EAGER: Talk of the Town App for Research

教室并不是孩子们学习的唯一场所。孩子们每天只需花时间与家人和同龄人在一起，就可以进行“非正式学习”。然而，尽管研究人员知道这种学习是发生的，但对这种学习的基本科学--这种学习是如何工作的--知之甚少。这是因为调查人员缺乏渠道和手段来收集相关数据。这个项目的目标是开发一种技术解决方案，一个基于移动的研究平台，名为“小镇之谈”，将为儿童的非正式学习提供一个窗口。这一工具的开发意义重大，因为它将使人们有可能获得对开发和测试大规模教育干预措施至关重要的数据，而且它将提供比通常在实验室、家庭和科学博物馆中研究的更多样化的样本。这个概念验证项目的目标是开发一个基于移动的开源平台，名为“Talk of the City”，它由两个组件组成。第一个组件是一款移动应用程序，将用于获得同意、管理入职人口统计问卷。关键的是，这款应用可以提示父母在不同的环境和不同的地点记录与孩子的对话。它通过使用关于特定主题的对话提示来实现这一点，包括通过接近特定地标可以触发的提示。第二个组件将是一个服务器，用于存储记录的对话，并根据对入职调查问卷的回答和参与家庭过去完成的任务来管理不同应用程序用户的任务。这些新开发的技术能力将能够支持观测设计，以及实验操作和教学干预。重要的是，他们将打开一扇窗，让人们了解儿童学习和发展方面被忽视和/或被忽视的方面。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Classrooms are not the only places where children learn. Children engage in ‘informal learning’ every day just by spending time with their family and peers. However, while researchers know this learning occurs, less is known about the underlying science of this learning -- how this learning works. This is so because investigators lack access and the means to gather relevant data. The goal of this project is to develop a technical solution, a mobile-based research platform called “Talk of the Town” that will provide a window into children’s informal learning. The development of this tool is significant because it will make possible access to data that are important for developing and testing educational interventions at scale, and it will provide access to much more diverse samples than are typically studied in laboratories, homes, and science museums. The goal of this proof-of- concept project is to develop an open-source mobile-based platform called “Talk of the Town,” which consists of two components. The first component is a mobile app that will be used to obtain consent, administer onboarding demographic questionnaires. Critically, the app can prompt parents to record conversations with their children in different contexts and different locations. It does so by using conversational prompts about specific topics, including prompts which can be triggered by proximity to specific landmarks. The second component will be a server that will be used to store the recorded conversations, and administer tasks to different app users based on responses to the onboarding questionnaire and tasks the participating family has completed in the past. These newly developed technical capabilities will be able to support observational designs, as well as experimental manipulations and teaching interventions. Importantly, they will open a window into aspects of children’s learning and development that have been overlooked and/or understudiedThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.