The ability to prepare and present a mathematical argument, or proof, is a key component of the mathematical competence students need to achieve in elementary school. A proof for elementary students is not the highly structured mathematical argument seen in high school algebra classes. It is, however, a rational mathematical argument created by students using the appropriate vocabulary for their level of understanding. The goal of the Technology to Support Mathematical Argumentation project is to develop computational tools with which elementary students can construct and share mathematical proofs. This paper reports on the development of array manipulation and animation creation tools that are extensions to our tablet-based Classroom Learning Partner (CLP) software. It also describes our experience in a Boston third grade classroom in which students were able to successfully create animations to demonstrate mathematical proofs such as showing that 3 x 4 = 6 x 2.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced the development of an “engagement pedometer” that can identify exciting or boring moments to be used in classrooms. Researchers at the University of Hawaii have also developed potential real-time cognitive load indicators that also could be used in the classroom. These real-time cognitive load indicators can be used to optimize the student-computer interaction. Initial research is targeted at extracting real-time cognitive load from a suite of physiological sensors. Physiological sensors we have used collect: eye fixation times, number of fixations, eye saccades, blink rates, pupil dilation, hand/finger pressures on a mouse, relative blood flow, pulse, temperature, general somatic activity and electrodermal activity change. With the advent of tablet technology, our current research is to adapt our pressure mouse technology to finger pressure on a touch screen and add it to our suite of sensors. The goal is to obtain a reliable suite of cognitive load indicators from passive physiological sensors installed in current technology. The development of real-time cognitive load indicators involves different types of cognitive activities, establishing the transform from sensor to cognitive load and controlling the cognitive impact of various multimedia features.

While digital technology is entering today’s classrooms and learning environments, handwriting largely is still taught using regular pencil and paper. In our research we explore the potential of digital writing tools to augment the handwriting process while preserving its cognitive benefits. In particular, we are interested in (1) how the characteristics of digital writing tools influence children’s handwriting experience and quality, compared to regular pencil and paper and (2) what kind of feedback may be beneficial to digitally augment the handwriting process and how it can be integrated into the handwriting technology. In this paper we describe early findings of a study we conducted at a primary school to investigate how existing digital pens (iPad and stylus, WACOM tablet, and Livescribe pen) affect children’s handwriting quality and the handwriting experience. As part of this we discuss our methodology on evaluating handwriting quality, an inherently subjective activity. Furthermore, we outline the potential design space that digital writing tools open up when it comes to augmenting the handwriting process to facilitate learning.

Mechanix is an educational homework system for digital input of homework questions that provides feedback based on sketch recognition algorithms. We created Mechanix to satisfy the need for better automatic grading of hand-drawn diagrams of physics and civil engineering courses. Presented with a question, students draw answers to physics problems, while the system employs geometric recognition to classify their strokes into recognized shapes. Our demonstration aims to present participants with a working platform that showcases the features of Mechanix, both on an instructor and student level. We wish to display this system to educators who may be interested in deploying a system to facilitate the grading of hand-drawn diagrams in large freshman-level classrooms.

We present an evaluation of webFluidMath (WFM), an internet-based pen-centric software application designed for use on mobile tablet devices, such as iPads, for one-to-one (1:1) instruction in high school math classes. Our evaluation focused on 9th grade Algebra students and teachers over a one month period during which they used WFM as part of standard instruction in four lesson modules, specifically designed for the software. We employed a between subjects comparison wherein the control group used their normal teaching methods and the experimental group used WFM. Both groups comprised four class levels, based on student ability. Test scores for quizzes at the end of each module were collected from each class level and classroom activities were observed. Background and survey data from both teachers and students about their experiences using WFM were also collected. The results of our evaluation indicate that WFM is easily integrated into 1:1 learning environments. In a majority of the comparison groups, teaching with WFM resulted in statistically significant improvements in students’ test scores across a broad range of student capability levels.

