Collaborating around digital tabletops: children’s physical strategies from the UK, India and Finland

We present a study of children collaborating around interactive tabletops in three different countries: the United Kingdom, India and Finland. Our data highlights the key distinctive physical strategies used by children when performing collaborative tasks during this study. Children in the UK tend to prefer static positioning with minimal physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in India employed dynamic positioning with frequent physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in Finland used a mixture of dynamic and static positioning with minimal physical contact and object movement. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding collaboration strategies and behaviours when designing and deploying interactive tabletops in heterogeneous educational environments. We conclude with a discussion on how designers of tabletops for schools can provide opportunities for children in different countries to define and shape their own collaboration strategies for small group learning that take into account their different classroom practices

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

Understanding the relationship between signage and mobile map for indoor wayfinding

Wayfinding, a fundamental task in daily life, becomes more complicated and difficult with greater development of a society. People can become lost and frustrated by being disoriented in complex built environments. This study investigates the effect of combining a physical wayfinding system with a digital device on users\u27 wayfinding performance in a building with architectural complexity. Through exploring the combined use of signage and the Google Indoor Map, the study provides information on their interactivity, effectiveness and reliability for use in a wayfinding system that may increase understanding the design of well-functioning wayfinding systems. Twenty participants ranging widely in age were divided into four groups, which performed under different combination of four variables: existing signage, newly-designed prototype signage, and combination of the Google Indoor Map with the two signage systems. The task was to find three given destinations: Bookends Café, Tier 5 and CELT. When video recordings of the participants\u27 wayfinding behavior during the three tasks were reviewed and the post-survey after the task was analyzed, the limitations of using the Google Indoor Map as an interactive wayfinding aid were revealed and the significant role of physical sign system was reinforced. The study discussed these findings and suggested future directions for the combined use of physical signage systems with digital aids to improve the quality of the wayfinding experience for users

Methodological proposal for the inclusion of citizen participation in the management and planning of urban public spaces

The appropriate planning of Areas of Public Space and Meeting (APSM) plays a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of life for citizens, particularly in developing countries where socio-economic disparities impact social and territorial cohesion. Engaging the local population in decision-making processes through public participation is crucial. This research endeavours to design and implement two geoinformatics tools aimed at streamlining data collection processes, thereby contributing to the democratization of urban planning and management. These tools, known as Field Geoform (FG) and Crowdsourcing Geoform (CG), have been successfully deployed in Comunne #9 of Monteria, Colombia. The collected data is presented systematically and in real-time through a web-based data visualization platform. FG offers a practical and efficient means of characterizing and assessing the physical and conservation status of APSM. On the other hand, CG empowers users of these areas to actively contribute valuable data. The trial to evaluate the functionality of CG confirms that the use of digital crowdsourcing tools, accessible to the community, gathers pertinent data regarding APSM. This mechanism greatly facilitates the efforts of those responsible for the restoration and maintenance of these infrastructures, as well as decision-makers within the realm of urban management

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Young children\u27s collaborative interactions in an educational computer environment

This study investigated the collaborative interaction patterns exhibited by five-year old pre-primary children in an educational computer environment. The case study method was used in one pre-primary centre in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia, to examine the patterns of collaborative interaction among young children whilst engaged with the computer. The one event case study was of the interactions exhibited by pre-primary children whilst engaged, in dyads, with the computer within a naturalistic classroom environment. This study involved three phases of data collection. Phase I consisted of observations and videotaping sessions, compilation of written observations, narrative descriptions and relevant field notes on each participant. To assess the children\u27s current social skills and computer competence and their general social interaction with peers, the researcher interviewed the children and their teacher using a semi-structured interview schedule to guide the discussion. Phase IT comprised reviewing and transcribing the videotapes and coding children\u27s interactions, while Phase III consisted of analysing all the data obtained. Both observational comments and descriptions and data analyses were presented with anecdotes. 243 interactions were identified and classified into 16 interaction patterns. They were: directing partner\u27s actions; self-monitor/repetition; providing information; declarative planning; asking for information/explanation; disagreeing with partner; accepting guidance; terminal response; exclaiming; correcting others; defending competence; showing pleasure; showing displeasure; sharing control; defending control; and suggesting ideas. Frequency of occurrence of identified interactions was analysed in the form of descriptive statistics. Factors facilitating the collaborative interaction of children whilst engaged with the computer activities were found to be: developmental appropriateness of the software; preexisting computer competency between children; children\u27s preexisting positive attitude towards computer; mutual friendship between collaborators; children\u27s social goals; appropriate structure of enjoyable learning environment; mutual understanding of turn-taking system; and positive non-isolated physical settings of the computer environment. Factors inhibiting collaborative interaction were identified as: non-developmentally appropriate software; lack of computer competency between children; negative attitude (on the part of both children and teacher) towards computer and learning; sense of competition between collaborators; social goals of each child; inappropriate structure to promote enjoyable learning environment; no mutual understanding of turn-taking system; and isolate physical settings of the computer environment. Associated with the findings were three major variables: (1) the classroom teacher variable (philosophy and educational beliefs, task-structure and computer management); (2) the software variable (developmentally appropriateness, content, design, and programmed task-structure); and (3) the child variable (computer competency and attitude towards computer, social goals, social skills, and personal relationship with collaborators). By identifying the collaborative interactions of children, and factors that may facilitate or inhibit these interactions, early childhood educators will be in a better position to integrate the computer into their classroom and to promote positive prosocial interaction among children whilst engaged at the computer. In general, findings suggest that computers should be integrated into all early childhood classrooms and afforded the same status as other traditional early childhood learning materials and activities

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse