, as well as a former New York City public elementary school teacher and NYU ECT masters student and adjunct instructor. Through her work as a researcher at EDC's Center for Children & Technology, UMD’s HCI Lab, and as an independent research consultant, Elana has contributed to the design and evaluation of children’s digital math games, US history and indigenous place-based VR learning experiences, elementary school privacy and security curriculum (SPE4K), and the development of ethical guidelines for conducting research with youth for extended reality technologies (XR for Youth Ethics Consortium). Her current research focuses on qualitatively understanding how children learn and develop their agency through co-design.

Since 2022, Dr. Ratan has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses extensively in virtual reality, meeting with students as avatars in immersive environments. In this talk, he reflects on what he has learned about how time, presence, and interaction unfold differently in VR compared to traditional classrooms or videoconferencing.

He shares insights about how VR affords new ways to engage students, foster equity, and create meaningful social and spatial presence — while also presenting challenges that require thoughtful design. Drawing from his experiences designing and teaching VR courses, as well as his research on virtual meetings, avatars, and learning outcomes, Dr. Ratan offers guidance on how to leverage the unique affordances of immersive media to enhance learning and well-being.

About the speaker

Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, PhD (USC Annenberg; MA/BA, Stanford University) is Professor and AT&T Endowed Chair at Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information, where he directs the Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab. His research focuses on how media technologies (e.g., XR/VR/AR/MR, avatars, video games, agents/AI) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., equity, well-being, motivation) across societal contexts (e.g., education, health, industry).

Today's students face an overwhelming deluge of information from unreliable sources, including AI-generated content, influencer opinions posed as expertise, shallow listicles, and manipulative media – frequently heralded by graphs and charts to bolster the argument. Because this information firehose presents as technical visual communications, the overload is both cognitive and perceptual, potentially causing more insidious misperceptions than text alone. In addition to consuming such media, students in computing fields work with data to produce graphs and charts themselves, including assignments, academic research, and personal projects/blog posts/tweets. Depending on visual literacy (VL) and prior data analysis instruction, many students inadvertently code misleading, unethical, or biased visualizations, potentially contributing to the dark corpus already festering online. Prior research on misconceptions in visualization pedagogy suggests students benefit from repeated opportunities to forage, curate and critique examples, discussing and debating with peers and instructors. Inspired by these findings, we incorporated a visual curation + annotation platform into a Data Visualization Computer Science course, enabling students to participate in processes of searching for and curating found examples of misleading visualizations, collaborative annotation + critique of examples, and structured self-evaluation of misleading elements in their own work. We assess our interventions with pre-/post-course Visualization Literacy Assessment Tests, qualitative evaluation of student reflections, taxonomic evaluation of formative student-produced visualizations, and post-course exit surveys. Post-course, students’ VL increased significantly, and the number and severity of misleading visualizations they created decreased. Students also reflected that they gained increased confidence in spotting visual disinformation online, and in avoiding its creation in software.

About the speaker

Dr. Rebecca Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department at The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She received her BS in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2008 and her PhD in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College in 2013. Before coming to UMBC, she was a research engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, studying artificial intelligence/machine learning/computer vision, remote sensing and image processing, data science and visualization. She currently teaches courses in Data Visualization and Computing Ethics at UMBC, and in Medical Imaging at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School's Engineering for Professionals Program. Her current research interests include data visualization, computer vision, brain computer interfaces, wearable data, immersive media, imaging and remote sensing, all with an education focus.

Cognitive load theory (CLT) is an account of learning from instruction offering principles whose effects have been replicated in hundreds of studies. However, both advocates and detractors have raised substantive concerns about some of its tenets. These concerns span questions pertaining to its foundational assumptions, its measurement strategies, and its relationship to holistic conceptions of learning.

About the speaker

Dr. David F.Feldon is a Professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences and Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Studies at Utah State University. His research investigates how people learn and develop expertise, particularly in STEM fields, by integrating cognitive, motivational, and sociocultural perspectives. He explores mechanisms that link motivation and cognition with broader structural and cultural factors shaping learning and professional success.

In this talk, Alex Wright will share findings from his doctoral research at the Carnegie Mellon School of Design, where he explored new frameworks and tools to help UX practitioners explore ways to incorporate more sustainable, long-term perspectives into their work. He argues that UX practitioners are uniquely positioned to bring about transformative change, but that doing so may require them to look beyond the traditional boundaries of UX practice and consider new perspectives from outside the field: namely, alternative economics, futures studies, and the literature of meaningful work.UX practice stands at a crossroads.

If, as some economists have argued, the world is moving towards a new post-Capitalist era—one marked by a period of degrowth, a shift towards a knowledge – and service – based economy, and the decline of traditional corporate hierarchies—what implications might such a transition hold for working designers and researchers? How would our practices need to evolve? This talk will explore those questions and invite participants to engage in a discussion of how they might shift their own practices towards more sustainable long-term outcomes.

About the speaker

Alex Wright is a User Experience leader at Google Search and recently completed his PhD in Design at Carnegie Mellon School of Design. He has previously held UX leadership roles at Instagram, Etsy, The New York Times, and IBM, and has worked as a consultant for clients including frog design, Microsoft, Adobe, the Internet Archive and the Long Now Foundation. From 2008-2019 he was a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts' MFA program in Interaction Design.

In today’s data-driven world, data literacy requires not only understanding data but also thinking critically about its sources and ethical implications (Franklin et al., 2020). This study, part of a DBIR project, explores comics as a tool for engaging seventh graders (N=80) in data reasoning through a two-year interdisciplinary curriculum in New York City. Students analyzed national and local survey data on friendship and created comics with Pixton to communicate findings. Through thematic analysis of their work and interviews from teachers and students, the study asks: What do narrative patterns in data comics reveal about students’ data reasoning? Please feel free to bring your own lunch as you join the conversation.

About the speaker

Marian Tes is an instructional designer and researcher passionate about enhancing learning through technology. She is a Senior Instructional Technologist at NYU’s School of Global Public Health, where she collaborates with faculty to design tech-driven solutions that support student learning. In this role, Marian develops educational content, researches best practices, and leads faculty training to foster more inclusive and impactful education in public health.

Marian is also completing her Ph.D. in Educational Communication & Technology at NYU. Her dissertation investigates how middle school students can engage in data literacy through arts-based pedagogy, specifically comic-making.

Negative feedback that indicates a discrepancy between the current achievement and the standards is an important source for further learning. However, it is often challenging for learners is to receive negative feedback, because they perceive it as self-threatening (Eskreis-Winkler & Fishbach, 2019). Hence, even though negative feedback can guide learners to regulate their further process of learning, the potential benefits of negative feedback often do not unfold(Kluger & DeNisi, 1996).

About the speaker

Susanne Narciss is a Professor of Psychology of Learning and Instruction (PsyLI) at Technische Universität Dresden. Her team conducts theory-driven and design-based psychological research focused on life-long learning and instruction within socio-technical systems.

The primary aim of her work is to provide conceptual, theoretical, and empirical insights into how learning tasks and formative feedback strategies can help learners use (digital) information resources effectively to develop competencies. Her current research interests include:

(a) promoting self-regulated learning,

(b) the role of motivation and metacognition in instructional contexts,

(c) the conditions and effects of interactive learning tasks, and

(d) the conditions and effects of informative tutoring feedback strategies.

Her contributions to feedback strategy research have been recognized as cutting-edge by the American Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), which awarded her the prestigious AECT Distinguished Development Award in 2007.

Fostering social and emotional skills in early childhood is essential but resource-intensive for teachers. With children engaging with technology early, we explored whether AI could support social-emotional learning in kindergarten. We developed a platform with an AI companion, Ameet, who led interactive group activities, recognizing children, play objects, and responding to gestures. We tested two approaches: a social-focused one promoting collaboration and a task-focused one emphasizing individual work. Children in the social group showed more peer interaction and cohesion, while both groups exhibited learning gains. This study highlights how AI companions can enhance early education by supporting social interaction and learning.

About the speaker

Orly Fuhrman, PhD, is a researcher, lecturer, and developer of techno-pedagogical solutions, specializing in embodied learning. She is passionate about creating physical interfaces that allow technology to preserve the physical, social, and emotional contexts of learning.

Orly holds an M.A. in developmental psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. Her research career has spanned multiple disciplines, integrating methods from neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and cognitive science to explore the relationship between language and thought.

After completing her doctorate, she co-founded Lingua.ly, an AI-driven platform for personalized foreign language learning. She later joined the Israeli Center for Educational Technology (CET), focusing on adaptive learning solutions for literacy education. In parallel, she completed her post-doctoral training at Tel Aviv University, where she investigated the potential of virtual reality environments for foreign language vocabulary learning.

For the past three years, Orly has been leading the pedagogical development of the Ameet project at CET—a physical-digital platform designed to support social learning in kindergarten classrooms. Ameet, a digital companion, mediates activities where children interact with peers using tangible, real-world play objects, enhancing both their cognitive and social development.

Orly moved to New York with her family  in July, ready for the next adventure!

The psychological paradox of high-achievement and low self-belief for high-achieving middle school girls’ has rarely been explored, particularly in how this impacts girls’ sense of self as learners. This dissertation research aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the tensions, pressures, and rewards at play (e.g. internal and external rewards, gender norms, etc.) that shape girls’ sense of self, by employing the Listening Guide Method, a feminist qualitative research methodology of psychological inquiry. This talk will present preliminary insights including cultural, psychological, and relational patterns in high-achieving girls, revealing the psychological logic behind their sense of self as learners.

About the speaker

Originally from the Netherlands, Bernice d’Anjou has a background as both a middle school teacher and a designer/researcher of EdTech tools for elementary and middle school classrooms, for which she received a national award. She is passionate about understanding girls’ psychological process related to their educational development and she is currently a PhD candidate in Educational Communication and Technology at NYU. (Bernice holds a Masters in Science Education and Communication and a Masters in Industrial Design from University of Technology Eindhoven).

Provoked by numerous art-less walks during the pandemic, our Open Air Gallery AR project, is a smartphone-based locative media platform to display digital galleries and music albums in an interactive format. www.openairgalleryar.com 

Geri Hahn Art: Living Out Loud AR is a new type of interactive locative multimedia app for virtual exhibition, staged in Central Park, where people experience Augmented Reality (AR) art and music soundscapes on a walk. It features the art of New Jersey-based Geri Hahn, an artist-synesthete who uses synesthesia as her creative inspiration. The app includes music by Svetlana Rudenko (Piano, Logic Pro) and Mads Haahr (Synths), composed to transfer the art expression into music language using a unique multisensory design approach where art expression is translated into music texture, and location is chosen co-create the experience of natural landscape in the sense of psychogeography. Recorded talks with the artist give insights into her life in art, her inspiration and craft of expression. The Open Air Gallery AR project allows artists to exhibit to a wide audience without the limitations of a physical exhibition venue (e.g., availability, costs for rent). 

Previous AR exhibitions staged by Haunted Planet Studios include: 

• Synaesthesia Gallery AR [1] at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (funding award from FENS and DANA Foundation for Brain Awareness Week 2021)

• Jack B. Yeats: Psychogeography AR [2], 2021, Dublin

• Alice Dali AR [3] at Durham University Botanic Garden, UK, 2024 (permanent experience)

• Yokai: Japanese Ghosts AR, 2024, staged at Herbert Park, Dublin, as part of Baggotonia Festival Fringe. 

Our research results showed a high level of interest in the genre and the promising social benefits of cooperative cultural play, fun for families, and great aesthetic experience for individuals interested in art and music. 

About the speaker

Prof. Mads Haahr, School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Course Director for the MSc in Interactive Digital Media (IDM). Prof. Haahr conducts research into serious games with a focus on interactive digital narrative for cultural heritage. He has managed research grants for a total value of over €1.8M from Horizon Europe, Enterprise Ireland, the National Digital Research Centre and others. He partnered with five other EU Universities for current project LoGaCulture. He is the Founder, CEO and Creative Director for the award-winning serious game studio Haunted Planet Studios and also known for creating the Internet’s premier true random number service RANDOM.ORG. 

Dr Svetlana Rudenko, www.svetlana-rudenko.com    researcher and composer at Haunted Planet Studios, Dublin. Educator, Concert Pianist, Researcher on Music Art Perception, Neuroesthetics, Creative Synaesthesia, Cognitive Musicology, Multisensory Design for Digitally Enhanced Realities, AR/ MR for Education & Mental Health,  aesthetics for Sensory Substitution Devices, new forms of multimedia for music and cultural heritage. Some recent highlights: 

• Featured at British Neuroscience Association broadcast about Music Consciousness & Synaesthesia 2021 https://youtu.be/aoIzGNFg_kM?si=LL7B396Nsnnfbo9w 

• Featured in Irish Times for Creative Brain Week, TCD https://www.irishtimes.com/science/2024/03/28/new-horizons-on-maintaining-brain-health/ 

• Durham University (UK), DreaMR Mixed Reality Piano concert video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL8B9hZhh6w&t=13s Images of Geri Hahn’s Art in Augmented Reality

In this talk, Dr. Mia Shaw discusses restorying through design, a pedagogical approach for interrogating and reimagining dominant narratives and myths through integrating critical literacy, speculative design, and Black Feminist-Womanist theories. Inspired by Black women’s quilting histories, Shaw positions computational quiltmaking as a possible vehicle for not only restorying through design but also uncovering the taken-for-granted imaginaries shaping STEM. She will report on workshops she developed and facilitated during 2019-2021 with high-school-aged participants at an informal, museum-based STEM program, in which youth restoryed myths about technology through designing interactive quilt patches.

About the speaker

Dr. Mia Shaw is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology, as part of New York University Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. She earned a PhD in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was advised by Dr. Yasmin Kafai. In addition, Mia earned an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from University of Nevada-Las Vegas and BAH in Human Biology (with a focus in Adolescent Development) from Stanford University.

Mia’s focus on designing and evaluating justice-oriented, constructionist STEAM learning environments was shaped dramatically by her experiences teaching middle school science in Las Vegas and as a program coordinator for a STEM-focused nonprofit organization serving girls of Color in Oakland. Her research interests center on using creative, interdisciplinary technologies in order to support identity authorship, community building, and speculative literacy and design practices among Black and Brown youth. Epistemologically, Mia draws from Black Feminist and Womanist theories. In addition to research, Mia is also an illustrator and comic artist who has used her art to support educational research.

Before joining NYU, Mia was awarded the 2022 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to complete her dissertation study, which examined the design and implementation of a workshop where nondominant, high-school-aged youth designed interactive quilt patches that reimagined or “restor(y)ed” dominant narratives about computing technologies.

As a critical component of 21st-century skills, collaboration skills have been proven to enhance academic performance, workplace productivity, and foster responsible citizenship. Despite the extensive exploration of collaborative learning, the focus has predominantly been on leveraging collaboration for learning, rather than on learning collaboration itself.

In this presentation, I will share some preliminary findings from literature. The main question is: How can we develop a theoretically sound, technologically feasible, and pedagogically valid analytics-supported feedback system to help students develop their collaboration skills? I will propose an integrated framework as a starting point, through which we will navigate the current research landscape, assessing our progress and identifying future directions.

About the speaker

Xiaomeng Huang is a PhD candidate in Educational Communication and Technology. She is passionate about enhancing the development of 21st-century skills through multimodal learning analytics. Her current research centers on collaborative learning analytics, within which she seeks to use insights from fine-grained learning traces to create automated and actionable feedback for students to develop their collaboration skills. Xiaomeng holds a Master of Education in Technology, Innovation, and Education from Harvard University.

In the field of game-based learning, one of the challenges facing scholars and practitioners alike is determining how the emotions induced in players during gameplay experiences affect their ability to learn (Loderer at al., 2019; Loderer et al., 2020; Pawar et al., 2019; Plass et al., 2020). Emotional design research on learning games so far has skewed heavily toward visual aesthetics (Pawar et al., 2019) in games. My candidacy paper focuses on narrative, which is under-represented in this research area. There are currently only a handful of studies on the impact of game narrative on players’ emotions and a number of promising directions for future work (Bowers et al., 2013; Dickey, 2011 & 2019; D’Mello et al., 2014; Milne et al., 2010; Neville, 2010). Furthermore, there appears to be little guidance in the literature regarding how best to design game narrative that aligns with learning objectives (Dickey, 2015 is a rare example). In my candidacy paper, I look deeply at this issue and consider what actually constitutes game narrative, as well as how game narrative might support learning. I also review several existing studies on the impact of game narrative on players’ emotions and learning. In particular, I look at the specific elements of game narrative that were studied and the methodological approaches used. I conclude with a discussion around several research avenues that have the potential to bear fruit in the near future.

About the speaker

Jeff is a PhD candidate in the ECT doctoral program at Steinhardt, and a senior instructional designer for the Digital Learning team at Tandon. He earned his BA in Mathematics from Michigan State University, his MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from American College of Education, and his MS in Games For Learning at NYU. He currently teaches the Narrative, Digital Media, and Learning course for the LTXD/G4L masters programs. Jeff's research interests include narrative design and emotional design in games for learning. Prior to his instructional design work, Jeff taught mathematics for several years at a project-based learning high school in Illinois. Outside of school and work, Jeff enjoys running, reading books, taking his dog for long walks, and spending an embarrassing number of hours playing Final Fantasy XIV.

The various social, educational, and political contexts in which students and teachers are engaging in learning today - in-person, online, or hybrid - serve as an urgent call for the learning science community to discuss, develop, and practice a unified theory of Critical Digital Pedagogy - integrating research strands in Critical Pedagogy and Learning Science in technology-rich spaces. While there is a lot of musing and blogging today about critical pedagogy, digital pedagogy, inclusive education, and other adjacent concepts, there is little in the way of experimentation, theory-building, or academic studies. This talk is based on the literature review conducted for the dissertation research question, "How do university professors perceive educational elements aimed at confronting inequities in educational opportunity and achievement that empower students through technological/digital pedagogical approaches?"

About the speaker

Jonathan Martinez (he/him//el) currently works at the intersection of International Education, Critical Pedagogy, and Technology. At NYU's Office of Global Programs, Jonathan currently works supporting all efforts for academic planning and faculty engagement at NYU's global sites. He is a recently minted PhD candidate in NYU Steinhardt's Educational Communication and Technology Program.

Writing is a crucial communicative skill in a knowledge-based society. However, providing individual feedback to each student can be challenging for teachers during regular classroom learning. Technology and artificial intelligence offer new potential to address this problem and could help increase personalized learning opportunities. In this talk, I will present empirical results on the effectiveness of (generative) AI in providing feedback to students to improve their writing. I will also discuss the potential and challenges of implementing (AI) feedback systems in the classroom, identifying critical areas of future research. 

About the speaker

Jennifer Meyer is a postdoctoral researcher and Junior Research Group Leader at the Department of Educational Science and Educational Psychology at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education in Kiel, Germany. Her research is on the role of students‘ individual differences in learning, academic motivation, automated writing assessment, and the use and impact of (generative) AI in education. She received a diploma in psychology from the University of Kiel in 2019. She is a Jacobs Foundation Research Fellow.

Civic data theatre translates quantitative data into theatrical language to engage communities in deliberative conversations on relevant issues. It is a form of community-partnered arts based research that engages community stakeholders in collaborative, embodied analysis and sense-making.

In 2024 the Data Theatre Collaborative (Dani Snyder-Young, Jonathan Carr, Rahul Bhargava, Laura Perovich, Michael Arnold Mages, and Moira Zellner) facilitated a civic data theatre workshop with youth development organization Hyde Park Task Force. This workshop was organized by LivableStreets Alliance, who had been contracted by the city of Boston to engage community members in the process of redeveloping Southwest Corridor Park, which runs through the neighborhoods in which Hyde Park Task Force participants live.

In this workshop, young people used dramatic activities to analyze quantitative data about the redevelopment of the Southwest Corridor Park. Animating the data in theatrical form enabled young people to take ownership of it, deliberate over it, and use it to advocate for their vision for what they want the park to be. This unique process helped LivableStreets Alliance bring the young peoples’ perspectives to municipal decision-makers and directly impact the redevelopment process.

About the speaker

Civic data theatre translates quantitative data into theatrical language to engage communities in deliberative conversations on relevant issues. It is a form of community-partnered arts based research that engages community stakeholders in collaborative, embodied analysis and sense-making.

In 2024 the Data Theatre Collaborative (Dani Snyder-Young, Jonathan Carr, Rahul Bhargava, Laura Perovich, Michael Arnold Mages, and Moira Zellner) facilitated a civic data theatre workshop with youth development organization Hyde Park Task Force. This workshop was organized by LivableStreets Alliance, who had been contracted by the city of Boston to engage community members in the process of redeveloping Southwest Corridor Park, which runs through the neighborhoods in which Hyde Park Task Force participants live.

In this workshop, young people used dramatic activities to analyze quantitative data about the redevelopment of the Southwest Corridor Park. Animating the data in theatrical form enabled young people to take ownership of it, deliberate over it, and use it to advocate for their vision for what they want the park to be. This unique process helped LivableStreets Alliance bring the young peoples’ perspectives to municipal decision-makers and directly impact the redevelopment process.

Scientists and engineers have been working diligently on various models of artificial intelligence since 1955. Nobody was paying much attention (other than a few chess matches and a Jeopardy episode) until ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in the fall of 2022. Now we all have some questions. After a brief and non-technical review of how Large Language Models work, Prof. Neuman will take the long view -- Is Eliezer Yudkowsky correct in arguing that superintelligent agents will ultimately kill us all? Is there a practical way to align AI systems with human values? Is it possible that AI could actually augment human intelligence? Scientists and engineers have been working diligently on various models of artificial intelligence since 1955. Nobody was paying much attention (other than a few chess matches and a Jeopardy episode) until ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in the fall of 2022. Now we all have some questions. After a brief and non-technical review of how Large Language Models work, Prof. Neuman will take the long view -- Is Eliezer Yudkowsky correct in arguing that superintelligent agents will ultimately kill us all? Is there a practical way to align AI systems with human values? Is it possible that AI could actually augment human intelligence?

About the speaker

W. Russell Neuman is a specialist in new media and digital education and the Professor of Media Technology in Administration, Leadership, and Technology at New York University. He was the John Derby Evans Professor of Media Technology in Communication Studies and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and also taught at the University of Pennsylvania where he directed the Information and Society Program of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He served as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy working in the areas of information technology, broadband policy and technologies for border security. His recent books include The Digital Difference: Media Technology and the Theory of Communication Effects (Harvard University Press, 2016), Media, Technology, and Society: Theories of Media Evolution (University of Michigan Press, 2010). He also taught at Harvard and Yale and was one of the founding faculty of the MIT Media Laboratory. His Ph.D. is from the University of California, Berkeley and his undergraduate degree is from Cornell University. Professor Neuman’s teaching and research focus on educational outcomes, information overload, information economics, modalities of learning, learning assessment and learning outside the classroom.

Formative feedback strategies are considered powerful means for effective teaching and learning. Yet, the large body of feedback research reveals that their effects depend from many factors (Lipnevich & Panadero, 2021; Panadero & Lipnevich, 2022; Wisnieswski, et al. 2020; Narciss, 2008; Shute 2008). 

In my talk, I will describe how tutoring feedback strategies can be designed and evaluated on the basis of the interactive two feedback loops model (ITFL-model; e.g. Narciss, 2008; 2013; 2017; 2020). The ITFL-model conceptualizes formative tutoring feedback as a multidimensional instructional activity that aims at contributing to the regulation of learning processes in such a way that learners acquire or improve their competencies needed to master learning tasks. Based on this multi-dimensional view of formative tutoring feedback several studies have been conducted (e.g., Narciss, 2004; Narciss & Huth, 2006; Narciss et al. 2014; Kapp, Spangenberger, Kruse, & Narciss, 2019; Narciss, Prescher, Khalifah, & Körndle, 2020; Laudel & Narciss, 2023). Selected insights of these studies will be used to illustrate and discuss methodological challenges and implications for designing and investigating multiple effects of feedback under multiple individual and situational conditions.

