Mobile Assisted Language Learning: What's up with Whatsapp

Mobile phones are viewed as significant aids to English language learning. Numerous studies have been conducted in different contexts on mobile assisted language learning (MALL) that indicate the benefits of mobile devices for English language learning. During the recent technological years, language learning has been attempted to transform its path from the conventional methods to instrumental applications. Mobile phone provides people to reach and exchange information through chats (WhatsApp). With the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices nowadays, especially smartphones, it is only natural for educators to turn to mobile technology to examine how it can be fully integrated in an educational context to support students’ learning beyond the classroom. This study attempts to solve the lack of communicative learning opportunities by introducing mobile-assisted language learning with Whatsapp. In addition, it tries to investigates the perceptions of students towards the use of Whatsapp as a tool for develop their English writing skill. To achieve the result, a sample of 50 sophomores from the Department of English Education of STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung, aged 18 to 20 years old. The results suggest that mobile-assisted language learning helps to create language immersion, which effectively motivates the learners further. Therefore, mobile-assisted language learning is promising in English learning for college students

PENGUJIAN USABILITY ANTARMUKA APLIKASI BRAILLE SMART PADA SISWA TU¬NANETRA

The visually impaired is is a person who can not use his eyes as the primary senses to obtain information on the environment (Nawawi, 2010).  Visual impairment in a person, causing the visually impaired will have limitations. The limitations are as follows: (1) obtain information and new experiences, (2) interaction with the environment, and (3) mobility. The development of communication technology, especially on a handheld cell phone that starts with a keypad, developed into a flat-screen smartphone makes it difficult to use by the visually impaired. B-SMART application comes with the concept of Virtual Braille Keyboard,  application of the concept of Braille as navigation and input so that the blind people can use the touch screen smartphone. This study aims to evaluate the application of B-SMART by measuring the level of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction of the B-SMART mobile applications. The method of analysis in this study using Cognitive Walkthrough  combined with Quistionairre for User Interface Satisfaction (Quis). The test results showed the effectiveness of B-SMART application amounted to 85.0%, the efficiency level is 42.7% and the satisfaction of respondents was 77.1%. The results show that there is a problem faced by respondents when using the application to complete the task scenario seen from the effectiveness of 85% and an efficiency of 42.7%. The test results are discussed in the Focus Group Discussion and used as the basis of the recommendations on the improvement of the interface of B-SMART.Keywords : Visually impaired, Mobile Application, User interface, Usability, Cognitive Walkthroug

Mobile Instant Messaging Apps: Usability Evaluation on iOS and Android Platforms and Recommendations for Developers

With the current growth in the use of smartphone devices, and the large amount of Mobile Instant Messaging applications available in the markets, this co-occurrence makes it highly valuable to evaluate the usability of this kind of applications in order to provide more satisfying user experiences. Within this paper, a systematic usability evaluation of Mobile Instant Messaging applications is presented, which will be applied to both iOS and Android platforms. Based on the results, it is suggested that this type of mobile applications present serious problems in performing tasks, poor user interfaces and lack of information about privacy and security features. Likewise, along with the results, this paper presents a list of usability recommendations to help developers improve their Instant Messaging applications

Usability evaluation method for mobile learning application using agile: A systematic review

The use of mobile phones for academic purpose has been on the rise in recent years.Most m-learning applications have been proved that they did not undergo usability evaluation while a few of the application underwent reliable usability evaluations.This paper reviews previous research that has been carried out to evaluate the usability of m-learning applications and how this approach could be integrated into the Agile development process in a bid to make a more effective and usable m-learning application. We focus on previous works that has been done in both, mobile application usability and integration of agile approaches for Usability evaluation.The incorporation of agile development processes and the usability evaluation of m-learning applications has produced a significant impact.This is seen as more m-learning applications are done in the sprints with the usability evaluation preceding it and following the development process which makes the applications more usable and user friendly

