Using Mobile Technology to Engage Middle School Students in the Scientific Practice of Argumentation via Screencasting

This case study examined the use of mobile devices in supporting data collection and argumentation in the sixth grade science classroom. Mobile devices were used for data collection during laboratory activities and for constructing screencasts of science arguments. Findings revealed that students exhibit little planning when collecting digital data. Students used the digital data to add visual interest to their screencasts, support observations, and support inferences. Students who used the screencasting application’s narration and annotating tools were more likely to create appropriate and sufficient science arguments than their peers. One of the low achieving students in this study was able to create a sophisticated scientific argument through the use of annotation and narration, indicating the potential for screencasting as a viable alternative for struggling students to convey their conceptual understanding of scientific principles. Both students and the classroom teacher viewed the use mobile devices for creating screencasts of scientific arguments to be valuable. Other findings included that some students avoided narrating their screencast out of anxiety and that workflow issues arose due to the sharing of iPads

huSync : a model and system for the measure of synchronization in small groups : a case study on musical joint action

Human communication entails subtle non-verbal modes of expression, which can be analyzed quantitatively using computational approaches and thus support human sciences. In this paper we present huSync, a computational framework and system that utilizes trajectory information extracted using pose estimation algorithms from video sequences to quantify synchronization between individuals in small groups. The system is exploited to study interpersonal coordination in musical ensembles. Musicians communicate with each other through sounds and gestures, providing nonverbal cues that regulate interpersonal coordination. huSync was applied to recordings of concert performances by a professional instrumental ensemble playing two musical pieces. We examined effects of different aspects of musical structure (texture and phrase position) on interpersonal synchronization, which was quantified by computing phase locking values of head motion for all possible within-group pairs. Results indicate that interpersonal coupling was stronger for polyphonic textures (ambiguous leadership) than homophonic textures (clear melodic leader), and this difference was greater in early portions of phrases than endings (where coordination demands are highest). Results were cross-validated against an analysis of audio features, showing links between phase locking values and event density. This research produced a system, huSync, that can quantify synchronization in small groups and is sensitive to dynamic modulations of interpersonal coupling related to ambiguity in leadership and coordination demands, in standard video recordings of naturalistic human group interaction. huSync enabled a better understanding of the relationship between interpersonal coupling and musical structure, thus enhancing collaborations between human and computer scientists

Bridging the empathy gap: Effects of brief mindfulness training on helping outgroup members in need

Witnessing others in need can be felt similarly to experiencing it oneself (empathy) and motivates assistance of those in need (prosocial action). It is well-documented that empathy can occur automatically, but when those in need are not members of a social ingroup, empathy and prosocial action are undermined. One major ingroup—outgroup division in American and in other countries is based on race. Although most condemn racial discrimination, empathy and prosocial action are often lower, however unintentionally, in interracial contexts. In light of this empathy gap, it is important to identify psychological factors that could bolster empathy and prosocial action toward racial outgroup members in need. This dissertation asked whether mindfulness training – cultivating present-centered, receptive attention to one’s ongoing experiences –increases social sensitivity toward racial outgroup members, and is based on pilot research indicating that a brief mindfulness induction increased empathy and prosocial action in such contexts. Healthy, self-identifying White women were randomized to either a brief (4-day) mindfulness training or a structurally-equivalent sham mindfulness training. Pre-post electroencephalographic measures of empathy toward video stimuli of outgroup members expressing sadness was assessed via prefrontal alpha frequency oscillations (i.e., frontal alpha asymmetry). Pre-post scenario-based spontaneous prosocial action toward Black individuals in need, and pre-post 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of empathy and prosocial action toward Black individuals (and other races) were conducted. Mindfulness training was expected to increase EEG- and EMA-based empathy toward Black individuals in need, as well as increase prosocial action toward such individuals in scenario and daily life (EMA) contexts. Opposite of what was hypothesized, MT reduced post-intervention empathic simulation, relative to ST, as measured by frontal alpha asymmetry. Consistent with hypotheses, however, MT increased empathic concern for outgroup members expressing sadness during video stimuli observation, and increased post-intervention scenario-based prosocial action. However, the hypothesis that MT would predict increases in pre- to post-intervention daily EMA-based prosocial action was not supported. Providing somewhat convergent evidence, trait mindfulness predicted more frequent pre-intervention scenario-based and daily prosocial action toward outgroup members; trait mindfulness was not related to pre-intervention video-based EEG and self-reported empathy outcomes. Together these results suggest that mindfulness can enhance some indicators or empathy and prosocial behavior in interracial contexts. Mechanisms and implications of the findings are discussed

