Last week, though it seems like a long time ago now, I was in Chicago for ICLS 2010 to present a paper based on my thesis that I co-authored with Chris:
Fujita, N. & Teplovs, C. (2010). Software-based scaffolding: Supporting the development of knowledge building discourse in online courses. Gomez, K., Lyons, L., & Radinsky, J. (Eds.) Learning in the Disciplines: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2010) – Volume 1, Full Papers, (pp. 1056-1062). International Society of the Learning Sciences: Chicago IL. Download the paper:Fujita Teplovs 2010
The presentation was a bit of a challenge because both of us were presenting in the same session. A big thank you to Gregory Dyke who kindly volunteered to entertain Tatiana (ours, not his) while we presented. It was also wonderful to see our knowledge building colleagues Jan van Aalst and Huang-Yao Hung in the audience. We were really fortunate to have them attend given that our session ran concurrently with Michael Jacobson and Peter Reimann‘s session on complexity theory research.
In addition to the presentation that I had prepared for, Chris asked me to do an impromptu one in the Productive Multivocality in the Analysis of Collaborative Learning Workshop organized by Nancy Law, Kristine Lund, Carolyn Rose, Dan Suthers and Chris. I gave a brief overview of the data set that we presented and analyzed for last year’s Alpine Rendez-Vous so that it might be analyzed by other researchers, possibly Ming Ming Chiu, Jan van Aalst, and Jan Wilem Strijbos. In this workshop, I was also able to voice insights I had from sharing my data set and to be privy to discussions about paradigmatic issues in the analysis of collaborative learning with some of my heroes in the learning sciences.
As a junior researcher in the learning sciences, it is always a thrill to meet researchers that I’ve long admired. In between sessions and at poster session/receptions at this conference, I had the great pleasure of connecting with people like Keith Sawyer, Gerry Stahl, Peter Reimann, Michael Jacobson, and Allan Collins.
We didn’t see as much of Chicago’s attractions as I had hoped, but Tatiana and I did managed to go to the Art Institute of Chicago. Millenium Park and the lake shore was beautiful, too.
Last and not least, we survived our first long roadtrip with the family (yes, our pug Snug came along too). It’s good to be home, with really concrete ideas to work on for publication!
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