Cyberlearning 2017: What’s Next? Making Connections to Shape the Future

By Judi Fusco​

Every year, CIRCL hosts a meeting for the community–this year it’s April 18 and 19. If you’re not coming, we have a portion of the meeting that gets webcast; we encourage you to sign up and join us virtually. Our keynote speakers will all be webcast and they are:

Jeremy Bailenson:  Experience on Demand: The Opportunities (and Costs) of Learning in VR
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang:  Why Emotions are Integral to Learning: A Neuroscience Perspective
Eileen Scanlon:  Technology Enhanced Learning and the Science of Citizen Science
Karthik Ramani:  Lowering Barriers to Engagement through Computational Fabrication

At the meeting, Cyberlearning researchers come together to share their work and think about the direction of the field–pretty normal for researchers. But in addition, we are lucky because we also have students, educators, designers, industry experts, and other stakeholders at the meeting–we call these folks the CIRCL of Influence. Among the many things, the CIRCL of Influence helps us think about what is happening in the field, what is needed in practice, and how we can share our findings and ideas with industry and make an impact. Since the beginning of CIRCL, we’ve placed a priority on making sure we have many voices in our community.  

One of the things we’ll be doing is thinking about some of NSF’s Big Ideas and how they relate to Cyberlearning. Specifically, we’ll be thinking about:

• INCLUDES – Diversity / Broadening Participation (see the INCLUDES video showcase)
• Data science for 21st-C STEM
• Human-Centered Design
• Convergent Research
• Media & Computational Literacy
• Smart & Connected Communities (see the Primer on SCCL)

Since the meeting hasn’t happened, I can’t tell you about it, but after the meeting I will (and I hope some of our CIRCL of Influence will guest blog here, too)! In the meantime, I will point you to a Storify documenting last year’s meeting, with images and links to videos of last year’s keynote speakers.  Take a look to learn about what Cyberlearning meetings are like and what kind of work is happening in Cyberlearning;  follow us @CIRCLCenter to keep up to date.  Leave us a comment and let us know what looks intriguing and what you’d like to hear more about.