Enhancing Creativity in Interaction Design: Alternative Design Brief

This paper offers a critique of the design brief as it is currently used in teaching interaction design and proposes an alternative way of developing it. Such a design brief requires the exploration of alternative application domains for an already developed technology. The paper presents a case study where such a novel type of design brief has been offered to the students taking part in a collaborative design project and discusses how it supported divergent thinking and creativity as well as helped enhancing the learning objectives

The social network virtual design studio : integrated design learning using blended learning environments

Online communications, multimedia, mobile computing and face-to-face learning create blended learning environments to which some Virtual Design Studios (VDS) have reacted to. Social Networks (SN), as instruments for communication, have provided a potentially fruitful operative base for VDS. These technologies transfer communication, leadership, democratic interaction, teamwork, social engagement and responsibility away from the design tutors to the participants. The implementation of Social Network VDS (SNVDS) moved the VDS beyond its conventional realm and enabled students to develop architectural design that is embedded into a community of learners and expertise both online and offline. Problem-based learning (PBL) becomes an iterative and reflexive process facilitating deep learning. The paper discusses details of the SNVDS, its pedagogical implications to PBL, and presents how the SNVDS is successful in enabling architectural students to collaborate and communicate design proposals that integrate a variety of skills, deep learning, knowledge and construction with a rich learning experience

PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION: THE VALUE OF MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION FOR THE STUDIO ART EDUCATOR

This thesis explores the strong support for collaboration in schools’ while synthesizing literature already conducted on the subject. The primary objectives of this thesis is to discuss possible scenarios as to why educators are not collaborating, explore characteristics and implementations of collaboration with three specific groups including colleagues, stakeholders, and practicing professionals, and identify four key benefits of collaboration which include improved health, pedagogy, autonomy, and time. Evidence supports the idea that teachers who work in isolation can hinder growth within their profession. Additional evidence provides conclusive evidence that supports the benefits of collaboration by adding responsibilities to key contributors by holding them accountable for student learning

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Classtalk: A Classroom Communication System for Active Learning

This pdf file is an article describing the advantages of using Classtalk technology in the classroom to enhance classroom communication. Classtalk technology cab facilitate the presentation of questions for small group work, collec the student answers and then display histograms showing how the class answered. This new communication technology can help instructors create a more interactive, student centered classroom, especially when teaching large courses. The article describes Classtalk as a very useful tool not only for engaging students in active learning, but also for enhancing the overall communication within the classroom. This article is a selection from the electronic Journal for Computing in Higher Education. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

The impact of STEM experiences on student self-efficacy in computational thinking

Citation: Weese, J. L., Feldhausen, R., & Bean, N. H. (2016). The impact of STEM experiences on student self-efficacy in computational thinking.Since the introduction of new curriculum standards at K-12 schools, computational thinking has become a major research area. Creating and delivering content to enhance these skills, as well as evaluation, remain open problems. This paper describes two different interventions based on the Scratch programming language which aim to improve student self-efficacy in computer science and computational thinking. The two interventions were applied at a STEM outreach program for 5th-9th grade students. Previous experience in STEM related activities and subjects, as well as student self-efficacy, were collected using a developed pre- and post-survey. We discuss the impact of our intervention on student performance and confidence, and evaluate the validity of our instrument. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2016

Dance of the bulrushes: building conversations between social creatures

The interactive installation is in vogue. Interaction design and physical installations are accepted fixtures of modern life, and with these technology-driven installations beginning to exert influence on modes of mass communication and general expectations for user experiences, it seems appropriate to explore the variety of interactions that exist. This paper surveys a number of successful projects with a critical eye toward assessing the type of communication and/or conversation generated between interactive installations and human participants. Moreover, this exploration seeks to identify whether specific tactics and/or technologies are particularly suited to engendering layers of dialogue or ‘conversations’ within interactive physical computing installations. It is asserted that thoughtful designs incorporating self-organizational abilities can foster rich dialogues in which participants and the installation collaboratively generate value in the interaction. To test this hypothesis an interactive installation was designed and deployed in locations in and around London. Details of the physical objects and employed technologies are discussed, and results of the installation sessions are shown to corroborate the key tenets of this argument in addition to highlighting other concerns that are specifically relevant to the broad topic of interactive design

A case study on online design workshop experience: gamification and space

Design schools consist of three main axes; courses that provide knowledge in various fields of design, studio courses and internships. Besides, the indisputable fact is the importance of design competitions and informal workshops that feed the designer candidate to gain experience in different fields of the discipline. In addition, another importance of informal workshops is the contribution of researchers in this field to the development of design education. The effects and potentials of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are also another area of research on design education, in particular design studio courses. The use of ICTs in the field of design education has led gamification to come to the fore as an ascending concept. A series of methodologies and tools have been developed, such as gamification, as well as the different kinds of Virtual Learning Environments to ensure the motivation of students and avoid the lack of attention in online courses. In this study, an online workshop, "Gamification and Space", is investigated as a case study. The contribution of the concept of gamification to design education has been evaluated in line with the observations and experiences gained. The data was gathered from the workshop presentations held on the last day and the final manuscripts of the workshops. The collected data was analyzed by the workshop coordination team, and classifications were made regarding the aspects of the gamification used during the workshop. In addition, it is aimed to discuss the potentials of ICTs in design courses. The observations show that the use of gamified elements has the potential to enrich instructional methods, especially when we consider online education, virtual learning environments and visual collaboration tools.Publisher's Versio

From software engineering to courseware engineering

Proceedings of: 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 10-13 April 2016, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesThe appearance of MOOCs has contributed to the use of educational technology in new contexts. As a consequence, many teachers face the challenge of creating educational content (courseware) to be offered in MOOCs. Although some best practices exist, it is true that most of the content is being developed without much thought about adequacy, reusability, maintainability, composability, etc. The main thesis at this paper is that we are facing a "courseware crisis" in the same way as there was a "software crisis" 50 years ago, and that the way out is to identify good engineering discipline to aid in the development of courseware. We need Courseware Engineering in the same way as at those times we needed Software Engineering. Therefore, the challenge is now to define and develop fundamentals, tools, and methods of Courseware Engineering, as an analogy to the fundamentals, tools, and methods that were developed in Software Engineering.The eMadrid Excellence Network is being funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715. This work also received partial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and from the European Erasmus+ projects MOOC-Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD). The first author would like to acknowledge fruitful discussions with Martin Wirsing and his group from LMU München during his research stay at this university with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport