Amy S. Bruckman
Encyclopedia
Amy Susan Bruckman is an associate professor
at the Georgia Institute of Technology
affiliated with the School of Interactive Computing
and the GVU Center
. She is best known for her pioneering research in the fields of online communities and the learning sciences
. In 1999, she was selected as one of Technology Review
' s TR100
award, honoring 100 remarkable innovators under the age of 35.
, New York
. She attended the Horace Mann School
, an Ivy Preparatory School
in New York City, graduating in 1983. Following that, Bruckman attended Harvard University
for her undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics
in 1987. She received a master's degree
in 1991 from the Interactive Cinema Group at the MIT Media Lab
, where she was advised by Glorianna Davenport
. Her master's thesis
described the Electronic Scrapbook, an intelligent home video
editing system. Bruckman went on to pursue a Ph.D.
at the Media Lab in Mitchel Resnick
's Epistemology and Learning Group. On January 20, 1993, Bruckman established MediaMOO, an online community
for new media
researchers and educators. The community, managed chiefly by Bruckman, developed a significant following for its time, eventually closing down seven years later. During this time, Bruckman also worked as a research assistant for Sherry Turkle
on Turkle's influential book, Life on the Screen (1997). For her dissertation work, Bruckman developed MOOSE Crossing
, a MOO
-based constructionist learning
environment in which young children could learn computer programming
skills while building virtual objects. Upon her graduation from MIT in 1997, Bruckman accepted a position as an assistant professor
at the Georgia Institute of Technology
College of Computing
.
. In 1999, Bruckman's research was supported by a prestigious grant awarded by the National Science Foundation
's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. That same year, she was selected as one of Technology Review
' s 100 remarkable innovators under the age of 35. Her work at this time was described as "the most notable MOO
research in education."
On July 22, 1999, Bruckman and graduate student Joshua Berman released The Turing Game, a multiplayer online game
inspired by the Turing test
that challenged players to explore issues of online identity
. The game received national attention and was played by over 11,000 people from 81 countries and all seven continents.
In 2002, the American Educational Research Association
presented Bruckman with the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies. A year later, Bruckman received tenure
and was promoted to the position of associate professor.
Bruckman currently directs the ELC Lab, the UROC program, and the Web Science
initiative at Georgia Tech. She has published dozens of scholarly articles in peer-reviewed
journals
and has given invited presentations at high-profile academic conference
s such as ICLS and CHI
. Bruckman's most recent work, often done in conjunction with graduate students she advises, has dealt with topics in information ethics
, game studies
, computer-supported collaboration
and wiki
s, and women in computing
.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
affiliated with the School of Interactive Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology School of Interactive Computing
The School of Interactive Computing is an academic unit located within the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology . It conducts both research and teaching activities related to interactive computing at the undergraduate and graduate levels...
and the GVU Center
GVU Center
The GVU Center at Georgia Tech is an interdisciplinary research center located near Technology Square in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was founded by James D. Foley, the Center's first director, on October 15, 1992. According to U.S....
. She is best known for her pioneering research in the fields of online communities and the learning sciences
Learning sciences
The term Learning Sciences refers to an interdisciplinary field that works to further scientific understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and improvement of instructional methodologies...
. In 1999, she was selected as one of Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
award, honoring 100 remarkable innovators under the age of 35.
Early life
Amy S. Bruckman was born in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She attended the Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School is an independent college preparatory school in New York City, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from...
, an Ivy Preparatory School
Ivy Preparatory School League
The Ivy Preparatory School League, like the Ivy League for universities, was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, for a group of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk county university-preparatory schools: Hackley School, Tarrytown, Trinity School, Manhattan, Riverdale...
in New York City, graduating in 1983. Following that, Bruckman attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
for her undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1987. She received a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1991 from the Interactive Cinema Group at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
, where she was advised by Glorianna Davenport
Glorianna Davenport
Glorianna Davenport is a New York born media maker. A co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, Davenport founded and directed the Interactive cinema research group from 1987–2004 and the Media Fabrics research group from 2004-2008...
. Her master's thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
described the Electronic Scrapbook, an intelligent home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
editing system. Bruckman went on to pursue a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at the Media Lab in Mitchel Resnick
Mitchel Resnick
Mitchel Resnick is LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the at the MIT Media Lab. Resnick currently serves as the head of the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, the academic program that grants master's degrees and Ph.Ds at the MIT Media...
's Epistemology and Learning Group. On January 20, 1993, Bruckman established MediaMOO, an online community
Virtual community
A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals...
for new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
researchers and educators. The community, managed chiefly by Bruckman, developed a significant following for its time, eventually closing down seven years later. During this time, Bruckman also worked as a research assistant for Sherry Turkle
Sherry Turkle
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a sociologist...
on Turkle's influential book, Life on the Screen (1997). For her dissertation work, Bruckman developed MOOSE Crossing
MOOSE Crossing
MOOSE Crossing was an educational MOO developed by Amy S. Bruckman in 1996 as her doctoral dissertation work. It employed a constructionist learning pedagogical approach and was designed for teaching children 9 to 13 years of age. Bruckman's work on MOOSE Crossing and MediaMOO was called "the...
, a MOO
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...
-based constructionist learning
Constructionist learning
Constructionist learning is inspired by the constructivist theory that individual learners construct mental models to understand the world around them. However, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are also active in making tangible objects in the real world...
environment in which young children could learn computer programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
skills while building virtual objects. Upon her graduation from MIT in 1997, Bruckman accepted a position as an assistant professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing
The College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology has roots stretching back to an Information Science degree established in 1964. In 1988, Georgia Tech president John Patrick Crecine elevated the School of Information and Computer Science to become the College of Computing, making...
.
Georgia Tech
As a new Georgia Tech faculty member, Bruckman founded the Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) Lab and began setting up a program of research incorporating her interests in online communities and constructionist learning. She founded the Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing (UROC) program at Georgia Tech in 1998, modeling it after MIT's UROPUndergraduate Research Opportunities Program
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program provides funding and/or credit to undergraduate students who volunteer for faculty-mentored research projects pertaining to all academic disciplines at universities such as Boston University, the University of California, Irvine, the Massachusetts...
. In 1999, Bruckman's research was supported by a prestigious grant awarded by the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. That same year, she was selected as one of Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...
research in education."
On July 22, 1999, Bruckman and graduate student Joshua Berman released The Turing Game, a multiplayer online game
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
inspired by the Turing test
Turing test
The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
that challenged players to explore issues of online identity
Online identity
An online identity, internet identity, or internet persona is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites...
. The game received national attention and was played by over 11,000 people from 81 countries and all seven continents.
In 2002, the American Educational Research Association
American Educational Research Association
The American Educational Research Association, or AERA, was founded in 1916 as a professional organization representing educational researchers in the United States and around the world....
presented Bruckman with the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies. A year later, Bruckman received tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
and was promoted to the position of associate professor.
Bruckman currently directs the ELC Lab, the UROC program, and the Web Science
Web Science
"Web Science" is a term that refers to processing the information available on the web in similar terms to those applyed to natural environment. - External links :* * * by W3C...
initiative at Georgia Tech. She has published dozens of scholarly articles in peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
journals
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
and has given invited presentations at high-profile academic conference
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
s such as ICLS and CHI
CHI (conference)
The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems series of academic conferences is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of human–computer interaction. It is hosted by ACM SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group on computer–human interaction. CHI has been held annually since...
. Bruckman's most recent work, often done in conjunction with graduate students she advises, has dealt with topics in information ethics
Information ethics
Information ethics has been defined as "the branch of ethics that focuses on the relationship between the creation, organization, dissemination, and use of information, and the ethical standards and moral codes governing human conduct in society". It provides a critical framework for considering...
, game studies
Game studies
Game studies or the new modern term "gaming theory" is the discipline of studying games, their design, players, and their role in society and culture more broadly...
, computer-supported collaboration
Computer-supported collaboration
Computer-supported collaboration research focuses on technology that affects groups, organizations, communities and societies, e.g., voice mail and text chat. It grew from cooperative work study of supporting people's work activities and working relationships...
and wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
s, and women in computing
Women in computing
Global concerns about current and future roles of women in computing occupations gained more importance with the emerging information age. These concerns motivated public policy debates addressing gender equality as computer applications exerted increasing influence in society...
.