EXP: Collaborative Research: Gesture Enhancement of Virtual Agent Mathematics Tutors

EXP：协作研究：虚拟代理数学导师的手势增强

• 批准号: 1320029
• 负责人: Michael Neff
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1320029&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EXP; Collaborative; Research; Gesture; Enhancement

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education EXP project, PIs from computer science and mathematics education are collaborating to investigate the use of gestures by teachers (both human and virtual) and learners in support of mathematics learning. They are investigating the ways teachers' gestures influence learning of mathematics concepts and how to design gestural supports for learning that a computer avatar might use in communicating with a learner. Their conceptual foundations come from embodied cognition, and they are aiming towards understanding the integration of two types of gestures: those that are used to promote understanding of content and those used for social purposes. The project focuses on learning of proportion, and the technological innovation in this project is creation of a gesturing pedagogical agent/avatar that has a rich repertoire of both types of gestures that it uses while interacting with a learner and helping the learner to deepen his or her understanding of the mathematics of proportion. In a series of design studies, the PIs are designing software and extracting principles for augmenting pedagogical agents with new gesture-enriched capabilities and gleaning insights into the nature, types, and roles of gesture in educational interaction. Despite consistent reform efforts, U.S. students still lag behind their global peers in mathematics understanding and capabilities. Intelligent tutoring systems can be used to provide one-on-one help to students who are struggling as they learn mathematics, but such interactions lack the social cues that help learners maintain their attention and know they are being understood and lack, as well, full means of expressing concepts in ways that learners might need for understanding. Good teachers use gestures for these purposes, and this project focuses on design of pedagogical agents (avatars) that will also be able to use such gestures. Infusing interactive tutoring systems with the ability to gesture in naturalistic and domain-appropriate ways may provide a missing link in making tutorial interactions effective for more learners. At the same time, insights gleaned about the pedagogical roles of gesturing can be leveraged in educating teachers of the future.

在这个网络学习：转变教育的实验项目中，来自计算机科学和数学教育的PI正在合作调查教师(包括真人和虚拟的)和学习者使用手势来支持数学学习。他们正在研究教师的手势如何影响数学概念的学习，以及如何设计手势支持学习，让计算机虚拟化身可以用来与学习者交流。它们的概念基础来自体验认知，它们的目标是理解两种手势的整合：一种是用于促进对内容的理解的手势，另一种是用于社会目的的手势。该项目的重点是比例学习，该项目的技术创新是创建了一个手势教学代理/化身，它具有丰富的两种手势类型的曲目，在与学习者互动时使用，并帮助学习者加深他或她对比例数学的理解。在一系列的设计研究中，PI正在设计软件和提取原则，以增强教学主体的新手势丰富的能力，并收集对手势的性质、类型和在教育互动中的作用的见解。尽管不断进行改革，但美国学生在数学理解和能力方面仍然落后于全球同龄人。智能辅导系统可以用来为在学习数学时遇到困难的学生提供一对一的帮助，但这种互动缺乏帮助学习者保持注意力和知道他们被理解的社交线索，也缺乏以学习者可能需要的方式表达概念的完整手段。好的教师使用手势来达到这些目的，这个项目的重点是设计也能够使用这种手势的教学代理(化身)。给互动辅导系统注入以自然和领域适当的方式打手势的能力，可能会在使辅导互动对更多学习者有效的过程中提供缺失的一环。与此同时，关于手势的教学作用的见解可以被用来教育未来的教师。