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Marti Louwmartil@pitt.edu Learning Research & Development Center |
Research Faculty, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE)
Louw brings 15 years of experience in science communication and the design of informal learning experiences to the center. Her production and design experience spans a range of educational media and environments including broadcast television, websites, multimedia exhibits and informal learning venues from museum to everyday public spaces. She has written and produced science documentaries and web content for WGBH/NOVA and the Scientific American Frontiers series on PBS. While at the Chedd-Angier Production Company she produced numerous interactive multimedia exhibits for museums and science-technology centers. Before joining UPCLOSE, Louw worked at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh as a project developer and grant writer for the NSF funded How People Make Things traveling exhibit. In 2003, Louw completed a M.A. in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University where she explored design and human-computer interaction approaches to the conceptualization, development and use of technology in informal learning experiences.
UPCLOSE seeks to bring a practical theory of informal learning into action. I work to enact theory on project-based implementations that creatively bridge informal learning research and interaction design practice from initial conceptulization through realization and summative evaluation. My particular research interest is in the way design and its related communication strategies can be used to create successful educational media, informal learning experiences and produce technology artifacts that positively impact learning. Current research focuses include understanding design strategies for supporting online learning comumunites and community action using new media technologies.
CAISE Inquiry Group Leader for Assessing the Impact of ISE Professional Online Communities, a two-day meeting focusing on how to conceptualize and evaluate successful professional online learning communities, especially those serving multidisciplinary informal science education (ISE) communities. Enter website »
InformalScience.org continue to design and develop this online resource to support the growth of a vibrant community of research and practice in the field of informal science education. [NSF/ESI#0610348]
NeighborhoodNets research, co-design and implementation of community-based technology empowerment projects using participatory design strategies to imagine and plan creative products, sevices and interventions in neighborhoods using sensing and robotic technologies. [Intel]
Partner with the Warhol Museum to develop and evaluate a new online curriculum and resources section for their website [Alcoa]
Conceptulizing and developing the How People Make Things traveling exhibition with the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh [NSF/ESI#0407355]
DiSalvo, C., Coupland, J., Steiner M., & Louw, M. (Accepted). Local issues, local uses: Tools for robotics and sensing in community contexts. Paper to be presented at the ACM Creativity & Cognition Conference, Berkeley, CA.
DiSalvo, C., Nourbakhsh, I., Holstius, D., Akin, A., & Louw, M. (2008, October). The Neighborhood Nets Project: A case study of critical engagement and creative expression through participatory design. Paper presented at the Participatory Design Conference, Bloomington, IN.
Louw, M. & Steiner, M. (2008) The Neighborhood Nets Project: Braddock fall 2007 final report [Internal Report]. Pittsburgh, PA: University of PIttsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments.
Thesis: Designing for Delight: The Role of Wonder, Discovery, Invention and Ingenuity in Museum Exhibit Design
Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchanan, CMU/School of Design.
Thesis Project: Talking Trash: Designing a Recycling Experience for the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
Advisor: Prof. Jodi Forlizzi, CMU/Human Computer Interaction Institute [GUSH Funded]
tech report | slides
Discovery Point: Enhancing the Museum Experience w/Technology
Presented at ACM/CHI '03 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
paper | poster | full report
Design Issues Associate Editor Book Reviews (2004-2005) MIT Press
19(1) | 19(2)
Studio Project: Time, Motion and Communication
Client: Carnegie Museum of Natural History Sky Theater Eomasis
Short selected for screening at the 2002 International Planetarium Society meeting at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Studio Project: Information and Interface Design
Client: National Aviary
Telepresent Robot Interface Design for RAVEN Distance Learning / Implemented (2003)
information architecture | slides
WGBH/NOVA Garden of Eden (PBS 2001) Producer, Screenwriter
WGBH/NOVA Japan's Secret Garden (PBS 2000) Producer
WGBH/NOVA Medieval Siege (PBS 2000) Co-producer
WGBH/NOVA Secrets of Lost Empires II (PBS 2000) Series associate producer
WGBH/NOVA Lost Tribes of Isreal Broadcast Website Content writer, game developer
NYTimes Filmography Listing (partial)
