Workshops & Tutorials

Half Day Workshops — Saturday, June 8th, 1:00-5:00pm (13h00 – 17h00)

Exploring the Content and Structure of a Framework for Learning Progressions for K-12 Data Science Education

Are you interested in Data Science Education (DSE)? Do you wish there was a framework to guide teaching and learning with and about data within K-12 education? The explosion of computing, “big data,” and now artificial intelligence is quickly changing both daily life and many career paths, implying significant changes for what our education system needs to be teaching students. However, while data science education is growing quickly as a field within educational research, it is still nascent, especially in regards to K-12, which creates a troubling dichotomy with the quickly increasing uptake of data science education work among K-12 practitioners and developers. As such, there is a need for a framework for learning DSE at the K-12 level which could serve as a guide to practitioners and researchers alike.

The Concord Consortium and Data Science 4 Everyone are collaboratively spearheading an effort to design a consensus framework for learning progression for DSE K-12. This began with an NSF funded workshop in October 2023, which brought together experts from across the field for a series of brainstorming sessions which resulted in an initial high-level outline of strands of learning for DSE. Building on that work, a series of focus groups solicited knowledge and expertise on the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and critical thinking tools students should gain by the time they graduate as relates to data literacy. We want you to be a part of the process to design a consensus framework for learning progressions for K-12 DSE.

This half-day workshop will center around discussions of the question, “If there were an imaginary high school exit exam about data in 2030, what should be covered?” It will include small and large group knowledge sharing as well as comparisons of responses to this question from other sectors including teachers, students, and industry. Participants will begin to organize the outcomes into strands of learning using a high level framework developed during the NSF workshop last fall and discuss where there might be gaps in research for particular outcomes or at particular levels of learning.

Network of Academic Programs in the Learning Sciences: Reigniting NAPLeS

Are you leading or teaching in a Learning Sciences PhD or Master’s degree programs? Or are you planning to establish a new Learning Sciences program at your university? Then, this workshop may be highly relevant to you.

The Network of Academic Programs in the Learning Sciences (NAPLeS) is organizing a pre-conference workshop on the facilitation and support of exchange between Learning Sciences programs. Your program may already be a member of the NAPLeS network or you might consider joining the network in the future: https://www.isls.org/naples.

The workshop is taking place during the ISLS Annual Meeting 2024 in Buffalo on Saturday, June 8th as a half-day workshop in the afternoon. In this workshop, we would like to bring together faculty and leaders of current or prospective Learning Sciences programs. Together with you, we would like to exchange about shaping the future of how Learning Sciences programs can build a shared identity and benefit from the specialties each individual program can offer.

During the workshop, after introducing the network and each program participating in the workshop, we will discuss resources and initiatives worthwhile to establish and maintain to support Learning Sciences programs in NAPLeS. This includes but is not limited to:

1. NAPLeS resources which are shared and curated at the NAPLeS (such as syllabi, research topics, videos, webinars, etc.)
2. NAPLeS activities conducted in the past and planning for the future (preparing conference meetings and webinars, facilitating student and faculty exchange etc.)
3. NAPLeS joint seminars (conducting a multinational graduate seminar)

In different focus groups joint discussion will be facilitated to set up plans on future exchange. The goal of the workshop is work in partnership with community members to set and implement plans to shape the future of the field.

If you would like to participate, please register via the conference registration website. Seats for the workshop will be available on a first come first serve basis and we accept your application no later than May 8th, 23:59 (Pacific Standard Time).

After your official registration, please fill the following form to let us know about your motivations and interest: https://forms.gle/pAS3Kd9128d9ALEe9

Designing for powerful ideas in educational robotics in the era of AI

In this half-day workshop, participants will interact with the latest iteration of the GoGo Board platform for educational robotics, which incorporates new features for data logging, internet of things (IoT) and remote communication as well as artificial intelligence (AI) integrations. Beyond exploring the GoGo Board’s features, participants will examine the platform as a design case study, examining the learning sciences principles underpinning its hardware and software. Participants will, in turn, be able to extend these theoretical and design lenses to the educational technologies that they are researching and developing.

Reimagining and Advancing CSCL Research and Building CSCL Community

Are you interested in exploring the frontiers of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) research and contributing to the CSCL research community? We invite in-person and remote participants at all stages of their careers, including senior, mid- and early career scholars, graduate students, and practitioners to join the workshop.

