Awards

Grants

Scaffolding to foster independence when searching Online for Learning (SOL)

Abstract: Project SOL, Scaffolding to foster independence when searching Online for Learning, aims to explore how to leverage the scaffolding metaphor to create a theoretical framework to extend the Search-As-Learning (SAL) paradigm to an understudied community of users–children–and bring it into the primary school classroom. This framework will serve as a foundation to shape co-designed, innovative, human-driven Child Interactive Information Retrieval (CIIR) technologies, fostering learning to search and searching to learn that can be seamlessly integrated with a range of search tools to ease information access for learning for specific target audiences and contexts.

With SOL, we answer the following RQ: what is the scaffolding needed to enable search for learning while learning to search in the classroom, regardless of the search tools enabling access to information?. This is a vital endeavour since, despite the common practice of seeking and using online resources for school assignments, children of varying ages and literacy levels still face challenges to effectively utilise search tools to locate and recognise useful materials. To ensure progress towards successful completion, we focus on children aged 9 to 12, who are in a similar stage of development and have acquired reading and writing skills and define 3 research objectives: (i) Identify children’s needs when searching for learning; (ii) Translate user and context requirements into a CIIR design framework & technologies; and (iii) Study the impact of scaffolding on SAL.

We envision a highly collaborative process that iteratively identifies the needs of users and the context via co-design with children and teachers (as a proxy of the context) and leverages both Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information Retrieval (IR) expertise on every iteration. This human-driven, iterative approach to design borrowed from HCI will be deeply transformative in driving the creation of cutting-edge Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR) solutions and enabling innovative and effective search experiences for and with children. Consequently, we anticipate outcomes from project SOL to include a suite of interfaces and algorithms tailored to the needs of specific audiences and contexts, in our case children and the educational environment, and a theoretical framework, for the most part lacking in the literature when children are the primary stakeholders, which would drive future advances in CIIR and act as a blueprint for the design of IIR technologies to support SAL in the classroom based on the scaffolding metaphor. The framework will include criteria and measures to assess the overall SAL experience (including the level of independence in SAL and search competence, plus usability and engagement). Findings will also serve as indicators of the effectiveness of the framework.

Besides HCI, IR, and IIR communities, findings from this project will benefit Child-Computer Interaction, search as learning, user modelling, and personalization, to name a few. We believe that CIIR is a research area deserving more attention, as it could turn into the driving force for mainstream IIR. Also, the insights gained from this work can prompt research advances in other contexts where learning takes place (e.g. museums, libraries, after-school programs), target audiences (e.g. children of all ages, other audiences poorly served by search tools, such as individuals with cognitive disabilities and low-literacy individuals), and other information access tools beyond search (e.g. recommendation and question answering).

More information: PROJECT SOL

Child Adaptive Search Tool (CAST)

Abstract: The aim of the project is to empower emergent searchers -- initially children ages 6-11 -- by researching, designing, and developing search tools that improve their information literacy and searching capabilities through modeling and adapting to their abilities as they search. Current search engines, even ones specifically designed for children, offer weak support for children's search needs due to their developing skills related to spelling, language use (including synonyms), understanding categories, refining queries, and evaluating relevance and quality of results. This makes it hard for children to create effective queries, use the results suggested by the search engine, and understand the relationship between the queries and the results returned.

Bringing together expertise in human-computer interaction, information retrieval, natural language processing, and education, the project team will both (a) further scientific understanding of children's search abilities, and (b) design tools to support it through the iterative development of CAST (Child Adaptive Search Tool), designed for children aged 6-11. CAST will be designed to model and respond to users' literacy and maturity levels as well as search intent missing from their formal queries. For example, when a child submits the query "Tiger", CAST will tend to prioritize tiger habitat or Winnie the Pooh's friend Tigger, which likely correlate better to a child's search intent than information on Tiger Woods. To reach this goal, the team will collaborate with children and teachers throughout the course of the project, working with partners in several local schools to increase the impact of the application itself and to improve the dissemination of the results.

The results on supporting search in the special population of children in this research also have the potential to inform similar problems and methods aimed at other populations who might have systematic differences in their search ability, from older adults to second language speakers.

More information: CAST: Child Adaptive Search Tool

LITERATE: Locating Informational Texts for Engaging Readers and Teaching equitably

Project Outline: The goal of this project is to prototype LITERATE (Locating Informational Texts for Engaging Readers and Teaching Equitably), a web based application to help teachers locate news articles to use in upper elementary.

Related Outcomes: Literate Demo

IR for Children: Enhanced Search Environment for Children ( CRII: III: Children and Information Retrieval Tasks: Search Intent, Query Suggestions, and Adequate Online Resources )

Abstract: Children are introduced to the Web at increasingly young ages. While early exposure can help them build foundational skills vital in a knowledge-rich society, search tools were not designed with children in mind nor do retrieved results explicitly target children. Most engines do not support children's inquiry approaches (or do not support them well) and typically do not return content suitable to children's interests or reading levels. This need is important to address given that early experiences can affect attitudes in using the Web, skill development in making adequate use of resources for personal and educational interests, and the ability to leverage information and use it to make contributions into adulthood.

The PI and her team will design and develop software modules as search engine add-ons to meet the needs of children searching the Web. The modules, which will upgrade current computation infrastructure, will be domain-independent, tailored to children, and usable on Google, to locate child-friendly educational- and leisure-related information. Research outputs will facilitate children's engagement with technology by improving their interactions on the Web. Partnerships with Idaho K-9 classrooms will allow the research team to gather feedback from children and teachers and verify the usefulness of the proposed modules in their intended, formal setting.

More information: Working Toward a Better, Kid-Friendly Search Engine