**NOTE UNUSUAL TIME AND PLACE**

Time: 4-5:30pm MONDAY, March 15
Place: Room 310 Soda Hall

			 Beyond Information:
	     Research on Electronic Learning Communities

			     Amy Bruckman
			 Assistant Professor
			 College of Computing
		   Georgia Institute of Technology


ABSTRACT
Most educational applications of the Internet focus on information:
information delivery (distance education), information retrieval (net
surfing, research projects), or information sharing.  While these
applications are valuable, we can use the Internet not just as a
conduit for information but as a context for collaborative learning.
Research in the Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) group at Georgia
Tech applies the constructionist theory of education to the design of
online communities.  Constructionism, a term coined by Seymour Papert
as an extension of Jean Piaget's "constructivism," advocates learning
through design and construction activities, learning through working
on personally meaningful projects.  In this talk, I will present
current work in the ELC group which applies this theory to the design
of online communities, including:

* MOOSE Crossing 
(a text-based virtual world designed to be a learning environment for
reading writing and computer programming),

* AquaMOOSE 3D 
(a graphical virtual world and multi-user game construction kit
designed to be a learning environment for math, art, and programming),

* The Turing Game 
(a game designed to draw attention to issues of identity in online
environments),

* IRC Francais 
(an IRC client designed to bring together people who want to improve
their French), and

* American Timewarp 
(a project in which children interview senior citizens to build up a
database of oral history online).


BIOGRAPHY 
Amy Bruckman is an Assistant Professor in the College of Computing at
the Georgia Institute of Technology.  She and her students in the
Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) research group do research on
online communities and education.  Amy is the founder of MediaMOO (a
text-based virtual reality environment or "MUD" designed to be a
professional community for media researchers), and MOOSE Crossing (a
MUD designed to be a constructionist learning environment for kids.)
MOOSE Crossing includes a new programming language, MOOSE, designed to
make it easier for kids to learn to program.  Amy received her PhD
from the MIT Media Lab's Epistemology and Learning group in 1997.  She
received her master's degree from the Media Lab's Interactive Cinema
Group in 1991, and her bachelors in physics from Harvard University in
1987.  More information about her work is available at
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/