Learning technologies: Recent publication
George Veletsianos (Ph.D. candidate, learning technologies), Cassie Scharber (Ph.D. candidate, learning technologies and literacy), and Assistant Professor Aaron Doering, have contributed a paper titled "When Sex, Drugs, and Violence Enter the Classroom: Conversations between Adolescent Social Studies Students and a Female Pedagogical Agent" for the latest issue of Interacting with Computers.
The paper investigates the discourse between a female conversational pedagogical agent and 59 adolescents in the context of a social studies lesson. A close look at learner–agent discourse revealed that learners readily misuse and abuse virtual characters while treating them as subordinate and inferior objects.
Veletsianos, G., Scharber, C., & Doering, A. (2008). When sex, drugs, and violence enter the classroom: Conversations between adolescent social studies students and a female pedagogical agent. Interacting with Computers, 20(3), 292-301.