CEP901B Technology and Education Prosem

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CEP901B Technology and Education Prosem

• March 25, 2003
• Matthew J. Koehler
• Punya Mishra

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Agenda

• Announcements
• Brief discussion of research projects (grant
  opportunities etc.)
• Brief discussion on UCRIHS
• Discussion of readings
• Break
• Presentation by Punya Matt
• Meeting with Parolees

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Prelims

• It is time to sign up for it
• You should have received the email with details
• It is 7 hours, our mistake (sorry)
• Except for international students who may choose
  to get an extra hour
• Practice again
• Those of you who got just pass or lower grades
  are strongly recommended to do it again (and
  again)
• Matt and I are willing to read them again and
  provide feedback

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tis the time

• To meet with your advisors to discuss
• Courses for next semester (and further)
• Setting up your guidance committee
• Your experience with the practice prelims
• What you are planning on doing for your practicum

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Next Time

• Readings will be up soon (sorry for the delay)
• Guest lecturer, Dr. Ralph Putnam
• Group in charge
• Please start discussion early
• Continue working on your research project draft
• Convert current draft into a proposal for Spencer
  (details coming up)
• Also download and go over the UCRIHS form (and
  bring in questions about it)

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The Spencer small grant

• http//ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/spencer/small_research
  .htm
• MSU/Spencer Research Training Grant
• Small research grants designed to underwrite some
  of the costs of research by doctoral students in
  the college
• individual grants ranging from 500 to 1,000
• For individual or group projects
• Reviewed by doctoral students
• DEADLINE APRIL 18, 2003 3 PM

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Requirements

• A description of the project, no longer than
  three pages (single-spaced, 12 point type, 1 inch
  margins), including
• A clear statement of the projects analytical
  purpose and potential theoretical benefit
• A description of the research process
• A declaration that costs are not covered by a
  research project or other source.
• A detailed budget, with categories and cost
  estimates.
• A letter of endorsement from the students
  advisor or the faculty member supervising the
  project, which
• Confirms that the project has the approval of the
  faculty member
• Explains the analytical value of the project and
  its educational value for the student and
• Confirms that there is no alternative support for
  the costs of the project.

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Criteria for selection

• The primary criteria for awarding the grant
  include
• The degree that the proposal meets the
  requirements spelled out in this announcement
• The value added to the proposed study by the work
  covered by the requested funds
• The analytical value of the proposed study and
  the educational value for the student

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Media Effects 2 presentations

• The Matt n Punya show

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A tale of two metaphors

• Metaphors are fundamental to human language and
  conceptualizing allowing us to structure human
  experience and communication (Lakoff Johnson).
  Metaphors are deeply embedded in our language,
  culture, and the way we think, and hence affect
  how we experience and interact with the world and
  other people.
• Media as conduit
• Reddy, M. (1979), The conduit metaphor - a case
  of frame conflict in our language about language.
  In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought.
  Cambridge, Eng. Cambridge University Press.
  284-320.
• human communication is overwhelmingly described
  and understood in terms of transmission of
  meanings from speaker or writer to a listener or
  reader
• packaging meanings into words, which are in
  turn unpacked to obtain meanings
• information as being in books or files or
  databases. We put ideas down on paper, put
  concepts into words and so on. In each case, it
  appears as if information, ideas and concepts
  could exist outside of these containers.

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The conduit metaphor

• Ignores
• creative and constructive nature of communication
• Removes
• the medium from the equation, renders it
  invisible to research and questioning.
• Implies
• media have minimal effect on message construction
  and message perception
• In the simplest of terms, the conduit metaphor
  lets human ideas slip out of human brains, so
  that, once you have recording technologies, you
  do not need human anymore (Reddy 1979, p. 310).

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• The computer can only help with cognitive
  activities and should be considered a tool,
  nothing more
• Gantt, Claiborne, 1985

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Does my word processor have a personality?
Social responses to interactive media
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(No Transcript)
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Thank you!

