Lori Scarlatos, Associate Professor of Computer Science at The Graduate Center and a member of the Department of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn College, has been working to bring recent innovations in computer-human interfaces into the classroom. The main purpose of her work is to empower New York's K-12 teachers with the ability to employ new technologies in pedagogically sound ways. Professor Scarlatos is also interested in exposing computer scientists to the possibilities embodied in the new technologies and getting them excited about applying these technologies to educational use. Professor Scarlatos is also an inventor who created the Tangible Interfaces for Collaborative Learning Environments (TICLE), a computer program that observes students while they try to solve a puzzle with real puzzle pieces. A TICLE prototype has been installed at the Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science and the San Antonio Children's Museum. It uses the Tangram puzzle to teach geometry concepts, and acts as a "guide on the side," watching what children do with the puzzle pieces and providing guidance and encouragement as needed.
Her most recent work seeks to incorporate innovations such as tangible interfaces, ubiquitous computing, and virtual reality, which are particularly well suited to educational use. This newest generation of computer software enables computers to respond to students' natural physical actions; permits more than one person to interact with a computer at a time; and can even make computers more accessible to people who have difficulty with traditional GUIs. In this effort, students will learn how to apply these innovative computer-human interface technologies to educational applications. Students from graduate and undergraduate classes will develop educational applications of their own design. The best resulting projects will be showcased at two nearby math and science museums: the New York Hall of Science and the Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science. A select group of students will receive paid internships at these museums, giving them the opportunity to observe their applications in action.
Professor Scarlatos is the recipient of several major awards, including a grant from the National Science Foundation Combined Research-Curriculum Development (CRCD), to create Innovative Approaches to Computer-Human Interfaces and a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the NSF to develop Tangible Interfaces for Collaborative Learning Environments (TICLE).