What: Touch first: Opportunities to reinvent computing
When: March 6th, 10h30
Where: B31
Who: Jochen Rick http://home.cc.gatech.edu/je77/research
ABSTRACT
Every fifteen years or so, new technology begets a computing revolution. We are in the early stages of the touch revolution. In 2013, there were more multi-touch tablets sold than laptops and desktops combined. Since 2007, I have been exploring the use of multi-touch technologies (interactive tabletops and tablets) to support co-located collaboration. In this talk, I reflect on what I’ve learned and propose an agenda for progress on touch interfaces. As an educational technologist, most of my applications have been aimed at children. Children are great users to explore the future of computing: They are not tied to existing conventions and will actively explore an interface to understand it. In addition, touch suits them. YouTube features many videos of young babies using their parents’ touch devices. These children will never switch to the mouse / keyboard interfaces of their parents. Let’s design computing interfaces appropriate to them. Let’s discard the conventions of the previous computing epoch and build native touch interfaces. To date, touch devices have been primarily used for consuming media (e.g., watching videos, surfing the Web, reading email). Gradually, their purview is expanding to creating media (e.g., editing video). How do we further these creative uses? Can we create a touch-based programming environment that is superior to today’s desktop IDEs? If so, then we have a real opportunity to reinvent computing for this “touch first” generation.
SPEAKER
Jochen “Jeff” Rick is on the faculty of the Department of Educational Technology, Saarland University, Germany. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a postdoc on the ShareIT project, researching the value of interactive tabletops to support collaborative learning. In 2007, he received a PhD in Computer Science in the area of Learning Sciences and Technology from Georgia Tech. His research interests are in designing innovative applications for leading-edge technologies to support collaborative learning through active inquiry, exploration and construction. He has been programming in Smalltalk since 1999.
Email: j.rick@edutech.uni-saarland.de
Home page: http://je77.com/research