Analisis Kemampuan Menulis Siswa Dalam Menggunakan Whatsapp

ABSTRACT The objectives of this research are: (1) Whether or not the use of WhatsApp can improve students’ writing ability at the second grade students of SMA 12 Makassar and (2)to find out whether or not the students are interested in the use of WhatsApp in writing descriptive text. The research applied quasi experimental design. The subject of the research was the second grade students of SMA Negeri 12 Makassar.The data collected were the students’ writing achievement through test (pretest and posttest) and this research was designed into two groups, experimental and control group, each group consisted of 30 students.The results of the data analysis showed that the mean score of the experimental group in post test was 652667, while the mean score of control group was 55.4000. It means that mean score of the experimental group was higher than of the control group. Besides, the t-test analysis for the students’ score in experimental and control groups revealed that p value or sig (2 tailed) was less than (ɑ) = 0.05, which was 000< 0.05. Therefore, H1 was accepted and H0 was rejected. Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the use of WhatsApp in teaching descriptive writing was effective to improve the students’ writing skill.Moreover, the students more pleasure and interested in writing their descriptive text using WhatsApp than other media. Keywords : Writing abilty, Whatsap

Exploring Facebook and Whatsapp As Supporting Social Network Applications For English Learning In Higher Education

Facebook (FB) and Whatsapp (WA) have become the “communication portal” for social networking, which has rapidly transformed the way people communicate. It attempts to shed light on an information-sharing activity conducted via online discussion using FB and WA groups. This study investigated students’ participation in the online discussion and their feedback on the use of FB’sand WA’s groups as the platform for the activity.It explores ten domestic workers’ use of FB and WA as students in their English course at the Open University of Indonesia (UT). Drawing on virtual ethnography this article relies on qualitative data that shows there are potential positive benefits to using FB and WA for teaching and learning, particularly for the development of educational portable-communities. It is concluded that a FB’sand WA’s group has the potential to be used as online tutorial complements. They have pedagogical, social and technological affordances, which allow putting up announcements, sharing ideas and resources, and implementing online discussions. Using a FB’sand WA’s group as an online tutorial complement, however, has certain constraints. Participation of tutors and the role of admin of FB’s and WA’s group are crucial to realize its potential

Investigation of a Novel Formal Model for Mobile User Interface Design

Mobile user interfaces are becoming increasingly complex due to the expanding range of functionalities that they incorporate, which poses significant difficulties in software development. Formal methods are beneficial for highly complex software systems, as they enable the designed behaviour of a mobile user interface (UI) to be modelled and tested for accuracy before implementation. Indeed, assessing the compatibility between the software specification and user requirements and verifying the implementation in relation to the specification are essential procedures in the development process of any type of UI. To ensure that UIs meet users‘ requirements and competences, approaches that are based on interaction between humans and computers employ a variety of methods to address key issues. The development of underlying system functionality and UIs benefit from formal methods as well as from user-interface design specifications. Therefore, both approaches are incorporated into the software development process in this thesis. However, this integration is not an easy task due to the discrepancies between the two approaches. It also includes a method, which can be applied for both simple and complex UI applications. To overcome the issue of integrating both approaches, the thesis proposes a new formal model called the Formal Model of Mobile User Interface Design (FMMUID). This model is devised to characterise the composition of the UI design based on hierarchical structure and a set theory language. To determine its applicability and validity, the FMMUID is implemented in two real-world case studies: the quiz game iPlayCode and the social media application Social Communication (SC). A comparative analysis is undertaken between two case studies, where each case study has three existing applications with similar functionality in terms of structure and numbers of elements, functions and colours. Furthermore, the case studies are also assessed from a human viewpoint, which reveals that they possess better usability. The assessment supports the viability of the proposed model as a guiding tool for software development. The efficiency of the proposed model is confirmed by the result that the two case studies are less complex than the other UI applications in terms of hierarchical structure and numbers of elements, functions and colours, whilst also presenting acceptable usability in terms of the four examined dimensions: usefulness, information quality, interface quality, and overall satisfaction. Hence, the proposed model can facilitate the development process of mobile UI applications

The development of a SmartAbility Framework to enhance multimodal interaction for people with reduced physical ability.

