Amy S. Bruckman
{{Short description|American professor (born 1965)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image = Asb-dec01-armsfolded.jpg
| caption = Bruckman in 2001
| name = Amy Susan Bruckman
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1965}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| field = Online communities,
Learning sciences,
Constructionist learning,
Information ethics
| work_institution = Georgia Tech,
GVU Center
| alma_mater = Harvard University (BA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA, PhD)
| doctoral_advisor = Mitchel Resnick
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = MediaMOO,
MOOSE Crossing
| author_abbreviation_bot =
| author_abbreviation_zoo =
| prizes = MIT Technology Review TR100
AERA Jan Hawkins Award
| religion =
| footnotes =
}}
Amy Susan Bruckman (born 1965) is a 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 MIT Technology Review
Early life and education
Amy S. Bruckman was born in New York, New York. She attended the Horace Mann School, an Ivy Preparatory School in New York City, graduating in 1983.{{cite web|url=http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm/erm99/erm99028.html| title=EDUCAUSE Publications: Educom Review March/April 1999| website=educause.edu|access-date=April 6, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302065552/http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm/erm99/erm99028.html| archive-date=March 2, 2012|url-status=dead}} 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, Amy (1991). "The Electronic Scrapbook: Towards an Intelligent Home-Video Editing System." Master's Thesis, MIT Media Lab.
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.Bruckman, Amy and Mitchel Resnick (1995). "The MediaMOO Project: Constructionism and Professional Community." Convergence 1:1, pp. 94-109. The community, managed chiefly by Bruckman, developed a significant following for its time, eventually closing down seven years later.Bruckman, Amy and Carlos Jensen (2002). "The Mystery of the Death of MediaMOO, Seven Years of Evolution of an Online Community." In Building Virtual Communities. Edited by Ann Renninger and Wesley Shumar. Pp. 21-33. Cambridge University Press. 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.Bruckman, Amy (1997). "MOOSE Crossing: Construction, Community, and Learning in a Networked Virtual World for Kids." PhD dissertation, MIT Media Lab.{{Cite web|last=Epstein|first=Hannah|date=April 17, 2020|title=Remembering 'MOOSE Crossing' — A Different Kind Of Animal|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/836186873/remembering-moose-crossing-a-different-kind-of-animal|access-date=2021-05-07|website=NPR.org|language=en}}
Georgia Tech
Upon her graduation from MIT in 1997, Bruckman accepted a position as an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing. 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 UROP.{{ cite news|work=BuzzWords |publisher=Georgia Tech Alumni Association |access-date=2007-10-11 |date=2001-04-02 |url=http://gtalumni.org/buzzwords/apr01/article8pr.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013013254/http://gtalumni.org/buzzwords/apr01/article8pr.html |archive-date=2007-10-13 |title=Program Involves Undergraduate Students in Research Projects }} In 1999, Bruckman's research was supported by a prestigious grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program.{{ cite web|url=http://www.cc.gatech.edu/inside/stats/faculty-honors-awards |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225065100/http://www.cc.gatech.edu/inside/stats/faculty-honors-awards |archive-date=2007-12-25 |title=Faculty Awards — College of Computing |publisher=Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing |access-date=2007-10-10 }} That same year, she was selected as one of Technology Review
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.{{ cite press release | url=http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/TGAME.html | access-date=2007-10-11 | date=1999-09-09 | title=YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY: RESEARCHERS STUDY HUMAN INTERACTION ONLINE THROUGH GAME PLAYED IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITY | publisher=GT Research News }} The game received national attention{{ cite news | publisher=CNN.com | title=Can you prove you're not a machine? | url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/13/turing.test/index.html | access-date=2007-10-11 | date=2004-10-13 | last=Boese | first=Christine | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071013073832/http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/13/turing.test/index.html| archive-date= 13 October 2007 | url-status= live}} and was played by over 11,000 people from 81 countries and all seven continents.{{cite journal |last=Berman |first=Joshua |author2=Amy Bruckman |year=2001 |title=The Turing Game: Exploring Identity in an Online Environment |journal=Convergence |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=83–102 |url=http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/papers/convergence-tg-01.pdf | access-date=2007-10-12 |quote=11,158 people used it over a one-year period. Players from 81 countries on all seven continents used the game to learn about issues of identity and diversity online through direct experience. |doi=10.1177/135485650100700307 |s2cid=143127434 }}
