Mary Beth Rosson | Pennsylvania State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Mary Beth Rosson

ABSTRACT The tutorial takes a minimalist approach to introducing object-oriented design (OOD): St... more ABSTRACT The tutorial takes a minimalist approach to introducing object-oriented design (OOD): Students begin working on design projects immediately, creating object models of user task scenarios, and elaborating these models throughout the day to develop a complete design. The students learn methods of responsibility-driven design, as well as how to generalize from a single problem to support class and framework reuse. KEYWORDS: object-oriented design, object-oriented programming, scenario-based design

Picture an owner of a bed and breakfast empowered with tools he can use to develop an interactive... more Picture an owner of a bed and breakfast empowered with tools he can use to develop an interactive web site. He builds a site to advertise his bed and breakfast and allow guests to make reservations online. Picture yourself planning a nice vacation, visiting his site, and making reservations at the bed and breakfast. What if the calendar and reservation system is faulty? You might arrive at the bed and breakfast to discover you have an invalid reservation and there are no rooms available. What if the website is insecure?

We describe ClassConversations a prototype that integrates a synchronous classroom backchannel wi... more We describe ClassConversations a prototype that integrates a synchronous classroom backchannel with an anchored discussion forum.

Abstract: End users create software when they use spreadsheet systems, web authoring tools and gr... more Abstract: End users create software when they use spreadsheet systems, web authoring tools and graphical languages, and when they create educational simulations, macros-by-demonstration, and dynamic e-business web applications and mash-ups. Some end-user developers, such as accountants or teachers, may have no formal training at all in programming.

ABSTRACT We developed a construction toolkit for teachers to create visual educational simulation... more ABSTRACT We developed a construction toolkit for teachers to create visual educational simulations. Because teachers are subject matter experts in the classroom, they are excellent candidates to develop educational software that meets their own pedagogical goals. We report an evaluation of nineteen teachers creating educational simulation microworlds for physical science using this environment.

We discuss the role and characteristics of informal learning in a community computing context. We... more We discuss the role and characteristics of informal learning in a community computing context. We argue that minimalist design can be adapted to the needs of community computing, and that its principles can be used to envision and develop community activities and technologies that promote active learning.

Abstract: Personalization customizes information access. The PIPE (" Personalization is Partial E... more Abstract: Personalization customizes information access. The PIPE (" Personalization is Partial Evaluation") modeling methodology represents interaction with an information space as a program. The program is then specialized to a user's known interests or information seeking activity by the technique of partial evaluation. In this paper, we elaborate PIPE by considering requirements analysis in the personalization lifecycle. We investigate the use of scenarios as a means of identifying and analyzing personalization requirements.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important factor in our personal liv... more Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important factor in our personal lives as well as in our social organizations—at work, at home, in our hospitals, in the political institutions and in the public media.

Abstract Nonprogrammers who wish to construct and share online resources for a group (eg, discuss... more Abstract Nonprogrammers who wish to construct and share online resources for a group (eg, discussion boards, calendars, multi-media documents) may do so by using end-user Web construction tools such as BaseCamp, MSN Group, and CommunityZero to create group or community Websites. Others may prefer collaborative tools like Groove to support a more synchronous style of composition and interaction.

One of the most sweeping changes ever in the ecology of human cognition may be taking place today... more One of the most sweeping changes ever in the ecology of human cognition may be taking place today. People are beginning to learn and use very powerful and sophisticated information processing technology as a matter of daily life. From the perspective of human history, this could be a transitional point dividing a period when machines merely helped us do things from a period when machines will seriously help us think about things. But if this is so, we are indeed still very much within the transition.

Abstract—We report new developments for wConnect, an action research project aimed at recruiting ... more Abstract—We report new developments for wConnect, an action research project aimed at recruiting more women into computer and information science. A key outreach activity for wConnect has been high school workshops, where we deliver hands-on web programming experiences. Over the past three years we have fielded and evaluated 11 workshops; nine used a Bridgetools enduser platform and two used wProjects, a Drupal-based tool.

Many girls lose interest in computer and information science (CIS) as they enter their teenage ye... more Many girls lose interest in computer and information science (CIS) as they enter their teenage years. By the time female students consider college options their interest in CIS majors falls far below that of their male counterparts (AAUW, 2000). One consequence is that in the US the number of women graduating with CIS degrees has dropped by almost 25% in the past ten years (Leonard, 2003). This trend threatens the future availability of qualified CIS professionals, and particularly the diversity and vitality of the profession.

Technology development is often seen as a waterfall process, a cascade of activities each feeding... more Technology development is often seen as a waterfall process, a cascade of activities each feeding the next: new technologies are invented, then elaborated and refined in demonstration applications, then transferred to real developers and deployed in real applications, and finally adopted by users. This conception derives from the belief that technology innovation is inherently good for people and organizations, and that the key engineering challenge for technology development is efficiency.

Abstract This article presents a critique of conventional collaboration transparency systems, als... more Abstract This article presents a critique of conventional collaboration transparency systems, also called “application-sharing” systems, which provide the real-time shared use of legacy single-user applications. We find that conventional collaboration transparency systems are inefficient in their use of network resources and lack support for key groupware principles: concurrent work, relaxed WYSIWIS, and group awareness.

ABSTRACT Technology development in human-computer interaction (HCI) can be interpreted as a coevo... more ABSTRACT Technology development in human-computer interaction (HCI) can be interpreted as a coevoluuon of tasks and artifacts. The tasks people actually engage in (successfully or problematically) and those they wish to engage in (or perhaps merely to imagine) define requirements for future technology and, specifically, for new HCI artifacts. These artifacts, in turn, open up new possibilities for human tasks, new ways to do familiar things, and entirely new kinds of things to do.

Increasingly, organizational teams operate with some degree of “virtuality,” with members interac... more Increasingly, organizational teams operate with some degree of “virtuality,” with members interacting across space, time, and/or organizational boundaries via electronic communication technologies (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). As part of this, information technology (IT) teams are often partially distributed teams (PDTs). A PDT consists of two or more subteams that are separated geographically. While members of a given subteam are co-located, they must collaborate with members of other subteams which are remote.

Abstract: Due to increasing access to internet in the schools as well as homes of school teachers... more Abstract: Due to increasing access to internet in the schools as well as homes of school teachers, information technology is breaking down the barriers of time and space. This heralds a great opportunity for teachers to overcome their traditional isolation outside of their classrooms. Research findings have already established the positive correlation between professional learning communities (PLCs) and student learning.

Abstract Voluntary associations serve crucial roles in local communities and within our larger de... more Abstract Voluntary associations serve crucial roles in local communities and within our larger democratic society. They aggregate shared interests, collective will, and cultivate civic competencies that nurture democratic participation. People active in multiple local groups frequently act as opinion leaders and create “weak” social ties across groups.

Abstract We describe our work on seeding and building a developmental learning community for recr... more Abstract We describe our work on seeding and building a developmental learning community for recruiting and retaining women in educational programs and careers related to computing and information science (CIS). Our approach is explicitly participatory: we work with young women to better understand how they view and approach CIS and to build activities that may attract women who would otherwise be disinclined toward computing. In this paper we focus primarily on the software tools aspects of this research project.