Celebrating Amir

On the occasion of the inauguration of the Amir Lopatin Endowed Fellowship at Stanford University School of Education (SUSE)

23 September 2008Stanford University

Peter Wallenberg Theater

Amir at work on DIVER Project research and programming

At the center of the action in learning

My Remembrances

Amir was working on the DIVER Project

• New approach and tools for interacting with video - for teaching, learning and for research

– How to make video as fluid a two-way expressive medium as text?

– How to point to video and share interpretations of what you see with

others through the web? – How could video become a more

natural medium for supporting collaborative activity?

DIVER Project Approach

• DIVER concept: ‘dive’ into a movie to ‘make a movie inside a movie’ = virtual videography

• Familiar interface: viewfinder

• Exploring the same event from different perspectives builds deeper understanding

• We have created both desktop and web-based browser interface to DIVING capabilities for users

™

DIVER Panoramic Video

WebDIVER

How to visualize DIVE behaviors?

• Different people who make “dives” into the same video may focus on different parts of that video

• How can you visualize the aggregate data of those DIVE behaviors to understand ‘where the action is’ in the video, or whether different groups focus on different aspects of the video?

• DIVER team developed the concept of “expert gels” - Amir started working on a software program to visualize and compare the DIVEs made by experts vs. novices

• A grant on this topic was not funded and his line of work did not continue.

Rapid contributions, missed horizons

Amir - words of his peers and mentors

Questioning

Challenging

Understanding

Intense

Insightful

Integrity

Excited

Funny

Mischievous

Caring

Optimistic

Self-assured

Open

Dubious

Provocative

Brilliant

Kind

Honest

Profoundly social

King of the Non Sequitor

Vulnerable

Amir Lopatin Fellowship

• Promotes a continuing remembrance of Amir as an advocate of important values in LSTD research

• Provides an honor of distinction as a new SUSE tradition

• Establishes significant support for student initiated fieldwork projects consonant with those values

• Many thanks to his loving family and friends for developing this important endowment