Diagrams in Education

August 9, 2010
Portland, OR, USA

http://www.diagrams-conference.org/2010/content/workshops
diagrams2010@diagrams-conference.org

A Workshop at the Sixth International Conference on the
Theory and Application of Diagrams
http://www.diagrams-conference.org/2010/

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Diagrams are ubiquitous in human problem-solving and communication. The
success of diagrammatic representations over symbolic/linguistic
representations in certain domains is due to the fact that diagrams capture
some of the underlying spatiality of the domain, either because the
structure of the domain is itself spatial or because it is homomorphic to
2-D space. In either case there is a mapping from aspects of the domain to
the domain of diagrams. This mapping, in conjunction with efficient routines
that extract information from diagrams as well as modify them, makes
diagrammatic representations a powerful tool.

Education or instruction is a special case of communication with challenging
demands on the instructor. In this setting, communication generally consists
of the transfer of information about the structures and processes of a
physical or abstract domain to the student. From an instructional
perspective then, it is important to understand why and how diagrammatic
representations can facilitate this communication. Additionally, given the
various differences between diagrammatic and linguistic representations,
including their dimensionality, holistic nature, varying levels of
abstraction and iconicity, it is also important to understand how these
differences, either in combination or individually, enable diagrammatic
representations to be a better medium for instruction in appropriate
domains.

The scope of this workshop covers all areas of diagram use in education.
Relevant issues include (but are not limited to) the differences between
diagram use in education vs their use in reasoning, aspects of effective
diagram construction for instructional purposes, the influence of the domain
(expert-to-novice transfer of information) on diagram construction and the
spatial features (and temporal features in the case of animated diagrams)
that are important in this domain.

This will be a half-day workshop. There will be two sessions of an hour and
a half each with a break in between. The format will include an invited talk
from a distinguished researcher in the field but consist mostly of short
presentations from the authors of the accepted papers. Each session will
also have a panel (of the session’s presenters) that will answer questions
from the audience.


*Submissions *
**************

We invite contributions on recent work (including work in progress) in this
area. Interested participants must submit a 2-page abstract by the
submission deadline (April 9, 2010) using the EasyChair conference system
(see workshop web page for more information).  Accept/Reject notifications
will go out May 7, 2010.


*Important Dates *
******************

Submission: April 9, 2010
Notification: May 7, 2010
Workshop: Aug 9, 2010


*Workshop Organizers *
**********************

Unmesh Kurup, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
B. Chandrasekaran, The Ohio State University, USA

Program Committee

Dave Barker-Plummer, Stanford University, USA
Andrew Fish, University of Brighton, UK
Richard Lowe, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

For more information, contact diagrams2010@diagrams-conference.org