AtGentive Project Overview; kick-off meeting; 7-8 December 2005, Fontainebleau AtGentive Project Overview AtGentive; Kick-off Meeting; 7-8 December 2005, Fontainebleau, France Thierry Nabeth (& May Liem, & Rachel Royer) INSEAD CALT (Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies)

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Table of content: Introduction The Project Vision The Execution of the Vision Organisation of the Work

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Introduction History The concept of attention The issues associated with attention WP1: the conceptual framework

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Brief History of the project: The desire to combine two Concepts Artificial characters for learning environments. Ontedeknet. Artificial agents are used to deliver a richer and more engaging experience to students. The support of Attention in learning systems. Work of Claudia Roda (AUP) on attention for supporting the learning process. + desire to extend the support of attention from an organizational perspective. (e.g. Thomas H. Davenport)

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Defining the concept of attention: In Wikipedia: Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one thing while ignoring other things. By Thomas Davenport: Attention is focussed mental engagement on a particular item of information. (…). A causal relationship exists between awareness, attention and action.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Attention exists “everywhere”: Attention intervenes At an individual level At an organisational level (groups & organisations) Attention is relevant in different environments  For learning (At school, learning network, etc.)  For working (Work...)  For leisure (games...)

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Attention is strongly correlated with performance Cognitive overload (& limited human capabilities)  Information overload.  Multitasking doing several things at the same time  Memory overload. (short term memory) Decision making  Cognitive bias  Etc.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau WP1: Conceptual Framework WP1 will analyse the concept of attention  The first substantive work of AtGentive  Will provide the foundations of AtGentive  Presented by Claudia – 16:00 – 17:00 Deliverables  D1.1 Consortium Workshop on advanced support for attention in collaborative learning setting (the output will consist in the workshop report) – M02  D1.2 State-of-the-Art Report – M04  D1.3 Attention Framework Report – M08

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau The Project Vision What’s the vision & objective for the project What’s in it for each of the partners The importance of the end-users

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau The vision for the project: Supporting the attention: Use of engaging environments Awareness of user’s and group’s attention “proactivity” in the support for attention The desire to have a real impact on performance For learning at School For acquiring knowledge in a learning network.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau What’s in it for each of the partners: For the academic partners: Contribute to the body of scientific knowledge (validated models). For the “commercial” partners Design solutions that generate clear value that can be later proposed to customers For the Pilot users: Benefit from new services (improve significantly the performance)

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau The importance of the end-users: The users involved in the design phase to contribute to identify the needs validate the solution Note: normally not to propose the solutions The motivation of the users is critical To design a system that create value To conduct the pilot test

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Executing the Vision The idea: Attentive and interactive (agent-based) platforms Two application domains:  Schools (AtGentSchool)  Learning Network (AtGentNet) Two pilots to validate  CELN schools  STC learning Network A User-Centred design approach

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Attentive and interactive (agent-based) platforms: Engaging environments Rich VLE. (Ontedeknet) Rich learning Network (STC) Embodied characters (Cantoche) Monitoring the state of the user (UTA - OBU) Intelligent – reasoning components (INSEAD - AUP)

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Two application domains & context: Schools (OntDekNet - CELN) Effectiveness of the learning process Motivating the students Learning Network / work (INSEAD - STC) Knowledge worker performance Address the “information overload” problem.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau User-Centred design: Formative evaluation. Formative evaluation: Involvement of the user very early in the design. Summative evaluation XP programming. Prototype very early available. Many iteration, Incremental. WP4 Evaluation – WP5 Pilot

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Organisation of the work This is a European project: The challenges  Importance of “delivering” the deliverable.  Evaluation of the deliverable  Working with others  Keeping the motivation high & being driven by quality  Dissemination & exploitation Note:  Many partners do not have experience of European projects.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Organisation of the work: The importance of project management. To help knowing the level of advancement To help to coordinate A project management infrastructure. To be decided and set-up. Kick-off setting agenda & tasks.

AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau Behaviour and cognition in digital social environments. Education. Using (role playing) games to help people to acquire social skills. Virtual community engineering (and in particular their social engineering) Intelligent systems (cognitive agents) for digital social environments INSEAD CALT focus