• yes I mean you

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People are suckers for flattery even for
undeserved flattery(Cialdini, 1993)

• People believe flattery
• People like flatterers
• Flattery is immune to validity
• Criticism is not immune to validity
• People prefer flattery to criticism

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You can catch more flies with honey than with
vinegar anon. but what does this mean for
Ed Tech?
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Will flattery get computers anywhere? (Fogg
Nass, 1999)

• Simple computer game, akin to 20 questions, with
  feedback (no feedback, praise, criticism with
  reason, arbitrary)
• People believed and liked computers that
  flattered them
• People didnt care if flattery was valid
• Criticism was only believed if it was valid
• People disliked computers that criticized them,
  regardless of validity

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So whats going on here?

• Surely people dont think the computer means it!
• Maybe it is an expertise thing. Expert users
  wont fall for it.
• Maybe its a fluke. Just works for flattery (and
  criticism) not for other things.

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sorry, but it gets stranger!

• Are people polite to machines?
• Do people ascribe personalities to machines?
• Do people ascribe gender to machines?
• Can people be made to treat computers as
  teammates!

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Reciprocal self-disclosure

• 3 conditions
• No reciprocity
• What has been your biggest disappointment in
  life?
• Reciprocity
• This computer has been configured to run at
  speeds upto 266 MHz. But 90 of computer users
  dont use applications that require these speeds.
  So this computer rarely gets used to its full
  potential. What has been your biggest
  disappointment in life?
• No disclosure (controlled for length)
• You are now ready for the next question in the
  interview. The next question is about
  disappointment. In this question, you will be
  asked about the biggest disappointments in your
  life. The specific question is as follows What
  has been your biggest disappointment in life?

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and?

• Self disclosure tendencies are consistent with
  the norms of reciprocity
• Responses in the reciprocity condition were
  higher in intimacy (measured in terms of depth
  and breadth) than responses in the other two
  conditions

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Computers As Social Actors

• People (not just children) respond to computers,
  television, and new media like real people and
  places
• People apply social rules and norms to media
  (images, television, computers)

The Media Equationby Byron Reeves Clifford Nass
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Perception of Intelligence

• Naïve theories of intelligence
• Do they apply to artifacts?

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Computers with accents

• Alvarez-Torres, María José Mishra,
  Punya
• alvarez3_at_msu.edu punya_at_msu.edu

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How is nativeness generated?

• Meet Susan Carmen, English Language Tutors
• Susan Programmed in USA
• Carmen Programmed in Mexico
• Susan Clear legible native (mid-western)
  accent
• Carmen Clear legible Hispanic accent
• Note Only the instructions were voiced

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Figure 2. Design of study 2
(ongoing) Background questionnaire
? ? Native computer Non-native
computer N30 N30 ? ?
Credibility questionnaire Distracter
task Final test (Recall data
theory integration transfer) analysis
completed
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Credibility Questionnaire

• 10 items Likert scale used previously to assess
  teachers McCroskey Young, 1981 McCroskey,
  Holdridge Toomb, 1974
• Competence
• Intelligent, trained, expert, informed,
  competent, bright
• Character
• Honest, sympathetic, high-character, trustworthy

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Figure 3.Group responses to the credibility
questionnaire
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What a difference a voice makes!

• A computer with a non-native accent is evaluated
  as being
• Significantly less competent than one with a
  native accent
• of lower character than one with a native accent
• NOTE None of the content was voiced! The
  computer just read out instructions

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Coming back to flattery (praise)

• A look back to flattery / criticism
• Effect of praise/criticism depends on context
• (Attribution theory research Meyer, 1982
  Parsons et al., 1982 Nicholls Miller, 1984
  Graham Barker, 1990)
• Perception matters
• Praise/criticism related to perceived effort
• Effort/ability inversely related
• Praise given for success on an easy task has a
  negative effect on learners self-confidence
• Criticism of a poor performance can have positive
  effects on learners self-confidence

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Essentially

• Teacher expectations can be unintentionally
  communicated to students and can influence
  student achievement beliefs (Dusek 1985, Edmonds
  1979, Graham 1991, Rosenthal Jacobson 1968,
  Stipek 1993, 1996, Weary, et. al., 1989).

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Research based on HHI work (Meyer, Mittag
Engler, 1986)

• Pairs of participants worked on problem solving
  task and received feedback from teachers
• Manipulations
• Scored versus non-scored (i.e. ability level
  measured or not measured by the teachers)
• Feedback
• Praise on success in easy task No blame on
  failure on difficult task
• versus
• No praise on success in easy task Blame for
  failure on difficult task
• Each participant could see what feedback the
  other person received (though not the other
  persons solution)

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Results of HHI study

• When teachers knew ability (scored condition)
  participants who received No Praise for success
  Blame for Failure had a more positive
  evaluation of their own performance and greater
  positive affect
• When ability was not known performance and affect
  did not differ with feedback

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What we did (The HCI study)

• Pairs of participants worked on computers solving
  task and received feedback from an evaluation
  machine
• Manipulations
• Scored versus non-scored (i.e. ability level
  measured or not measured by the teachers)
• Feedback
• Praise on success in easy task No blame on
  failure on difficult task (Answer correct very
  impressive Wrong answer. Task completed)
• versus
• No praise on success in easy task Blame for
  failure on difficult task (Answer correct. Task
  completed Wrong answer, should have done
  better)
• Each participant could see what feedback the
  other person received (though not the other
  persons solution)

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What we found (HCI case)

• Significant main effect for Feedback F(1, 110)
  5.482, p .05
• Same story held for comparison of their
  performance with the other student, positive
  affect, negative affect
• No interactions were found significant

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What does this mean

• Praise always won out
• People ARE suckers for flattery
• People DO respond socially to computers
• But wait a minute
• Mediated life is not equal to real life
• The Media Equation doesnt apply across the board

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Limitations and further responses...

• Clearly Media do NOT equal Real Life in all
  situations. We dont eat a picture of a cake, for
  instance (though it may make us salivate)
• The importance of individual differences
• (Reader response, Critical theories, Information
  ecologies etc.)
• This is just one part of a giant
  (technological-social-psychological) mosaic that
  is continually evolving

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Current studies

• Power in HCI
• Waiting and feedback
• Responses to pedagogical agents
• Instructor presence in online courses
• Children and anthropomorphic toys
• With Kathryn H., Steven W., Robert B.

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Conclusions and Implications of the Media Equation

• Media Real Life
• Not in all cases (need more research)
• Social reactions are easy to manufacture
• Communication theory applies to media
• Interaction design is more than graphic design
• Interaction design is more than sequencing
  screens
• Interaction design IS Psychological Design
• In contrast to the conduit metaphor
• MEDIA AS SOCIAL ACTOR

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Why does it happen?

• Machines and mindlessness
• Automaticity, Culturally determined scripts
  (Humans use minimal effort Langer, Bragh)
• Individuals
• - overuse social categories
• (gender and ethnic stereotypes)
• - exhibit overlearned social behaviors
  (politeness, reciprocity)
• - display premature cognitive commitments
• (expertise, personality etc.)
• The fact that our understanding of how we follow
  a rule or give a name will be permanently vague
  does not interfere without actually obeying rules
  and naming things -- Wittgenstein
• maybe it is different for children.

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Why does it happen?

• Computers fill social roles, use language,
  interact in real time etc.
• Old brain - new Media (Theory of Mind, social
  brain, cognitive illusion)
• (perception as unconscious inference Helmholtz)

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Why computers?

• Use of Language A trait specific to humans
• Interactivity i.e. the extent to which an entity
  responds to multiple prior inputs rather than the
  immediately prior input.
• Computer fill social roles. A role is a
  normatively prescribed set of behaviors
  associated with an actor or actors. E.g. Tutor,
  doctor, mother etc. (Berger Luckman, 1967)
• Speech Speech processing is different from other
  kinds of sound processing
• Possession of a human like face Face perception
  is a key mental module

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Implications Understand media effects improve
media design

• for design of educational technology
• (social psychology, ethics, training the next
  generation)
• for media literacy
• for understanding media effects(and ourselves
  what does it mean to be human?)

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Alternate explanations

• Deficiency Lack of knowledge (children) lack of
  experience (naïve users of technology) lack of
  balanced socio-emotional perspective
• Technology as a proxy for the creator / designer
  (the design stance writ large) e.g. Heider
  Simmel movie or ELIZA

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Media literacy As creators

• Character creation is a black art. Non one ever
  wrote a book on how to be good at it Paul White
  in the NewMedia interview, 7/12/00
  http//www.newmedia.com/
• Few people are ever taught to create successful,
  satisfying experiences for others. Mostly, these
  folks are in the performing arts dancers,
  comedians, storytellers, singers, actors, etc. I
  now wish I had more training in theatre and
  performing arts to rely on... especially in
  improvisational theater. That's like the highest
  form of interactivity. (p. 40 - 41) Nathan
  Shedroff, designer, internet.au.(February).
  Interview vivid strikingly bright.