Assistive technologies are an evolving market due to the number of people worldwide who have conditions resulting in reduced physical ability (also known as disability). Various classification schemes exist to categorise disabilities, as well as government legislations to ensure equal opportunities within the community. However, there is a notable absence of a process to map physical conditions to technologies in order to improve Quality of Life for this user group. This research is characterised primarily under the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) domain, although aspects of Systems of Systems (SoS) and Assistive Technologies have been applied. The thesis focuses on examples of multimodal interactions leading to the development of a SmartAbility Framework that aims to assist people with reduced physical ability by utilising their abilities to suggest interaction mediums and technologies. The framework was developed through a predominantly Interpretivism methodology approach consisting of a variety of research methods including state- of-the-art literature reviews, requirements elicitation, feasibility trials and controlled usability evaluations to compare multimodal interactions. The developed framework was subsequently validated through the involvement of the intended user community and domain experts and supported by a concept demonstrator incorporating the SmartATRS case study. The aim and objectives of this research were achieved through the following key outputs and findings: - A comprehensive state-of-the-art literature review focussing on physical conditions and their classifications, HCI concepts relevant to multimodal interaction (Ergonomics of human-system interaction, Design For All and Universal Design), SoS definition and analysis techniques involving System of Interest (SoI), and currently-available products with potential uses as assistive technologies. - A two-phased requirements elicitation process applying surveys and semi-structured interviews to elicit the daily challenges for people with reduced physical ability, their interests in technology and the requirements for assistive technologies obtained through collaboration with a manufacturer. - Findings from feasibility trials involving monitoring brain activity using an electroencephalograph (EEG), tracking facial features through Tracking Learning Detection (TLD), applying iOS Switch Control to track head movements and investigating smartglasses. - Results of controlled usability evaluations comparing multimodal interactions with the technologies deemed to be feasible from the trials. The user community of people with reduced physical ability were involved during the process to maximise the usefulness of the data obtained. - An initial SmartDisability Framework developed from the results and observations ascertained through requirements elicitation, feasibility trials and controlled usability evaluations, which was validated through an approach of semi-structured interviews and a focus group. - An enhanced SmartAbility Framework to address the SmartDisability validation feedback by reducing the number of elements, using simplified and positive terminology and incorporating concepts from Quality Function Deployment (QFD). - A final consolidated version of the SmartAbility Framework that has been validated through semi-structured interviews with additional domain experts and addressed all key suggestions. The results demonstrated that it is possible to map technologies to people with physical conditions by considering the abilities that they can perform independently without external support and the exertion of significant physical effort. This led to a realisation that the term ‘disability’ has a negative connotation that can be avoided through the use of the phrase ‘reduced physical ability’. It is important to promote this rationale to the wider community, through exploitation of the framework. This requires a SmartAbility smartphone application to be developed that allows users to input their abilities in order for recommendations of interaction mediums and technologies to be provided