The growing ubiquity of touch-enabled computing devices can enhance children's learning via sketch-based playful educational applications. The learning materials in those applications provide children directions on how to draw shapes, and if the children follow the directions, they draw the shapes using a digital pen or the touch of their fingers. Unfortunately those sketch-based playful educational applications do not track the progress of their fine motor skills, so parents and teachers cannot know if the children's fine motor skills improve. If an intelligent user interface can detect children's fine motor skills automatically, teachers or parents can detect children's fine motor skill ability at early stage and help children to improve fine motor skills via practicing drawings through touch-enabled devices or pencil and paper, and check if the practice improved the children's fine motor skill ability. In this paper, we present our sketch-based educational application, EasySketch. The application teaches children how to draw digits/characters and recognizes the sketcher's level of fine motor skill automatically and returns feedback as developmental or mature.

High school students in ninth and tenth-grade biology and chemistry classes were part of a study to determine how incorporating tablet PC’s with web-based technology and POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) roles in science classes influences students’ preferences for various learning methods. This paper explores these students’ stated preferences for one of three teaching methods (traditional classroom instruction, POGIL roles alone, or POGIL with Tablet PC’s using Ubiquitous Presenter) by considering their effectiveness in enabling collaboration, note-taking, and data sharing in groups and with the class as a whole. In this case-study, analysis of the surveys shows that students preferred classes with assigned POGIL roles over traditional lectures, and preferred the added technology of a tablet PC, which improved the POGIL role experience. Tablet PC’s were shown to make viewing and sharing of data much easier, which may have influenced a preference for using the tablet PC’s to improve collaboration between students.

This article presents the results of a case of study realized at EAFIT University. The objective of the experiment was to observe if the use of the digital drawing tablets or pen displays, improve the graphic representation in relation with the traditional way employing paper and pencil as a principal tool. The results obtained in the experiment suggest that students with a medium level of drawing knowledge and abilities, do not show an improvement in the drawing quality using the digital drawing tablets, however the experiment allowed to obtain important findings in order to encourage using "pen based technologies", developing and implementing a new academic model, which incorporates the application of new technologies as new education processes, with the finality of facilitating the drawing learning, making it more effective and obtaining better results than the actuals.

This work-in-progress-presentation outlines both a key opportunity to understand the loss of STEM students as well as our vision for a transformative learning tool –called Logic Sketch – that may help curb the exodus by providing personal-learning-experiences for each student within a mass lecture.

We shall explore interaction on a touch surface in two domains. In the first, we shall look at a system that enables Individuals with Blindness or Severe Visual Impairment (IBSVI) to read at their own pace. We show how reading and information access are inherently embodied activities, and how touch interaction can support reading for IBSVI. In the second project, we will investigate one of the challenges of spatial knowledge acquisition while moving through large virtual spaces. The widespread availability of consumer HDTVs with 3D capability have brought them within reach of use in classroom and other learning environments. We demonstrate how transferring walking action to the hand and fingers can enable virtual navigation with benefits in the form of route knowledge, survey knowledge, and perceptual gains over traditional virtual navigation techniques. The technique is lightweight and suitable for widespread use for learning.

In educational contexts, we see a rapid adoption of tablets but often without real integration into the learning process. This integration is repeatedly attempted through the provision of a multitude of 'apps' running on individual tablets to deliver content to the student. However, tablets even with many educational apps used in isolation are unlikely to enable effective learning without a consideration of their placement in the student’s workflow. This talk explores the physicality of devices and how new innovations such as tablets need to function in technological display and device ecologies or ecosystems to support human thinking, learning and sensemaking. We propose a principled approach by which one can evaluate technology configurations for their potential to support (or hinder) students' thinking, and present a study that uncovered generalizable affordances for the design of technology ecologies for learning. Our contribution in terms of methodology, theory, evaluation and the design of technology ecologies in education is significant for designers, researchers as well as educators and school administrators.

After decades of being a first implementer of new tablet technology, I have found myself back at the whiteboard. Are current technologies lacking in those things which have proved vital for classroom instruction. What does this say about the future of pen and touch devices?

Short talks by prior students of Dr. Randall Davis about what they were working on while a student of Randy Davis.

Digital ink as a rich file format has shown promise as a text creation and text input modality. When used with children, who are emerging writers, studies have shown that the text can be recognized with a reasonable degree of accuracy but the possibilities for other uses of the ink, especially for diagnostic purposes has been understudied. This paper sets out some of the possibilities for digital ink for writing with children and describes a study with children that sought insights from the children as to the possibilities of the media whilst also exploring the possibilities for a new method for the study of free writing text input with children. The paper presents a set of research challenges for the digital ink community.

The paper discusses an introductory computer science course that reflects the current shift in technology toward digital note taking and, in particular, pen-based and touch technology. The concept of digital ink has the potential to dramatically transform and enhance the teaching and learning process by becoming widely used in classrooms- replacing the use of desktops or laptops. One of the potential advantages of the new technology is that it allows the expression and exchange of ideas in an interactive environment using sketch based interfaces. The cornerstone of the course is the concept of geometrical sketching dynamically combined with an underlying mathematical model with a greater focus on student's ability to produce rigorous and sound proof arguments.

Discussion of future grant opportunities and collaboration opportunities between K12 and university led by a prior NSF employee.

As instructors introduce educational concepts to students such as through face-to-face classroom contact or distance learning video broadcasting, they can augment their speech content with mid-air gesturing actions to more easily visualize and to better engage students' attention on these concepts. This can include language instructors demonstrating written symbols in the air, drawing objects that interact with the laws of physics, describing physical properties of geometric objects, and so on. Despite the usefulness of instructors' augmented mid-air gesturing during teaching, digital educational resources have conventionally not taken advantage of interfaces that make use of these expressed physical actions. With newer improved and ubiquitous motion-sensing hardware technologies, researchers can help open up the possibilities of designing interfaces that can properly take advantage of previously-untapped mid-air gesturing actions that accompany the explanation of educational content. In this work, we describe our efforts in developing automated recognition techniques for better understanding mid-air gesturing actions -- specifically sketched motions in the air -- that can subsequently be incorporated into such next-generation educational applications.

Students learn in different manners. This is the basic premise behind learning styles. Effective educators use well known methods to reach students of different learning styles. This approach works well in the classroom. However, as one moves into the realm of graded assignment feedback, there have been few innovative changes. Traditional paper based assignments are routinely graded with the red pen and a grading rubric. The electronic equivalent of this is the marked-up pdf document. However, these approaches still have proven to be insufficient. There is a newer approach to feedback, collectively referred to as Asynchronous Multimedia Feedback, which uses screen capture technology to create a customized video for students critiquing the work. This article will provide an overview of the technique, the current research on the effectiveness of the technique, and some areas for future work.

Linda Harvison, Principal of St. Joseph’s Academy, will be joined by several students in a presentation on how they leverage pen and touch technology to keep up academically and prepare for what’s in store for college and the professional world.

Over the last decade, the accountability demands on school leaders have increased ten-fold. National common core curricula, new state exams for licensing teachers and school leaders, and new assessments for public school students have been driven by public outcries demanding change at the state and national levels, responding to dismal scores of United States students when compared to their global counterparts. As school leaders look for more efficient and more effective ways to collect and record pertinent data that aligns new standards and assessments with new software offerings designed for schools, the latest advances in hardware helps them meet these challenges. This paper studies the daily routine of K-12 educators who incorporate tablets and iPads to assimilate vast amounts of data used to operate and evaluate their K-12 school environment. A review of extant literature on this topic ignites further discussion of the hardware and software needs of those who are leading our schools during the next ten years.

Sketch worksheets are a new kind of sketch-based education software designed to facilitate spatial learning. Each worksheet represents a particular exercise, which the student does on a computer. Students get feedback, based on automatic comparison of their sketch with a hidden solution sketch. A software gradebook, which uses scoring rubrics in the solution sketch, is intended to help instructors in grading. Sketch worksheets have been used in classroom experiments with college students and with middle-school students. They are domain-independent, requiring only that the exercise involves visual distinctions that the software can understand. This session will provide hands-on experience with sketch worksheets, and with the authoring environment that is used to make them. Participants will be guided through making a simple sketch worksheet themselves, using the authoring environment built into CogSketch, the underlying software. (CogSketch is being developed by the NSF-sponsored Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, and is freely available on-line.)

