We are excited to share our work today at #TEI2026 on designing museum exhibits to foster AI literacy using embodiment and creativity to engage learners. Also a live demo of 2 of the exhibits tonight! dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Our lab had two papers conditionally accepted to #chi2026 on enabling youth to document biases in LLMs (led by Hasti Darabipourshiraz) and engaging writers in proactive AI ethics via speculative fiction (led by Achi Mishra). Can't wait to return to Barcelona (where I studied abroad!) in April.
Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
We find that physically simulating AI reasoning processes helps learners concretize abstract concepts. If you're interested in trying any of the activities for yourself or learning more about our AI Unplugged initiative, check out our project website: aiunplugged.soc.northwestern.edu
Excited to announce the publication of our article "AI Unplugged: Exploring Pathways from Physical Simulation to Conceptualization of AI Reasoning Processes" in @acmtoce.bsky.social. We present 4 activities and explore how they support conceptualization of AI reasoning.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
This two-session workshop aims to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations around understanding, measuring, and teaching data literacy. Position papers are strongly encouraged!
Excited to be co-organizing the #CHI2026 Workshop on Data Literacy for the 21st Century: Perspectives from Visualization, Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Education.
Submissions are due Feb 10, 2026 (AoE).
More info: data-literacy-workshop.github.io/CHI26/
An elderly puggle in an alligator costume.
In which an elderly puggle, quick change artist, does an impersonation of an alligator 🎃💀🐊 Happy Halloween!
If you want to implement an AI tutor, you need to study it’s performance in naturalistic settings with the kinds of context windows that student learners will provide. You can’t begin with a well formulated question about a single topic.
Students don’t know how to formulate questions well at first.
Still unpacking Thomas Pynchon’s V in my free time 😄 new episode out featuring exciting discussion of the NYC sewer system, alligator hunting, a rat church, and more.
Exercising my literary analysis muscles on a new podcast! To start, we are reading & discussing Thomas Pynchon’s V. a few chapters at a time.
New post: I played the demo for Erenshor -- the single-player MMO --recorded it, and wrote about it!
📢 #CSCW is experimenting with a new format: rolling submissions 🎉
Submit your work when it’s ready!
✔️ PACM publication + CSCW presentation
✔️ Healthier work-life balance
✔️ Faster reviews and more opportunities for revisions
More info: medium.com/acm-cscw/csc...
#HCI
By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.
I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???
This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.
With the CHI deadline fast approaching, I'm resharing our lab's resource on making figures for HCI papers: docs.google.com/presentation...
New content suggestions always appreciated. Don't be shy to promote your own work!
Left, Juliette Gariépy as Kelly-Anne in Red Rooms. Right, Anna Cobb as Casey in We're All Going to the World's Fair.
Left, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos as Ludovic Chevalier. Right, Michael J. Rogers as JLB.
New post about Red Rooms and We're All Going to the World's Fair. Two movies about the abyss of the Internet and, oddly enough, the balding weirdo on the other side of the screen. www.patf.io/into-the-scr...
New newsletter up today about my recent one-page outlaw country RPG, THE HIGHWAYMEN, and the 16 year old World of Warcraft machinima music video that ultimately inspired it.
Inspired by the absolute banger and winner of the 1985 Grammy for Best Country Song that is "Highwayman" by The Highwaymen, I finally put together an idea I've been kicking around for years as my submission for the One-Page RPG Jam! Give it a look, or better, a play with some friends.
I started a newsletter! It's called "Critical Theorycraft," and I'll be writing broadly about games, literature, and media every two weeks or so. The first post is up today, and it's about how cool it was to play Nintendo 64 in a hotel room. Toss me your email and you shall be rewarded with posts!
What if–instead of the current paradigm of individual prompting–GenAI afforded communal creative processes? Join us in speculating alt AI futures at #DIS2025, where Lauren Lin is presenting our paper "Beyond the Prompt: Community-Oriented Futures for Creative GenAI."
dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....
@aidanzfitz.bsky.social is a rockstar for presenting both of these awesome papers in one week!
And check out our website to follow updates on our research on how to design intelligent coaching tools that help fill the resource gap in college application guidance without supplanting the writing process that is so important for developing self-concept.
www.chai.northwestern.edu
Read more here about how gender identity affects AI-generated college essay narratives: facctconference.org/static/docs/...
Read more here on how students are using AI in their essay writing processes: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Two new papers out this week from our research on AI use in college essay writing. We find that 1) students are using AI for ideation and revision when writing essays and 2) AI tends to generate struggle narratives for marginalized gender identities. This may impact how adolescents view themselves.
Come chat with me by a poster at #CHI2025! During the Wednesday AM break I will be with @shallotly.bsky.social discussing journalists' practices surrounding AI (tinyurl.com/y6jmd85k) and during the PM break I will be with Maalvika Bhat talking hands-on AI literacy activities (tinyurl.com/yc2bnenh)
“Understanding Journalistic Practices Surrounding AI: Towards the Design of Support Resources for Journalists to Foster Public AI Literacy” examines how journalists report on AI, towards the goal of supporting AI journalism that fosters public AI literacy.
“Introducing AI Without Computers: Hands-on Literacy and Ethical Sense-Making for Young Learners” shares unplugged activities to foster AI literacy, including a card deck to foster discussions of AI ethics dilemmas and a game where learners play as data brokers to learn about ad personalization
Excited to be at #CHI2025 in Yokohama! Stop by our late-breaking work posters - led by amazing students Maalvika Bhat, Hasti Darabi Pourshiraz, and Charlotte Li @shallotly.bsky.social - on Wednesday to chat (more info in thread)
Very excited to announce that this paper received an Honorable Mention for Best Paper award!!