Goals of the workshop

CSCL has been a fast-developing field at the intersection of collaboration, technology, and learning since its emergence in the 1990s. With changing research landscapes, technological advances (e.g., generative AI), the diversity of methods, and the emergence of related fields studying social interactions, CSCL is now at a crossroads with new challenges and opportunities. The workshop aims to provide a platform that supports participants in critically reflecting and examining the expanding boundaries of CSCL as they reflect on their own research trajectories. We hope to dialogue about the advances, challenges, and future of CSCL, reflect on our identity as CSCL researchers, and synergize our research efforts with advances in adjacent fields, thus reinforcing our strategic positioning and impacts and strengthening the CSCL community.

Benefits of joining the workshop

We envisage through joining the workshop, participants can gain insights into the evolving understanding and frontiers of CSCL; share progress in using new methods, technologies (e.g., generative AI) and synergies with related fields (e.g., analytics), engage in collective visioning of CSCL future development as well as gain new ideas to enrich their own CSCL research; develop an understanding of CSCL researcher identity, and use opportunities for networking and collaboration with other researchers in CSCL for community building.

Please check the workshop website for further details and updates:
https://sites.google.com/view/csclworkshop2024/home

Maximizing the ISLS 2024 annual meeting experience: A community-based workshop for polishing presentation & conferencing skills

We invite you to participate in an interactive and practical community-based workshop that boosts your presentation skills and prepares you for a rewarding conference experience. The workshop spans the before, during, and after of the conference. Over multiple sessions: Kick-off & Presentation Skills, Practice & Conferencing Skills, and Reflections & Pursuing Opportunities, we have three goals: 1) foster exchange between (new) members while you prepare for the annual meeting and create a network to fall back on during and following the annual meeting, 2) guidance for designing research talks and working out strategies to experience the annual meeting such that it meets your personal expectations, and 3) joint reflection on the annual meeting experience and implementation intentions for pursuing opportunities. The workshop aims to enhance the value of interactions surrounding the presented research for all ISLS attendees, providing professional development opportunities, particularly for members who may not regularly receive such support in their local contexts, and fostering the growth of the Learning Sciences society by cultivating community and motivating ongoing engagement.

We encourage you to participate, especially if you are attending the ISLS 2024 annual meeting for the first time, have generally little conference experience, or simply wish to build sustainable connections with other community members while brushing up your presentation skills.

Workshop Schedule

Session 1: Kick-off & Presentation Skills: 120 min, online (before the conference)
Session 2: Practice & Conferencing Skills: half-day June 9th 1pm-5pm (13h00-17h00), in person, ISLS Annual Meeting 2024
Session 3: Reflections & Pursuing Opportunities: 60 min, online (after the conference)

More Info

The pre-conference session will take place about 3 weeks prior to the ISLS Annual Meeting 2024. If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please register through the official conference system by May 15th, 2024. We will reach out to all registered participants soon thereafter with further information, including the date and time of the first session. If you have any questions, if the registration deadline posits a problem, or if you simply want to make sure you’re on our participation list, please email Sarah [email protected] or Kathi [email protected].

Full Day Workshops – Sunday, June 9th, 9:00-5:00pm (9h00 – 17h00)

A gathering to synthesize, critically examine, and envision new horizons for learning sciences research on “failure” and learning

This hybrid workshop brings together learning scientists and educators interested in synthesizing, critiquing, and charting new horizons for research on “failure” and learning. This word is packed with a wide array of meanings, and likely feels different to each person who interacts with it. Words such as impasse, breakdown, problem, incompatibility, discrepancy, mistake, bug, misconception, and on and on have all featured prominently in the research literature and public discourse, and each uniquely accents different facets of the experience. Taking this heterogeneity – and some degree of common ground – head-on in this workshop, we will gather together with learning scientists and educators interested in contemplating, studying, supporting, and/or re-framing the experience of failure in learning. Our plan is to synthesize work from the learning sciences and related fields around failure, make space to critically reflect on the gaps and shortcomings in these lines of work, and chart new theoretical, methodological, and practical directions. There are vital questions to consider together. What are the core findings in the existing literature on failure and learning? What questions in this area are we not asking? What is leaving us feeling uneasy or uncertain about work in this area? What even is failure? Who decides what counts as failure in particular situations? How does power shape that interactional process? How do history and systems, and the present-day inequities they shape, relate to students’ experiences with failure in learning? What bridges might we build to adjacent literatures and frameworks?