In a world where technology continues to evolve and pervade our everyday lives, its use in the educational setting must be examined and enhanced to ensure that our 21st century learners are being prepared for what lies beyond the classroom. The purpose of the present study is to ascertain what technology is available to 30 first-year secondary teachers and how they use that technology in their classrooms. All participants are enrolled in a university-based post-baccalaureate secondary certification program, which includes instruction and guided practice for using technology-applications in the classrooms. Observation data was collected using the T3 Classroom Observation Protocol. Of the participating teacher interns, 83.3% integrated technology into the lesson. By examining the technology present in a variety of classrooms as well as how it is used, we can plan teacher education and professional development to address the needs of today’s teachers and students.

Short preview of the coming you try its for Saturday.

Collaborative learning systems benefit from the ability of multiple students to interact with each other in an online work space. However, collaborative clutter can occur when multiple students overwrite, erase and add side notes to the work space. This paper offers a system and method for use of layering, user manipulation, and client-side service to control multiple user interaction and make online collaborative work space useful. Early results indicate that the solution is seamless and intuitive, allowing individual users control over their own environments in a collaborative system.

Nubeteq is a student owned business formed in 2013 at Start-Up Aggieland, a student business incubator at Texas A&M University. Nubeteq’s mission is to “use cloud technologies to deliver the latest software solutions to any internet enabled devices”. Our technology provides a complete desktop experience to inexpensive pen and touch devices. Imagine any Windows, Mac or Linux software effectively running on a $50 Android tablet. We leverage the cloud to put the power of an expensive laptop into the hands of students unable to afford the tools necessary to succeed in higher education. Our solution allows for a student in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia or any underdeveloped nation with a cell phone internet connection and inexpensive tablet, to have the same tools available to any student at any other school.

Sketch worksheets are a new kind of sketch-based education software designed to facilitate spatial learning. Each worksheet represents a particular exercise, which the student does on a computer. Students get feedback, based on automatic comparison of their sketch with a hidden solution sketch. A software gradebook, which uses scoring rubrics in the solution sketch, is intended to help instructors in grading. Sketch worksheets have been used in classroom experiments with college students and with middle-school students. They are domain-independent, requiring only that the exercise involves visual distinctions that the software can understand. This session will provide hands-on experience with sketch worksheets, and with the authoring environment that is used to make them. Participants will be guided through making a simple sketch worksheet themselves, using the authoring environment built into CogSketch, the underlying software. (CogSketch is being developed by the NSF-sponsored Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, and is freely available on-line.)

Attendees of this You-Try-It session will participate as students in a collaborative small-group project. Student collaboration will be fostered by using DyKnow and OneNote to give students rich shared workspaces that are secure for their group, while at the same time giving high visibility and appropriate levels of control to the teacher.

Vocabulary development and vocabulary instruction is crucial for reading comprehension and language learning (Mancilla-Martinez,2010; Min, 2008; National Reading Panel, 2000; Vidal, 2011). Researchers have found that flashcard drills have positive effects on the accuracy of word reading and the growth of vocabulary size (Browder & Xin, 1998; Nist & Joseph, 2008). Written Chinese is logographic and its non-alphabetical nature poses extra difficulties for learners to recognize and remember Chinese characters and words. Flashcard serve as an effective strategy for vocabulary development for Chinese language learners. In this study, e-flashcards were created to incorporate textual hints, visual aids such as images or videos, as well as audio recordings. Students rely on visual resources to build word-image association, and video and audio resources to learn Chinese pronunciation. Twenty-six students in fourth grade in a Basic Chinese Class participated in this study, creating their e-flashcards as an exercise for word recognition. For each target word, students were encouraged to find visual resources online, and record their own pronunciation using the microphones on their IPad to add to the flashcards. They were then asked to share their e-flashcards using DOCERI, an open App providing the students and the teacher a stage to share their work by using their own IPads. Over 90 percent of students had positive feedback when they were interviewed about their perceptions of the use e-flashcard and DOCERI.

This demonstration exemplifies various technology tools and iPad apps to help organize and disseminate course content as well as motive student success through personal ownership in a chemistry classroom at the secondary level.