In 2003, Bruckman received tenure and was promoted to the position of associate professor. In 2012, she was made a full professor. She was the interim chair of the School of Interactive Computing from July 2017 until December.{{Cite web|title=College of Computing Selects Ayanna Howard to Lead School of Interactive Computing|url=https://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/12/04/college-computing-selects-ayanna-howard-lead-school-interactive-computing|access-date=2021-05-09|website=www.news.gatech.edu}}
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 conferences 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,{{cite press release | url=http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=39624 | title=Can Video Game Testing Spark Interest in Computing Among Black Youth? | access-date=2009-09-15 | date=2009-09-09 | publisher=Georgia Institute of Technology}} social media use,{{Cite web|url=http://news.wabe.org/post/ga-tech-project-provides-cubans-faster-access-internet|title=Ga. Tech Project Provides Cubans Faster Access To Internet|last=Shamma|first=Tasnim|website=news.wabe.org|access-date=2016-04-16|date=2016-03-23}} computer-supported collaboration and wikis,Forte, A., & Bruckman, A. (2005). Why do people write for wikipedia? Incentives to contribute to open-content publishing. Unpublished manuscript, Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, Retrieved from http://jellis.org/work/group2005/papers/forteBruckmanIncentivesGroup.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006201413/http://jellis.org/work/group2005/papers/forteBruckmanIncentivesGroup.pdf |date=2020-10-06 }} and women in computing.
Her book Should You Believe Wikipedia? was published in 2022.{{cite news |last1=S. C. |first1=Stuart |title=Wikipedia: The Most Reliable Source on the Internet? |url=https://uk.pcmag.com/social-media/133755/wikipedia-the-most-reliable-source-on-the-internet |access-date=9 June 2021 |work=PCMag UK |date=2021-06-03 |language=en-gb}}
Professional community leadership
Bruckman has taken on many leadership roles in service to her professional community, notably for the ACM Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) conference. She was the General Co-chair for the 2013 conference{{Cite web|url=https://cscw.acm.org/2013/committee.html|title=Committee « CSCW 2013|language=en|access-date=2022-05-10}} and subsequently served as Chair of the CSCW Steering Committee.{{Cite web|url=https://cscw.acm.org/2020/cscw-steering-committee/|title=CSCW Steering Committee« CSCW|language=en|access-date=2022-05-10}}
Recognition
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.{{ cite press release | url=http://cct.edc.org/news_release.asp?numNewsReleaseId=13 | title=Georgia Tech University {{sic|nolink=y}} Professor, Bruckman, Wins 2002 Jan Hawkins Award | access-date=2007-10-10 | date=2002-04-26 | publisher=Center for Children & Technology }}
She was elected to the CHI Academy in 2018.{{citation|url=https://sigchi.org/awards/sigchi-award-recipients/|title=Award Recipients|publisher=ACM SIGCHI|access-date=2018-10-18|archive-date=2020-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301093727/https://sigchi.org/awards/sigchi-award-recipients/|url-status=dead}}
She was also elected as an ACM Fellow in 2018 for "contributions to collaborative computing and foundational work in Internet research ethics".{{citation|url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2018/december/fellows-2018|title=2018 ACM Fellows Honored for Pivotal Achievements that Underpin the Digital Age|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|date=December 5, 2018}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Amy.Bruckman/ Amy Bruckman's Home Page at Georgia Tech]
- [http://www.cc.gatech.edu/elc ELC Lab Home Page]
- {{Google Scholar id | id=IdWa_JkAAAAJ}}
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Category:American mass media scholars
Category:People in educational technology
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Horace Mann School alumni
Category:Human–computer interaction researchers
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Scientists from New York City
Category:American women social scientists
Category:Video game researchers
Category:Women technology writers
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:21st-century American women scientists
Category:2018 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Category:20th-century American women writers