Personal Inquiry: lessons learned

The paper describes a school trial carried out to support inquiry learning between formal and informal settings supported by personal mobile technology. The aim of the school trial was to explore how a first version of the PI Toolkit facilitates secondary school students in performing a personally relevant scientific inquiry both in a science classroom as well as at home. An analysis of classroom video and interviews has resulted in a set of incidents from which we have derived design guidelines and challenges for implementing technology-supported inquiry learning where personal technology is used and within which personally relevant investigations are conducted by students

Interaction in immersive virtual reality:breakdowns as trouble-sources in co-present VR interaction

Abstract. This thesis examines breakdowns as trouble-sources in co-present interactions within immersive virtual reality (VR). The data examined in this study consists of video recordings of users playing Rec Room, an online multiplayer game, with HTC Vive head-mounted displays (HMDs). The users participating in the recording sessions were predominantly non-native English speakers with no prior immersive VR experience. The participants played the game in six groups of two. The participants were given minimal guidance to facilitate naturally occurring interactions within the virtual environment. Sequences of interest identified in the recorded footage were transcribed for the purpose of analysis. Conversation analysis was applied as the research methodology, while drawing upon past studies regarding the phenomenon of breakdowns in human-computer interaction and repair in interaction. Breakdowns were categorized into game-related and device-related breakdowns during the analysis process. The examined game-related breakdowns were connected to unclear game mechanics and difficulties of avatar interactions, while the examined device-related breakdowns were connected to difficulties with the participants’ HMDs and controllers. Breakdowns related to the game were found to be mildly disruptive to an ongoing interaction, with the participants managing to overcome them either by themselves or with the help of other users within VR. Breakdowns related to the VR devices proved more difficult for the participants to resolve, often requiring assistance not from other VR users, but from the observers of the recording sessions. Device-related issues could also be far more disruptive for the participants, leading to removing a user from the game entirely or forcing a premature end to a recording session at their most severe. A lack of information available to the participants was a recurring factor across both game-related and device-related breakdowns. Possible solutions to providing users with more information regarding both game mechanics and the status of their HMD and controllers were discussed.Tiivistelmä. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee käyttöhäiriöitä ongelmalähteinä yhteisläsnäolevissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa immersiivisessä virtuaalitodellisuudessa. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltu aineisto koostuu videonauhoituksista käyttäjistä pelaamassa Rec Room -verkkomoninpeliä HTC Vive virtuaalitodellisuuslaseja käyttäen. Nauhoitussessioihin osallistuneet käyttäjät olivat pääsääntöisesti ei-natiiveja englannin puhujia ilman aiempaa kokemusta immersiivisestä virtuaalitodellisuudesta. Osallistujat pelasivat peliä kuudessa kahden hengen ryhmässä. Osallistujia ohjeistettiin mahdollisimman vähän luontaisten interaktioiden helpottamiseksi virtuaaliympäristössä. Aineistosta tunnistetut kiinnostavat sekvenssit litteroitiin analyysiä varten. Tutkimusmetodina sovellettiin konversaatioanalyysiä, hyödyntäen myös aiempia tutkimuksia liittyen käyttöhäiriöihin ihmisen ja tietokoneen vuorovaikutuksessa sekä korjausilmiöihin vuorovaikutuksessa. Käyttöhäiriöt luokiteltiin peliin liittyviin ja laitteisiin littyviin käyttöhäiriöihin analyysiprosessin aikana. Tarkastellut peliin liittyvät käyttähäiriöt liittyivät epäselviin pelimekaniikkoihin sekä hankaluuksiin roolihahmojen vuorovaikutuksessa, kun taas tarkastellut laitteisiin liittyvät käyttöhäiriöt liittyivät hankaluuksiin osallistujien virtuaalilasien ja peliohjaimien kanssa. Peliin liittyneet käyttöhäiriöt häiritsivät vuorovaikutustilanteita lievästi, ja osallistujat pystyivät selviytymään tilanteesta joko yksin tai muiden virtuaalitodellisuudessa olevien käyttäjien avulla. Käyttöhäiriöt jotka liittyivät virtuaalitodellisuuslaitteisiin osoittautuivat osallistujille haastavammiksi selvittää, ja he tarvitsivat usein apua nauhoitussessioiden tarkkailijoilta muiden virtuaalitodellisuudessa olevien käyttäjien sijaan. Laitteisiin liittyvät ongelmat osoittautuivat myös huomattavasti häiritsevämmiksi osallistujille, vakavimmissa tapauksissa johtaen käyttäjän poistumiseen pelistä kokonaan tai nauhoitussession ennenaikaiseen loppuun. Osallistujille tarjolla olleen tiedon puute oli toistuva tekijä sekä peliin että laitteisiin liittyvissä käyttöhäiriöissä. Mahdollisia ratkaisuja pelimekaniikkoihin ja käyttäjien virtuaalilasien sekä peliohjaimien tilaan liittyvän tiedon tarjoamiselle tarkasteltiin

Learning 21st century science in context with mobile technologies

The paper describes a project to support personal inquiry learning with handheld and desktop technology between formal and informal settings. It presents a trial of the technology and learning across a school classroom, sports hall, and library. The main aim of the study was to incorporate inquiry learning activities within an extended school science environment in order to investigate opportunities for technological mediations and to extract initial recommendations for the design of mobile technology to link inquiry learning across different contexts. A critical incident analysis was carried out to identify learning breakdowns and breakthroughs that led to design implications. The main findings are the opportunities that a combination of mobile and fixed technology bring to: manage the formation of groups, display live visualisations of student and teacher data on a shared screen to facilitate motivation and personal relevance, incorporate broader technical support, provide context-specific guidance on the sequence, reasons and aims of learning activities, offer opportunities to micro-sites for reflection and learning in the field, to explicitly support appropriation of data within inquiry and show the relation between specific activities and the general inquiry process

Investigating Multimodal Communication in Virtual Meetings: The Sharing of Dynamic Representations

To manage distributed work, organizations increasingly rely on virtual meetings based on multimodal, synchronous communication technologies. However, despite technological advances, it is still challenging to coordinate knowledge through these meetings with spatial and cultural separation. Against this backdrop, we present a framework for investigating the sharing of dynamic representations of co-created knowledge during such meetings. We illustrate the detailed workings of the framework by analyzing how three software managers coordinated a project over a series of virtual meetings. Grounded in audio recordings of their oral exchanges and video recordings of their shared dynamic representation of the project’s status and plans, our analysis shows how their interrelating of visual and verbal communication acts enabled effective communication and coordination. In conclusion, we offer theoretical propositions that explain how interrelating of verbal and visual acts based on shared dynamic representations enable communication repairs during virtual meetings. We argue that our proposed framework provides researchers with a novel and practical approach to investigate the complex data involved in virtual meetings based on multimodal, synchronous communication

Using pattern languages in participatory design

In this paper, we examine the contribution that pattern languages could make to user participation in the design of interactive systems, and we report on our experiences of using pattern languages in this way. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of patterns and pattern languages in the design of interactive systems. Pattern languages were originally developed by the architect, Christopher Alexander, both as a way of understanding the nature of building designs that promote a ‘humane’ or living built environment; and as a practical tool to aid in participatory design of buildings. Our experience suggests that pattern languages do have considerable potential to support participatory design in HCI, but that many pragmatic issues remain to be resolved.</p

Using Pattern Languages in Participatory Design

In this paper, we examine the contribution that pattern languages could make to user participation in the design of interactive systems, and we report on our experiences of using pattern languages in this way. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of patterns and pattern languages in the design of interactive systems. Pattern languages were originally developed by the architect, Christopher Alexander, both as a way of understanding the nature of building designs that promote a ‘humane’ or living built environment; and as a practical tool to aid in participatory design of buildings. Our experience suggests that pattern languages do have considerable potential to support participatory design in HCI, but that many pragmatic issues remain to be resolved

Conversations—and negotiated interaction—in text and voice chat rooms

Despite the expanded use of the Internet for language learning and practice, little attention if any has been given to the quality of interaction among English L2 speakers in conversational text or voice chat rooms. This study explored the patterns of repair moves in synchronous non-native speaker (NNS) text chat rooms in comparison to voice chat rooms on the Internet. The following questions were posed: (a) Which types of repair moves occur in text and voice chats; and (b) what are the differences, if any, between the repair moves in text chats and voice chats when time is held constant? Repair moves made by anonymous NNSs in 10, 5-minute, synchronous chat room sessions (5 text-chat sessions, 5 voice-chat sessions) were counted and analyzed using chi-square with alpha set at .05. Significant differences were found between the higher number of total repair moves made in voice chats and the smaller number in text chats. Qualitative data analysis showed that repair work in voice chats was often pronunciation-related. The study includes discussion that may affect teachers' and learners' considerations of the value of NNS chat room interaction for second language development

The Efficacy of the Student Communication Repair Inventory and Practical Training Program on Adolescent’s Self-Advocacy Skills in Communication Breakdowns

Purpose Hearing loss can affect several aspects of an adolescent’s life, particularly their self-advocacy skills and ability to communicate their needs in the classroom. Literature shows that adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years have a prevalence of hearing loss between 14.9 percent and 19.5 percent (Shargorodsky et al., 2010). Therefore, early identification and intervention of hearing loss are necessary to reduce the adverse effects on the development of cognition, verbal communication skills, and self-advocacy skills (Michael & Zidan, 2018). This research study aimed to determine if the implementation of the SCRIPT program changes the communication repair behavior in adolescents as measured by the LIFE-R student and teacher appraisals and the SAID teacher checklist. Method A single case study method was utilized for six adolescents throughout this study to gather detailed information on the communication repair behavior as the SCRIPT program was implemented. Using a pre-and post-test research design, researchers gathered data on five of the adolescents’ self-advocacy skills and communication repair strategies used in listening situations in the classroom. The SCRIPT program was implemented in-person and remotely in a counterbalanced format to teach self-advocacy and communication repair skills through the study. The participant’s language samples were transcribed verbatim using CLAN and coded using CLAN’s frequency function to minimize errors in the results. Results between the pre-and post-test measures were compared and interpreted. Results Regarding the LIFE-R teacher appraisals, the scores were inconsistent in improvement after implementing the SCRIPT program. The LIFE-R student appraisal scores rarely improved over the study. Regarding the SAID teacher checklist, four students showed improvement with more assertive communication styles, independent functions with their HATs, and communication repair strategies during communication breakdowns. According to the language samples, each student improved using repair strategies, particularly repetition and nonverbal strategies. Conclusion The research results provide valuable insight into the outcome of SCRIPT intervention in adolescents. Researchers predicted that the adolescent’s self-advocacy development and communication repair behavior would improve with the SCRIPT implementation, and the results indicated some increase in self-advocacy skills among the participants and an improvement in utilization of communication repair strategies