Remembering today tomorrow: exploring the human-centred design of digital mementos

This paper describes two-part research exploring the context for and human-centred design of ‘digital mementos’, as an example of technology for reflection on personal experience(in this case, autobiographical memories). Field studies into families’ use of physical and digital objects for remembering provided a rich understanding of associated user needs and human values, and suggested properties for ‘digital mementos’ such as being ‘not like work’, discoverable and fun. In a subsequent design study, artefacts were devised to express these features and develop the understanding of needs and values further via discussion with groups of potential ‘users’. ‘Critical artefacts’(the products of Critical Design)were used to enable participants to envisage broader possibilities for social practices and applications of technology in the context of personal remembering, and thus to engage in the design of novel devices and systems relevant to their lives. Reflection was a common theme in the work, being what the digital mementos were designed to afford and the mechanism by which the design activity progressed. Ideas for digital mementos formed the output of this research and expressed the designer’s and researcher’s understanding of participants’ practices and needs, and the human values that underlie them and, in doing so, suggest devices and systems that go beyond usability to support a broader conception of human activity

Mobilizing The Open University: case studies in strategic mobile development

This paper presents an overview of many activities undertaken in the Mobile Learner Support project area in The Open University (OU). Please note that while many of the project strands involve strategic development that is embedded in the OU’s institution-wide teaching and learning systems, some of the data and findings we hope will be of use to others undertaking work in related areas. In addition to the core work in implementing a Mobile VLE and associated resources, an overview of related mobile audio eAssessment and eBook format development project strands are given, leading to development of a blend of web application software and native or client applications. The OU delivers significant proportions of online content and collaboration as part of its supported open learning distance education model to over 200,000 part-time students at any given time. In particular, over the past 4 years, adapting open source technologies for around 600 course websites has delivered the requirement to support course activities for up to 4,700 students per course cohort with a corresponding 250 variations of a single course to provide online tutorial spaces. The OU has also throughout its history adapted to increasingly flexible and personalised modes of delivering and interacting with multimedia and audiovisual content as part of a blended approach, most recently aiming to disaggregate content and allow remixing through its open educational resources initiative. For updates on the Mobile Learner Support project, please visit http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/mLear

Sonic souvenirs: exploring the paradoxes of recorded sound for family remembering

Many studies have explored social processes and technologies associated with sharing photos. In contrast, we explore the role of sound as a medium for social reminiscing. We involved 10 families in recording 'sonic souvenirs' of their holidays. They shared and discussed their collections on their return. We compared these sounds with their photo taking activities and reminiscences. Both sounds and pictures triggered active collaborative reminiscing, and attempts to capture iconic representations of events. However sounds differed from photos in that they were more varied, familial and creative. Further, they often expressed the negative or mundane in order to be 'true to life', and were harder to interpret than photos. Finally we saw little use of pure explanatory narrative. We reflect on the relations between sound and family memory and propose new designs on the basis of our findings, to better support the sharing and manipulation of social sounds

The Limited Effect of Graphic Elements in Video and Augmented Reality on Children’s Listening Comprehension

There is currently significant interest in the use of instructional strategies in learning environments thanks to the emergence of new multimedia systems that combine text, audio, graphics and video, such as augmented reality (AR). In this light, this study compares the effectiveness of AR and video for listening comprehension tasks. The sample consisted of thirty-two elementary school students with different reading comprehension. Firstly, the experience, instructions and objectives were introduced to all the students. Next, they were divided into two groups to perform activities—one group performed an activity involving watching an Educational Video Story of the Laika dog and her Space Journey available by mobile devices app Blue Planet Tales, while the other performed an activity involving the use of AR, whose contents of the same history were visualized by means of the app Augment Sales. Once the activities were completed participants answered a comprehension test. Results (p = 0.180) indicate there are no meaningful differences between the lesson format and test performance. But there are differences between the participants of the AR group according to their reading comprehension level. With respect to the time taken to perform the comprehension test, there is no significant difference between the two groups but there is a difference between participants with a high and low level of comprehension. To conclude SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaire was used to establish the measure usability for the AR app on a smartphone. An average score of 77.5 out of 100 was obtained in this questionnaire, which indicates that the app has fairly good user-centered design

Mobile-assisted language learning [Revised and updated version]

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is the use of smartphones and other mobile technologies in language learning, especially in situations where portability and situated learning offer specific advantages. A key attraction of mobile learning is the ubiquity of mobile phones. Typical applications can support learners in reading, listening, speaking and writing in the target language, either individually or in collaboration with one another. Increasingly, MALL applications relate language learning to a person’s physical context when mobile, primarily to provide access to location-specific language material or to enable learners to capture aspects of language use in situ and share it with others. Mobile learning can be formal or informal, and mobile devices may form a bridge connecting in-class and out-of-class learning. When learning takes place outside the classroom, it is often beyond the reach and control of the teacher. This can be perceived as a threat, but it is also an opportunity to revitalize and rethink current approaches to teaching and learning. Mobile learning appeals to a wide range of people for a variety of reasons. It may exclude some learners but it is often a mechanism for inclusion. It is likely that the next generation of mobile learning will be more ubiquitous, which means that there will be smart systems everywhere for digital learning. Mobile learning is proving its potential to address authentic learner needs at the point at which they arise, and to deliver more flexible models of language learning

Temporal hybridity: Mixing live video footage with instant replay in real time

Copyright @ 2010 ACMIn this paper we explore the production of streaming media that involves live and recorded content. To examine this, we report on how the production practices and process are conducted through an empirical study of the production of live television, involving the use of live and non-live media under highly time critical conditions. In explaining how this process is managed both as an individual and collective activity, we develop the concept of temporal hybridity to explain the properties of these kinds of production system and show how temporally separated media are used, understood and coordinated. Our analysis is examined in the light of recent developments in computing technology and we present some design implications to support amateur video production.The research was partly made possible by a grant from the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems to the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Center, in partnership with SonyEricsson, Ericsson, Microsoft Research, Nokia Research, TeliaSonera and the City of Stockholm

Compare multimedia frameworks in mobile platforms

Multimedia feature is currently one of the most important features in mobile devices. Many modern mobile platforms use a centralized software stack to handle multimedia requirements that software stack is called multimedia framework. Multimedia framework belongs to the middleware layer of mobile operating system. It can be considered as a bridge that connects mobile operating system kernel, hardware drivers with UI applications. It supplies high level APIs that offers simple and easy solutions for complicated multimedia tasks to UI application developers. Multimedia Framework also manages and utilizes low lever system software and hardware in an efficient manner. It offers a centralize solution between high level demands and low level system resources. In this M.Sc. thesis project we have studied, analyzed and compared open source GStreamer, Android Stagefright and Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework from several perspectives. Some of the comparison perspectives are architecture, supported use cases, extensibility, implementation language and program language support (bindings), developer support, and legal status aspects. One of the main contributions of this thesis work is that clarifying in details the strength and weaknesses of each framework. Furthermore, the thesis should serve decision-making guidance when on needs to select a multimedia framework for a project. Moreover, and to enhance the impression with the three multimedia frameworks, a basic media player implementation is demonstrated with source code in the thesis.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format