Understanding the Implications of Ubiquitous Mobile Technology for Mature Adults in Post-PC Era Lifelong Learning

Handheld mobile devices open up opportunities and challenges for adult learning in today’s information-rich and technology-abundant world. Some scholars have argued that mature adult learners, most of whom are pre-1982 generations, take up and make use of mobile devices differently from the youth. This qualitative study examines and juxtaposes the lived experiences, opinions, and suggestions from a mature adult sample and a young adult sample in regards to their adoption and use of ubiquitous computing technologies including the tablet. The research findings suggest a coexistence of commonalities and variances within each age group and between the two groups. The tablet technology is perceived by the mature adult sample to be usable and useful, albeit a few technical limits. Still, this device maintains a low to moderate visibility in the learning activities undertaken by the mature adult learners, which can be partially explained by the mature adults’ reserved acceptance of emerging technologies, instant information and online social networking. Social, cultural and technical factors are found to have stronger influences than age on the mature adults’ selective and rationalized use of the tablet technology. By attaching more importance to the mature adults as well as learning from their experiences, insight and judgment, the academy, the industry and the society as a whole can expect more socially aware and more socially responsible technologies, which will, in return, significantly benefit the adult learners in their mobile learning initiatives

Mobile text entry behaviour in lab and in-the-wild studies : is it different?

Text entry in smartphones remains a critical element of mobile HCI. It has been widely studied in lab settings, using primarily transcription tasks, and to a far lesser extent through in-the-wild (field) experiments. So far it remains unknown how well user behaviour during lab transcription tasks approximates real use. In this paper, we present a study that provides evidence that lab text entry behaviour is clearly distinguishable from real world use. Using machine learning techniques, we show that it is possible to accurately identify the type of study in which text entry sessions took place. The implications of our findings relate to the design of future studies in text entry, aiming to support input with virtual smartphone keyboards

The Effect of Device When Using Smartphones and Computers to Answer Multiple-Choice and Open-Response Questions in Distance Education

Traditionally in higher education, online courses have been designed for computer users. However, the advent of mobile learning (m-learning) and the proliferation of smartphones have created two challenges for online students and instructional designers. First, instruction designed for a larger computer screen often loses its effectiveness when displayed on a smaller smartphone screen. Second, requiring students to write remains a hallmark of higher education, but miniature keyboards might restrict how thoroughly smartphone users respond to open- response test questions. The present study addressed both challenges by featuring m-learning’s greatest strength (multimedia) and by investigating its greatest weakness (text input). The purpose of the current study was to extend previous research associated with m- learning. The first goal was to determine the effect of device (computer vs. smartphone) on performance when answering multiple-choice and open-response questions. The second goal was to determine whether computers and smartphones would receive significantly different usability ratings when used by participants to answer multiple-choice and open-response questions. The construct of usability was defined as a composite score based on ratings of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. This comparative study used a between-subjects, posttest, experimental design. The study randomly assigned 70 adults to either the computer treatment group or the smartphone treatment group. Both treatment groups received the same narrated multimedia lesson on how a solar cell works. Participants accessed the lesson using either their personal computers (computer treatment group) or their personal smartphones (smartphone treatment group) at the time and location of their choice. After viewing the multimedia lesson, all participants answered the same multiple-choice and open-response posttest questions. In the current study, computer users and smartphone users had no significant difference in their scores on multiple-choice recall questions. On open-response questions, smartphone users performed better than predicted, which resulted in no significant difference between scores of the two treatment groups. Regarding usability, participants gave computers and smartphones high usability ratings when answering multiple-choice items. However, for answering open-response items, smartphones received significantly lower usability ratings than computers

