Tag Archives: research

New NSF Grant to Promote CS4All Implementation

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Happy to announce that I have received a new NSF grant in collaboration with CSNYC/CS4All Consortium (PI Leigh Ann DeLyser). We’ll be developing research practice partnerships between NYU, CSNYC and rural/suburban districts in upstate New York, to prototype strategies for better implementation of computer science for all.

The history of policy implementation in K-12 schools is full of cases of failed implementation of new curriculum and technology. In this project, we are designing and testing strategies for teams of K-12 educators to create more robust visions, implementation plans, and partnerships to ensure successful CS4All implementation. We will also be developing practical measures so districts and educators can track how well-aligned their implementations are to achieve success.

New Grant to study Informal Learning Orgs

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We’re excited to be awarded a ~$330,000 grant from the Susan Crown Exchange. We are developing a partnership with 8, innovative, out-of-school learning programs that are using digital media to engage young people in computing, making, and other domains.

Our project will explore the best practices of these learning organizations, and better define the types of skills and literacies that learners develop in these settings, as they connect to future pathways in education and career.

Maryland at ICLS 2014

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I’m excited to attend my first ICLS next week in Boulder, CO. UMD will have a great presence this year, and 2 best paper nominations. Come join us!

Wed, 6/25/14

1:15-2:45pm
The Role of Identity Development Within Tensions in Ownership of Science Learning
*Nominated for Best Student Paper*
Jason Yip, Tamara Clegg, June Ahn, Elizabeth Bonsignore, Michael Gubbels, Emily Rhodes, Becky Lewittes

3:00-4:30pm
“I want to be a Game Designer or Scientist”: Connected Learning and Developing Identities with Urban, African-American Youth
*Nominated for Best Paper*
June Ahn, Mega Subramaniam, Elizabeth Bonsignore, Anthony Pellicone, Amanda Waugh, Jason Yip

The Nature of Student Thinking and Its Implications for the Use of Learning Progressions to Inform Classroom Instruction
Alicia Alonzo, Andrew Elby

Thursday, 6/26/14

1:00-2:30pm

SYMPOSIUM: Differing Notions Of Responsive Teaching Across Mathematics And Science: Does The Discipline Matter?
Andrew Elby (chair), Jennifer Richards, Janet Walkoe, Ayush Gupta, Rosemary Russ, Melissa Luna, Amy Robertson, Janet Coffey, Ann Edwards, Miriam Sherin, Beth van Es (discussant)

2:45-4:15pm
Capturing Personal and Social Science: Technology for Integrating the Building Blocks of Disposition
Tamara Clegg, Elizabeth Bonsignore, June Ahn, Jason Yip, Daniel Pauwe, Michael Gubbels, Becky Lewittes, Emily Rhodes

4:45-6:15pm
Characterizing a New Dimension of Change in Attending and Responding to the Substance of Student Thinking
Jennifer Richards, Andrew Elby, Ayush Gupta

 

Designing and Using Social Media for Childrens’ Science Learning

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How can we design and use social media with children? It’s a complex issue that is less explored in the research literature (for a myriad of reasons related to policy, safety, convenience etc.). Add onto that the complexity of “learning” science; how could we use social media to promote science learning for children?

I’m really excited to share our paper, which will be presented at the CSCW 2014 Conference in February, called “Selfies for Science”. It’s a case study of our 2-year design process of a social media app for kids called ScienceKit, and how new types of collaborative learning configurations can happen when we implement it in an informal science program.

Check out the paper here.

Open Education Research!!

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Happy to report on several milestones concerning my research on open education.

Our research group has a web presence! Check us out at the CASCI page, we’re the OCEL Group (Open Communities for Education and Learning)

Had a paper on the Peer 2 Peer University appear in the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, special issue on MOOCs: http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/ahn_0613.htm

Was invited to give a talk at the Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER) at Athabasca University. I talked about new opportunities for research and design of open education. The recorded talk and slides are available here: http://cider.athabascau.ca/CIDERSessions/ahn2013/sessiondetails

Check out a very cool workshop I am co-organizing at CSCW 2013, Designing Futures for Peer 2 Peer Learning: http://p2pl.media.mit.edu/

ASIS&T 2013

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Several papers from my projects with colleagues and students were presented at ASIS&T 2013 in Montreal, Canada. Check them out below:

Ahn, J., Butler, B. S., Weng, C., & Webster, S.A. (2013). Learning to be a better Q’er in social Q&A sites: Social norms and information artifacts. In Proceedings of the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) 76th Annual Meeting. [PDF]

Kim, J., & Ahn, J., (2013). The show must go on: The presentation of self during interpersonal conflict on facebook. In Proceedings of the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) 76th Annual Meeting. [PDF]

Waugh, A., Taylor, N. G., Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Druin, A., Fleischmann, K. R. (2013). Young people’s engagement in content creation: An analysis of outliers. In Proceedings of the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) 76th Annual Meeting. [PDF]

Social Network Sites and Youth: Paper Published in JASIST

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I recently had a paper accepted and published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST). The article appears in their Advances in Information Sciences series, and is a review of the critical questions that surround youths participation in social network sites. How do they use them? What are the hypothesized effects on youth relationships, psychological well-being, and learning? These are some of the issues I consider in the article. You can find the article here, or feel free to contact me and I would be happy to share the article with you.

RASA Research Grant

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I received a Research and Scholarship Award (RASA) from the University of Maryland this year. This seed grant will provide funds for me to conduct a study this coming summer on designing social interdependence mechanisms that may promote better collaborative learning in networked, online environments. I’m honored to receive the award and excited to conduct the study this summer!

SPARC Research Grant

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I’m happy to share that I received a SPARC grant from the University of Maryland, College Park (College of Education). This seed grant is geared towards early career faculty to conduct initial research studies and jumpstart their activities. My project will qualitatively examine the Facebook activity of high school youth to determine the types of learning and social behaviors that occur in this online community.