CAREER: Tangible Interfaces for Collaborative Learning Environments

这是一个为期4年的持续资助项目的第一年。PI将探索新的方法，使技术能够在不成为教育体验的焦点的情况下增强教育。其中心目标是帮助教师让学生对数学和科学领域的职业产生兴趣，甚至感到兴奋。为此，PI将开发支持协作学习环境有形界面开发的策略和软件。这样的界面使计算机能够“观看”孩子们在物理环境中一起解决谜题和其他教育任务，然后像老师一样充当“旁边的向导”，鼓励和刺激孩子。PI将以她早期的努力为基础，制作一个原型七巧板拼图，使用计算机视觉技术来跟踪拼图碎片，并在适当的时候提供鼓励和指导。当前项目需要解决的问题包括使用低成本技术同时跟踪多个对象，以及唯一地表达3D拓扑关系。在Goudreau艺术与科学数学博物馆对这个原型及其扩展进行的评估，将指导思想和软件的发展，在这一努力中，最终将创建工具，使教师能够为协作学习环境开发自己的有形界面。该软件将通过万维网公开提供。

This is the first year of funding of a 4 year continuing award. The PI will explore new ways that technology can enhance education without becoming the focus of the educational experience. The central goal is to help teachers get students interested in or even excited about careers in math and science. To this end, the PI will develop strategies and software that support the development of tangible interfaces for collaborative learning environments. Such interfaces enable the computer to "watch" as children work together on puzzles and other educational tasks in a physical environment, and to then act as a "guide on the side" that encourages and prods much as a teacher would. The PI will build on her earlier effort that produced a prototype Tangram puzzle which uses computer vision techniques to track the puzzle pieces and offers encouragement and guidance as is appropriate. Issues to be addressed in the current project include tracking multiple objects simultaneously using low cost technologies, and expressing 3D topological relations uniquely. Evaluation of this prototype and its extensions, conducted at the Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science, will guide the evolution of the ideas and software, in this effort, which will ultimately create tools that enable instructors to develop their own tangible interfaces for collaborative learning environments. This software will be made publicly available via the world wide web.