Information School
May 1, 2020
ArtSci Roundup: Storytelling with Indigenous Writers, Meany Center Curtain Talks, Stroum Center Quick Talk, and more
During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and greater community, together online. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT. Sacred Breath:…
April 14, 2020
How families can use technology to juggle childcare and remote life
UW researchers are beginning a national study to help families discover technology that helps them both successfully navigate home-based learning and combat social isolation.
April 13, 2020
‘I saw you were online’: How online status indicators shape our behavior
After surveying smartphone users, UW researchers found that many people misunderstand online status indicators but still carefully shape their behavior to control how they are displayed to others.
April 1, 2020
UW-created podcasts: ‘Crossing North’ by Scandinavian Studies — also College of Education, Information School’s Joe Janes, a discussion of soil health
UW Notebook visits with the producer of “Crossing North,” a podcast by the Scandinavian Studies Department, and notes other podcasts on campus and an appearance by David Montgomery on the podcast “Undark.”
January 27, 2020
Faculty/staff honors: Honorary doctorate, early career award, Washington state LGTBQ Commission, writing program praise
Recent honors to UW faculty and staff include an early career award in astronomy, an honorary doctorate from the Delft University of Technology, a seat on Washington state’s new LGBTQ Commission and national honor for an English Department writing program.
December 19, 2019
Mindful travel, Silicon Valley’s evolution, Schumann on viola, Seattle history — UW-authored books, music for the Husky on your list
A teacher discusses respectful world travel, a historian explores Silicon Valley’s evolution, a professor and violist plays the music of Robert Schumann and a late English faculty member’s meditation on Seattle returns … Here’s a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by UW faculty in the last year — and a…
December 2, 2019
Faculty/staff honors: Housing association nod, honorary doctorate, distinguished fellow, best conference paper
Recent honors to UW faculty and staff members include an honorary doctorate from the University of Bucharest, membership in an inaugural class of distinguished fellows in pharmacology, and a leadership position in a national student housing association.
November 4, 2019
Single discrimination events alter college students’ daily behavior
UW researchers aimed to understand both the prevalence of discrimination events and how these events affect college students in their daily lives. Over the course of two academic quarters, the team compared students’ self-reports of unfair treatment to passively tracked changes in daily activities, such as hours slept, steps taken or time spent on the phone.
July 22, 2019
University of Washington to create UW Center for an Informed Public with $5 million investment from Knight Foundation
The University of Washington today announced a $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to create the UW Center for an Informed Public, led by an interdisciplinary group whose mission is to resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society, and strengthen democratic discourse. The Center is also funded by a $600,000 award from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
May 30, 2019
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things among topics at May 31 xTech + Impact Summit
Academics will gather May 31 at the UW with policymakers, entrepreneurs, and representatives of corporations, foundations and nonprofits for The xTech + Impact 2019 Summit, a daylong seminar exploring the role of exponential technology and its impact on society.
May 16, 2019
Children describe technology that gives them a sense of ambiguity as ‘creepy’
University of Washington researchers have defined for the first time what children mean when they say technology is “creepy.”
May 13, 2019
UW Information School’s Hala Annabi creates new ‘Autism @ Work Playbook’
Hala Annabi, associate professor in the UW Information School, is creator of the new “Autism @ Work Playbook,” a resource to guide organizations toward creating well-supported employment opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum.
April 29, 2019
Patterns of compulsive smartphone use suggest how to kick the habit
UW researchers conducted in-depth interviews to learn why we compulsively check our phones.
March 18, 2019
Information School to welcome high school students March 19 for ‘MisInfo Day’ – from ‘Calling BS’ faculty duo
The UW Information School is taking a leading role in helping people better navigate this era of increasing online fakery and falsehood. On March 19, the school will welcome 200-some Seattle-area high school students for “MisInfo Day,” a daylong workshop on how to navigate the misinformation landscape, from Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom, the faculty duo behind “Calling BS in the Age of Big Data.”
March 4, 2019
Fake faces: UWs ‘Calling BS’ duo opens new website asking ‘Which face is real?’
A new website from the UW’s Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom, the duo behind the popular “Calling BS” class, asks viewers to choose which of two realistic face photos is real and which is a complete fake.
August 13, 2018
Information School’s Hans Scholl on promises, cautions of ‘digital government’
Hans Scholl, professor in the UW Information School, discusses the challenges and opportunities of digital government. The website Apolitical has named him among the “Top 100 Most Influential People in digital government.”
August 6, 2018
Alexa, be my friend: Children talk to technology, but how does it respond?
When young children talk to voice-activated technologies, the devices don’t always respond in a helpful way. A new University of Washington study suggests that these interfaces could be designed to be more responsive – repeating or prompting the user, for example – and be more useful to more people.
May 21, 2018
Designed for evil: How to make bad technologies better
Through Alexis Hiniker’s Designing for Evil course, which is unique to the UW, students have identified “emerging evil” technologies and redesigned them so that they are more likely to enhance — not detract from — users’ lives.
May 15, 2018
STEM for All Video Showcase features six UW projects
Family-focused science lessons, robotics for young children and touch-based programming for the visually impaired are among the University of Washington research videos featured in the STEM for All Video Showcase, funded by the National Science Foundation. The weeklong online event, in its fourth year, highlights more than 200 projects from universities around the country…
May 1, 2018
Apps for children should emphasize parent and child choice, researchers say
Parents don’t need to fear their children playing with iPads and other devices, researchers say. Mindful play with an adult, combined with thoughtful design features, can prove beneficial to young developing minds. New research shows that thoughtfully designed content that intentionally supports parent-child interactions facilitated the same kind of play and development as analog toys.
March 19, 2018
University of Washington graduate and professional disciplines rank highly in US News’ Best Graduate School lists
Nearly 50 different graduate and professional programs and specialties at the University of Washington are among the top 10 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Graduate School rankings released March 20.
August 24, 2017
A dean looks back: Harry Bruce reflects on UW ‘iSchool’ past, future
Information School Dean Harry Bruce talks about his job and life as he prepares to step down.
August 23, 2017
Greetings from Earth: Documents that Changed the World podcast revisits Voyager’s ‘Golden Record,’ 1977
Forty years ago this month, Planet Earth said hello to the cosmos with the launch of the two Voyager probes that used gravity to swing from world to world on a grand tour of the solar system. Each bore a two-sided, 12-inch, gold-plated copper “Golden Record” of sights and sounds from Earth and its…
June 29, 2017
Anind K. Dey named dean of the UW’s Information School
Anind K. Dey has been named dean of the Information School at the University of Washington, President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Jerry Baldasty announced this week. Dey comes to the UW from Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, where he is the Charles M. Geschke professor and director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute….
June 8, 2017
Wide-Open accelerates release of scientific data by automatically identifying overdue datasets
WideOpen is a new open-source tool developed at the UW to help advance open science by automatically detecting datasets that are overdue for publication. Already, more than 400 datasets have been made public as a result.
June 5, 2017
‘Documents that Changed the Way We Live’: Podcast by UW’s Joe Janes now a book
A popular podcast by Joe Janes of the UW Information School is now a book. “Documents that Changed the Way We Live” is being published this month by Rowman & Littlefield.
May 2, 2017
Documents that Changed the World: Delayed stock market ticker tape, October 1929
Timing is everything, they say. In the latest episode of his Documents that Changed the World podcast series, Joe Janes of the UW Information School explores how an overload of critical information helped trigger the stock market crash of 1929, and thus the Great Depression. “This is a story about fortunes lost, lives ruined, a…
Period tracking apps failing users in basic ways, study finds
A new study finds that smartphone apps to track menstrual cycles often disappoint users with a lack of accuracy, assumptions about sexual identity or partners, and an emphasis on pink and flowery form over function and customization.
March 28, 2017
After much media attention, UW Information School’s ‘Calling BS’ class begins
The very name of the class, when proposed, seemed to fire imaginations nationwide and beyond. Now with the beginning of spring quarter, the UW Information School’s new course “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data” is getting started.
Parents who play ‘Pokémon GO’ with kids: ‘It wasn’t really about the Pokémon’
In the first study to survey and interview parents who play Pokémon GO with their children, families report a number of side benefits, including increased exercise, more time spent outdoors and opportunities for family bonding.
February 6, 2017
‘Overwhelming’ response, global press attention for new UW Information School course, ‘Calling BS’
It’s almost unheard-of for a university class to spark global press attention — and offers of book deals — before instruction even begins. But such is the case with the UW Information School’s new course, “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data.”
December 21, 2016
Documents that Changed the World: Sir Ronald Fisher defines ‘statistical significance,’ 1925
Joe Janes’ latest Documents that Changed the World podcast is about Sir Ronald Fisher, the man who set the mark of “statistical significance” for ages afterward at 5 percent, no more no less.
May 26, 2016
Documents that Changed the World: Noah Webster’s dictionary, 1828
Joe Janes of the Information School turns the attention of his Documents that Changed the World podcst to Noah Webster and his famous, 70,000-word “American Dictionary of the English language” published in 1828.
March 24, 2016
Study: Most tweets following fall Paris attacks defended Islam, Muslims
The fall 2015 Paris terrorist attacks sparked heated social media debates about Islam. A researcher now with the UW Information School, with collaborators, analyzed millions of tweets after those attacks and found most tweets actually expressed support for Islam and Muslims.
March 14, 2016
Documents that Changed the World: ‘Hanging chads’ and butterfly ballots — Florida, 2000
With the Florida presidential primary a day away, Joe Janes is recalling the time of butterfly ballots and “hanging chads” — the presidential election of 2000 — in the latest installment of his podcast series, Documents that Changed the World. In the podcasts, Janes, a professor in the UW Information School, explores the origin and…
March 3, 2016
Record percentage of women students in Informatics Program helps iSchool narrow the gender gap
The UW Information School’s 2015-16 undergraduate cohort in informatics is not only the school’s largest yet with 210 students, it also includes more women students than ever before — about 40 percent.
February 25, 2016
Documents that Changed the World: The Declaration of Independence’s deleted passage on slavery, 1776
The latest installment of Information School professor Joe Janes’ podcast series Documents that Changed the World discusses 168 powerful words condemning slavery that were excised from the Declaration of Independence at the last minute.
February 18, 2016
David Levy addresses digital overload in ‘Mindful Tech’
David Levy of the UW Information School discusses his new book, “Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to our Digital Lives,” published in January by Yale University Press.
February 4, 2016
‘Pushback’ against constant connectivity also reflected in images, study follow-up finds
People expressing the wish to resist constant online connectivity — dubbed “pushback” by University of Washington Information School researchers — is manifested as powerfully in images as in text, further study has found.
January 5, 2016
Study: College graduates often challenged with life skills, motivation for ongoing learning
Today’s college graduates tend to be highly trained and employable but often lack a key skill needed for post-college life: how to identify and ask their own questions, according to a new study.
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