Designing and evaluating the usability of a machine learning API for rapid prototyping music technology

To better support creative software developers and music technologists' needs, and to empower them as machine learning users and innovators, the usability of and developer experience with machine learning tools must be considered and better understood. We review background research on the design and evaluation of application programming interfaces (APIs), with a focus on the domain of machine learning for music technology software development. We present the design rationale for the RAPID-MIX API, an easy-to-use API for rapid prototyping with interactive machine learning, and a usability evaluation study with software developers of music technology. A cognitive dimensions questionnaire was designed and delivered to a group of 12 participants who used the RAPID-MIX API in their software projects, including people who developed systems for personal use and professionals developing software products for music and creative technology companies. The results from the questionnaire indicate that participants found the RAPID-MIX API a machine learning API which is easy to learn and use, fun, and good for rapid prototyping with interactive machine learning. Based on these findings, we present an analysis and characterization of the RAPID-MIX API based on the cognitive dimensions framework, and discuss its design trade-offs and usability issues. We use these insights and our design experience to provide design recommendations for ML APIs for rapid prototyping of music technology. We conclude with a summary of the main insights, a discussion of the merits and challenges of the application of the CDs framework to the evaluation of machine learning APIs, and directions to future work which our research deems valuable

Cognivitra, a digital solution to support dual-task rehabilitation training

This article focuses on an eHealth application, CogniViTra, to support cognitive and physical training (i.e., dual-task training), which can be done at home with supervision of a health care provider. CogniViTra was designed and implemented to take advantage of an existing Platform of Services supporting a Cognitive Health Ecosystem and comprises several components, including the CogniViTra Box (i.e., the patient terminal equipment), the Virtual Coach to provide assistance, the Game Presentation for the rehabilitation exercises, and the Pose and Gesture Recognition to quantify responses during dual-task training. In terms of validation, a functional prototype was exposed in a highly specialized event related to healthy and active ageing, and key stakeholders were invited to test it and share their insights. Fifty-seven specialists in information-technology-based applications to support healthy and active ageing were involved and the results and indicated that the functional prototype presents good performance in recognizing poses and gestures such as moving the trunk to the left or to the right, and that most of the participants would use or suggest the utilization of CogniViTra. In general, participants considered that CogniViTra is a useful tool and may represent an added value for remote dual-task training.This study has received funding from the European Union under the AAL programme through project CogniViTra (Grant No. AAL-2018-5-115-CP), with national funding support from FCT, ISCIII, and FNR. This presentation reflects the authors’ views, and neither AAL nor the National Funding Agencies are responsible for any use that may be made of the information

Augmented Reality Trends to the Field of Business and Economics: A Review of 20 years of Research

Augmented Reality (AR) is emerging as a technology that is reshaping the current society, especially the fields of Business and Economics (B&E). Therefore, the scientific studies produced on AR call for an interdisciplinary systematic review of the knowledge generated to structure an organized framework. Three main questions are addressed: How has the production of AR scientific knowledge evolved? What user-related aspects does AR affect? Also, which set of subtopics is associated with each motivation to develop an AR solution? The content of 328 papers produced between 1997 and 2016 in the field of AR is analyzed, unveiling 58 coding categories. There are 13 digital media characteristics that assume instrumental roles in addressing four major motivations to develop AR solutions. Technological topics dominate the research focus over behavioral ones. The investigations on AR in mobile displays show the highest increase. This research identifies the main scientific topics that have led researchers' agenda. Consequently, they contributed to develop and to adopt AR solutions and to forecast its future application in the organizations' strategiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating Simultaneous Visual Instructions with Kindergarten Children on Touchscreen Devices

