Digital Finger Painting: A Qualitative Exploration of the Tablet Computer and its Artistic Implications in an Early Childhood Setting

The purpose of this study was to better understand the implications of the tablet computer for learning and, specifically, in the art classroom. A qualitative study was designed following grounded theory measures for data analysis in order to explore timely questions regarding the tablet computer and how young children react to such technology as a drawing tool. An early childhood center was accessed for this research, and 30 children between the ages of three and five years old consented to participate. Four educators and 35 parents were also enlisted in an effort to elicit substantive perspectives regarding the tablet and its artistic potential. Children were observed as they drew on an iPad® tablet and digital drawings created were compared to those made with crayons on paper. Additionally, collaborative art making with the tablet computer was encouraged, and children completed digital drawings in pairs. Semi-structured interviews shed light on what children enjoyed about the tablet computer as well as what they disliked about the technology. Parent and educator perceptions regarding the tablet computer as a learning and drawing tool were gathered through brief survey data and one-on-one interviews. Findings have been detailed through participants’ stories and documented thematically

"It is Not Because You Have Tools that You Must use Them"

International audienceWe conducted a retrospective study on the experimental deployment of a telemedicine toolkit in ten nursing homes. The purpose of the experiment was to see whether the use of these toolkits could allow for better cooperation between nursing homes and the local emergency medical dispatch center to avoid sending costly vehicles and having elderly people unnecessarily discharged at the hospital. We investigated the domestication process of these toolkits by nurses and orderlies from the nursing homes. Our findings show different levels of domestication: for some of the nursing homes, the lack of practical relevance of the toolkit in emergencies and the difficulty to borrow artifacts from doctors prevented complete adoption. For three nursing homes, domestication occurred in an unexpected way in the sense that the objective of the domestication changed. These findings led us to provide recommendations for projects aimed at improving inter-organizational cooperation through artifacts

1.5. Enhancing Archaeological Data Collection and Student Learning with a Mobile Relational Database

In 2011, the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológico Regional Ancash (PIARA) inaugurated an archaeological field school that employed a comprehensive digital data collection protocol. Students learned to record data on iPads using our customized relational databases for excavation, human skeletal analysis, and artifact classification. The databases integrated digital media, such as vector drawings and annotated photos. In a final research project, the students used the tablet system to analyze excavation contexts and artifacts, visualize relationships between the data, conduct literature reviews, and present their findings. This chapter discusses how students develop a greater comprehension of archaeological concepts and stronger research skills when they collect and analyze data using a relational database. More precisely, it argues that the database develops more perceptive archaeologists who can immediately recognize and interpret relationships between archaeological materials, contexts, and features. The technology, then, not only aids in-field planning and interpretation, but also cultivates analytical thinking.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1006/thumbnail.jp

An Ethnographic Study of Everyday Interactions in Innovative Learning Spaces

For the last 10 years universities and colleges in the UK have generated significant investment in designing innovative learning spaces. These spaces have been created to accommodate a student-centered pedagogical approach that is intended to promote formal and informal learning activities, collaboration and socializing by means of flexible technological infrastructure and architectural design. Various assessments have already been realized to investigate the outcomes of this investment and the impact of those spaces on learning. Yet, there is a persevering need to better understand the role of the technological infrastructure and the architectural design in innovative learning spaces as a lived experience by those who use and inhabit them; and to establish whether they are used as anticipated. This work takes up on this challenge and investigates three innovative learning spaces through an ethnographic approach that, following the analytic orientation of Suchman’s situated action, considers and juxtaposes anticipated versus actual use. More specifically, this work addresses the following research questions: • How do people interact with the architectural and technological infrastructure and with each other in innovative learning spaces on an everyday basis? • How do everyday interactions compare with those envisioned by the designers and managers of these spaces? • How do we account for the differences between actual and anticipated use of the spaces? • How can spaces be designed or recover from breakdowns so that actual and anticipated use (re) align? By addressing those questions, the present work contributes to an empirically-grounded understanding of how innovative learning spaces are being used and appropriated compared to the envisioned usage. The analysis reveals tensions between actual and anticipated use, the situated nature of flexible design, as well as the complex and contested processes through which interactions in innovative learning spaces are accomplished, adapted or superseded. The findings suggest a set of critical factors that account for the tensions between desired and actual use of such spaces. Issues of legibility, legitimacy and sense of ownership and appropriation supersede the existing views and guidelines of adaptable design as presented in the current literature and can be used to inform the design and evaluation of innovative learning spaces

Children s Acceptance of a Collaborative Problem Solving Game Based on Physical Versus Digital Learning Spaces

[EN] Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is an essential soft skill that should be fostered from a young age. Research shows that a good way of teaching such skills is through video games; however, the success and viability of this method may be affected by the technological platform used. In this work we propose a gameful approach to train CPS skills in the form of the CPSbot framework and describe a study involving 80 primary school children on user experience and acceptance of a game, Quizbot, using three different technological platforms: two purely digital (tabletop and handheld tablets) and another based on tangible interfaces and physical spaces. The results show that physical spaces proved to be more effective than the screen-based platforms in several ways, as well as being considered more fun and easier to use by the children. Finally, we propose a set of design considerations for future gameful CPS systems based on the observations made during this study.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (project TIN2014-60077-R); Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (with fellowship FPU14/00136) and Conselleria d'Educacio, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) (grant ACIF/2014/214).Jurdi, S.; García Sanjuan, F.; Nácher-Soler, VE.; Jaén Martínez, FJ. (2018). Children s Acceptance of a Collaborative Problem Solving Game Based on Physical Versus Digital Learning Spaces. Interacting with Computers. 30(3):187-206. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwy006S18720630

Co-design of augmented reality textbook for children’s collaborative learning experience in primary schools

Augmented Reality (AR) is a recent technology that allows a seamless composition between virtual objects and the real world. This practice-based research uses the affordances of AR to design an AR textbook for collaborative learning experience. It identifies the key concepts of children s AR textbooks for the designing and evaluation of collaborative learning experiences. These concepts were used to develop a conceptual framework for the AR textbook that considers collaborative experience, learning and usability. Informed by these concepts, the research also has identified the design features which are unique to AR affordances which can be integrated in the school textbooks to develop a collaborative AR textbook for primary school children. The research follows a participatory design approach to involve the users of the AR textbook in the design process. The researcher has conducted three co-design studies involving primary school children and adults using cooperative inquiry techniques. The first study uses low-tech prototyping to find the overall direction of designing the AR textbook. After the development of the first AR textbook prototype, two formative evaluations have been conducted using cooperative inquiry critiquing, and layered elaboration techniques. Throughout these studies, a conceptual framework has been developed namely, Experience, Learn and Use (ELU) for the designing and evaluation of children s AR textbooks for collaborative learning experience. This framework is based on the adaption of Janet Read s Play, Learn, Use (PLU) model that defines children s relationships with the interactive technologies. The research proposes the ELU framework as a useful classification framework in the evaluation process, which informs the design features of the AR textbook which are related to the concepts of collaborative experience, learning and usability. The practical component of the thesis proposes a sample of an AR textbook that is integrated in the regular school curriculum. It demonstrates the design features which can be implemented in other textbooks to support collaborative learning experiences for primary school children. The documentation of the co-design process provides a practical framework for co-designing an AR textbook with children, as well as an evidence of using the ELU framework in practice. 4 This research also contributes in bridging the gap between AR and Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) communities, through the use of common CCI methods in the AR development. This research has resulted in key design principles which contribute original knowledge to the literature of the AR for children s education considering the CCI perspective. These important principles are informed by the collaborative experiences, learning and usability aspects that establish a framework for the design and evaluation of collaborative AR textbook for children. The eight identified principles by this research are, Joint Textbooks, Personalised AR Experience, Interactive AR Book, Communication-Based Learning, Rewarding AR feedback, Audio AR Textbook, Intuitive AR Markers, and Mutual AR Display. The research introduces the definition for each of the concepts and a demonstration of the related design features in the outcome of the AR textbook prototype

Teknologian mahdollistamien kognitiivisten affordanssien mittaaminen : mittarin kehittäminen havainnointityökalusta kyselymittariksi

Tavoitteet. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on kehittää Cognitive Affordances of Technologies Scale (CATS) -mittaria. Mittarin tarkoituksena on löytää oppimisen kognitiivisia affordansseja erilaisista teknologiaa hyödyntävistäoppimisympäristöistä. Sitä käytetään koulutuksen kehit-tämiseen. Tässä tutkielmassaei vertailla eri ryhmiä, vaan kuvataan, millaisia tarjoumia erilai-set oppimisympäristöt tuottavat oppijoille. Teoreettinen viitekehys. Kognitiiviset affordanssit ovat ympäristön tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia eli tarjoumia, joita jokainen tulkitsee omasta perspektiivistään. Sulautetun oppimisen (blended learning) ympäristöt sekä virtuaalitodellisuudetta sisältävät oppimisympäristöt kuuluvat teknologiaa hyödyntäviin ympäristöihin. Aiemmassa tutkimuksessa CATS-mittaria on käytetty ainoastaan havainnointitutkimuksessa, ja se on sisältänyt seitsemän kategoriaa ja 41 kriteeriä. Menetelmät. Neljän eurooppalaisen yliopiston opiskelijat ja yhden suomalaisen yrityksen työntekijät vastasivat muokattuun CATS-kyselyyn. Koko aineistoa (N = 134) hyödynnettiin mittarin kehittämisessä. Mittarin testaamisessa käytettiinmuun muassa faktorianalyysiä. Pääryhmät olivat sulautuvaoppiminen ja virtuaalitodellisuutta sisältävä oppiminen. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Uudessa CATS-mittarissa on kuusi kategoriaa ja 27 kriteeriä. Pääryhmien osallistujat kokivat, että eniten tarjoumia tulitutkimuspohjaisen oppimisen ja vuorovaikutuksellisen oppimisen kategorioista, joten sulautetun oppimisen ympäristö tarjosi sa-manlaisia oppimisen kognitiivisia affrodansseja kuin virtuaalitodellisuutta sisältävä oppimisympäristö. Tulos ei ole täysin yllättävä, koska kirjallisuuden perusteella virtuaalitodellisuus voidaan tulkita osaksi sulautettua oppimista. Tulevaisuudessa oppimisympäristöjen tutkiminen affordansseittain voi selkeyttää eri teknologioiden rooleja oppimisympäristöissä.Purpose. The aim of this thesisis the development of the Cognitive Affordances of Technologies Scale (CATS) instrument. The purpose of the instrument is to is to map different cognitive affordances of learning indifferent technology-enhanced learning environments. The instrument is used to developand improveeducationand learning modules.In this thesis, dif-ferent groups are not compared, but it is explored what different learning environments offer for learning. Theoretical framework. Cognitive affordances are offerings in the environment that everyone interprets from their own perspective. Technology-enhanced environments include blended learning environments and Virtual Reality (VR)-enhanced learning environments. In a previous study building on the CATS instrument, the instrument was only used in an observational study and it contained seven categories and 41 items. Methods. Students from four European universities and employees of one Finnish company filled inthe modified CATS survey. Data collected from all participants (N = 134) were used in the development of the instrument. In testing the instrument, e.g., factor analysiswas applied. The main groups were blended learning and VR-enhanced learning. Findings and conclusions.The new instrument has six categories and 27 items. Participants of the main groups reported having experienced the most affordances in the categories Inquiry-Based Learning and Discourse/Dialogic Learning. Hence, it seems that the blended learning environment afforded similar cognitive affordances of learning as VR-enhanced learning environments. This finding is not entirely surprising, as based on the literature, VR can be interpreted as part of blended learning.In context of educational implementation, exploring the learning environments by affordances could clarify the roles of different technologies in learning environments in future research