Mobile Learning Content Authoring Tools (MLCATs): A Systematic Review

Mobile learning is currently receiving a lot of attention within the education arena, particularly within electronic learning. This is attributed to the increasing mobile penetration rates and the subsequent increases in university student enrolments. Mobile Learning environments are supported by a number of crucial services such as content creation which require an authoring tool. The last decade or so has witnessed increased attention to tools for authoring mobile learning content for education. This can be seen from the vast number of conference and journal publications devoted to the topic. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to review works that were published, suggest a new classification framework and explore each of the classification features. This paper is based on a systematic review of mobile learning content authoring tools (MLCATs) from 2000 to 2009. The framework is developed based on a number of dimensions such as system type, development context, Tools and Technologies used, tool availability, ICTD relation, support for standards, learning style support, media supported and tool purpose. This paper provides a means for researchers to extract assertions and several important lessons for the choice and implementation of MLCATs

Eyes-Off Physically Grounded Mobile Interaction

This thesis explores the possibilities, challenges and future scope for eyes-off, physically grounded mobile interaction. We argue that for interactions with digital content in physical spaces, our focus should not be constantly and solely on the device we are using, but fused with an experience of the places themselves, and the people who inhabit them. Through the design, development and evaluation of a series ofnovel prototypes we show the benefits of a more eyes-off mobile interaction style.Consequently, we are able to outline several important design recommendations for future devices in this area.The four key contributing chapters of this thesis each investigate separate elements within this design space. We begin by evaluating the need for screen-primary feedback during content discovery, showing how a more exploratory experience can be supported via a less-visual interaction style. We then demonstrate how tactilefeedback can improve the experience and the accuracy of the approach. In our novel tactile hierarchy design we add a further layer of haptic interaction, and show how people can be supported in finding and filtering content types, eyes-off. We then turn to explore interactions that shape the ways people interact with aphysical space. Our novel group and solo navigation prototypes use haptic feedbackfor a new approach to pedestrian navigation. We demonstrate how variations inthis feedback can support exploration, giving users autonomy in their navigationbehaviour, but with an underlying reassurance that they will reach the goal.Our final contributing chapter turns to consider how these advanced interactionsmight be provided for people who do not have the expensive mobile devices that areusually required. We extend an existing telephone-based information service to support remote back-of-device inputs on low-end mobiles. We conclude by establishingthe current boundaries of these techniques, and suggesting where their usage couldlead in the future

XPL the Extensible Presentation Language

The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in the development of web interfaces enabling both multiple ways to access contents and, at the same time, fruition by multiple modalities of interaction (point-and-click, contents reading, voice commands, gestures, etc.). In this paper we describe a framework aimed at streamlining the design process of multi-channel, multimodal interfaces enabling full reuse of software components. This framework is called the eXtensible Presentation architecture and Language (XPL), a presentation language based on design pattern paradigm that keeps separated the presentation layer from the underlying programming logic. The language supplies a methodology to expedite multimodal interface development and to reduce the effort to implement interfaces for multiple access devices, by means of using the same code. This paper describes a methodology approach based on Visual Design Pattern (ViDP) and Verbal Design Pattern (VeDP), offering examples of multimodal and multichannel interfaces created with the XPL Editor

Design implications for mobile user interfaces of Internet services

Internet services are becoming essential in people's daily lives. In addition to accessing them on a PC, Internet services offer functionality and content that are also relevant for mobile use. At the same time, mobile devices of today are technologically sophisticated enabling online access anytime, anywhere. The remaining challenge is to utilize the capabilities of a mobile device in a way that offers people a positive user experience when they are using Internet services on the go. This Thesis belongs to the area of Human-Computer Interaction focusing on the use of Internet services on a mobile device. It considers the limitations of a mobile device in terms of user interface design and its goal is to define design implications that assist in designing mobile user interfaces for Internet services. The design implications mainly aim to give guidance on how to design a mobile Web browser, but they are completed with research findings on designing a mobile client application for an Internet service. The research was implemented through user needs studies, user interface design, and user evaluations. The research studies focused on two approaches that support the use of Internet services on mobile devices: the Minimap Web browser and the Image Exchange mobile client application presented these two approaches. The resulting design implications suggest that the following aspects should be considered when designing mobile user interfaces for Internet services: content optimization, utilization of desktop and mobile usage patterns, full exploitation of device capabilities, compensation for device resources, and content updating. The possible differences in characteristics of a mobile Web browser and a mobile client application are also examined. Finally, this Thesis discusses the latest developments that enable alternative ways to support Internet services on mobile devices in the future

