Category Archives: Articles

The machines, usually paid for either with funding for students with special needs or from grants and donations, allow students who might otherwise be socially isolated to stay in touch and even make eye contact with classmates and teachers. That helps keep their spirits up and helps them stay motivated academically, according to Judy Olson, a professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Olson is the coauthor of a paper on telepresence robots in education that was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s recent annual conference on human-computer interaction.

Read the full story at Fast Company.

Effective training is not possible without engagement; however, engaging today’s audiences can be difficult. According to Gloria Mark, an informatics professor at the University of California, Irvine, the average person’s attention span is only about three minutes before they feel the impulse to set aside whatever they are currently doing and begin a new activity.

Read the full story at Bangkok Post.

Often education is conceived of as a “pipeline,” where we push kids along a set path from kindergarten, to elementary, high school, and so on. But when we talk to young people and really look at where and how they learn, and who they learn with, it looks more like a network.

Read the full story at Newsworks.

Stop interrupting yourself. Stop putting all the blame on Joan from down the hall … you’re just as much to blame for the interuptions. “What fascinates me is that people interrupted themselves almost as much as they were interrupted by external sources,” said Gloria Mark, associate professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, who conducted a study on workplace interruptions. “They interrupted themselves about 44 percent of the time.” Indulging the urge to check in on social media or responding to a text message are internal sources of interruption you may not even be aware you are committing.

Read the full story at NBC News.

From electronic health records to personal health apps, information technology (IT) has proliferated in the healthcare sector over the past few years. This has led to the increased availability of electronic data and the improved capability of clinical decision making. Most notably, consumer-facing applications—mobile health apps, wearable devices and sensors, and assistive technologies—have become prevalent, reshaping the landscape of patient education, health management, and public-health practices. It is therefore not surprising that designers and researchers are optimistic about the prospects of health IT. Many firmly believe these innovations represent a powerful source of disruption that will fundamentally change how healthcare is practiced.

Read the full story at Interactions.

In recent months, several professional gamers in the esports world have been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons: incidents of sexual harassment, abuse of power and horrifyingly explicit racist rants.

It’s easy to read these high-profile stories and think they’re strange, one-time occurrences — but for those who play games online, these displays of toxic masculinity are an everyday reality. And if you don’t fit the stereotype of a gamer — meaning you’re not a straight, white male — these racist, sexist and homophobic online encounters with total strangers are much more likely to occur.

So, what effect do these more high-profile incidents have on the gaming world at large? Do they spark change within communities or simply model bad behavior that normal gamers will be all too eager to emulate? We spoke with Kat Lo — a Ph.D. student and researcher in online communities and harassment at University of California, Irvine — to suss it all out.

Read the full story at Mic.

Judy Olson, Donald Bren Professor Emerita in Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, spoke April 3 at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Read the story at Penn State News.

Who is your learning hero? Who would you say has been an inspirational person in your life who has unlocked new ideas and pushed you to learn?

Cultural anthropologist Mizuko “Mimi” Ito asked that question when she spoke last month at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University about technology use, and how the ways in which kids’ relationship with media and communication is changing might lead to innovations in education. Her presentation was part of an ongoing project of Drexel’s ExCITe Center, called “Learning Innovation.”

Read the full story at Newsworks.

Only 26% of computing professionals are women, which is down from 36% in 1991. Millions of dollars are being spent on closing this gender gap, but it persists. Even though girls are just as into math and science in their school years, few go onto major in these areas, and even fewer go on to tech careers. What can we do to help our daughters buck these odds? Girls and Minecraft offer important hints.

Read the full story at Connected Camps.

Mimi Ito is challenging the common conception that games and social media detract from learning. At her talk late last month at the Academy of Natural Sciences, she spoke of her vision for technology to close the gap in education inequity rather than widen it.

Read the full story at Technical.ly.