Danae Stanton Fraser at University of Bath, http://staff.bath.ac.uk/pssds/

Dr. Danaë Stanton Fraser is a Reader in Psychology at the University of Bath where she leads the CREATE group evaluating novel technologies and studying their effects on collaborative learning. Dr. Stanton Fraser was principal investigator of the JISC-funded SENSE project exploring children's use of pollution monitoring sensors for understanding environmental impact and an investigator on the Lego project, evaluating children's collaborative programming performance. She is currently an investigator on the EPSRC Cityware programme, evaluating collaborative impacts of mobile technologies on children and adults across heritage environments and an investigator on the DTI/EPSRC Participate project exploring pervasive computing for mass participation in environmental monitoring. Working in an interdisciplinary environment, she has published over 60 papers in JEP Applied, Behavioural Brain Research, Ergonomics, Memory and Cognition, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing and at the ACM CHI, CSCL and PD conferences.

Talk Title: The Technical Art of Learning Science

Abstract:
My talk focuses on the conference theme by describing techniques for creating 'Rich Learning Contexts that Work'. I will discuss how newly available technologies can be appropriated for use in scientific investigations in schools. This enables a hands-on approach where traditionally the emphasis has dwelt on teaching findings over learning practice. I will describe examples of interventions in schools in which new designs for simulating science are introduced onto technologies which are independently emerging in the child's world and evaluated there. These examples highlight the possibility of sharing data across potentially large numbers of schools and between large numbers of learners who have existing access to these new technologies. This work also points to the need for retaining context to aid interpretation, and understanding the validity and appropriateness of data and method. My talk will highlight the methods that we use to engage children in the learning process and our findings from various projects where we have evaluated: logic programming using Lego; scaling up scientific investigations through the children's mobile phones; and incorporating the use of web and broadcast media. I will argue that our direct 'heavyweight' engagement methods ensure such technology-rich learning contexts will work and scale up to national size programmes.