About the speaker

Susanne Narciss is a professor of Psychology of Learning and Instruction at Technische Universität Dresden. Her research Interests include desing and evaluation of interactive learning tasks, designing and evaluating feedback in instructional contexts,  multimedia tools for learning and instruction, psychological processes in academic writing, and self-regulated Learning with web-based learning environments. To learn more about her work, check this website: https://tu-dresden.de/mn/psychologie/ipep/lehrlern/die-professur/inhaberin?set_language=en

Presenting work from his forthcoming book, Mixed methods for psychological measurement: Using critical realism to reframe incommensurability, Dr. David Feldon offers a new perspective on measurement formation and validation that integrates both qualitative (idiographic) and quantitative (nomothetic) perspectives and data. Through a lens of critical realism, which recognizes idiographic and nomothetic facets of human phenomena as equivalently “real,” the modeling approaches presented honor and integrate both into measurement. In doing so, they provide new tools for conducting critical quantitative inquiry by infusing quantitative models with perspectives arising from differing contexts, life experiences, sensemaking, and positionalities. By reflecting these humanistic elements of experience as necessary and intrinsic to robust measurement, the resulting metrics do not erase the worldviews of individuals from marginalized backgrounds from quantified forms of data.

About the speaker

David F. Feldon is a professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences in the College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University. His scholarship identifies mechanisms of learning and postsecondary education that facilitate the equitable development of expertise – specifically in STEM disciplines. His research attempts to build bridges from a deep understanding of motivation and cognition to broader cultural and structural influences that shape divergent pathways to expertise and professional success. Dr. Feldon was the 2019 recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Division D Award for Significant Contributions to Educational Measurement and Research.

In my talk, I will stress the importance of addressing culture when designing and implementing learning analytics services. Learning analytics have been implemented in different countries with the purpose of improving learning and supporting teaching; yet, largely at a limited scale and so far with limited evidence of achieving their purpose. Even though some solutions seem promising, their transfer from one country to another might prove challenging and sometimes impossible due to various technical, social, contextual and cultural factors.  I will argue for a need to carefully consider one of these – largely underexplored by the learning analytics community – factors, namely cultural values when designing and implementing learning analytics systems. Viewing culture from a value-sensitive perspective, in this chapter, we: (1) exemplify two selected values (i.e., privacy and autonomy) that might play a significant role in the design of learning analytics systems, and (2) discuss opportunities for applying culture- and value-sensitive design methods that can guide the design of culturally aware learning analytics systems. 

About the speaker

Olga Viberg has obtained her PhD in Informatics at Örebro University School of Business (Sweden) in December 2015. She has been a lecturer at the School of Languages and Media Studies and at the School of Technology and Business Studies at Dalarna University, Sweden between 2008-2016. Currently she is an associate professor and docent in Media Technology with specialization in Technology-Enhanced Learning at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at KTH.

Viberg's research includes a focus on learning analytics in higher education, the application of mobile technology in education, mobile learning analytics, integration of formal and informal learning environments, design for learning, self-regulated learning, computer-assisted collaborative learning, cross-cultural research and responsible use of student data in education, focusing on the issues of privacy and trust. Olga is currently supervising 4 PhD students. She supervised one PhD candidate (A. Agelii Genlott, finished in 2020), 2 postdoctoral researchers, several visiting researchers, 30 master thesis projects, and > 50 bachelor degree projects during the last few years. She is currently (2023) supervising 6 master thesis projects, several bachelor degree theses, and is supervising two postdoctoral researchers (Digital Futures).

Viberg coordinates the Bachelor Degree course in Media Technology, two PhD courses: Introduction to Learning Analytics and Research Methods in Technology Enhanced Learning and teaches several other courses at different educational levels. Viberg is an active member of the Digital Futures group on Educational Transformation at KTH, https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/about/governance/working-groups/engineering-education/ and several international networks (SIG Responsible Learning Analytics, EUROCALL, MALL etc.) She has served as the keynote speaker at several prestigious international conferences (e.g. EDUCON, IMCL). Viberg has also contributed to the UNESCO policy work on quality of online education and gave a keynote speech in Nov.2021.

Viberg is the main organizer of the Nordic Learning Analytics Summer Institute (2021 & 2022) and a part of the organizing committee of the 12th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference. She has served as the PC chair for the two high-ranked conferences in 2023: Learning@Scale 2023 (https://learningatscale.acm.org/las2023/) and ECTEL2023 (https://ea-tel.eu/ectel2023/registration).

Just putting a group of people around a task does not guarantee a real collaboration; its necessary structure activities convey good communication and participation among group members. Games have been designed as a mechanism to support communication between people working on a group activity. 

In this talk, I will present the developments of software tools based on games in order to analyze the quality of the collaboration process for small groups working synchronously toward two goals: learning to collaborate and collaborating to learn. 

About the speaker

César A. Collazos is a Full Professor of the Computer Science Department at the University of Cauca-Colombia. He is also the Head of HCI-Collab, a collaborative network supporting HCI education in Iberomerican countries. His research areas of interest include: Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and HCI. To learn more about his work, contact him through this email address: ccollazo@unicauca.edu.co. 

Interacting with objects in virtual reality (VR) can be an exciting experience. In the world of education, immersion matters. VR opens up a new dimension, making learning come alive. But here's the game-changer - Haptic Feedback. It's not just about what you see; it's about what you feel. This technology has the potential to impact the quality of education by making it more engaging and interactive.

We all know that feedback is the secret sauce for learning. Whether it's polishing your skills, mastering a concept, or refining your craft, feedback is the compass that guides you. With haptic feedback, you're not just seeing and hearing, you're physically sensing the learning process. Not all immersive feedback is created equal. We understand that every learner is unique. There's no one-size-fits-all guide. The presentation touches on how VR can be a catalyst to bridge individual differences in education.

Theories are great, but what really matters is practical application. I will present results from two empirical VR experiments we conducted during the last year following the established cognitive learning theories and pedagogical principles.

While much research focuses on visual and auditory feedback, the untapped potential of haptic feedback cannot be ignored. I believe it's the missing piece of the puzzle that can enhance your learning journey. My quest is to unravel the full potential of haptic feedback and its impact on education.

Are you curious about what haptic feedback in educational VR environments can achieve? We invite you to be part of this exciting presentation. Come to room 542 and try the VR experience with the haptic suit yourself.

About the speaker

Fabian Froehlich is an academic with a diverse background in film and media studies. Prior to pursuing his graduate studies, Fabian worked in the film industry, using his creativity and technical skills to entertain audiences. After transitioning to academia, he turned his attention to the use of media for educational purposes. His presentation focuses on the relationship between sense of presence, metacognition in educational VR. 

This work is aligned with the research of Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLEs), Emotional design, Audio and Emotions, Emotion Sensing and Emotions for Learning.

SoundCheck focuses on audio designs and their effects on learners’ emotions. SoundCheck aims to mediate affect via audio designs with the goal to enhance cognition. A catalogue of audio designs was composed from the ground up following strict heuristics found in the literature of sound, emotion and cognition.

To study these audio designs in VR, two innovations have been put forth: First, the Multilayered Affect-Audio Research System, MAARS, a taxonomy for VRLEs’ audio research and design. And second, a bio-sensing VR research platform, DreamVR, featuring calibrations rooms used to expose participants to auditory stimuli presentations.
The audio designs corresponding to the Feedback and Experiential layers will be tested using MAARS and DreamVR.

About the speaker

Al Olsen is a digital media designer and senior software developer. He works as an assistant research scientist at CREATE Lab, and in his spare time he produces music and spends time with his family.

As an ECT PhD Candidate at NYU, Al’s research focuses on the question: how does audio affect emotions in learners in a learning context? And moreover, can positive emotions be mediated to improve cognition using audio designs in a virtual reality learning environment?