IEEE TALE 2022 Keynote Speakers
Keynote Presentation 1: Why and How to Teach the Classic Papers
Prof. Harry Lewis, Harvard University
(Recipient of IEEE Computer Society 2021 Mary Kenneth Keller Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award)
Abstract
Students of the applied sciences have a lot to learn to become skilled practitioners of the state of their art, but a steady diet of knowledge, whether theoretical or applicable, can limit their imagination. Involving students in research can excite them to creative opportunities, but may leave them thinking that only incremental improvements available to mere mortals. I will report on a Harvard course for graduate students and advanced undergraduates that has the specific goal of getting them to see the field of computer science holistically and as a battle for big ideas, many of which did not seem big at the time. Guided reading of about 50 fundamental papers over a 12-week period in a course with no enrollment cap created intellectual, motivational, evaluative, and logistical challenges unlike any in my previous teaching experience, but students reported thinking that they grasped the subject as a whole for the first time and that they too might come up with big ideas.
Biography
Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, holds AB and PhD degrees in Applied Mathematics from Harvard. A member of the Harvard faculty since 1974, he has helped launch thousands of Harvard undergraduates, including both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, into careers in computer science. Principal architect of Harvard’s undergraduate computer science program, he has served as Dean of Harvard College and interim dean of Harvard’s Engineering School, and was the recipient of the IEEE’s 2021 Mary Kenneth Keller Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award. His recent books include “Blown to Bits” (with Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Wendy Seltzer), now in its second edition, which explains the origins and public consequences of the explosion of digital information; an edited collection of classic computer science papers, “Ideas that Created the Future,” published by MIT Press; and his edition, with Lloyd Strickland, of Leibniz’s works on binary arithmetic, also published by MIT Press.
Keynote Presentation 2:
Motivation in Teaching & Learning: Insights from Neuroscience—and from Movie-Making!
Prof. Barbara Oakley, Oakland University
(Recipient of IEEE Education Society 2020 William E. Sayle II Award for Achievement in Education)
Abstract
A world of neuroscientific insight has evolved around research into how movies draw our attention and communicate their key elements. Yet this insight has only sparsely been applied to teaching. This talk will describe mental models, neural schemas, and how good teaching, informed by insights drawn by neuroscientists from the analysis of movies, allows the efficient transfer of ideas from teacher to student. These insights can help us understand why retrieval practice goes far beyond simple rote learning. They also provide practical tools that can be applied to one of education’s foundational challenges—helping students make motivational shifts in their identity.
Biography
Barbara Oakley is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior. She created and teaches Coursera’s “Learning How to Learn,” one of the world’s most popular massive open online course with over three million registered students, along with other popular “Top MOOCs of All Time.” Barb is a New York Times best-selling author who has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times—her book A Mind for Numbers has sold over a million copies worldwide. She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Keynote Presentation 3:
Toolkits equals Language and Embodiment: A Statement of Need for a Global Design Innovation Ecosystem
Dr Jonathon Richter, CEO/President, Immersive Learning Research Network
Abstract
Our New Normal is increasingly fast-paced, interconnected, and complex. In technical, cultural, and economic ways these dynamics translate to more challenging, more fragmented, and less predictable strategies. The human operating system, however, hasn't changed very much. If we are to see the real value of learning technologies, we must understand human learning and now also persistently scan the horizon and work together on shared understanding to correlate and adapt to the increasing speed of this growing tidal wave of innovation and sociotechnical change. "Virtual toolkits" are obvious common community / organizational / consumer-based media frameworks for engagement and interaction. In this presentation, I assert that we need a common, scalable community interface to scan the horizon for emerging new possibilities, host dialogue, share evidence, practice teaching and learning designs, and grow the shared interdisciplinary evidence base for "what works" in learning technologies at a global scale. Such an Open Science / Open Design framework is truly vital and imperative. This shared work and understanding of "what works" may benefit us all professionally, contribute to solutions for caring for our planet, of course for advancing the science of immersive learning and manifold other ways. In this presentation, I will spend time unpacking and providing a more detailed illustration of these ideas and what's at work and play surrounding emerging trends across the Metaverse.
Biography
Jonathon Richter, Ed.D. is the CEO and President of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Montana. His research on psychological and learning-related design factors in human-computer interaction have spanned investigations in virtual workplace identity, computer-based study strategies for students with learning disabilities, forms of engagement found in the virtual world of Second Life, work with native indigenous cultures, and co-design of collaboratories in virtual reality. Currently, Dr. Richter is leading iLRN in a design ecosystem of scanning the horizon for early identification of new learning technologies, situating them for practice across the disciplines and professions, and co-creating a worldwide evidence base for XR and Immersive Learning.