How Ready for HCI? A Qualitative Analysis of the Practice of Soft Skills Related to HCI by Women Involved in the Digital Girls Program Partners Projects

The Digital Girls Program (DGP) partner projects undertake various activities that impact their members’ academic and professional development. In this context, socio-emotional skills or soft skills can be highlighted. This article is an extension of research investigating evidence of soft skills in experiences reported by female students and coordinators participating in DGP partner projects. In the original research, soft skills relevant to Computer Science were investigated. This extension, in turn, explores soft skills specific to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). For data collection, a survey was conducted with DGP partner projects. The data analysis method employed was qualitative analysis, based on coding procedures to identify evidence of soft skills in respondents’ narratives. The actions promoted by partner projects were mapped to characterize the participating projects in the survey. As a result, leadership, professionalism, and communication were identified and are related to Computer Science and HCI. Specifically regarding HCI, evidence of critical thinking, empathy, and collaboration was identified. Thus, it is observed that women participating in partner projects develop soft skills relevant to HCI, which is a positive factor for their involvement in this field

Programa Meninas Digitais – ações para divulgar a Computação para meninas do ensino médio

Há uma preocupação mundial com a diminuição do número de mulheres nas áreas da Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e engenharias. Assim, movimentos tem surgido no intuito de estimular o ingresso de mulheres no ensino superior. Neste sentido, este artigo objetiva relatar o Programa Meninas Digitais da Sociedade Brasileira de Computação, apresentando as estratégias adotadas para implantação deste e de alguns dos projetos que tem sido executados em instituições parceiras. Visa-se, deste modo, ampliar a divulgação do programa e socializar experiências e desafios nesta área

Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review

Computational Thinking (CT) has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but since Wing popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention, more and more research has been conducted on CT in education. The aim of this systematic literary review is to give educators and education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. Overall it was found in this review that, although there is a lot of work currently being done around the world in many different educational contexts, the work relating to CT is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of CT lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing CT into curriculums in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach CT, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is improving. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach CT as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate CT into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more. The need for more detailed lesson plans and curriculum structure however, is something that could be of benefit to teachers

An experience-centred design led examination of the struggle for recognition in dementia care

The experience of advanced dementia has been largely excluded from design work in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), as the experience itself is viewed as ‘unreachable’ in terms of design engagement. This thesis aims to examine the experience of living with dementia in the care home context, with a view to implementing methods of Experience-Centred Design (ECD) to examine the relational and agentic abilities of people with dementia, particularly in advanced dementia. In order to examine the experience of advanced dementia and understand the political and social implications of inclusion of people with advanced dementia in design, this thesis draws on the social theory of recognition, a theory which emphasises the need for mutual engagement as a means of developing and sustaining a self-identity. Used as the basis of a design framework, this theory suggests a series of sensibilities for design in this context, which are presented in chapter 2. This framework informs the empirical design work presented in chapters 4, 5 and 6 to examine the needs for reciprocity through design in dementia care, paying particular attention to the ways of engaging with the experience of advanced dementia. The initial ethnography, presented in chapter 4, focuses on the nature of communication, care and participation with people with advanced dementia, with a view to informing recognition-based design work. Findings suggest ways to further support moments of recognition in care and design, such as embodied communication, challenges in recognising the needs of people with advanced dementia and reconfiguring the role of people with advanced dementia in design. Informed by the findings of the ethnography, and with a view to increasing moments of recognition through design, intergenerational design work with student volunteers and residents in care is presented in chapter 5. Discussed are two case studies; Life Story Box and History Club. In these design projects, students worked with residents to explore their personhood and engaged in the co-design of artefacts which represented the individual and collective life story of the people with dementia. Findings suggest how best to support students and people with dementia in the design process, as well as some of the ethical implications of supporting co-design in this context. The final study culminated in the design and evaluation of ‘Printer Pals’, a receipt-based media producing technology to increase access to media and encourage social engagement in the care home setting. This iterative design process involved prototype development, evaluation and implementation in collaboration with researchers from Open Lab, Newcastle University. Findings discuss the use of design processes to support agency in care homes, and the role of technology in creating opportunities for positive social engagement and cohesion. This empirical design work, informed by the theory of recognition and methods of ECD, proposes an approach to designing with and for people with advanced dementia that supports and engages in their agentic social presence. Design work in this context presents an opportunity to position the person with advanced dementia as active in the dialogical process of meaning-making, as well as their own care practices. Reconfiguring the role of people with advanced dementia in relational and social processes, requires careful re-visiting of cultural and social notions of agency and mutuality, and how they have failed to consider the abilities of people with advanced dementia. Design has a central role to play in supporting these abilities, encouraging creative and meaningful care practices in order to honour the needs and rights of the person with dementia to shape a meaningful and connected lived experience

The Use of Cooperative Groups in Learning How to Use New Software Programs

Many teachers lament the fact that they often need to spend too much classroom time training students how to use a particular software program before their students can use it effectively as a tool to complete other course work. Also, after completing the training process, too many students still have not mastered the basics of how to use the program effectively. The purpose of this research was to increase understanding of how the use of cooperative groups during new software training affects both the mastery of the basics of program use, as well as the amount of time needed to learn the basics. The students in the study were high school sophomores learning to use the dynamic geometry program, The Geometer\u27s Sketchpad. These students were divided into three groups. Each student in the control group worked independently of one another through training materials at separate computers. The students in the other two groups worked through the training materials in cooperative pairs. In one experimental group, each pair shared a single computer and in the other experimental group each student of the cooperative pair had access to a separate computer. After completing the training sessions, each student in the study worked independently through an assessment activity. The results of the research study indicated that the use of cooperative pairs while learning to use a new software program had a statistically significant effect on the amount of time needed by the students to learn the basics of using the software program. The research also revealed that the way in which the cooperative pairs shared computers made a difference. Students who went through the training process utilizing cooperative pairs with one computer per pair used significantly less time to complete the training tutorials than students who trained in cooperative pairs with a separate computer for each student. The study also indicates that the training method used, whether individual or some form of cooperative pairs, had little or no effect on the mastery of the basics of program use. The researcher mentions several limitations of the study which may have contributed to the similarity of results observed between training methods, including the lack of difficulty of the materials being learned, the validity of the post-assessment activities used, and the small sample sizes of the groups. It is suggested that more research in the area of using cooperative pairs during the training process needs to be completed before schools drastically change their current training formats. The one noted exception to this is that schools that currently make use of cooperative pairs during the training process may find it advantageous to have the two students in each pair share a single computer. The suggestion is made that additional research should be carried out with larger sample sizes and should concentrate on two groups, a control group, with one computer per student working through the training materials independently, and an experimental group in which students work in cooperative pairs with a single computer for each pair

Studies and a model of appropriation of information and communication technologies in university students’ everyday life

This thesis investigated the appropriation of information and communication technologies in everyday life among university students and mature people. To that end, pertinent literature was reviewed resulting in the identification of three issues in need of a more careful appraisal by the HCI field. These issues were used as the research questions propelling this work; they include the identification of elements favouring the process of appropriation; the effect of a changing context on this process; and the co-existence of seemingly overlapping ICTs in people’s lives. A qualitative methodology was utilised in the studies reported in this thesis. Ethnographic work was conducted over a period of three months with fifteen masters students at the University of Glasgow in the UK. Further ethnographic work over a shorter time frame was conducted abroad among university students at Hokkaido University in Japan, Ajou University in South Korea and Nankai University in China. Additional ethnographic work was conducted among mature people in a religious community in Mexico. Qualitative data gathered was analysed using Grounded Theory and Structuration Theory. Two are the main contributions of this work. First, a number of insights providing some answers to the research questions posited in this thesis. These answers were advanced as a complement and expansion to issues previously identified in the literature as relevant in the process of appropriation. Because of the ecological perspective underlying this thesis, these answers were presented as technology-neutral and yet useful to understand how the appropriation of technology is induced and sustained, what the impact of a changing environment in the process of appropriation is, and how similar technologies with overlapping features can thrive in the same environment. The second contribution of this work was a three-layered model of appropriation of ICTs built from the identification of common patterns across the studies conducted. This model sought to detail the role of several intersecting large-scale social processes or structures (i.e., governments, various-sized private and state-owned organisations, the media, families and peers, as well as marketing practices, technical infrastructures and architectural spaces) that provide the resources and restrictions upon which the process of appropiation of digital technology rests. This framework was advanced as a simple tool to aid HCI researchers in the collection, analysis and reporting of qualitative data around the process of appropriation as shaped by the pervasive social structures of contemporary society. The limitations of the ethnographic work here reported, as well as those of the ensuing conclusions, are identified and used to suggest some avenues of future exploration around the appropriation of ICTs in daily life

School leaders and the implementation of education management information systems (EMIS) in the Bahamas: a case study of six principals

The tension between the leadership of technology and technology as a means of school improvement are still issues of debate. Researchers have argued that education management technology has yet to make a significant contribution to school improvement, while others have experienced small pockets of success. This study seeks to contribute to the debate by exploring the tension associated with the implementation of an education management information system (EMIS) in The Bahamas from the experiences of school leaders. More specifically, this thesis explores EMIS from the understanding of six principals in their schools and its contributions to their schools. This study develops a social constructivist view and relies on the case study approach. Among the major findings of the study was that EMIS was often perceived by principals to be associated with conflict and the primary uses of the technology were for generating report cards, facilitating school administrative tasks and monitoring. Principals’ expressed concern for the lack of support from senior management and the impact of using the technology on their role as leader. As conflicts hindered the implementation of EMIS, principals adopted a shared leadership approach. This study offers pertinent information concerning the reasons why EMIS is underutilized and the important contributions of leadership to the successful implementation of the technology. Such information can be useful for understanding EMIS in education organizations