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

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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.
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Ontedeknet.
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Artificial agents are used to deliver a richer and more engaging experience to students.
The support of Attention in learning systems.
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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”:
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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
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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
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WP1 will analyse the concept of attention
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The first substantive work of AtGentive
Will provide the foundations of AtGentive
 Presented by Claudia – 16:00 – 17:00
Deliverables
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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

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

The importance of the end-users:
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The users involved in the design phase to contribute to identify the needs validate the solution
Note: normally not to propose the solutions
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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

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

Attentive and interactive (agent-based) platforms:
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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:
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Schools (OntDekNet - CELN)
Effectiveness of the learning process
Motivating the students
Learning Network / work (INSEAD -
STC)
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Knowledge worker performance
Address the “information overload” problem.
AtGentive project Overview, December 2005, Fontainebleau

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

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

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