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Media Literacy As users

• Become sensitive to media creators and
  advertisers using such techniques
• (for instance hagglezone.com)
• Adds a new dimension to media literacy
• especially for children

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Faces are everywhere...

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Topffer and the invention of the cartoons...
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Topffer and his work...

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Topffers Law

• Any human face, however poorly and childishly
  drawn, possesses necessarily, by the mere fact of
  existing, some perfectly definite expression.
• Any squiggle which we can interpret as a face
  will have a distinct individual personality.

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Topffers law extended

• Thus, we can extend Topffers Law into the
  digital age and argue that (a) almost all
  interfaces, however badly developed, have
  personality and (b) that personality can be
  generated through the subtlest of cues (these
  could be the manner in which text messages are
  phrased, the layout, as well as the use of images
  and other media.

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Topffers Law updated

• Any interactive artifact, however poorly and
  designed, possesses necessarily, by the mere fact
  of existing, some perfectly definite personality.

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Mindblindness Computers One story

• Forder (19xx) Multimedia Connections A Case
  Study of A Child With Asperger's Syndrome
• Playing with SIMTOWN Hyperstudio
• Jasons apparent lack of a feeling of ownership
  for his virtual town. He was unmoved when he
  witnessed it begin to decay due to his lack of
  attention to the environment.
• Many young players were concerned with the
  balance between houses and businesses. Jason,
  despite having his attention drawn to the
  see-saw, appeared to show no interest in his
  towns population, nor did he see any need for
  order in the streets or any need for housing
  tracts or business centers. His houses and
  business ranged all over his virtual community.
• At one stage he discovered the bulldozer and
  proceeded to destroy every tree on his estate.
  When he was reminded that if all the trees were
  gone there would not be enough oxygen in the air,
  Jason replied, Its not a real place?.
• During the construction of Jason?s Hyperstack, he
  looked at the stack name and observed with
  deadpan expression, Im Jason, how can that be
  Jason?.
• On another occasion I drew a picture of a large
  aggressive male confronting a small Jason
  look-alike. I was attempting to define fear for
  Jason. He was not impressed and said that he was
  not scared because the man was only this big?
  (indicating the size of the drawing with his
  fingers).
• It is important to note that neither of these
  utterances were intended as jokes.

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Children and social artifacts

• The television set isnt alive. It doesnt make
  up its picture. It only passes it on.A person,
  she explains, might have to tell a computer how
  to make a picture, but the picture doesnt exist
  in the world before the machine gets involved
  The computer has to know how to do it. To make
  it up. This reasoning leads her to a special
  kind of verdict for the computer Its sort of
  alive. (Turkle, 1984, p. 49).
• A Virginia woman claims a Furby helped teach her
  autistic son to speak Lisa Cantara of
  Blacksburg, Virginia, said a Furby taoght her
  4-year-old son, C.J., how to refer to himself in
  speech and increased his vocalbulary by at least
  half-dozen words Cantara said that although
  C.J.s autism is relatively mild, his language
  development has been very slow. But he showed a
  marked improvement after he was given a Furby by
  a family friend. He became very attached to it.
  He carried it around with him everywhere and
  started to mimic it. He talked to it a lot. He
  treated it like it was a real creature. (Kahney,
  1999)

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AI or Intelligent Artifice
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Trompe Loeil

• To fool the eye

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Trompe espirit

• To fool the spirit
• Artificial Intelligence vs Intelligent Artifice
• Ontological vs psychological
• Taking advantage of human propensities to see
  personality and agency