DemYouth: Co-Designing and Enacting Tools to Support Young People’s Engagement with People with Dementia

There is a growing body of research examining the role of technology in supporting the care of—and relationships surrounding—people with dementia, yet little attention has been given to how this relates to younger family members. We conducted a qualitative study based on a series of 6 codesign workshops conducted with 14 young people who had personal experience with dementia. Initially, our workshops focused on understanding the difficulties that young people face when engaging, interacting and being with people with dementia. Initial analysis of workshop data informed the design of three digital tool concepts that were used as the basis for user enactment workshops. Our findings highlight the young people's desire to be more involved in their family discussions around dementia and a need for them to find new ways to connect with their loved ones with dementia. We offer a set of design considerations for future systems that support these needs and reflect on some of the complexities we faced around engaging young people in this difficult topic of discussion

Personalized Recommendation of PoIs to People with Autism

The suggestion of Points of Interest to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) challenges recommender systems research because these users' perception of places is influenced by idiosyncratic sensory aversions which can mine their experience by causing stress and anxiety. Therefore, managing individual preferences is not enough to provide these people with suitable recommendations. In order to address this issue, we propose a Top-N recommendation model that combines the user's idiosyncratic aversions with her/his preferences in a personalized way to suggest the most compatible and likable Points of Interest for her/him. We are interested in finding a user-specific balance of compatibility and interest within a recommendation model that integrates heterogeneous evaluation criteria to appropriately take these aspects into account. We tested our model on both ASD and "neurotypical" people. The evaluation results show that, on both groups, our model outperforms in accuracy and ranking capability the recommender systems based on item compatibility, on user preferences, or which integrate these two aspects by means of a uniform evaluation model

Plan on the move : mobile participation in urban planning state-of-the-art and future potential

