Image-Enabled Discourse: Investigating the Creation of Visual Information as Communicative Practice

Anyone who has clarified a thought or prompted a response during a conversation by drawing a picture has exploited the potential of image making as an interactive tool for conveying information. Images are increasingly ubiquitous in daily communication, in large part due to advances in visually enabled information and communication technologies (ICT), such as information visualization applications, image retrieval systems and visually enabled collaborative work tools. Human abilities to use images to communicate are however far more sophisticated and nuanced than these technologies currently support. In order to learn more about the practice of image making as a specialized form of information and communication behavior, this study examined face-to-face conversations involving the creation of ad hoc visualizations (i.e., napkin drawings ). A model of image-enabled discourse is introduced, which positions image making as a specialized form of communicative practice. Multimodal analysis of video-recorded conversations focused on identifying image-enabled communicative activities in terms of interactional sociolinguistic concepts of conversational involvement and coordination, specifically framing, footing and stance. The study shows that when drawing occurs in the context of an ongoing dialogue, the activity of visual representation performs key communicative tasks. Visualization is a form of social interaction that contributes to the maintenance of conversational involvement in ways that are not often evident in the image artifact. For example, drawing enables us to coordinate with each other, to introduce alternative perspectives into a conversation and even to temporarily suspend the primary thread of a discussion in order to explore a tangential thought. The study compares attributes of the image artifact with those of the activity of image making, described as a series of contrasting affordances. Visual information in complex systems is generally represented and managed based on the affordances of the artifact, neglecting to account for all that is communicated through the situated action of creating. These finding have heuristic and best-practice implications for a range of areas related to the design and evaluation of virtual collaboration environments, visual information extraction and retrieval systems, and data visualization tools

Beyond the Spoken Word: Examining the Nature of Teacher Gesturing in the Context of an Elementary Engineering Curriculum for English-Learner Students

Our research team performed an exploratory analysis of teacher gesturing via a case study of an elementary teacher. We focused on gesturing, a practice found to support both bilingual English learner students’ linguistic development and mathematics achievement, during the teacher’s engineering and science lessons. The research team systematically analyzed teacher video data using McNeill’s gestural dimensions framework and found variation of gesturing types and rates when comparing engineering and baseline science lessons. Additionally, specific types of teacher-gestures appear to be associated with either behavioral or classroom management practices, procedural instructions, and discussion facilitation. We suggest that teacher-gestures such as these have the potential to facilitate bilingual English learners’ language acquisition, while also developing their STEM literacy in general and engineering capacity in particular. Further exploration of teacher-gestures in elementary engineering curricula could lead to an integrated STEM pedagogy that incorporates gesturing as a fundamental teaching strategy, bridging STEM instruction with linguistically responsive instructional practices.Educatio

In Situ Vision: The Student Experience of Collaborative Learning in a Virtual Drawing Class

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the construct of collaboration and the co-construction of knowledge in a distance learning drawing class. Distance learning drawing classes are rare, due to resistance by fine arts departments holding onto traditions that date back to Renaissance times. As a result, there is a paucity of literature on the subject. This multiple method study seeks an understanding of how students collaborate in critiques, form virtual communities and socially construct knowledge about learning how to draw. The study commences with the following three research questions: what social processes facilitate learning to draw from the perspective of the student in a computer mediated drawing class, what factors contribute to collaboration and the formation of a virtual learning community in a computer mediated drawing class as measured by the participative, interactive and social dimensions of a content analysis model, and how can the phenomenon of online collaboration be further delineated, defined or explained? The study consists of a grounded theory dimensional analysis of student and instructor interviews and a content analysis of discussion boards. Two core domains emerged from the dimensional analysis, Visual Learning and Virtual Culture. The content analysis located the frequency and quality of collaboration across three different discussion board forums; asynchronous critiques, synchronous critiques and asynchronous discussion topics. Triangulating the data resulted in three theoretical propositions: drawing is a visual medium, and students need to “see” demonstrations of the process and examples, virtual culture mediates collaboration and the co-construction of knowledge in critiques and finally, the inclusion of both synchronous and asynchronous tools provides students with balanced support for learning to draw. Literature from the domains of art education, distance learning pedagogy and virtual culture support an understanding of the research question. The results are demonstrated in a final model entitled In Situ Vision. The animated version of the model in this document requires a Flash player to view and plays on the page while reading. An author’s video introduction accompanies this dissertation, presented in mp4 format. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Towards useful and usable interaction design tools: CanonSketch