Intergenerational interpretation of the Internet of Things

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research

Developing a Public Transportation Application for the Elderly

The purpose of this study was to develop a public transportation application, to assess the prevalence of public transportation among older adults in Turku and to describe the conditions and physical functions these older adults. A prototype application for older adults was developed and tested. Data gathered from Turku healthcare study consisting of 75-year-old participants was used to assess prevalence and conditions of the passengers. This data shows that most older adults in Turku use public transportation and their health status is good. Good health status, female gender, and not using a car turned out to be significant factors increasing the possibility for older adults to use public transportation. The testing of the prototype seems to indicate that current public transportation application used in Turku does not manage as well as the prototype. Prototype’s minimalistic design with vertically structured interface and clear page titles seems to function better compared to the official application’s design. Test group brought up that their reasons to not use public transportation applications are caused by the perceived complexity of technology and the lack of perceived usefulness which led to frustration

Baby Boomers and Technology: Factors and Challenges in Utilizing Mobile Devices

This exploratory dissertation study reports an investigation of Baby Boomers utilizing mobile technology to determine how Baby Boomers were utilizing mobile devices and if there were any types of challenges and affecting factors some Baby Boomers could face when searching for information in an online mobile environment. Fifty Baby Boomer participants were recruited by a purposive snowball sampling method and were divided into two groups, twenty-five Younger Boomers and twenty-five Older Boomers to look for comparisons and differences among the Baby Boomers in regards to mobile technology usage, search activities, environmental context, frequency and duration of search activities, as well as the factors and challenges they could encounter while using a mobile device since the age range spans nineteen years. The study was designed to answer two research questions: How are Baby Boomers utilizing a mobile device to search for information in terms of the mobile device types, the environmental contexts and the types of information searched?; and What are the challenges concerning Baby Boomers utilizing a mobile device in searching for information and their affecting factors? This exploratory dissertation study used a qualitative methods approach based in grounded theory to analyze the data. Participants were given a choice of using print or electronic instruments to participate in the study. Multiple collection methods were used to gather the data, consisting of a questionnaire and solicited diaries that were kept for a period of seven days with follow-up interviews given to all participants. The grounded theory approach created a coding schema of ten types of challenges representing five major categories and twenty-three affecting factors. The comparison and interpretation of the search activities, the types of challenges and the affecting factors led to the development of the Baby Boomer Mobile Device Information Searching Model. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications that include system design and library services have been discussed providing suggestions to system designers, researchers and information professionals within and outside the Library and Information Science field

A framework to achieve mobile business success

Num contexto de sociedade que continua a evoluir cada vez mais rápido, é apenas natural que o comércio acompanhe. Note-se a evolução etimológica que acompanha a palavra inglesa para negócio: business; e-business, m-business. A Internet trouxe um grande leque de possibilidades de sucesso para as organizações, empreendedores, equipas de gestão e consumidores. Em paralelo com a facilidade de acesso que esta nova cultura trouxe, nasce também uma nova personalidade associada aos consumidores, uma personalidade mais exigente. As possibilidades infinitas da Internet faz com que, para empreendedores e equipas de gestão, o estudo de mercado tenha de ser constante. Por isso mesmo, hoje, quais são os fatores chave de sucesso para o m-business? Quais são os fatores mais importantes na mente da amostra considerada neste estudo da comunidade online? Será que esses fatores estão correlacionados? E como? Quais são os fatores a que se deve prestar atenção? Os resultados mostram que há um conjunto de funcionalidades que se agrupam em três fatores principais: “confiança no negócio em si”; serviço ao cliente”; “trabalho de desenvolvimento web”. São ainda apresentadas diferentes correlações entre as variáveis, a ter em conta aquando da entrada no m-business.Following in the footsteps of society’s rapid evolution, business is undergoing a dramatic transformation of its own: from business, to e-business and now, mobile business. The Internet has brought forth a new and broad possibility of success to organizations, business owners, management teams and consumers. Furthermore, the accessibility to information has also created an increasing amount of consumers who are more informed and enlightened, and demand accountability and integrity. The infinite possibilities of the Internet for business entrepreneurs and management teams require more frequent studies for this market. The emerging questions are: what are really the key factors for the success of mobile business? What are the most important factors to a studied sample from the online community? Are any of those factors correlated, and if so, how? What factors should business pay close attention to? The results show that there are three main factors grouping the different features of mobile business and apps: trust for the business itself, costumer care, and web development work. Furthermore, different correlations are presented between the variables, which are essential to consider when entering m-business

Universal Communication model and evaluation with the Elderly Society

Telecommunication uses today various devices, operating systems, network technologies and applications. The multiplicity and diversity of these items are expected to increase due to the development of new technologies. As a result communication becomes a challenge. Communication is according to the World Health Organization a basic requirement for participation of elderly people in the society. In this thesis the architecture model ¿Universal Communication Model¿ (UCM) for the unified application of these items is developed and investigated. The future society will merely be 60+ and lowered physical abilities for communication need to be compensated. Two hypotheses that represent challenges of the UCM are provided and investigated: First, ¿Elderlies have difficulties in stress and ad-hoc situations to cope with ICT solutions¿ (H 1), and second ¿Elderlies have problems to reach destinations¿ (H 2). Both hypotheses are divided into sub-hypotheses without and with UCM support. Two use cases are applied to the UCM: Elderly father at home called by his daughter from her car, and disoriented grandma walking to her appointment at the medical clinic using the public transportation system. The two use cases are detailed with scenarios and corresponding prototypes. 24 tasks for elderly probands are developed and executed in a laboratory setting with 30 elderlies (including a questionnaire): Half of the tasks, namely twelve, are designed without the UCM and the other half with the application of the UCM. The time measurements to solve the tasks are evaluated using two statistical methods: The Euclidean distance and the Kullback-Leibler divergence of the measured data distributions and the corresponding Gaussian distributions are computed. The experiments demonstrate that the task execution durations were reduced by a factor of up to six due to the application of the UCM (compared to the situation without UCM). And the (qualitative) satisfaction factor of the probands increased by a factor of up to four for all tasks due to the seamless and multimodal UCM. These results show that the UCM supports communication for the elderly society in a seamless and intuitive way.Ingeniería, Industria y Construcció

Screen Time, How Much is Too Much? The Social and Emotional Costs of Technology on the Adolescent Brain

Screen time no longer means just the amount of time one spends in front of the television. Now it is an aggregate amount of time spent on smartphones, computers as well as multitasking with different devices. How much are the glowing rectangles taking away from adolescent social and emotional health? How is it changing how students learn and how they communicate with the world? How much is too much? The purpose of this study is to determine whether the 1-1 student-to-iPad pilot at an affluent public school in the greater San Francisco Bay Area is helping students succeed in their education and critical thinking skills or if it is hindering their progress and attention span. Whether adding technology at school is allowing students to be more connected, or if they feel forced to use technology. How is the additional technology affecting their brains? How is it affecting their social and emotional wellbeing? Students from a local high school in two small learning communities (SLC) were given iPads as part of a pilot program within the New Tech Network. Two general education art classes were given a survey to find the emotional and social factors of this added technology in their lives. Of the forty-one students surveyed, thirty-one were part of the iPad pilot programs. Nine teachers both within the SLCs and without were interviewed about their technology use in the classroom as well as their opinions on the effects of technology on adolescents outside of the classroom. One school counselor was also interviewed. The findings indicated that all students surveyed have access to the Internet and only one student of the forty-one students surveyed does not own a cell phone. All students who own a cell phone send and receive texts. Students are constantly using some form of technology in and outside of the classroom, whether for schoolwork or to stay in touch with friends. All students are using some form of technology within two hours of going to bed. Texting is rampant in all classrooms. Many of the teachers interviewed agreed that there is an epidemic of anxiety and depression as well as an addiction to texting. Students are less connected to their peers and teachers because of technology. Four out of five iPad Pilot teachers are using the iPads 50-75% of class time, that’s an additional two or more hours of screen time per day, and at least six hours more of screen time per week in school. All teachers know students use their various devices in and outside of class in addition to the added class work on those devices