Chris Houser

For the past decade, Chris Houser has been an assistant professor of computer arts and sciences at Kinjo Gakuin University in Japan, where he teaches computer animation and programming - in Japanese. His research, published in 29 papers and 42 presentations, includes developing and testing mobile and web-based educational technology, novel user interfaces, and experimental programming languages and systems. Earlier, Chris spent a decade working as a programmer. He holds a PhD in the human use of computers; his dissertation examines the use of technology for efficient education.

blog  research  teaching  experience  education  skills  affiliations  grants  awards  papers  talks

Research Projects

• Mobile educational technology
  • 2005-2007 Poodle is a phone-based moodle, a course management system for mobile phones. Japanese college students use the web browsers in their own mobile phones to access teaching materials, quizzes, polls, wikis, and discussion forums, even in large lecture halls without computers. (This work extends EduCALL.)
  • 2004 Mobile Text Input Learning measured students' ability to learn and use various methods for entering text on mobile phones and PDAs. Students learnt and typed on thumb keyboards more quickly than on onscreen qwerty keyboards and handwriting recognition systems.
  • 2003 Mobile Text Input Performance found that Japanese college students type on their mobile phones almost as quickly as on desktop PCs. Paper is twice as fast. Novel input methods (onscreen and thumb keyboards) require significant training.
  • 2002 EduCALL allows instructors to intersperse quizzes and polls in their lectures, using students' mobile phones to collect responses, and projecting the results. This added interactivity enlivens even very large lectures lacking PCs.
  • 2002-2003 Vidioms presents videos teaching English idioms on mobile phones. College students created animations illustrating the literal meaning of idioms (e.g., a car being driven up a wall) and live-action video showing the idiomatic meaning (e.g., a person being annoyed). Other students evaluated these materials on PDAs and video-playing cell phones, rating both engaging and effective.
  • 2001-2003 Learning on the Move emails short lessons to students' mobile phones, encouraging frequent study. Students receiving emails learnt significantly more than control groups urged to study identical materials on web or paper.
• Web-based educational technology
  • 2000 Automated Teaching Assistant compiles a single course outline into syllabus, slides, notes, and handouts, eliminating tedious design work, and reducing class preparation time by 65%.
  • 2000 Remembering the Kanji combines short mnemonics with computed optimally spaced reviews, enabling students to memorize the 2000 standard Japanese characters in 40 hours, instead of the typical 200.
  • 1999 Chorus chat intersperses interaction in multimedia presentations, combining interactivity with rich scripted teaching materials. (Designed by Pilar de Almeida.)
• Gestural user interfaces
  • 2000 Sketch is a drawing editor controlled by gestures, allowing freeform input of geometric shapes, and very rapid selection and editing, all without tools, modes, dialog boxes, or menus. Editor inferred and solved alignment constraints, allowing neat diagrams to be quickly prepared. After ten minutes of practice, subjects preferred, and were able to draw significantly faster using Sketch than in Microsoft Office 2000.
  • 1999 Gesture Text is a text editor controlled by gestures, enabling text selection and editing (moving, copying, and deleting) or attribute adjustment (e.g., font size) in a single fluid mouse or pen motion.
  • 1999 Pie Menus arrange choices in a circle around the mouse pointer, enabling selection by angle of mouse motion, rather than the traditional linear menu with selection by distance of mouse motion. Pie menus were used more quickly on both desktop and pen computers.
• Programming languages and systems
  • 1996 DEM, inspired by the Law of Demeter, is a terse language of object-communication patterns and code fragments. Example programs are ten times shorter than the C++ to which they compile.
  • 1992 Eoops is an implementation of Object-Oriented Programming in Emacs Lisp.
  • 1992 Literate Lisp Programming Environment facilitates writing literate programs interspersed with hypertext prose. A lightweight version of Knuth's literate programming. Includes a readable text formatting language similar to Markdown and Textile.

Teaching

• Programming (OOP, sockets, graphics, animation, games) in Java, JavaScript, C++/GL, Logo
• Web development (client side) using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and (server side) using perl, ruby, sqlite
• Animation (modeling, character motion and expression, storyboarding) using Art of Illusion, Blender, Doga, TruSpace, VRML, Flash, Director
• Movie production (script writing, storyboarding, acting, DV editing, titling, music production) using iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Garage Band
• English as a foreign language (reading and writing) using podcasts, blogs, Moodle forums, wikis
• Lectures in information culture, computer architecture, character animation, web and PowerPoint design, mobile and ubiquitous computing, natural language processing, efficient studying, visual programming

Experience

• 1997-2007 Associate professor, Kinjo Gakuin University, Japan.
  Taught and advised undergraduate students, prepared entrance examinations, maintained servers, and served on committees, all in Japanese.
• 1996-1997 Programmer, Toyota Techno Service, Japan. Developed a web-based system to manage employee payroll and promotion. Maintained programs for testing cars.
• 1992-1996 R&D Programmer, Aisan Technology, Japan.
  Designed and implemented a terse programming language for pen computers, creating a source-interpreting debugger and an optimizing compiler. Researched object-oriented design and analysis. Designed and developed a suite of GUI applications (map-making software, file manager, text and graphic editors for program and hypertext authoring) using gestural and novel keyboard interfaces for DOS, Windows, and custom pen computers.
• 1989-1992 Programmer, Twin Sun, Los Angeles. Helped develop the COeX groupware toolkit, and integrated it into the eXclaim collaborative spreadsheet. Investigated pen computers.
• 1987-1989 R&D Programmer, Abe Photo/Publishing, Tokyo.
  Developed a hypertext authoring and book publishing system in Smalltalk.

Education

• 2002 PhD Human Informatics (the study of the human use of computers) Nagoya University, Japan.
  Dissertation: Computer Technology for Efficient Education collected six case studies of efficient educational technology.
• 1992 MS Computer Science, UCLA
  Thesis: A Literate Lisp Programming Environment.
  Designed and implemented a hypertext publishing and programming system in the Emacs editor. The thesis was the "literate" program, interspersed with documentation and background information.
• 1987 BS Cybernetics, UCLA
  Studied the computer modeling of biological systems, concentrating in artificial intelligence.

Skills and Interests

• Technical writing
• Developing Web sites and programs, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Tcl/Tk, Perl, Java/MIDP, Ruby/Rails, C++, K, Smalltalk/SeaSide, Lua, Prolog, Haskell
• Implementing and testing novel user interfaces and programming languages
• Animating
• Producing music and sound; Playing guitar and bass

Affiliations

• President of Nagoya International PC Club 2005-2007
• Secretary of Nagoya International PC Club 1999-2005
• Program Chair of JALTCALL 2000 conference
• ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) 2000-2007
• AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education) 1999-2003
• TESOL (Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages) 2006
• Japan Information Culture Society 1997-2007
• Human Interface Society 1999-2003

Research Grants

• 2005 Kinjo Special Research Grant ($6000) for Poodle
• 2004 Kinjo Sociology Research Institute ($3000) for Measuring learning speed of input methods
• 2003 Kinjo Equipment Grant ($12,000) for Measuring input speed
• 2003 Research on Next Generation Business Idea (次世代ケータイ電話FOMAのビジネスアイディアの研究) ($2500) from NTT for Vidioms
• 2002Kinjo Sociology Research Institute ($7500) for Vidioms
• 2001 Kinjo Alumni Association Grant ($7500) for Learning on the Move
• 1999 Kinjo Special Research Grant ($7500) for Gestural user interface research
• 1997 Kinjo Equipment Grant ($7500) for Gestural user interface research

Awards

• 2003 First prize for mobile-phone contents (最優秀コンテンツ賞) at NTT DoCoMo Research's contest for 3G applications (NTTドコモ東海主宰H14年度大学対抗FOMAビジネスアイディアコンクール), for Vidioms
• 2000 Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 2 equivalent to native Japanese high school level

Research Publications

• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Using mobile phones in English education in Japan. Page 217-228 in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. Vol. 21, Issue 3. 2005
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Poodle: A course-management system for mobile phones. Page 211-215 in H. Ogata, M. Sharples, Kinshuk, & Y. Yano (Eds.), Proceedings of the third IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education 2005, November 28-30, 2005. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Mobile educational technology. Page 1289-1296 in C. Howard, J. Boettcher, L. Justice, K. Schenk, P. Rogers, and G. Berg (eds), The Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Los Angeles: Idea Group. 2005.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Using mobile phones in education. Page 3-10 in Jeremy Roschelle, Tak-Wai Chan, Kinshuk, Stephen J. H. Yang (Eds.): Proceedings 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE 2004), Mobile Support for Learning Communities. IEEE Computer Society. 2004.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Japanese college students’ typing speed on mobile devices. Page 129-133 in Jeremy Roschelle, Tak-Wai Chan, Kinshuk, Stephen J. H. Yang (Eds.): Proceedings 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE 2004), Mobile Support for Learning Communities. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Ubiquitous Learning Opportunities: Learning via Web Video on Mobile Phones. Page 25-35 in Kinjo Gakuin University Humanities Research Institute. March 2004.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton, David Kluge. Mobile learning: Cell phones and PDAs in the language classroom. Page 175-181 in Paul Lewis: Local Decisions, Global Effects: Proceedings of JALTCALL2002. September 2003.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Using mobile web and video phones in English language teaching: Projects with Japanese college students. Page 207-223 in B. Morrison, C. Green, & G. Motteram: Directions in CALL: Experience, experiments, and evaluation. June 2003, English Language Centre, Hong Kong.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. EduCall: Adding interactivity to large lecture classes in Japan via mobile phones. Page 1871-1874 in Ed-Media 2003. June 2003.
• Chris Houser. The design and analysis of experiments in education. In Kinjo Gakuin University Ronshu. May 2003.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton, David Kluge. Mobile Learning: Cell phones and PDAs for education. Page 1149-1150 in ICCE 2002: International Conference on Computers in Education. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society. December 2002.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. M-Learning: Learning in Transit. Page 229-243 in Paul Lewis. The Changing Face of CALL: A Japanese Perspective (Language Education and Language Technology Series). Netherlands: Swets and Zeitlinger. March 2002.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Learning on the Move: Studying by mobile phone email. ICCE 2002. December 2001.
• Chris Houser. Proposal and evaluation for an efficient interface for word processing and text editing (in Japanese ワープロやエディターの効率的なインターフェースの提案と評価). Page 67-68 in Human Interface Symposium. October 2001.
• Chris Houser. Studying via email sent to PC and mobile phones. Page 263-266 in Foreign Language Educational Media (in Japanese, gaikokugo kyouiku media gakkai). August 2001.
• Chris Houser. An efficient method for studying Kanji via Computers (in Japanese, コンピュータを使う効率的な漢字の覚え方). In Kinjo Gakuin Daigaku Ronshu. March 2001.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Computer assistance for reading and writing Japanese as a foreign language. CALICO Journal. March 2001.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Prototype software for the automatic construction of teaching materials (in Japanese, 教材を自動的に作成するコンピュータ・ソフトの試作). Page 22-25 in JICS 2000: Information and Culture (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~jics). November 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. A new method for efficient study of Kanji using mnemonics and software (icce2000.nthu.edu.tw/Proceedings/F1126.pdf). Page 383-387 in ICCE 2000: International Conference on Computers in Education. November 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. The Automated Teaching Assistant (icce2000.nthu.edu.tw/Proceedings/F1127.pdf). Page 1640-1642 in ICCE 2000: International Conference on Computers in Education. November 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Prototype of an intuitive and efficient interface for drawing programs (in Japanese, 直感的かつ手早く使えるインタフェースをもつ速習型図形描画システムの提案). Page 13-16 in Human Interface Symposium 2000 (www.his.gr.jp/his2000). September 2000.
• Chris Houser. JALTCALL 2000 Program (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/jcp) June 2000.
• Chris Houser. Interactive web pages using CGI (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/cgi). Page 13-16 in JALTCALL 1999. May 2000.
• Chris Houser. The technology, legality, ethics, and economics of music file sharing: Report from the USA. Page 39-44 in Information Culture (Japanese: Jouhou bunka gakkai ronbun shi). May 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Sketch: a program for fast, easy, and natural drawing on a computer (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/sketch). Page 27- 40 in Kinjo Gakuin Daigaku Ronshu. March 2000.
• Chris Houser. Pie Menus for All - A portable, freely reusable implementation of improved computer menus (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/pie). Page 51-71 in Kinjo Gakuin Daigaku Ronshu. March 1999.
• Chris Houser. Manual and compiler for the terse and modular language DEM (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/dem/dem.htm). In Sigplan Notices. December 1997.
• Chris Houser. Eoops (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/eoops). In ACM Lisp Pointers. June 1992.
• Chris Houser. A Literate Lisp Programming Environment (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/llpe) (UCLA Master's thesis). December 1992.

