Fifth International Workshop on Culturally-Aware Tutoring Systems (CATS2014)

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

The 5th International Workshop on Culturally-Aware Tutoring Systems (CATS2014) is a follow-up to a series of successful CATS workshop editions, organized in conjunction to ITS2008, AIED2009, ITS2010, and AIED2013. The present edition is organized in conjunction with ITS2014 and takes place at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The CATS workshop series has clearly established itself as the premier venue for presentations and discussions of research bridging culture and educational technologies. Indeed, in the past few years, dedicated culturally-aware technologies, guidelines and methods have been proposed, and promising results are now emerging along with new exciting challenges for our community. CATS2014 is thus a great occasion to continue investigating the place of culture in the ITS research field, which it considers from the three following perspectives: - Designing ITS systems to teach cultural knowledge and intercultural skills, - Enculturating ITS systems (i.e. developing both pedagogical strategies and system infrastructure mechanisms that incorporate cultural features), - Considering cultural challenges in the ITS research cycle, and ways to address them. The scientific quality of CATS2014 was ensured by an interdisciplinary program committee of 31 members with strong expertise in relevant fields of interest (ITS, culture and technology). Special care was also put in ensuring geographic diversity within the program committee: PC members were from institutions distributed across 17 countries with equal representations of Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. 5 full papers have been selected by the program committee for inclusion in these proceedings. But CATS also intends to be a space for experience sharing, communication, and networking. Consequently, two discussion sessions are also organized in the context of the workshop. The first will encourage participants to move beyond the student model to discuss the influence culture may have on every one of the commonly agreed-upon parts of ITS systems, whereas the second will focus on investigating strategies to allow ITS to deal with cultural groups beyond a national definition (for example, those resulting from differences in socio-economic status or from a digital divide). We are very grateful to all the individuals who made CATS2014 possible. We would like to thank the members of the program committee for their efforts, as well as the Steering Committee, the Workshop Chairs, and the Organization Committee of the ITS2014 conference. June 2014

Emmanuel G. Blanchard, Isabela Gasparini, Amy Ogan, and Mercedes T. Rodrigo The CATS2014 Co-Chairs

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