Citizen participation in urban planning has been a topic of academic and practical interest since the 1960s. The adoption of information and communication technologies for civic participation, electronic participation, impacts how citizens and urban planners interact. Within the field of electronic participation, mobile participation is a rather recent chapter. The proliferation of mobile technologies enables both novel forms of participation and the embeddedness of these technologies into existing practices of participation. This dissertation contains five studies exploring how emerging practices of mobile participation are changing citizen participation in urban planning. Each of the five studies describes a facet of mobile participation, beginning with an overview of participatory planning apps in use; exploring next how citizens develop apps themselves; turning then to the theoretical basis of mobile participation grounded in previous theories of participation and the digital divide; covering further the actual usage of the Täsä urban planning app; and finally, discussing self-organized community planning using mobile technologies. The results provide an overview of the specific features enhancing democratic urban planning, asses who develops mobile apps and with what intentions, and contrasts the circumstances conducive to inclusiveness in mobile participation. Mobile phones are ubiquitous and possess a combination of unique affordances such as situated engagement and participatory sensing, enabling rich, real-time data collection and experimentation. These features resonate with early adopters who, in order to affect change, need to be embedded in the institutional civic participation setting. For citizens, mobile technologies have diversified the roles of participation, so that citizens can choose between being informed, contributing ideas, or developing applications. Finally, the apps developed with open data are the result of negotiations between developers’ agency and open data availability. Overall, this dissertation suggests that mobile participation is socially constructed in as far as the features and practices implemented are subject to a host of stakeholder interests. To this end, mobile participation is conceptualized as maximum allowed deviation: it affords new practices that reshape citizen participation while being part of established forms of civic participation.Kansalaisten osallistuminen kaupunkisuunnitteluun on kiinnostanut sekä tiedeyhteisöä että suunnittelijoita jo 1960-luvulta lähtien. Informaatio- ja kommunikaatioteknologian omaksuminen sekä sähköinen osallistuminen ovat vaikuttaneet siihen, miten kaupunkilaiset ja suunnittelijat ovat vuorovaikutuksessa toisiinsa. Mobiiliosallistuminen on uusi sähköisen osallistumisen ilmiö. Mobiililaitteiden nopea leviäminen sekä mahdollistaa uusia osallistumismuotoja että sulautuu jo olemassa oleviin käytäntöihin niitä muuntaen. Tämä väitöskirja koostuu viidestä artikkelista, joissa tutkitaan miten mobiiliosallistuminen muuttaa kansalaisten osallistumista kaupunkisuunniteluun. Osatutkimukset tarkastelevat mobiiliosallistumista eri näkökulmista. Ensimmäiseksi on kartoitettu millaisia kaupunkisuunnitteluun ja kaupunkien hallintaan osallistavia sovelluksia maailmassa oli käytössä vuoteen 2015 mennessä. Toiseksi on tutkittu, miten kansalaiset osallistuvat itse sovelluksien kehittämiseen avoimen datan kilpailuissa. Kolmanneksi on tutkittu edellytyksiä mobiiliosallistumiselle, perustaen tarkastelu sosiaalisiin ja poliittisiin osallistumisteorioihin sekä digitaalisen kuilun ylittämistä koskeviin tutkimuksiin. Neljännessä osatutkimuksessa esitellään Turussa 2015 toteutetun mobiiliosallistumisen kokeilun (Täsä) tuloksia ja viidennessä käsitellään mobiiliteknologian käyttöä kaupunkilaisten itse-organisoituvassa osallistumisessa. Tulokset kertovat miten teknologiset ominaisuudet muuttavat osallistuvaa kaupunkisuunnittelua, mikä ja mitkä tahot vaikuttavat sovellusten kehittämiseen avoimella datalla, ja millä ehdoilla mobiililaitteiden avulla voidaan saavuttaa laaja osallistuminen. Mobiililaitteet ovat jo nyt ihmisten mukana kaikkialla. Niiden ominaisuudet mahdollistavat osallistumisen paikan päällä (situated engagement) ja osallistumisen sensoridatan keräämiseen (participatory sensing) ja siten uusiin ja aiempaa monipuolisempiin käyttäjä- ja paikkalähtöisiin analyyseihin. Tämä ominaisuudet ovat olleet houkuttelevia aikaisille omaksujille. Institutionaalista tukea kuitenkin tarvitaan, että uuden teknologian mahdollisuudet voidaan tehdä tutuksi laajalle yleisölle. Mobiiliosallistuminen on myös monipuolistanut osallistumisrooleja: sen avulla kansalaiset voivat aiempaan helpommin valita mitä informaatiota saavat, esittää omia ideoitaan ja kehittää omia sovelluksia.Avoimen datan kilpailuissa kehitetyt sovellukset ovat kompromissi kehittäjien tavoitteiden ja käytössä olevan datan välillä. Kokonaisuudessaan väitöskirja esittää, että mobiiliosallistuminen on sosiaalisesti rakentunutta, siinä määrin kuin sen ominaisuudet ja käytännöt määrittyvät eri tahojen intressien yhteensovittamisessa. Tämän vuoksi mobiiliosallistuminen käsitteellistyy ”suurimmaks sallituksi poikkeamaksi”: se mahdollistaa uusia käytäntöjä jotka muokkaavat kansalaisten osallistumista samalla kun ne ovat jo osa vakiintunutta kansalaisten osallistumista

How to do words with emojis: Visual replacement or emphasis of terms on WhatsApp

En este trabajo se estudia un uso muy peculiar de los emojis en la aplicación WhatsApp: la sustitución o reproducción de un término por medio de su representación visual. A través de un procedimiento cualitativo, se analiza un corpus de mensajes de WhatsApp, identificando regularidades tanto en el uso de los emojis para sustituir o enfatizar palabras, como los posibles mecanismos de trasposición visual. Los emojis pueden reemplazar o repetir visualmente sustantivos, verbos, adjetivos, interjecciones y expresiones más complejas. A falta de un emoji específico, los usuarios recurren a aproximaciones en general metonímicas al término buscado o a referencias al imaginario colectivo. También se observa que los emojis reproducen estereotipos y sesgos presentes en nuestra sociedad.This paper studies a very particular use of emojis on WhatsApp: the substitution or reproduction of a term by means of its visual representation. Using a qualitative approach, a corpus of WhatsApp messages is analyzed, identifying regularities in the use of emojis to replace or emphasize words, and the po ssible mechanisms of visual transposition. Emojis can supplant or visually repeat nouns, verbs, adjectives, interjections and more complex expressions. When lacking a specific emoji, users employ metonymy to offer a rough visual representation of the term sought or make reference to social imaginary. The paper also shows that emojis may reproduce stereotypes and biases of our society