In a New York Time article, entitled “Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot,” Dr. Patricia Kuhl, LIFE Center PI and Director, and Dr. Andrew Meltzoff, LIFE Center Co-PI, provided their insights on the potential of robots, or “highly programmed machines,” to teach humans.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html
Dr. Patricia Kuhl, LIFE Center PI and Director, joined other experts on the Charlie Rose Brain Series on PBS, in a discussion of the developing brain. Other discussants included Elizabeth Spelke of Harvard University, Stephen Warren of Emory University, and Huda Zoghbi of the Baylor College of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; co-hosted by Eric Kandel of Columbia University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Charlie Rose Brain Series Episode Five webpage and video stream: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10877
The Charlie Rose Brain Series explores one of science’s final frontiers, the study of the human brain.
Over the next year Charlie will interview the most knowledgeable scientists and researchers in hopes of illuminating a new topic of study. Each monthly episode will examine different subjects of the brain, including perception, social interaction, aging and creativity.
The Charlie Rose Brain Series will also look at scientific discovery and advances in technology, in the hope that someday terrible illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s will be history.
Co-host of the series is Dr. Eric Kandel, psychiatrist, neuroscientist and professor at Columbia University. Dr. Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000.
A collaborative partnership of the CHIMe Lab at Stanford University, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and the LIFE Center brought together academic and industry leaders with the goal of encouraging a new community that will engage in interdisciplinary knowledge sharing, agenda-setting, and collaborative research on media multitasking and children’s learning and development. The LIFE Center is pleased to release the workshop report from the first research seminar on this vital area at the interface of scientific research, cultural practices and public policy. This first research seminar was held on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at Stanford University.
Download the workshop report in PDF format: Media Multitasking (82)
Other details, papers, and related materials can be found at the Media Multitasking web site: http://multitasking.stanford.edu
Preface from the Report:
New technology sometimes brings change that is so swift and so sweeping, that the impact and implications are hard to grasp. So it is with the rapid expansion of media use by children and adults–at work and at play, alone and in groups, for ever larger portions of their waking hours. Media multitasking–engaging in more than one media activity at a time–has rapidly become a way of life for American youth, according to a 2005 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005), and yet little is known about how this behavior affects their learning and development, their ability to attend, to plan, to think, and to relate to other people. The same may be said for adults, many of whom have taken to media multitasking to the point of “crackBerry” obsession. Aside from the recent alarming reports about the dangers of cell phone use while driving1 or the impact of web surfing on worker productivity, little is known about the larger implications of this now ubiquitous
behavior.
To begin to address this gap in knowledge and to frame a coherent research agenda, a multidisciplinary group of scholars in the emerging field of multitasking assembled for a one-day seminar on media multitasking and its impact on children’s learning and development at Stanford University on July 15, 2009. With grants from the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, the seminar was jointly organized by Principal Investigator Clifford Nass, the CHIME (Communication between Humans and Interactive Media) Lab Director and the Thomas M. Storke Professor at Stanford University; co-Principal Investigator Roy Pea, representing the LIFE (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments) Center and Professor of Education at Stanford University; and co-Principal Investigator Michael Levine, Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Participants included recognized scholars from neuroscience, child development, cognitive science, communication, and
education fields, along with business, policy, and advocacy leaders.
This report summarizes the ideas brought to light at the seminar, including an agenda for next steps by participants and for the larger research community. A glossary of terms, list of seminar participants, a background paper, and a list of questions generated at the seminar appear in the Appendices. Brief memos written by seminar participants on media multitasking in advance of the seminar may be downloaded from http://multitasking.stanford.edu/artifacts.html#memos and http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/
Follow the LIFE Center on Twitter: http://twitter.com/slclifecenter
We will tweet about the science of learning, impact of culture and social factors on learning, and a wide range of related topics, including technology, neurobiology, psychology, education, speech and hearing sciences, cognitive neuroscience, anthropology, and sociology.
A new article in Science Magazine (July 17, 2009), entitled “Foundations for a New Science of Learning,” reports that a convergence of discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, and machine learning has resulted in principles of human learning that are leading to changes in educational theory and the design of learning environments.
LINK: http://www.sciencemag.org
Patricia Kuhl joined Will Wright (creator of Sim City) and John Palfrey (author of ‘Digital Natives’) in a session at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 3, 2009 that discussed the impact of technology on learners. The session was carried live by NPR affiliates on New York’s WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. The pod-cast link and a short description are below.
Being Human in a Digital World
Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and the NSF LIFE Science of Learning Center at the University of Washington and co-author of “The Scientist in the Crib”, John Palfrey, Harvard co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and author of “Digital Natives,” and video game designer Will Wright, creator of Spore and Sim City, discuss what it means to be human in a digital world.
The National Resource Council (NRC) has published a new book entitled Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places and Pursuits. The report is the culmination of a three-year consensus study on informal science learning co-chaired by LIFE lead Philip Bell.
The book synthesizes research on science learning across three primary venues–everyday/family life, designed experiences in informal institutions, and out-of-school programs–as well as across two cross-cutting dimensions, cultural diversity and media. The evidence presented suggests that learners’ informal experiences with science, from museum visits to television shows to observations in nature, contribute strongly scientific knowledge and engagement.
The report’s focus on informal learning overlaps substantially with LIFE’s mission and research. In addition, the NRC book aligns closely with LIFE’s consideration of key concepts and hot topics in the learning sciences. “We were able to leverage aspects of LIFE’s conceptualization and the diversity report to help frame and explore important issues related to cultural diversity, science learning and equity,” said Bell. “For example, we leveraged the life-long, life-wide and life-deep constructs in the theoretical framing of the work.”
More information on the report is available at: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12190
The full report can be accessed at the National Academy Press.