Research Presentations

• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Using Mobile Phones for Foreign Language Education. EuroCall 2006. Granada, Spain. 7 September 2006.
• Chris Houser. How to make educational web sites for mobile phones: Servers, Proxies, Clients, and Code.. EuroCall 2006. Granada, Spain. 7 September 2006.
• Chris Houser. Monitoring the real-world use of mobile web flashcards in efficiently studying foreign language vocabulary. Didascalia CALL Conference. Antwerpen, Belgium. 21 August 2006.
• Chris Houser. How to make web sites for mobile phones. JaltCall 2006. Sapporo, Japan. 5 June 2006.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Lessons from Poodle. Moodle for Mobiles Workshop. Sapporo, Japan. 3 June 2006.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Mobile Technology - Teaching ESOL on the Fly (Academic Session). TESOL 2006. Tampa, Florida. 16 March 2006.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Poodle: A course-management system for mobile phones. Third IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education 2005. Tokushima, Japan. 29 November 2005.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. New projects in mobile CALL. JALT 2005. Shizuoka, Japan. 9 October 2005.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Using mobile phones for foreign language education. Fleat 2005. Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, Utah. 9 August 2005.  
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Introducing new projects in mobile CALL: Theory applied to technology. JaltCall 2005. Shiga, Japan. 4 June 2005  
• Chris Houser. Advanced Web page design for non-programmers. JaltCall 2005. Shiga, Japan. 4 June 2005  
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Current Trends in CALL. Writing with mobile devices: Success or failure? JALT 2004, CALL Sig Forum (panel). Nara, Japan. 20 November 2004.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Japanese college students’ typing speeds on mobile devices. JALTCALL 2004. Mito, Japan. 4-6 June 2004.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Using mobile phones in education. Second IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE 2004), Mobile Support for Learning Communities. Taoyuan, Taiwan. 24 March 2004.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Japanese college students’ typing speed on mobile devices. Second IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE 2004), Mobile Support for Learning Communities. Taoyuan, Taiwan. 24 March 2004.
• Chris Houser. The design and analysis of experiments in education. JALTCALL 2003. 4 October 2003. Nagoya, Japan.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Interaction in large classes with cell phones and remote control devices. JALTCALL 2003. 4 October 2003. Nagoya, Japan. (EduClick and EduCALL)
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Using Mobile Web and Video Phones in English Language Teaching. JALTCALL 2003. 4 October 2003. Nagoya, Japan.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Ubiquitous Learning Opportunities: Learning via Web Video on Mobile Phones. Kinjo Gakuin University Humanities Research Institute. September 2003.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. EduCall: Adding interactivity to large lecture classes in Japan via mobile phones. Ed-Media 2003. June 2003. Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Effects of spaced practice in vocabulary study facilitated by daily e-mail to students' mobile phones. Temple University Japan Applied Linguistics Colloquium. 16 Febuary 2003.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton, David Kluge. Mobile Learning: Cell phones and PDAs for education. 3-6 December 2002. Auckland, New Zealand
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Learning on the move: Part 2. JALTCALL 2002. 18-19 May 2002. Hiroshima, Japan.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton, David Kluge. Mobile learning: Cell phones and PDAs in the language classroom. JALTCALL 2002. 18-19 May 2002. Hiroshima, Japan.
• Chris Houser, Patricia Thornton. Learning on the Move: Studying by mobile phone email. ICCE 2002. December 2001. Soule, Korea.
• Chris Houser. Proposal and evaluation for an efficient interface for word processing and text editing editor (in Japanese ワープロやエディターの効率的なインターフェースの提案と評価). Page 67-68 in Human Interface Symposium. October 2001. Japan.
• Chris Houser. Studying via email sent to PC and mobile phones. Foreign Language Educational Media (in Japanese, gaikokugo kyouiku media gakkai). August 2001. Nagoya, Japan.
• Chris Houser. An intuitive and efficient interface for drawing programs. Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT '01. July 2001. Tokyo, Japan.
• Chris Houser. Learning on the Move. JALTCALL 2001. May 2001. Omiya, Japan.
• Chris Houser. WJFL: A Computer Tool for Typing Japanese as a Foreign Language. JALTCALL 2001. May 2001. Omiya, Japan.
• Patricia Thornton, Chris Houser. Learning on the Move: Vocabulary Study via Email and Mobile Phone SMS. ED-MEDIA 2001. June 2000. Tampere, Finland.
• Chris Houser. A Computer Tool for Writing Japanese as a Foreign Language. ED-MEDIA 2001. June 2000. Tampere, Finland.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. A new method for efficient study of Kanji using mnemonics and software (icce2000.nthu.edu.tw/Proceedings/F1126.pdf). ICCE 2000: International Conference on Computers in Education. November 2000. Taipei, Taiwan.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. The Automated Teaching Assistant (icce2000.nthu.edu.tw/Proceedings/F1127.pdf). ICCE 2000: International Conference on Computers in Education. November 2000. Taipei, Taiwan.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Prototype software for the automatic construction of teaching materials (in Japanese: 教材を自動的に作成するコンピュータ・ソフトの試作). JICS 2000: Information and Culture (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~jics). November 2000. Japan.
• Chris Houser. Internet demographics: Japan vs USA. (Invited presentation) Kinjo Gakuin University, 21 October 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Prototype of an intuitive and efficient interface for drawing programs (in Japanese 直感的かつ手早く使えるインタフェースをもつ速習型図形描画システムの提案). Human Interface Symposium 2000 (www.his.gr.jp/his2000). September 2000. Japan.
• Chris Houser. Web Page Layout: Crappy Design vs. Usability. (In Japanese. Invited presentation) Kinjo Gakuin University, 15 July 2000.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Automatic construction of teaching materials from course outlines (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/jcp/38.html). JALTCALL 2000. June 2000. Japan.
• Chris Houser, Shigeki Yokoi, Takami Yasuda. Mnemonics and software for efficient study of Kanji in JFL (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/jcp/37.html). JALTCALL 2000. June 2000. Japan.
• Chris Houser. Interactive web pages using CGI (anny.kinjo-u.ac.jp/~houser/cgi). JALTCALL 1999. Kyoto, Japan.
• Chris Houser. Visual Programming (in Japanese. Invited presentation) Kinjo Gakuin University, November 1996.