Bio

Carrie is a PhD student in Computer Science at MIT CSAIL. Her dissertation project focuses on wait-learning: leveraging wait time for education. Broadly, she is interested in developing systems that help humans learn and improve productivity in environments with limited time. Her research brings together disciplines in human-computer interaction, education, attention management, and productivity. Carrie holds a B.A. in Human Biology and M.A. in Education from Stanford University.

Wait-Learning: Leveraging Wait Time for Education

Wait-Learning: Leveraging Wait Time for Education

The busyness of daily life makes it hard to find time for informal learning. Yet, learning typically requires significant time and effort, with repeated exposures to educational content on a recurring basis. My work introduces the concept of wait-learning: leveraging wait time for education. Despite the struggle to find time for learning, there are numerous times in a day that are wasted due to brief moments of waiting, such as waiting for the elevator, waiting for wifi to connect, or waiting for an instant message reply. Combining wait time with productive work opens up a new class of software systems that overcomes the problem of limited time while addressing the frustration often associated with waiting.

My goal is to understand how to detect and manage these waiting moments, and to discover essential design principles for wait-learning systems. I have designed and built several systems that enable wait-learning: WaitChatter delivers second-language vocabulary exercises while users wait for instant message replies, and FlashSuite integrates learning across diverse kinds of waiting, including elevators, wifi, and email loading. Through developing and evaluating these systems, we identify waiting moments to use for learning, and ways to encourage learning unobtrusively while maximizing engagement. A study of WaitChatter with 20 participants found that wait-learning can be an effective and engaging way to learn. During two weeks of casual instant messaging, participants learned and retained an average of 57 Spanish and French words, or about four new words per day.