ATLANTA (June 28, 2006)--The College of Computing’s Learning Sciences and Technology (LST) faculty, post-docs and students are making a huge showing at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS). The annual conference celebrates leading researchers in the field who take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of learning, cognition and development in real world contexts, while making a difference. ICSL is being held from June 27 through July 1 at the University of Indiana.

Regents' Professor Janet Kolodner is a mentor for both the ICLS doctoral consortium and the young faculty workshop where she is giving a presentation called “Scaling Up Curriculum to Have An Impact.” Kolodner is also a presenter in a plenary panel discussion, titled “Moving forward: The learning Sciences and the Future of Education,” along other advisory board members of the recently-released Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, edited by Keith Sawyer.

Additionally, Janet Kolodner and recent Ph.D. graduate Jakita Owensby will receive one of only three awards given for “Most Usable Paper” by the ICLS’ Virtual Design Consortium. Owensby submitted the paper “Case Application Suite: Scaffolding Use of Expert Cases in Middle-school Project-based Inquiry Classrooms," which was originally published and presented at ICLS 2004.

Andrea Forte, a fourth-year Ph.D. student from the College of Computing working toward a degree in human-centered computing with a focus on learning sciences, is a presenter at this year's ICLS doctoral consortium. Forte will present her thesis work titled “Science Online: Exploring Writing as Social Practice in Online Knowledge Building Communities.”

The following College of Computing LST students, post-docs and faculty are also presenting a variety of papers and posters at the conference:

• “From Mechanical to Meaningful Classroom Questions” by Elizabeth S. Charles, Janet L. Kolodner, Sabina Karkin, Christopher W. Kramer.
• “Messy Learning Environments: Busy Hands and Less Engaged Minds” by Christina M. Gardner, Tamara L. Clegg, Oriana J. Williams, Janet L. Kolodner
• “Design-Based Science Learning: Important Challenges and How Technology Can Make A Difference.” by Swaroop Vattam and Janet L. Kolodner
• “From Wikipedia to the Classroom: Exploring Online Publication and Learning” by Andrea Forte and Amy Bruckman
• “Visualizing Discussion By the Use of the Conversation Chain Model” by Sabina Karkin, Elizabeth S. Charles, Janet L. Kolodner
• “Promoting Learning in Informal Learning Environments” by Tamara L. Clegg, Christina M. Gardner, Oriana J. Williams, Janet L. Kolodner

For information about the 2006 International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), click here.

To view Jakita Owensby and Janet Kolodner’s online summary, click here.