Generating References in Naturalistic Face-to-Face and Phone-Mediated Dialog Settings

During dialog, references are presented, accepted, and potentially reused (depending on their accessibility in memory). Two experiments were conducted to examine reuse in a naturalistic setting (a walk in a familiar environment). In Experiment 1, where the participants interacted face to face, self-presented references and references accepted through verbatim repetition were reused more. Such biases persisted after the end of the interaction. In Experiment 2, where the participants interacted over the phone, reference reuse mainly depended on whether the participant could see the landmarks being referred to, although this bias seemed to be only transient. Consistent with the memory-based approach to dialog, these results shed light on how differences in accessibility in memory (due to how these references were initially added to the common ground or the media used) affect the unfolding of the interaction

A Virtual Conversational Agent for Teens with Autism: Experimental Results and Design Lessons

We present the design of an online social skills development interface for teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The interface is intended to enable private conversation practice anywhere, anytime using a web-browser. Users converse informally with a virtual agent, receiving feedback on nonverbal cues in real-time, and summary feedback. The prototype was developed in consultation with an expert UX designer, two psychologists, and a pediatrician. Using the data from 47 individuals, feedback and dialogue generation were automated using a hidden Markov model and a schema-driven dialogue manager capable of handling multi-topic conversations. We conducted a study with nine high-functioning ASD teenagers. Through a thematic analysis of post-experiment interviews, identified several key design considerations, notably: 1) Users should be fully briefed at the outset about the purpose and limitations of the system, to avoid unrealistic expectations. 2) An interface should incorporate positive acknowledgment of behavior change. 3) Realistic appearance of a virtual agent and responsiveness are important in engaging users. 4) Conversation personalization, for instance in prompting laconic users for more input and reciprocal questions, would help the teenagers engage for longer terms and increase the system's utility

Students’ Experiences of the Social Environment and Social Presence in Campus-Based and Web-Based Education

Learning is a social process involving conversation, dialogue, and interactivity. Student-student, student-instructor, student-content, and student-interface interaction are considered integral to meaningful learning in both campus-based and web-based education (Moore, 1989; Hillman, Willis and Gunawardena, 1994). A review of the literature suggests that social factors are of increasing concern to distance learning researchers and practitioners. In particular, the concept of social presence has emerged as essential to comprehending the social context of web-based teaching and learning and to students’ overall satisfaction with a course. The purpose of the study was to observe and describe the social environment of two sections of Information Sciences 530: Information Access and Retrieval, and to understand students’ experiences with social presence. One of the sections was taught in a web-based distance education format, using asynchronous and synchronous text-based chat and audio-conferencing software. The other section was delivered in a traditional, campus-based setting. Both sections were taught by the same instructor and covered the same material. The study used multiple case study design within the framework of naturalistic qualitative research. Participant-observation, document analysis and interviews were used to obtain as much information as possible about the social environment and students’ interpretations of social presence. Once the data from each case had been carefully examined and themes identified, a cross case analysis was performed to generate more information about the relationship between social presence in campus-based education and social presence in web-based distance education. In both sections the social environment reflected a myriad of characteristics, including the students’ and teacher’s previous educational experiences, values and attitudes, as well as interpersonal and intellectual exchanges between and among students and the instructor. The social atmosphere reflected students sharing knowledge and building relationships over time. Students in the campus-based course assigned meaning to social presence in terms of teaching, learning and connecting with fellow students. Participants in the web-based course experienced social presence as an awareness of fellow students based on their classmates’ ability to use and manipulate the technology and computer-mediated communication tools

Explicit feedback from users attenuates memory biases in human-system dialogue

In human–human dialogue, the way in which a piece of information is added to the partners’ common ground (i.e., presented and accepted) constitutes an important determinant of subsequent dialogue memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether this is also the case in human-system dialogue. An experiment was conducted in which naïve participants and a simulated dialogue system took turns to present references to various landmarks featured on a list. The kind of feedback used to accept these references (verbatim repetition vs. implicit acceptance) was manipulated. The participants then performed a recognition test during which they attempted to identify the references mentioned previously. Self-presented references were recognised better than references presented by the system; however, such presentation bias was attenuated when the initial presentation of these references was followed by verbatim repetition. Implications for the design of automated dialogue systems are discussed

Using Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT model as a lens to understand refugee parent–teacher communication processes

For refugee families, connections between the home and school may function beyond their children’s social and academic success and further allow parents to be involved in their children’s education in the face of cultural and linguistic barriers. However, there are few strategies for refugee parents and teachers to navigate the potential linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers in forming strong communication pathways, and this is especially true for parents and educators supporting preschool aged children. This study utilized Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory and aimed to: a) understand the baseline communication processes occurring between refugee parents and their children’s early childhood teacher; b) explore potential person characteristics and contextual influences that act as barriers and impede communication; c) explore potential person characteristics and contextual influences that act as supports and facilitate communication; and d) investigate the suggested strategies from participating refugee families and the educators supporting them. Participants included ten refugee parents and two preschool teachers. Data were gathered using naturalistic observations and semi-structured interviews with both parents and teachers. Results indicated that unique person characteristics and contextual factors influenced how communication took place and what was communicated about. Findings highlighted the variance among the parents and teachers in communicating due to the complexity of interacting characteristics and contexts. Both parents and teachers proposed strategies to support future communication processes and implications and future directions for research are discussed

Grounding interaction in a CSCL environment

1. Focus and research question The context for the study is the Gene-Ethics Scenario: an ICT-mediated collaborative learning scenario for natural science education involving two geographically distributed junior high schools. This thesis investigates how technology transforms basic features of students’ communication and collaboration in a telelearning scenario. In particular, my objective is to explore students’ grounding interactions when collaborating in the Future Learning Environment (FLE3). The construction of a mutual understanding sufficient for the current purpose (grounding) is considered a basic process in collaborative learning. The research question I ask is: How does the FLE3 knowledge building forum support or constrain grounding interactions? 2. Methodology and data sources When studying grounding processes at the activity level and utterance level I combine a sociocultural perspective with a micro-analytic approach. Relying on multiple sources of evidence, case study serves as a general research strategy. Prior to a more detailed analysis of students’ grounding interactions at the utterance level, the case is described chronologically according to the progressive inquiry model that is the knowledge building platform of the scenario. The principle data sources are electronic logs, video recordings and scenario documents. 3. Conclusions Students’ grounding acts are divided into two distinct situations according to the qualitative nature of their collaborative interaction as co-located (face-to-face) or distributed (on distance). In the co-located situation, students grounding process progressed relatively unrestricted. The study concludes that the text-based asynchronous communication mode of the knowledge building forum constrained important aspects of students’ distributed grounding interaction. Constrains are associated with the additional effort required to complete grounding acts in the knowledge building forum. Grounding repair-sequences were repeatedly initiated, but not followed up properly. Instead of contributing to a joint understanding by providing repairs at the task level, the grounding process was interrupted by comments on a meta-level. On some occasions this resulted in “pre-mature meta-cognition” as the participants moved to a meta-level before mastering the basic categories. Processes of grounding were also constrained by display costs. When collaborating on distance the communication was primarily text-based and non-verbal clues were not observable. Timing of utterances turned out to be problematic and the messages frequently arrived out of sequence. This de-contextualized the meaning and partly constrained grounding interaction. However, the knowledge building forum can serve as a collective memory supporting the construction of a common ground that may last over time. Some unexpected patterns have also emerged. Students adopted a pragmatic approach in their collaboration by using one of the knowledge building categories for short, social and coordinating messages. I have identified this as a form of pragmatic grounding; students built a mutual agreement on how to use the tool in a way that was sufficient for the current purpose, but different from the intentions postulated by the designers of the learning environment

Critical Environmentalism - Towards an Epistemic Framework for Architecture

Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing environmental informants to architectural discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The question gains more significance as our knowledge of the greater environmental domain becomes more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich human particularities in situ. This research focuses on the implications and applications of Critical Environmentalism (CE) to propose a corresponding epistemological framework to wide-ranging socio-environmental complexities occurring across architectural endeavors, primarily within urban and community developments as comprising the greatest number of intersections between human constructions and the greater environmental domain. CE addresses environmental issues reciprocally emerging across numerous disciplines and theoretical stances and fosters critical and systemically collective approaches to knowledge integration, amalgamating multiple stakeholder perspectives within an interconnective and operational goal of creative communal development and betterment of the human condition in relation to environmental concerns. Situating the environment (Umwelt) as an interconnecting catalyst between divergent points-of-views, CE promotes a multi-methodological, co-enabling framework intended to foster increased ethical and participatory dynamics, communal vitality, co-invested attention, and productive interchanges of knowledge that cultivate an overall quality of knowing and being within the intricacies of the greater domain. As such, it engages broader definitions for architecture within its social community, significantly embodied and epistemologically co-substantiating within a shared, environmental life-place. Fundamentally a hermeneutic standpoint, this investigation elucidates conceptual connections and mutual grounds, objectives, and modes-of-operation across knowledge domains, initiating an essential, socio-environmentally oriented framework for architectural endeavors. In this, it brings together common threads within critical social theory and environmentalist discourse to subsequently promote distinct interconnective components within a framework of socio-environmental thought for architecture. The research then provides case examples and recommendations toward stimulating progressive environmental initiatives and thus increased capacity to improve existing epistemic conditions for architecture, urban design, and community development within the broader scope of Critical Environmentalism

Providing lightweight telepresence in mobile communication to enhance collaborative living

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-124).Two decades of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) research has addressed how people work in groups and the role technology plays in the workplace. This body of work has resulted in a myriad of deployed technologies with underlying theories and evaluations. It is our hypothesis that similar technologies, and lessons learned from this domain, can also be employed outside the workplace to help people get on with life. The group in this environment is a special set of people with whom we have day-to-day relationships, people who are willing to share intimate personal information. Therefore we call this computer-supported collaborative living. This thesis describes a personal communicator in the form of a watch, intended to provide a link between family members or intimate friends, providing social awareness and helping them infer what is happening in another space and the remote person's availability for communication. The watch enables the wearers to be always connected via awareness cues, text and voice instant message, or synchronous voice connectivity. Sensors worn with the watch track location (via GPS), acceleration, and speech activity; these are classified and conveyed to the other party, where they appear in iconic form on the watch face, providing a lightweight form of telepresence. When a remote person with whom this information is shared examines it, their face appears on the watch of the person being checked on. A number of design criteria defined for collaborative living systems are illustrated through this device.by Natalia Marmasse.Ph.D

Empowerment Through Voice: A Case Study in the Leadership of Restorative Justice

This qualitative case study identified shared leadership as a necessary component in the sustenance of restorative justice, a reform justice model used at Ada County Juvenile Court Services located in Boise, Idaho. Within each of its divisions, ACJCS utilizes this shared leadership model. At this court, leadership capacity was built though encouraging team members to take initiative and show innovation. Community capacity was built by the creation of networks with other private and county agencies, providing both leadership opportunities and community service hours for offending youth. Shared leadership sustains this reform justice model by allowing leaders to become followers and followers to become leaders. At ACJCS, restorative justice and shared leadership team to create empowerment within the members of the court, within the victim, and within the offender, creating leadership capacity

Gender differences in navigation dialogues with computer systems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Gender is among the most influential of the factors underlying differences in spatial abilities, human communication and interactions with and through computers. Past research has offered important insights into gender differences in navigation and language use. Yet, given the multidimensionality of these domains, many issues remain contentious while others unexplored. Moreover, having been derived from non-interactive, and often artificial, studies, the generalisability of this research to interactive contexts of use, particularly in the practical domain of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), may be problematic. At the same time, little is known about how gender strategies, behaviours and preferences interact with the features of technology in various domains of HCI, including collaborative systems and systems with natural language interfaces. Targeting these knowledge gaps, the thesis aims to address the central question of how gender differences emerge and operate in spatial navigation dialogues with computer systems. To this end, an empirical study is undertaken, in which, mixed-gender and same-gender pairs communicate to complete an urban navigation task, with one of the participants being under the impression that he/she interacts with a robot. Performance and dialogue data were collected using a custom system that supported synchronous navigation and communication between the user and the robot. Based on this empirical data, the thesis describes the key role of the interaction of gender in navigation performance and communication processes, which outweighed the effect of individual gender, moderating gender differences and reversing predicted patterns of performance and language use. This thesis has produced several contributions; theoretical, methodological and practical. From a theoretical perspective, it offers novel findings in gender differences in navigation and communication. The methodological contribution concerns the successful application of dialogue as a naturalistic, and yet experimentally sound, research paradigm to study gender and spatial language. The practical contributions include concrete design guidelines for natural language systems and implications for the development of gender-neutral interfaces in specific domains of HCI