Sketch worksheets are a new kind of sketch-based education software designed to facilitate spatial learning. Each worksheet represents a particular exercise, which the student does on a computer. Students get feedback, based on automatic comparison of their sketch with a hidden solution sketch. A software gradebook, which uses scoring rubrics in the solution sketch, is intended to help instructors in grading. Sketch worksheets have been used in classroom experiments with college students and with middle-school students. They are domain-independent, requiring only that the exercise involves visual distinctions that the software can understand. This session will provide hands-on experience with sketch worksheets, and with the authoring environment that is used to make them. Participants will be guided through making a simple sketch worksheet themselves, using the authoring environment built into CogSketch, the underlying software. (CogSketch is being developed by the NSF-sponsored Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, and is freely available on-line.)

Mechanix is an educational homework system for digital input of homework questions that provides feedback based on sketch recognition algorithms. We created Mechanix to satisfy the need for better automatic grading of hand-drawn diagrams of physics and civil engineering courses. Presented with a question, students draw answers to physics problems, while the system employs geometric recognition to classify their strokes into recognized shapes. Our demonstration aims to present participants with a working platform that showcases the features of Mechanix, both on an instructor and student level. We wish to display this system to educators who may be interested in deploying a system to facilitate the grading of hand-drawn diagrams in large freshman-level classrooms.

An increasing number of children are engaging in online social networking today. Most of the new technologies directed specifically toward children take the form of virtual worlds, networked games and project-sharing sites and are primarily concerned with making money. These technologies rarely consider the children's development and education as a priority. Also, due to lack of viable options, many children lie about their age to participate in age-restricted online forums and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. This behavior has raised concerns among parents and teachers as it exposes children to inappropriate content, cyber-bullying and online predators. Additionally, most social networks are not designed for (nor are their contents appropriate for) people under the age of 13. They often use text-based communications that children may not have the maturity to understand nor the ability to compose expressively. In contrast, sketches are often a favored and understandable communication medium for children. These issues and concerns motivated the development of KidGab, a non-commercial children's social networking and educational tool that incorporates animation-like sketch-based communication, as well as a teacher and parental monitoring system for children's safety.

The possibilities for student collaboration has been expanded greatly through the use of pen and touch technology. As education becomes more interconnected and global, student collaboration is moving online. Previously, keyboards limited STEM major’s ability to work with peers. Diagrams, equations, and abstract work that is characteristic of these majors, are not easily or readily translated with a keyboard. A touch interface breaks down these limitations. Given a live whiteboard session, students are able to interact with their peers as never before. As touch technology grows faster and more responsive, collaborative “study rooms” can now support even difficult diagrams and abstract work.

Teaching typically involves communication of knowledge in multiple modalities. The ubiquity of pen-enabled technologies in teaching has made the accurate capture of user ink data possible, alongside technologies to recognize voice data. When annotating on a white board or other presentation surface, teachers often have a specific style of structuring contents taught in a lecture. The availability of sketch data and voice data can enable researchers to analyze trends followed by teachers in writing and annotating notes. Using ethnographic methods, we have observed the structure that teachers use while presenting lectures on mathematics. We have observed the practices followed by teachers in writing and speaking the lecture content, and have derived models that would help computer scientists identify the structure of the content. This observational study motivates the idea that we can use speech and color change events to distinguish between strokes meant for drawing versus those meant for attention marks.

This You-Try-It is meant for those have already participated in one of the two Part 1/ Beginner sessions and would like more in depth practice with creating worksheets.
Sketch worksheets are a new kind of sketch-based education software designed to facilitate spatial learning. Each worksheet represents a particular exercise, which the student does on a computer. Students get feedback, based on automatic comparison of their sketch with a hidden solution sketch. A software gradebook, which uses scoring rubrics in the solution sketch, is intended to help instructors in grading. Sketch worksheets have been used in classroom experiments with college students and with middle-school students. They are domain-independent, requiring only that the exercise involves visual distinctions that the software can understand. This session will provide hands-on experience with sketch worksheets, and with the authoring environment that is used to make them. Participants will be guided through making a simple sketch worksheet themselves, using the authoring environment built into CogSketch, the underlying software. (CogSketch is being developed by the NSF-sponsored Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, and is freely available on-line.)

An introduction to creating short videos using screen capture software, focusing on the intersection between creativity, media making, and expressing or explaining ideas through video. . This session may be especially interesting for teachers and students in any area where hand- -written notation, drawing or symbolism is a key means for communicating (e.g., mathematics, art, science, computer science). This one hour session has proven popular in numerous conferences in the US and overseas, and will give participants a chance to produce their own short videos.