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Topffers law extended

• Both are essential for social intelligence
  (example of vampire bats)
• Face recognition seems to be a module in that
  some people cannot recognize faces but can
  recognize everything else
• Face recognition is automatic and whenever it
  happens we infer expression / personality /
  intentionality
• Face recognition is cross cultural
• It is driven by epigenetic rules it develops in
  childhood and is sensitive to experience. As
  Pinker (p. 241 says) it is not insightfully
  described as learned or as a mixture of nature
  and nurture the development is part of an
  assembly schedule and the sensitivity to
  experience is a circumscribed intake of
  information by a structured system. It evolved
  in response to identifiable selection pressures
  in the ecology of our ancestors. And it solves
  unsolvable problems by making tacit assumptions
  about the world that were true when we evolved
  but are not always true now.
• It is a satisficing process not a perfect one
  it works quite well.. hence it can also lead to
  cognitive illusions, for instance seeing faces
  where none exist
• It is impenetrable in that it is hard to describe
  just how we see faces or even to describe faces
  properly (crumpled paper vs. faces)
• Face recognition works at many levels from the
  automatic / instinctual to the complex work of
  artists both realistic and abstract artists

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Social Interfaces are everywhere
Chatterbots Knowbots www.botsopt.com Adaptive
Interfaces Intelligent toys Barney actimates,
Furby, Sonys Aibo, etc. etc.
Microsoft product for early reading with a
social interface
www.inago.com
Microsoft agent technology
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My Real Baby
MRB has its own set of emotions and drives, and
an incredibly expressive, completely animated,
realistic face and voice. The child determines
how she wants to play with her doll, and the doll
responds naturally, emotionally, intelligently
just like a real baby. The MY REAL BABY models
human facial muscles. She has hundreds of facial
expressions and literally billions of different
combinations of sounds and words that make her
the most naturally responsive doll ever
created. The MY REAL BABY doll automatically
senses many of the ways children play with her.
She knows when shes being hugged, rocked, fed,
burped, bounced and more. MRB uses a
sophisticated model of over 15 human-like
emotions and levels of emotional
intensity. www.irobot.com
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AIBO is not a toy! AIBO's a true companion with
real emotions and instincts. With loving
attention it can develop into a mature and
fun-loving friend as time passes. Like any human
or animal, AIBO goes through the developmental
stages of an infant, child, teen and adult. Daily
communication and attention will determine how
AIBO matures. The more interaction you have with
AIBO, the faster it grows up. In short, AIBO is a
friend for life.
AIBO actually has emotions and instincts
programmed into its brain. AIBO acts to fulfill
the desires created by its instincts. If
satisfied, AIBO's joy level will rise. If not,
then it will get sad or angry. Like any living
being, AIBO learns how to get what it wants.
Occasionally, AIBO will wave its legs around
vigorously or show signs of anger if it does not
receive the kind of attention it requests from
you. The way we respond to AIBO's emotional
expressions greatly influences AIBO's personality
and growth. AIBO learns from your praise or
scolding. Praise it for playing with its ball,
and it will enjoy playing with the ball more than
ever. But if you scold AIBO when it is only
looking at the ball, it will soon ignore the ball
altogether. www.aibo.com
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Children and social artifacts

• One morning, as Jim Lynch was tuning the doll's
  reactions, she started saying "Baba, baba, I want
  baba" - which is her way of asking for a bottle.
  Lynch could have just turned her off, but instead
  he stopped what he was doing and went around the
  office, frantically trying to satisfy her
  demands. "Has anyone seen her bottle? Where's her
  bottle?" Looking back on that moment, Lynch now
  says, "That's when I knew we had made a really
  wonderful product." (Davis, 2000 in an article on
  the design of My Real Baby, an animatronic doll
  developed by Hasbro.)

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Children and social artifacts

• The television set isnt alive. It doesnt make
  up its picture. It only passes it on.A person,
  she explains, might have to tell a computer how
  to make a picture, but the picture doesnt exist
  in the world before the machine gets involved
  The computer has to know how to do it. To make
  it up. This reasoning leads her to a special
  kind of verdict for the computer Its sort of
  alive. (Turkle, 1984, p. 49).
• A Virginia woman claims a Furby helped teach her
  autistic son to speak Lisa Cantara of
  Blacksburg, Virginia, said a Furby taoght her
  4-year-old son, C.J., how to refer to himself in
  speech and increased his vocalbulary by at least
  half-dozen words Cantara said that although
  C.J.s autism is relatively mild, his language
  development has been very slow. But he showed a
  marked improvement after he was given a Furby by
  a family friend. He became very attached to it.
  He carried it around with him everywhere and
  started to mimic it. He talked to it a lot. He
  treated it like it was a real creature. (Kahney,
  1999)

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