[EN] A myriad of educational applications using tablets and multi-touch technology for kindergarten children have been developed in the last decade. However, despite the possible benefits of using visual prompts to communicate information to kindergarteners, these visual techniques have not been fully studied yet. This article therefore investigates kindergarten children¿s abilities to understand and follow several visual prompts about how to proceed and interact in a virtual 2D world. The results show that kindergarteners are able to effectively understand several visual prompts with different communication purposes despite being used simultaneously. The results also show that the use of the evaluated visual prompts to communicate data when playing reduces the number of interferences about technical nature fostering dialogues related to the learning activity guided by the instructors or caregivers. Hence, this work is a starting point for designing dialogic learning scenarios tailored to kindergarten children.This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and funded by the European Development Regional Fund (EDRF-FEDER) with Project TIN2014-60077-R; by VALi+d program from Conselleria d¿Educació, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana) under the fellowship ACIF/2014/214, and by the FPU program from Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport under the fellowship FPU14/00136Nácher, V.; García-Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ. (2020). Evaluating Simultaneous Visual Instructions with Kindergarten Children on Touchscreen Devices. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 36(1):41-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2019.1597576S4154361Allen, R., & Scofield, J. (2010). Word learning from videos: more evidence from 2-year-olds. Infant and Child Development, 19(6), 649-661. doi:10.1002/icd.712Cristia, A., & Seidl, A. (2015). Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood. PLOS ONE, 10(6), e0128338. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128338Derboven, J., De Roeck, D., & Verstraete, M. (2012). Semiotic analysis of multi-touch interface design: The MuTable case study. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 70(10), 714-728. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2012.05.005Egloff, T. H. (2004). Edutainment. Computers in Entertainment, 2(1), 13-13. doi:10.1145/973801.973822Fernández-López, Á., Rodríguez-Fórtiz, M. J., Rodríguez-Almendros, M. L., & Martínez-Segura, M. J. (2013). Mobile learning technology based on iOS devices to support students with special education needs. Computers & Education, 61, 77-90. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.09.014Furió, D., González-Gancedo, S., Juan, M.-C., Seguí, I., & Rando, N. (2013). Evaluation of learning outcomes using an educational iPhone game vs. traditional game. Computers & Education, 64, 1-23. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.001Hanna, L., Risden, K., & Alexander, K. (1997). Guidelines for usability testing with children. Interactions, 4(5), 9-14. doi:10.1145/264044.264045Honomichl, R. D., & Chen, Z. (2012). The role of guidance in children’s discovery learning. WIREs Cognitive Science, 3(6), 615-622. doi:10.1002/wcs.1199Hourcade, J. P. (2007). Interaction Design and Children. Foundations and Trends® in Human-Computer Interaction, 1(4), 277-392. doi:10.1561/1100000006Ioannou, A., Zaphiris, P., Loizides, F., & Vasiliou, C. (2013). Let’S Talk About Technology for Peace: A Systematic Assessment of Problem-Based Group Collaboration Around an Interactive Tabletop. Interacting with Computers, 27(2), 120-132. doi:10.1093/iwc/iwt061Keenan, T., Ruffman, T., & Olson, D. R. (1994). When do children begin to understand logical inference as a source of knowledge? Cognitive Development, 9(3), 331-353. doi:10.1016/0885-2014(94)90010-8Levine, S. C., Huttenlocher, J., Taylor, A., & Langrock, A. (1999). Early sex differences in spatial skill. Developmental Psychology, 35(4), 940-949. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.940Nacher, V., Garcia-Sanjuan, F., & Jaen, J. (2016). Interactive technologies for preschool game-based instruction: Experiences and future challenges. Entertainment Computing, 17, 19-29. doi:10.1016/j.entcom.2016.07.001Nacher, V., Jaen, J., & Catala, A. (2016). Evaluating Multitouch Semiotics to Empower Prekindergarten Instruction with Interactive Surfaces. Interacting with Computers, 29(2), 97-116. doi:10.1093/iwc/iww007Nacher, V., Jaen, J., Navarro, E., Catala, A., & González, P. (2015). Multi-touch gestures for pre-kindergarten children. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 73, 37-51. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.08.004Nacher, V., Jurdi, S., Jaen, J., & Garcia-Sanjuan, F. (2019). Exploring visual prompts for communicating directional awareness to kindergarten children. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 126, 14-25. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.01.003Neumann, M. M. (2017). Parent scaffolding of young children’s use of touch screen tablets. Early Child Development and Care, 188(12), 1654-1664. doi:10.1080/03004430.2016.1278215Pecora, N., Murray, J. P., & Wartella, E. A. (Eds.). (2009). Children and Television. doi:10.4324/9781410618047Plowman, L., Stevenson, O., Stephen, C., & McPake, J. (2012). Preschool children’s learning with technology at home. Computers & Education, 59(1), 30-37. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.11.014Smith, S. P., Burd, E., & Rick, J. (2012). Developing, evaluating and deploying multi-touch systems. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 70(10), 653-656. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2012.07.002Van der Meij, H., & van der Meij, J. (2014). A comparison of paper-based and video tutorials for software learning. Computers & Education, 78, 150-159. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2014.06.003Vatavu, R.-D., Cramariuc, G., & Schipor, D. M. (2015). Touch interaction for children aged 3 to 6 years: Experimental findings and relationship to motor skills. 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The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Using Information Communications Technologies to Implement Universal Design for Learning

The purpose of this paper is to assist Ministries of Education, their donors and partners, Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs), and the practitioner community funded by and working with USAID to select, pilot, and (as appropriate) scale up ICT4E solutions to facilitate the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), with a particular emphasis on supporting students with disabilities to acquire literacy and numeracy skills. The paper focuses primarily on how technology can support foundational skills acquisition for students with disabilities, while also explaining when, why, and how technologies that assist students with disabilities can, in some applications, have positive impacts on all students’ basic skills development. In 2018, USAID released the Toolkit for Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read, section 3.1 of which provides basic information on the role of technologies to support UDL principles and classroom learning. This paper expands upon that work and offers more extensive advice on using ICT4E1 to advance equitable access to high quality learning. Like the UDL toolkit, the audience for this guide is mainly Ministries of Education and development agencies working in the area of education, but this resource can also be helpful for DPOs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wishing to pilot or spearhead ICT initiatives. Content for this paper was informed by expert interviews and reviews of field reports during 2018. These included programs associated with United Nations, Zero Project, World Innovation Summit, UNESCO Mobile Learning Awards, and USAID’s All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development. Relevant case studies of select education programs integrating technology to improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities were summarized for this document

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation