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KidRec 2021

5th International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Children & Recommender and Information Retrieval Systems (KidRec)
Search and Recommendation Technology through the Lens of a Teacher

June 27, 2021
Co-located with ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference 2021 - Online


#KidRec21

Objectives

KidRec aims to bring together researchers, practitioners and experts from multiple disciplines, in order to outline and expand on the open issues, dilemmas, and possibilities; identify more accurately the landscape of the current scientific research related to good search and recommendation systems for children. In all of this, the primary lens will be that of the perspective of a teacher. It is important to note that we define teacher broadly as a teacher can be one that has a formal role of a school teacher or it could be a parent who has needed to assert that role of teacher (even more so now as school has gone remote or online due to the COVID-19 global pandemic).
We expect that workshop interactions will be focused on, but not limited to, the topics outlined below; we are of course particularly interested in discussing these topics while addressing the role and requirements of teachers.

  • All aspects of teaching in a blended school environment. For example, the teacher used to be the omniscient storyteller, now the child is the protagonist, with teachers (and parents) providing necessary scaffolding for children to conduct online information discovery tasks.
  • The changing roles of the teachers. The role of the parents in the extended classroom context. How to deal with parental influence or lack of? How to manage the consequences of the digital divide between rich and poor in this environment, both within a country and between countries and continents.
  • All aspects of the use, design and implementation of information discovery technology in a blended school environment. For example, how are these tools developed, what are the roles of the child, the teacher and the designer in the design process? Which tools are capable of optimally supporting the learning process and how can this be measured?
  • Actual examples, comparisons and analyses of search and recommendation tools used in the classroom (including the extended classroom of the home due to the global pandemic). This includes those tailored explicitly to support classroom instruction like Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, and WebforClassrooms, as well as generic tools that leverage search and recommendation technology such as robots, voice systems, etc.
  • Further directions in research, tools and developments for the cornerstone of education, the teacher.

Program

We welcome all IDC participants who are interested in joining the conversation!

(Times below are CET)

Organization

Circus tent

Monica Landoni
Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland


Circus tent

Sole Pera
Boise State University

Circus tent

Theo Huibers
University of Twente, The Netherlands


Circus tent

Jerry Alan Fails
Boise State University

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline (position and work-in-progress) April 19, 2021
Notification to authors April 30, 2021
Expression of interest in participating (via interest form, but no paper submission) June 12, 2021
Camera-Ready Version May 17, 2021
IDC Conference June 26-30, 2021
KidRec Workshop June 27, 2021

Participate

Submit your work

We invite submissions of:

  • Position papers or Work-in-progress (2-4 pages) focusing on open challenges related to search and recommendation systems for children; in particular through the lens of a teacher.

All papers will be peer-reviewed, and at the time of submission, must not be under review in any other venue. 


All submitted papers must:

Authors will retain the copyright of their submission, however, proceedings will be publicly posted on the Workshop website 


Share your ideas

You can also express your interest in participating in the workshop (without submitting a position paper) by completing this interest form; which will ask you to briefly articulate your perspectives and interest in the workshop topic.


Register

At least one author of each accepted paper must register and attend the workshop and main conference. Those expressing interest in joining the conversation should also register. We are investigating ways to provide some financial support particularly for teachers of children ages (6-12) to participate.

Teachers

Have you been teaching children how to seek for information online, either formally as a teacher in the classroom or as a parent at home to assist them with their school activities? Have you wondered how effective you have been in doing it? Whether you were using the right technology? How good is the available technology in supporting children in their education related information-seeking tasks? How to assess the resulting information-seeking experience?

Even though information retrieval tools are frequently used by children, they do not always provide good results and experiences for children. Identifying what is good for children when using these tools at school is challenging! Please join us for the highly interactive 5𝑡ℎ KidRec Workshop in conjunction with Interaction Design and Children (IDC 2021) where you can share your experience and thoughts regarding information retrieval tools for children design,research, and practice and contribute to the ongoing research agenda in this area. This year, we are interested in advancing discussion by understanding teachers’ perception of what is good when it comes to information retrieval tools supporting classroom instruction.

You can express your interest in participating in the workshop by completing this interest form.

We are investigating ways to provide some financial support particularly for teachers of children ages (6-12) to participate. Please feel free to reach out to the kidrec-group@boisestate.edu with questions.