Michael Sharples (born 14 December 1952 in Sale, England) is a British academic working in educational technology. He is an Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University.[1]

Mike Sharples
Born (1952-12-14) 14 December 1952 (age 71)
Sale, England
Alma mater
OccupationTechnologist
Known forhuman-centred design, evaluation of technologies of learning, application of studies of human cognition and social interaction to the design of novel interactive systems
Websitewww.mikesharples.org Edit this at Wikidata

Background

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Sharples graduated from St. Andrews University in 1976 with a BSc. Hons in Computational Science, then moved to the Dept of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh as a post graduate student. His PhD thesis was on the topic of Cognition, Computers and Creative Writing.[2]

Career

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Sharples held various academic appointments before becoming director for the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning at the University of Birmingham[3] and later professor of learning sciences and Director of Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham.[4]

Research

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Sharples' research focus is on adapting and developing new technology and socio-technical systems to facilitate learning, such as the use of mobile devices.[3]

In 2022 he published the book Story Machines with Rafael Pérez y Pérez.[5] The book is about the history of story-generating machines. A review of the book in Science described it as "a readable, engaging, and instructive introduction to the mechanisms according to which computers have been made to produce “stories".[6]

Books

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  • Sharples, M. (1985) Cognition, Computers and Creative Writing, Chichester: Ellis Horwood.
  • Sharples, M., Hogg, D., Hutchison, C., Torrance, S., Young, D. (1989) Computers and Thought: a Practical Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. MIT Press. 406 pp.
  • Sharples, M. (ed.)(1993) Computer Supported Collaborative Writing. Springer-Verlag.
  • Sharples, M. & van der Geest, T. (eds.)(1996) The New Writing Environment: Writers at Work in a World of Technology. Springer-Verlag.
  • Sharples, M. (1999) How We Write: Writing as Creative Design. London: Routledge.
  • Littleton, K., Scanlon, E. & Sharples, M. (eds.)(2012) Orchestrating Inquiry Learning. Routledge. ISBN 0415601134.

References

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  1. ^ Sharples. "OUStaff". Stafflist. Open University.
  2. ^ Sharples, Mike (1984). Cognition, computers and creative writing. EThOS (Ph.D). British Library. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  3. ^ a b Arnot, Chris (11 November 2003). "Pocket power". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  4. ^ "About us: History". Learning Sciences Research Institute. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  5. ^ Sharples, Mike; Pérez y Pérez, Rafael (2022). Story machines: how computers have become creative writers. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-75195-1.
  6. ^ Dick, Stephanie (26 August 2022). "The new storytellers Story Machines Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez Routledge, 2022. 194 pp". Science. 377 (6609): 932. doi:10.1126/science.adc9237. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 36007046. S2CID 251843025.
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