Despite all the effort dedicated to bringing better User-Centered Design (UCD) tools to market, current studies show that the industry is still dominated by tools that do not support the activities and workstyles of designers. Also, there is a growing need for interaction design tools aimed at software engineers, a problem related to bringing usability into the software engineering processes. We propose a new workstyle model that can be effectively used to envision, design and evaluate a new generation of innovative interaction and software design tools, aimed at integrating usability and software engineering. We illustrate the effectiveness of our model by describing a new tool, called CanonSketch, that was built in order to support UCD in terms of the dimensions in our workstyle model. We also describe an evaluation study aimed at contrasting paper prototyping with our tool as well as the level of workstyle support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring the out-of-school writing practices of three children aged 9 - 10 years old and how these practices travel across and within the domains of home and school

This study explores the writing practices of children aged 9-10 years across the settings of home and school. It examines the nature of the out-of-school writing practices of three case study children, within and across these domains. Additionally, it seeks to understand the children’s relationship with writing and considers if and how their writing practices travel across both domains. In examining home and school writing practices, the study took a sociocultural perspective underpinned by Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory framework. A review of the relevant literature led to the utilisation of a multimodal definition of writing and the framing of the research as a qualitative, bounded case study within an interpretive, iterative enquiry. The principal research methods were the collation of the children’s writing artefacts, together with video and photographic footage of in-action practices in home settings, school observations and writing conversations. The findings reveal the ways in which these developing young writers engaged and interacted with writing differently in both settings. The trajectory of writing practices across home and school are seen to be in a recursive relationship through the transformation of writing events from one setting to another. Three key themes developed and are presented as metaphors of travel: Places, spaces and local customs; Text souvenirs and local decisions; and Domain exchange and transaction. These themes indicate the range and versatility of the children’s home writing practices. They highlight the complexity in characterising a shared definition of writing across domains. On the basis of the data, the study argues for teachers to be more aware and welcoming of children’s home writing practices in classroom activities. In so doing, teachers would be better able to build on these experiences, leading to new and shared ways of conceptualising writing in English primary classrooms. Finally, the study considers avenues for future research

Exploring how integrating art & animation in teaching text-based programming affects high school students\u27 interest in computer science

As oil is the fuel of the industrial society, software is the fuel of our current information society. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be more demand for computing jobs in the future. By 2024, more than one million computing jobs will be available. Statistics show that there is more demand for computing jobs than there is a supply of qualified graduates from universities. In this experimental study, three groups of high school students were targeted to explore how integrating art, animation, and code sharing into programming affects their interest in pursuing a degree in computer science (CS) after graduation. Moreover, the study also explored the effect of social factors and attitudes of the students toward programming and a CS degree. Pretest-posttest survey questionnaires were used to measure the study variables before and after taking a programming course. A new web-based learning environment was developed and used as a treatment in this study. The developed tool included the use of art, animation, and code sharing to increase students\u27 motivation in learning computer programming. Three groups of students from Ann Arbor public and private schools participated in this study with different coding time. The demographic data were also collected and analyzed in this study. The field of CS is currently dominated by White and Asian males. This study also aimed to encourage and increase the motivation of female and underrepresented racial groups towards CS. The results of this study showed that the use of art, animation, and code sharing increased students\u27 knowledge, enjoyment, and motivation in learning computer programming. It thereby increased their interest in pursuing a degree in CS after graduation