The possibilities for student collaboration has been expanded greatly through the use of pen and touch technology. As education becomes more interconnected and global, student collaboration is moving online. Previously, keyboards limited STEM major’s ability to work with peers. Diagrams, equations, and abstract work that is characteristic of these majors, are not easily or readily translated with a keyboard. A touch interface breaks down these limitations. Given a live whiteboard session, students are able to interact with their peers as never before. As touch technology grows faster and more responsive, collaborative “study rooms” can now support even difficult diagrams and abstract work.

An increasing number of children are engaging in online social networking today. Most of the new technologies directed specifically toward children take the form of virtual worlds, networked games and project-sharing sites and are primarily concerned with making money. These technologies rarely consider the children's development and education as a priority. Also, due to lack of viable options, many children lie about their age to participate in age-restricted online forums and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. This behavior has raised concerns among parents and teachers as it exposes children to inappropriate content, cyber-bullying and online predators. Additionally, most social networks are not designed for (nor are their contents appropriate for) people under the age of 13. They often use text-based communications that children may not have the maturity to understand nor the ability to compose expressively. In contrast, sketches are often a favored and understandable communication medium for children. These issues and concerns motivated the development of KidGab, a non-commercial children's social networking and educational tool that incorporates animation-like sketch-based communication, as well as a teacher and parental monitoring system for children's safety.

Applications (Apps) provide unique opportunities to enhance health education. In this interactive session, participants will build a repository of potential health related apps that can be incorporated into their existing lessons. The learning activity was designed to develop skills to locate useful apple and android market health education apps using technology within the middle school through collegiate classroom setting. Although the content area of health will be utilized during this presentation, the methodology presented could easily be adapted to address other content areas.

Nubeteq is a student owned business formed in 2013 at Start-Up Aggieland, a student business incubator at Texas A&M University. Nubeteq’s mission is to “use cloud technologies to deliver the latest software solutions to any internet enabled devices”. Our technology provides a complete desktop experience to inexpensive pen and touch devices. Imagine any Windows, Mac or Linux software effectively running on a $50 Android tablet. We leverage the cloud to put the power of an expensive laptop into the hands of students unable to afford the tools necessary to succeed in higher education. Our solution allows for a student in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia or any underdeveloped nation with a cell phone internet connection and inexpensive tablet, to have the same tools available to any student at any other school.

An introduction to creating short videos using screen capture software, focusing on the intersection between creativity, media making, and expressing or explaining ideas through video. . This session may be especially interesting for teachers and students in any area where hand- -written notation, drawing or symbolism is a key means for communicating (e.g., mathematics, art, science, computer science). This one hour session has proven popular in numerous conferences in the US and overseas, and will give participants a chance to produce their own short videos.

This demonstration exemplifies various technology tools and iPad apps to help organize and disseminate course content as well as motive student success through personal ownership in a chemistry classroom at the secondary level.

Vocabulary development and vocabulary instruction is crucial for reading comprehension and language learning (Mancilla-Martinez,2010; Min, 2008; National Reading Panel, 2000; Vidal, 2011). Researchers have found that flashcard drills have positive effects on the accuracy of word reading and the growth of vocabulary size (Browder & Xin, 1998; Nist & Joseph, 2008). Written Chinese is logographic and its non-alphabetical nature poses extra difficulties for learners to recognize and remember Chinese characters and words. Flashcard serve as an effective strategy for vocabulary development for Chinese language learners. In this study, e-flashcards were created to incorporate textual hints, visual aids such as images or videos, as well as audio recordings. Students rely on visual resources to build word-image association, and video and audio resources to learn Chinese pronunciation. Twenty-six students in fourth grade in a Basic Chinese Class participated in this study, creating their e-flashcards as an exercise for word recognition. For each target word, students were encouraged to find visual resources online, and record their own pronunciation using the microphones on their IPad to add to the flashcards. They were then asked to share their e-flashcards using DOCERI, an open App providing the students and the teacher a stage to share their work by using their own IPads. Over 90 percent of students had positive feedback when they were interviewed about their perceptions of the use e-flashcard and DOCERI.