Joe Michaelis

We've recently concluded a classroom study in Japan on our "Mindful Math" Tutor, an LLM-embedded ITS that uses mindful language and messages to guide students learn algebra while calming down their math anxiety. If interested in testing/using/collaborating let me know! tomonag.org/mindfulmath/

@hri-conference.bsky.social reviewer assignments started... I like to dig in to find reviewers who really can connect with a paper. First paper I found a group of authors writing on a very similar application... perfect, right!? So similar in fact, I think it may actually just be the same people🫠

Flag flown at Cubs home games when they win. Large blue W on a white background.

Robotic reading companions can mitigate oral reading anxiety in children Children exhibit fewer physiological indicators of anxiety when reading aloud to a robot compared with reading to a person.

🤖 Robots and reading anxiety

A study with 8–11 year olds found kids were less anxious reading aloud to a robot than to a person. Robots may help children build literacy skills with less stress.

🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scir...

#SciComm 🧪 #Education #Robots #Literacy

I spend a good chunk of my HRI class dunking on unkept promises of humanoid robotics. Love the thoughtful and well documented suppport of that position

Well my instinct to want to be included may just swallow me whole this year. What does one do if you are already an AC for @chi.acm.org and @hri-conference.bsky.social invites you to be an AC there, too? You kiss all other responsibilities goodbye and embrace the chaos, right? #HCI #HRI

Bear stress

I'd love some commiseration or ideas from the BlueSky void if you have them. Will also report back what came out of my class chat.

After tamping down my initial rage, I realize what I'm trying to do is incompatible with how students engage. So, I'll be going hat in hand to class tomorrow to invite an open discussion of how to proceed.

So, it feels like communicating with writing is dead. I'm banging my head on how to have students think and communicate for classes now but I don't have an answer. Class discussion, yes, but that runs in series, so can't work for a class of 20, and how do I get them to think outside of class?

Shell shocked at how ubiquitous turning in LLM writing is. Knew it would be a lot, but literally every paper (1-2 pages) I read today was fully authored by an LLM. I thought if I made it clear I just wanted ideas, thoughts, feeling, and didn't care about grammar or structure, it would help, but nope

🚀 Exciting news: I’m accepting new graduate students in the McGill Faculty of Education Learning Sciences! If you’re passionate about educational technology, games, AI, and learning sciences, this is your chance to join a dynamic and interdisciplinary research program.

Psychologists, apply! Apparently we've mainly gotten CS applicants so far. I'd (selfishly) love to have a psychologist. Interests in AI in relation to e.g., implicit bias; cultural influences; fairness; perception; learning & memory; decision making etc. would be a good fit!

Just cited this. We're finding that expert teachers are telling us they *want* automation, but end up using LLM-generated content infrequently when given the option. Seems that expert fluency is pretty powerful. This METR study really helps develop that idea to provide some nuanced context.

I've had such great collaborators, Sarah Sebo and Lauren Wright at UChicago, and Bilge Mutlu at UW-Madison, for this work. Lauren in particular pulled off an incredible study and report that I'm thrilled to see published. Feel free to reach out for author's copies if you are paywalled by AAAS

The second explores an intuition I've had for some time - kids often tell us the robot didn't judge them. Lauren Wright's article, "Robotic reading companions can mitigate oral reading anxiety in children" demonstrates the actual impact of that feeling on reading anxiety.

Figure depicting four challenges of in-home educational robot. The challenges are disruption of routines, replacement of activities and human participation, unclear roles and privacy concerns. The figure shows solutions including integrating into existing routines, augmenting existing educational experiences, clearly defining roles, and using privacy-preserving data collection and use

Two fresh articles out in Science Robotics www.science.org/journal/scir..., and on the website banner! First is a focus article "How can educational robots enhance family life? Through careful integration." We look at what it will take for in-home robots to actually be adopted by families. #HRI #HCI

Just cited for a submission going in this week. Awesome work. I’m really fascinated about preservation of voice and values while using llms. This was a great glimpse into that.

This summer, LIT Lab undergrads Gaeun Lee and Hope Jo presented their poster “You Can Grow Here” at ACM SIGGRAPH.

Their project explored how anxiety-management techniques can be reimagined as immersive VR experiences that feel emotionally resonant and non-clinical.
doi.org/10.1145/3721....

Send it when you have it ready! What's the topic? We can start speculating about what you might say and see if we get it right.

I'm starting my Social Robotics and HRI course this week at UIC. What are emerging topics in the field we should talk about? Have a paper you would love us to cover in our class? Please share and shamelessly plug your work! @talkingrobotics.bsky.social @hri-conference.bsky.social #HRI #SocialRobots

Sunk-cost fallacy and cheating students are the only things keeping AI in business at this point.

Just look at how usage of ChatGPT plummets as soon as the semester ends.

Nearly Dr. Logan, you’re not wrong.

Really exciting results! Incredible work here, thanks for sharing.

📣 We are officially looking for nominations to join the ILSSA Board! 📣

Interested in supporting a global network of LS junior scholars? Want to get a 'behind the scenes' peek into ISLS operations?

Full call/form for nominations (due June 24th): mailchi.mp/3cb58f5d38c9...

Hear me out. MVPCA? #Cubs

Was a great place to meet new friends

It’s really cool to be Runner Up for this year’s Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies from AERA Division C. Congratulations to the award winner, @drsmarturo.bsky.social, and the other honorees.

See you there, Sunday stragglers!

I presented at #AERA2025 today about our new framework for open education research emphasizing social justice. Here’s an example of a study using the framework about students paying to access homework