Smart Kitchens for People with Cognitive Impairments: A Qualitative Study of Design Requirements

Individuals with cognitive impairments currently leverage extensive human resources during their transitions from assisted living to independent living. In Western Europe, many government-supported volunteer organizations provide sheltered living facilities; supervised environments in which people with cognitive impairments collaboratively learn daily living skills. In this paper, we describe communal cooking practices in sheltered living facilities and identify opportunities for supporting these with interactive technology to reduce volunteer workload. We conducted two contextual observations of twelve people with cognitive impairments cooking in sheltered living facilities and supplemented this data through interviews with four employees and volunteers who supervise them. Through thematic analysis, we identified four themes to inform design requirements for communal cooking activities: Work organization, community, supervision, and practicalities. Based on these, we present five design implications for assistive systems in kitchens for people with cognitive deficiencies

Dr Geo II: Adding Interactivity Planes in Interactive Dynamic Geometry

International audienceInteractive geometry environments support the creation and exploitation of interactive geometric sketches. However, such environments are often driven in a rigid manner, following a well specified construction path. This rigidity is not always compatible with: i. the internal cognitive representation of the learner about the geometric domain and ii. the way a geometric sketch is used in a paper-pen environment. This rigidity is therefore a source of internal tension for the learner and it can reduce the pedagogical added value of the interactive geometry environments. We think additional interactive planes to manipulate a geometric sketch differently can help the learner. We have developed DR. GEO II, an interactive geometry framework that is able to receive additional interactive planes such as a free sketching and a command-based one. We have experimented it in a junior high school class and we report here our first results

Integrating Human Factors and Semantic Mark-ups in Adaptive Interactive Systems

This paper focuses on incorporating individual differences in cognitive processing and semantic mark-ups in the context of adaptive interactive systems. In particular, a semantic Web-based adaptation framework is proposed that enables Web content providers to enrich content and functionality of Web environments with semantic mark-ups. The Web content is created using a Web authoring tool and is further processed and reconstructed by an adaptation mechanism based on cognitive factors of users. Main aim of this work is to investigate the added value of personalising content and functionality of Web environments based on the unique cognitive characteristics of users. Accordingly, a user study has been conducted that entailed a psychometric-based survey for extracting the users' cognitive characteristics, combined with a real usage scenario of an existing commercial Web environment that was enriched with semantic mark-ups and personalised based on different adaptation effects. The paper provides interesting insights in the design and development of adaptive interactive systems based on cognitive factors and semantic mark-ups

The ecology of interactive learning environments: Situating traditional theory

In educational discourse on human learning (i.e. the result of experience) and development (i.e. the result of maturation), there are three fundamental theoretical frameworks, – behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism, each of which have been applied, with varying degrees of success, in online environments. An ecological framework of human learning and development in interactive learning environments is proposed. Such an inclusive paradigm organizes the fundamental theoretical assumptions of behaviourism (i.e. automated learning), cognitivism (i.e. recall, understanding, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, creativity, problem solving) and constructivism (i.e. private and shared meaning). Based on review of the literature, behaviourism is best conceptualized as a learning theory; constructivist theoretical assumptions are best applied to cognitive development including private online experience (cognitive constructivism) and shared online experience (social constructivism). Cognitivism is a particularly relevant theoretical orientation in understanding both human learning and development in interactive learning environments

De l'importance des plans d'interaction dans la géométrie interactive

International audienceInteractive geometry environments support creation and exploitation of geometric sketches. However, such environments are often driven in a rigid manner, following a well specified construction path. This rigidity is not always compatible with the internal cognitive representation of the learner about the geometric domain. This rigidity is therefore a source of internal tension for the learner and it can reduce the pedagogical added value of these environments. We think addi- tional interactive planes to manipulate a geometric sketch differently can help the learner. We have developed an interactive geometry framework that is able to receive additional interactive planes such as a free sketching and a command-based one. We have experimented it in a junior high school class and we report here our results.Les environnements de géométrie interactive permettent créations et explorations de figures géométriques. Ceux-ci imposent cependant à l'apprenant un formalisme fort lors de la construction d'une figure. Cette rigidité n'est pas toujours compatible avec la représentation cognitive de l'ap- prenant du domaine d'apprentissage. Elle est donc source de tensions internes chez celui-ci et peut réduire la portée pédagogique de ces environnements. Nous pensons que des plans d'interaction supplémentaires pour manipuler différemment une même figure géométrique peuvent aider l'appre- nant. Nous avons ainsi développé un framework de géométrie interactive permettant l'ajout de tels plans puis nous avons expérimenté son utilisation dans une classe de 3e

Investigating the socio-constructivist dimension of online interactions: the case of synchronous audio-graphic conferencing systems

This study explores the quality of interactive patterns in audio-graphic conferencing environments and learners' involvement in interaction. Supporters of this technology claim that online interactions support socio-constructivist language learning. However, the existing literature does not indicate whether the quality of interaction required for realising constructivist principles of learning can affectively be ensured in such environments. The study is based on the Open University's online audio-graphic tuition environment, Lyceum. It investigates the verbal and written interactions of adult Open University students learning French. The data is analysed by different models of analysis pertaining to different socio-constructivist and cognitive models of analysis. The results show that students use high forms of thinking to engage in a cyclical rather than a linear process of knowledge construction. However, there is no evidence that this process is supported by the audio-graphic system itself. The tutor's style and task design play a more important role in supporting the learning process

A discriminative approach to grounded spoken language understanding in interactive robotics

Spoken Language Understanding in Interactive Robotics provides computational models of human-machine communication based on the vocal input. However, robots operate in specific environments and the correct interpretation of the spoken sentences depends on the physical, cognitive and linguistic aspects triggered by the operational environment. Grounded language processing should exploit both the physical constraints of the context as well as knowledge assumptions of the robot. These include the subjective perception of the environment that explicitly affects linguistic reasoning. In this work, a standard linguistic pipeline for semantic parsing is extended toward a form of perceptually informed natural language processing that combines discriminative learning and distributional semantics. Empirical results achieve up to a 40% of relative error reduction