A quantified past : fieldwork and design for remembering a data-driven life

PhD ThesisA ‘data-driven life’ has become an established feature of present and future technological visions. Smart homes, smart cities, an Internet of Things, and particularly the Quantified Self movement are all premised on the pervasive datafication of many aspects of everyday life. This thesis interrogates the human experience of such a data-driven life, by conceptualising, investigating, and speculating about these personal informatics tools as new technologies of memory. With respect to existing discourses in Human-Computer Interaction, Memory Studies and Critical Data Studies, I argue that the prevalence of quantified data and metrics is creating fundamentally new and distinct records of everyday life: a quantified past. To address this, I first conduct qualitative, and idiographic fieldwork – with long-term self-trackers, and subsequently with users of ‘smart journals’ – to investigate how this data-driven record mediates the experience of remembering. Further, I undertake a speculative and design-led inquiry to explore context of a ’quantified wedding’. Adopting a context where remembering is centrally valued, this Research through Design project demonstrates opportunities and develops considerations for the design of data-driven tools for remembering. Crucially, while speculative, this project maintains a central focus on individual experience, and introduces an innovative methodological approach ‘Speculative Enactments’ for engaging participants meaningfully in speculative inquiry. The outcomes of this conceptual, empirical and speculative inquiry are multiple. I present, and interpret, a variety of rich descriptions of existing and anticipated practices of remembering with data. Introducing six experiential qualities of data, and reflecting on how data requires selectivity and construction to meaningfully account for one’s life, I argue for the design of ‘Documentary Informatics’. This perspective fundamentally reimagines the roles and possibilities for personal informatics tools; it looks beyond the current present-focused and goal-oriented paradigm of a data-driven life, to propose a more poetic orientation to recording one’s life with quantified data

Seeing the World Differently. An Exploration of a Professional Development Model Bridging Science and Lay Cultures

This study explores the rationale, efficacy, and social validity of a professional development model designed to move elementary school science activities closer to the practices of working scientists as required by the United States’ “Next Generation Science Standards.” The model is culturally sensitive and aims to create experiences with high subjective task value. The formal theory of change uses scaffolding, Piagetian agency, and Vygotskian learning opportunities to argue that culturally familiar representational tasks in culturally natural intersubjective contexts can lead to work prototypical of scientific modeling under particular facilitation conditions: when participants (a) are allowed free use of their cognitive and culturally native tools; (b) work in open dialog amongst themselves and with a science cultural adept; (c) work in groups in contexts that represent cultural aspects of science work; (d) are pressed to follow some of the epistemic and ontological imperatives of working science; and (e) maintain their agency in resolving cognitive conflict. The study implemented the model with fidelity as a professional development workshop around exploring physics with simple, everyday materials over two afternoons with a small group of elementary-school teachers in southern Appalachia. Analysis indicates that participants engaged in representational tasks with little off-task behavior, exhibited all of the targeted modeling behaviors, felt all components were inherently interesting and useful, and rated the workshop highly as professional development in science teaching but lower as coherent with local evaluation standards. Data on outcome-expectancy beliefs were largely inconclusive but may suggest that the workshop caused teachers to doubt their current ability to teach science to their students. The workshop model provided “cultural modeling” and access to participants’ “funds of knowledge,” created a “third space,” and attended to intrinsic task interest as recommended in the National Research Councils’ How People Learn II. Overall, the study endorses using genuine dialog around teachers’ descriptions and explanations of the physical world to bridge native cultural norms and behaviors with science practices

Enabling Context-Awareness in Mobile Systems via Multi-Modal Sensing

<p>The inclusion of rich sensors on modern smartphones has changed mobile phones from simple communication devices to powerful human-centric sensing platforms. Similar trends are influencing other personal gadgets such as the tablets, cameras, and wearable devices like the Google glass. Together, these sensors can provide</p><p>a high-resolution view of the user's context, ranging from simple information like locations and activities, to high-level inferences about the users' intention, behavior, and social interactions. Understanding such context can help solving existing system-side</p><p>challenges and eventually enable a new world of real-life applications. </p><p>In this thesis, we propose to learn human behavior via multi-modal sensing. The intuition is that human behaviors leave footprints on different sensing dimensions - visual, acoustic, motion and in cyber space. By collaboratively analyzing these footprints, the system can obtain valuable insights about the user. We show that the</p><p>analysis results can lead to a series of applications including capturing life-logging videos, tagging user-generated photos and enabling new ways for human-object interactions. Moreover, the same intuition may potentially be applied to enhance existing</p><p>system-side functionalities - offloading, prefetching and compression.</p>Dissertatio