To be held in conjunction with the "5th IFIP Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications & Innovations (AIAI 2009)", April 23-25, 2009, Thessaloniki, Greece
Conference Web Site: http://delab.csd.auth.gr/aiai2009
Scope & Topics
Research has systematically emphasized that collaborating students might fail to engage in essential learning interactions when left without teachers' consistent support and scaffolding. However, collaborative learning is a complex process where it is very difficult - if not impossible - for the teacher to consider all interacting parameters in order to foster productive learning experiences for each individual.
Systems for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) are technology tools that offer a variety of services (e.g., communication services, scaffolds, representational tools) to support teams of learners to achieve their common goals. Effectively supporting learners through the use of a CSCL system requires an efficient management of a complex interplay of parameters that relate to:
- the individual learner characteristics,
- the synthesis and dynamics of the group, and
- the specific collaborative learning setting.
AI techniques (such as planning, machine learning, intelligent agent approaches, semantic web techniques, and others) have been proposed to tackle the challenging issues emerging when trying to model and manage the complexity of the collaborative learning activity. These issues include methods for recording collaboration-related information, models to represent this information in the system, techniques for facilitating the inference of useful knowledge about the collaborative process and the exploitation of this knowledge to efficiently support the collaborative activity.
The workshop will focus on how current innovative Artificial Intelligence ideas and methods can be implemented in the design and development of CSCL systems to improve the end-user's collaborative learning experience. Issues of interest include but are not limited to:
- Theoretical issues on the application of AI methods in the CSCL domain. What are the current perspectives?
- Intelligent forms of tutoring/scaffolding/scripting to be implemented in CSCL systems. How can they foster productive learning interactions?
- User/group models to fit the needs and purposes of CSCL systems. What are the benefits/shortcomings of using explicit group models vs. combining individual models?
- Computational models to reflect the complexity of the collaborative learning activity. What is the state-of-the art?
- Obtaining input data and collaboration indicators to model peer learning interactions. How can it help automating the management of the collaboration process?
- Adaptation techniques in CSCL systems for advancing the flexibility of support and guidance offered to the group of learners. What should be adapted and why?
- Interaction analysis techniques supporting the intelligent behavior of CSCL systems. What are the benefits of the currently proposed methods?
- The role of the tutor in an AI-CSCL environment. How can the tutor-system interaction enrich the students collaborative learning experience?
This AI-CSCL workshop aims to explore the state-of-the-art in these topics. We aim at bringing together a multidisciplinary group of researchers who approach these issues from complementary perspectives. We particularly welcome papers that describe speculative ideas and work in progress with interesting yet tentative outcomes.
Submission
Papers should present original and unpublished research, not exceeding 8 pages, formatted according to AIAI-2009 style files (Springer IFIP Series).
Links for downloading templates are available at http://delab.csd.auth.gr/aiai2009/submissions.html.
Papers should be submitted electronically to the organizing committee (see email addresses below), no later than Saturday, 28 February, 2009. The accepted format for submitted papers is MS Word. The reviewing process will be blind; thus papers should not include the authors' names and affiliations or any information that could reveal authors' identity to reviewers. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two members of the program committee.
Proceedings
Accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings available to participants on a CD (the CD will also include all other workshops proceedings). The AIAI-2009 organizers will make arrangements to publish all the workshop proceedings on-line at CEUR workshop proceedings.
Additionally, the authors of accepted workshop papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a special issue of the International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development (IJIRD)
(http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=ijird)
Registration
For registration details please see http://delab.csd.auth.gr/aiai2009/registration.html
Note that at least one author of each accepted paper is required to register and attend the workshop in order to present the paper. Those wishing to attend the workshop without submitting a paper should send a statement of their current research to the organizing committee.
Format
The workshop will focus on triggering fruitful discussions to deeper analyze the issues presented by the accepted papers. The papers will be made available before the workshop to all participants so that they will have time to review the material. Organizers will collect the key aspects discussed during the presentations and all participants will be invited to express their degree of agreement or informed and constructive criticism on these key ideas, during the workshop closing session.
Important dates
28 February, 2009 - Deadline for paper submission
23 March, 2009 - Notification of acceptance
6 April, 2009 - Camera-ready copies due
22 or 23 April 2009 - Workshop Date (the exact date will be announced soon)
Organizing Committee
Stavros Demetriadis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Contact: sdemetri@csd.auth.gr
Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Contact: tsiatsos@csd.auth.gr
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