Lectures
On March 15, 2024, Professor Bruce Lewenstein delivered the inaugural lecture for Northeastern University’s Public Engagement with Science Hub, entitled “The Past, Present, and Future of Public Engagement with Science.” Bruce provided a historical overview of the scope of public engagement with science. The talk also identified key issues in the field for future research and practice. The CAMD faculty at Northeastern includes former Cornell Comm students Matt Nisbet (Ph.D. 03), Brooke Foucault Welles (BS 01, MS 03), Salma El idrissi (Ph.D. 23), and Laura Forlano (postdoctoral associate, 2009–2011). See picture below.
Graduate Student Bya Rodrigues delivered a talk at Nassau Community College, Long Island, entitled “Researching for Feminist Futures: Intersectionality, Power and Culture.” During the lecture, she discussed with undergraduate students themes close to their communities—her upcoming dissertation work with activists and scholars who suffered online harassment and ways to leverage research to build futures we believe in.
Media Coverage
Associate Professor Brooke Duffy was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer article, “This Philly Influencer’s Virtual Academy Is Helping BIPOC Creators Navigate Pay Discrimination. It Has a 5,200-Person Waitlist.”
Research Associate Sarah Gilbert was quoted in the CNBC article “Reddit Power Users Balk at Chance to Participate in IPO as Wall Street Debut Nears.”
Graduate Student Roxana Muenster was interviewed by the Associated Press, which the Washington Post picked up. Read her quote in the article, “What We Know about Truth Social, Donald Trump’s Social Media Platform.
New Course
Professor Connie Yuan delivered the eCornell certificate course, “Using Mindful Meditation to Strengthen Relationships.” In the course, students will learn the foundational philosophy, as well as practical tips for developing their own successful meditation practice. While the techniques are traditional, the course provides contemporary applications to address challenges and opportunities in an ever-more diverse society.
Publications
Michael Hedderich, Professor Natalie Bazarova, Wenting Zou, et al., May 2024, “A Piece of Theatre: Investigating How Teachers Design LLM Chatbots to Assist Adolescent Cyberbullying Education,” CHI 2024. Cyberbullying harms teenagers' mental health, and teaching them upstanding intervention is crucial. Chatbots can scale up personalized and interactive cyberbullying education, but implementing such chatbots is a challenging and delicate task. Natalie and colleagues from Information Science developed and tested a new tool, based on large language models and prompt chaining, that allows K-12 teachers to create their own no-code chatbot to assist them with digital literacy instruction. Teachers can use it to prototype dialogue flows and chatbot utterances in a way that is applicable to their instructional needs. They created role-playing sessions for students to rehearse prosocial behaviors with a teacher-built chatbot in response to cyberbullying situations. There are a number of design and instructional implications of this tool, but one of the research team’s main findings is that teachers embraced the role of playwrights (hence, the name of the paper), guiding both the students’ and the chatbot’s behaviors, while allowing for some improvisation.
Graduate Student Ria Gualano & Scott Campbell, March 2024, “Classrooms in the Metaverse: Educational Applications and Levels of Learner Interaction in Virtual Reality,” Communication Education. This forum article reviews emergent needs, challenges, and opportunities associated with teaching with and through VR technology. Extending Moore's 1989 model of the three types of learner interaction, the researchers argue that considerations of accessibility and equity be foregrounded across levels of learner engagement in VR settings and beyond as stakeholders address the recurring challenges of equity and digital divides.
