New Frontiers of Quantified Self 3: Exploring Understudied Categories of Users

Quantified Self (QS) field needs to start thinking of how situated needs may affect the use of self-tracking technologies. In this workshop we will focus on the idiosyncrasies of specific categories of users

Devices, Information, and People: Abstracting the Internet of Things for End-User Personalization

Nowadays, end users can take advantage of end-user development platforms to personalize the Internet of Things. These platforms typically adopt a vendor-centric abstraction, by letting users to customize each of their smart device and/or online service through different trigger-action rules. Despite the popularity of such an approach, several research challenges in this domain are still underexplored. Which "things" would users personalize, and in which contexts? Are there any other effective abstractions besides the vendor-centric one? Would users adopt different abstractions in different contexts? To answer these questions, we report on the results of a 1-week-long diary study during which 24 participants noted down trigger-action rules arising during their daily activities. Results show that users would adopt multiple abstractions by personalizing devices, information, and people-related behaviors where the individual is at the center of the interaction. We found, in particular, that the adopted abstraction may depend on different factors, ranging from the user profile to the context in which the personalization is introduced. While users are inclined to personalize physical objects in the home, for example, they often go "beyond devices" in the city, where they are more interested in the underlying information. Our findings identify new design opportunities in HCI to improve the relationship between the Internet of Things, personalization paradigms, and users

Personalization of language learning through mobile technologies

This paper aims to help education stakeholders consider how mobile learning can contribute to improving language teaching and learning by facilitating personalized learning. A high-level overview of mobile learning is presented and the role of personalization in mobile learning is explained. A number of case studies illustrate salient aspects of mobile personalized learning from research and practice. In the final section, considerations for policy and practice are discussed

Domino: exploring mobile collaborative software adaptation

Social Proximity Applications (SPAs) are a promising new area for ubicomp software that exploits the everyday changes in the proximity of mobile users. While a number of applications facilitate simple file sharing between co–present users, this paper explores opportunities for recommending and sharing software between users. We describe an architecture that allows the recommendation of new system components from systems with similar histories of use. Software components and usage histories are exchanged between mobile users who are in proximity with each other. We apply this architecture in a mobile strategy game in which players adapt and upgrade their game using components from other players, progressing through the game through sharing tools and history. More broadly, we discuss the general application of this technique as well as the security and privacy challenges to such an approach

HeyTAP: Bridging the Gaps Between Users' Needs and Technology in IF-THEN Rules via Conversation

In the Internet of Things era, users are willing to personalize the joint behavior of their connected entities, i.e., smart devices and online service, by means of IF-THEN rules. Unfortunately, how to make such a personalization effective and appreciated is still largely unknown. On the one hand, contemporary platforms to compose IF-THEN rules adopt representation models that strongly depend on the exploited technologies, thus making end-user personalization a complex task. On the other hand, the usage of technology-independent rules envisioned by recent studies opens up new questions, and the identification of available connected entities able to execute abstract users' needs become crucial. To this end, we present HeyTAP, a conversational and semantic-powered trigger-action programming platform able to map abstract users' needs to executable IF-THEN rules. By interacting with a conversational agent, the user communicates her personalization intentions and preferences. User's inputs, along with contextual and semantic information related to the available connected entities, are then used to recommend a set of IF-THEN rules that satisfies the user's needs. An exploratory study on 8 end users preliminary confirms the effectiveness and the appreciation of the approach, and shows that HeyTAP can successfully guide users from their needs to specific rules

Factors Influencing User’s Attitude to Secondary Information Sharing and Usage

The increasing availability of enormous data about users online, along with availability of sophisticated tools and technology to store, aggregate, and analyze data for secondary use has raised concerns about how to balance the opportunity for secondary use of data with the need to protect the user privacy that may result from harmful use. To develop a privacy protection mechanism that is useful and meets the expectations and needs of the user, it is important to understand user’s attitude to privacy and secondary information sharing and usage of his/her data. While several studies have investigated factors influencing user’s attitude to privacy in primary data collection context, none of the existing studies have provided an understanding of user perception and attitude to privacy in secondary context. To fill this gap, this work has identified five factors that are important in a secondary usage context and carried out a study on their influence on user’s perception with respect to how their data is shared for secondary use. The main contribution of this paper is an understanding of factors influencing user decisions about privacy in secondary context, which can assist both technology designers and policy makers in the development of appropriate privacy protection that meets the needs and expectations of the user.</p

K-12 Mobile learning

Mobile devices have been the focus of a push in many nations and internationally as part of efforts to achieve greater literacy and numeracy among students. Research has shown a strong link between Internet usage, the spread of broadband in a country, and its GDP. Those coun - tries that are the highest performing educationally already integrate mobile devices in their education. This paper synthesizes empirical research on mobile devices from 2010 to 2013 in K-12 schools by focusing on studies that demonstrate emerging themes in this area. It is also clear that the pedagogy needed to be successful in creating positive outcomes in the use of technology has to be student-centered with the aim of personalizing the learning experience. Research found that students could become collaborators in designing their own learning process. As students become independent learners, they become more prepared in the skills needed for college and in their careers