Workshop attendees may join in person in Buffalo or online via zoom. In the first part of the workshop, we will gather together, make space for introductions, and then meet in small groups to share personal experiences with failure in learning, and start to raise questions about whether the parts of those stories that feel important are reflected/studied in the research literature. We will then move to short, roughly 3-5-minute presentations from workshop attendees covering a particular thread of the research literature on failure and learning, including focusing on distinct domains, activity frames/designs, and research. In the second part of the workshop, we will rotate through a series of small group meetings to reflect on the tensions, questions, and ideas that arise during the morning’s discussion. Finally, in the third part of the workshop, we will conclude with time for everyone to work individually for a stretch of time, before gathering together as a whole group for a final reflection. Workshop organizers will focus on documenting participants’ reflections, gathering artifacts, and then synthesizing the group’s thinking in a final share-out.

Towards a Transformative Action Research Network

This full day workshop focuses on how to design learning sciences research projects that focus on “Transformative Action”. Approaches that are designed for transformative action involve projects where the research is deeply participatory in nature and is connected to some form of empowerment and participation within participating communities. This workshop is being convened by a group of scholars who presented a symposium at last year’s ISLS annual meeting titled, “Moving Towards Critical Pedagogy for Transformative Action: Learnings From Research Partnerships”. This session included seven papers, presenting our studies of (1) how critical action approaches were facilitated by teachers in Bengaluru, India; (2) how educators at a tinkering lab in rural India connected materials and learning experiences in the tinkering lab to community problems; (3) how science teachers in Guyana brought their socio-political identities to their classroom settings; (4) how podcasting was used by youth in the Coeur D Alene nation to understand community based environmental problem solving; (5) how education approaches in India need to include voices of marginalized (Dalit) students and their communities; (6) how a youth led organization (Equal Education) creates powerful learning experiences for youth in South Africa; and (7) how education approaches in Brazil create a culturally relevant learning experience for learner.

Our goal for the workshop is to engage these projects in a deeper dive into their respective methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and epistemic positions in regard to transformative action. An important outcome will be to support our solidification of a scholarly network for transformative action research. We recognize the need for deepening our discourse around transformative action research. We seek to expand the context of this work, as well as to strengthen our own methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives. This workshop will offer opportunities for anyone engaged in such work, as well as for those who are interested in exploring this space. The workshop also brings in examples of projects from the global south which aligns itself with a priority expressed in the learning sciences. The workshop is being conducted by a community of scholars who have matured in our understanding of what learning sciences research can look like in the global south, where trust based partnership building is key to any community based transformative action.

Knowledge Building and Generative AI to Advance Community Knowledge

We invite researchers, educators, designers, engineers, practitioners, and policymakers to participate in a full-day hybrid workshop from 9-5 pm on Sunday, June 9th. Remote participation is available. While much of the current focus on AI in education is geared towards personalization and individual learning, this workshop shifts the attention to the potential of GenAI in advancing community knowledge. The goals of the workshop include:

• Examine the epistemological and ontological status of AI in Knowledge Building
• Explore ways AI can support work in design mode to maximize a group’s potential for creativity and knowledge creation
• Investigate how AI can become functional infrastructure for Knowledge Building
• Interrogate ethical considerations when integrating AI in Knowledge Building

Pre-workshop meetings:

These meetings will spotlight specific projects or research at the intersection of KB &AI, aiming to maximize idea diversity within the community.

The workshop will feature lightning talks, followed by participants joining working groups to further develop and consolidate ideas. We anticipate that the sustained efforts will culminate in the publication of theoretical papers as well as empirical research.

If you are interested in joining us, please take a moment to fill out the pre-workshop survey: https://forms.gle/NqwRGuzs2btQg9DA7 Thank you!

AI Augmented Learning for All: Challenges and Opportunities – a view from the Five National AI Institutes

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly powerful, it is imperative for the general public to learn more about AI and how it can be utilized to address the society’s daily challenges. The National AI Institutes represent a cornerstone of the U.S. government’s commitment to fostering long-term fundamental research in AI. This workshop will introduce the National AI Institutes program to the Learning Sciences community, and, in particular, will focus on five of such AI Institutes related to the learnings science community, i.e., the National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (AI-ALOE), the National AI Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI), the National AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT), the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education (AI4ExceptionalEd), and the National AI Institute for Inclusive Intelligent Technologies for Education (INVITE). The objectives are to introduce to the learning sciences community about the various education and learning related use cases being addressed by these AI Institutes, their AI research activities, the current status of AI advancement and limitations, and more importantly, how the learning sciences community can engage with these AI Institutes to shape their research programs to more strongly align with ongoing and emerging research in the field. Key research leaders from the AI Institutes will be invited to speak at the workshop along with other key players.