Tecnología y Accesibilidad Volumen 1

Prologar el texto de las actas del VII Congreso Internacional sobre Aplicación de Tecnologías de la información y Comunicaciones Avanzadas (ATICA2016) y de la IV Conferencia Internacional sobre Aplicación de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones para mejorar la Accesibilidad (ATICAcces 2016), no solo es una tarea privilegiada sino también una responsabilidad, en especial con la sociedad que solicita tecnologías inclusivas y comunicaciones efectivas en pro de la equidad. Es interesante señalar que el anhelo por consolidar categorías que favorezcan la participación social ha sido el sueño y trabajo de muchos, por ejemplo vale recordar que en este año del Congreso se cumplen 500 desde que Tomás Moro ofreciera al mundo su voz en “UTOPIA”, donde en la idealización de su isla estampó una cultura de trabajo, cooperación y democracia, sin descuidar que proclamó a Amauroto, la capital de su República, como una de total accesibilidad para que todo ciudadano pueda llegar y gozar de ella, con suficiente agua para todos; su localidad estaba constituida por casas que eran custodiadas por cerraduras tan simples que cualquiera podía ingresar o salir de ellas ya que el verdadero tesoro de toda persona era su propio ser. Este breve evocar, da la pauta para promover Utopías necesarias en cuanto a las TIC, que aunque sabemos que es quimérico hablar de ellas como totalmente abiertas y al alcance de todos, debería ser éste el ideal de los hombres cuya ciencia, hoy en día, permite integrarnos a esta nuestra aldea global, es por ello que ATICA 2016 busca romper aquellos muros virtuales y tecnológicos que impiden una comunicación efectiva en nuestros tiempos. El trabajo del Congreso también semeja a la norma de discusión del Senado de Utopía, donde sus expositores socializan sus lógicas mejores, no hay intervención que no sea fruto de la madurez de un proceso investigativo científico que procure el bien público. Parece igualmente exacto ver como entre los participantes existe una suerte de familia, que aunque adoptiva, por configurarse alrededor de un objetivo común como ATICA 2016, a todos ellos, su dedicación a la ciencia y la tecnología al servicio de los más necesitados, los ha unido. En esta ocasión los autores representan a 11 países: Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, España, Francia, Guatemala, México, Panamá y Perú; es notable ver como los frutos académicos expuestos en los 80 artículos científicos aceptados de un total de 115 enviados, 36 abordan la línea de “Aplicación de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones para mejorar la Accesibilidad” y los restantes 44 son sobre “Aplicación de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones Avanzadas”, todos ellos superan en mucho las horas normales de trabajo, en resumen es evidente el esfuerzo académico y la convicción por un mundo más accesible desde las TIC .En el relato de Moro, la verdadera felicidad, es la libertad y el desarrollo de valores espirituales, pero también existe posibilidad para la guerra y la esclavitud, asimismo como la ciencia y tecnología pueden ser consideradas herramientas de doble arista; por ello el Congreso enfocó muy bien su debate y su comité científico, formado por académicos internacionales, aseguró que ATICA 2016 esté en torno a la inclusión y a la equidad. Igual satisfacción que dejó en su tiempo Utopía a aquellos a los cuáles le fue develada, encontrarán las gentes de hoy en ATICA 2016. Las memorias del evento ponen de manifiesto nuevas lógicas comunicativas y tecnológicas, pero sobre todo nos dicen que, conforme hace 500 años, es posible soñar en un futuro mejor si la ciencia y tecnología están al servicio del ser humano

Aportaciones para la mejora de la usabilidad en aplicaciones móviles de comunicación social

La presente Tesis Doctoral se enmarca en el auge en el uso de las aplicaciones de mensajería instantánea móvil (denominadas MIM) para dispositivos móviles inteligentes (o smartphones) y motivado por los diferentes estudios científicos que señalan los problemas de usabilidad que este tipo de aplicaciones presentan. Para ello, se ha realizado una evaluación sistemática de la usabilidad (con la aplicación de métodos de inspección de la usabilidad: análisis de tareas y evaluación heurística) de las aplicaciones MIM que actualmente se pueden encontrar en el mercado de las dos principales plataformas móviles (iOS y Android). Con los problemas de usabilidad detectados en ambas plataformas se ha propuesto un conjunto de recomendaciones de usabilidad para su aplicación en el diseño de aplicaciones MIM. Tras esta fase de evaluación y propuesta, se ha creado un prototipo de aplicación MIM para la plataforma Android que incorpora dicho conjunto de recomendaciones de usabilidad. El prototipo ha sido evaluado con métodos de inspección de la usabilidad para, tras una valoración satisfactoria, proceder a un experimento controlado con usuarios reales (en este experimento, los participantes han realizado una serie de actividades con el prototipo y un grupo de aplicaciones MIM existentes con buenos resultados de usabilidad derivados de las evaluaciones iniciales), que ha dado como resultado la validación de las recomendaciones de usabilidad para su uso en este tipo de aplicaciones. Como conclusiones, además de (1) la propuesta y validación de las recomendaciones de usabilidad para su aplicación en el contexto de la mensajería instantánea, se pueden extraer algunas conclusiones de la realización de esta investigación: (2) definición formal de las actividades que definen a una aplicación de mensajería instantánea, (3) ratificación de la existencia de problemas de usabilidad en las aplicaciones MIM actuales, (4) confirmación de que los buenos diseños de UI tienen un efecto positivo en el rendimiento de los usuarios de estas aplicaciones y (5) revelación de que son los propios contactos cercanos del usuario los que actúan como el ancla para que el usuario permanezca en la aplicación MIM (pese a tener disconformidades con la aplicación)