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

Understanding Children’s Help-Seeking Behaviors: Effects of Domain Knowledge

This dissertation explores children’s help-seeking behaviors and use of help features when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems. This study was conducted with 30 children who were 8 to 10 years old. The study was designed to answer three research questions with two parts in each: 1(a) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 1(b) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(a) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(b) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(a) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(b) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal? This study used multiple data collection methods including performance-based domain knowledge quizzes as direct measurement, domain knowledge self-assessments as indirect measurement, pre-questionnaires, transaction logs, think-aloud protocols, observations, and post-interviews. Open coding analysis was used to examine children’s help-seeking situations. Children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional types of help-seeking situations when using Google and Kids.gov were identified. To explore help features children use and desire when they formulate search queries and evaluate results in Google and Kids.gov, open coding analysis was conducted. Additional descriptive statistics summarized the frequency of help features children used when they formulated search queries and evaluated results in Google and Kids.gov. Finally, this study investigated the effect of children’s domain knowledge on their help seeking and use of help features in using Google and Kids.gov based on linear regression. The level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge affects occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated search queries in Google. Similarly, children’s domain knowledge quiz scores showed a statistically significant effect on occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated keywords in Google. In the stage of result evaluations, the level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge influenced their use of help features in Kids.gov. Furthermore, scores of children’s domain knowledge quiz affected their use of help features when they evaluated search results in Kids.gov. Theoretical and practical implications for reducing children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional help-seeking situations when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems were discussed based on the results

A Survey of transition strategies to improve the performance of Chord in the face of rapidly changing IP addresses

Mobile wi-fi enabled devices are becoming less expensive and more common all the time. The field is ripe for DHTs like Chord. Given the highly scalable nature of DHTs, the ability to efficiently tap the storage resources of so many devices is very attractive. Unfortunately DHTs have been having a difficult time finding a foothold on mobile devices due to poor performance, both in terms of network overhead and lookup failure. Much of the research that has been done attributes this poor performance to the extra hops packets must make due to the mismatch between the physical topology and the DHT overlay. This research has attempted to bring the logical overlay in line with the physical network to reduce the number of unnecessary hops each packet must make. A large amount of sophisticated and fascinating research has been done to match the physical and logical layers to alleviate this problem. While that mismatch is certainly important, another oft-ignored aspect of the problem is churn caused by changing IP addresses. This paper will present a survey of potential changes to the Chord algorithm (and eventually the network stack) to ameliorate the disruption that changing IP addresses have on the overlay. The first change this paper presents is simply to use the MAC address of the node as a unique identifier instead of the IP address as suggested in the original Chord paper. This allows the node to transition to a new IP address without fear of its key space changing. The next change is to the access point handoff process, where a callback was inserted into the MAC layer of the network stack to allow the Chord application to be notified of a pending access point transition and what its new address will be (termed softish handoff for the purposes of this paper). Finally several transition scenarios are detailed and tested in this paper including: traditional Chord with the IP address used as the identifier (used as a baseline); using the MAC address of there wireless interface as the Chord identifier; broadcasting the new address to associated nodes; removing and reinserting the node on IP change; an implementation of IPMN to keep the TCP connections alive even in the face of rapidly changing IP addresses (this strategy also broadcasts the new IP address to associated nodes that do not have open TCP connections). It is important to note that the focus of this thesis is to address is the disruption that changing IP addresses have on the application level overlay. Softish handoffs were implemented to facilitate this but are not intended to be a replacement of or improvement over soft handoffs provided by CDMA enabled cell networks. The unique id, new address broadcasting and IPMN based socket transitions should have similar effects in an environment with real soft handoffs, assuming there is some notification of a new access point being available. It is also not the purpose of this thesis to present a more efficient implementation of Chord, only to compare strategies for dealing with IP address transition

Using graphic organizers on ipads to teach reading comprehension skills to high school students with moderate and severe cognitive impairments

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of using graphic organizers (GOs) to improve reading comprehension skills of five high school students with moderate to severe cognitive impairments. The baseline took place during first two weeks of the study, and the students were not provided with any GOs during this phase. The first intervention took place during the next three weeks, and the students were provided with traditional paper GOs during this phase. The second intervention took place during the final three weeks, and the students were provided with the GOs on the iPad during this phase. Average quiz scores were highest for three of the five participants after using the digital GOs, while the other two students performed best after using the paper GOs. Although individual student performance was somewhat inconsistent, the overall results support the use of digital GOs as a successful strategy for improving the reading comprehension skills of students with cognitive impairments

The use of Software Program Inspiration and its Effect on the Reading Comprehension of Students With Disabilities

This study will use the software program Inspiration to determine if its use will help students with disabilities improve reading comprehension. Twenty two students from two sections of 10th grade English 15:1 special education classes participated in the study. The study consisted of comparing two sets of quiz scores using the same students. The study consisted of the students reading a short story then creating web maps of the story plot. Following the completion of the web map, the students took a ten question comprehension quiz. This was done for seven sessions. During another seven sessions the students took comprehension quizzes without the use of the web maps. The results of the quiz scores using web maps were compared to the results of the quiz scores that did not involve the use of a web map. A t test was used to analyze the data. Results from the t test indicated that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the quizzes involving the use of the concept map versus quizzes that did not involve the use of a concept map

Multimedia and motivation: The design and development of hypercard stack on dinosaurs

For this project the program Walk with Dinosaurs was developed using Keller\u27s Theory of Motivation. Walk with Dinosaurs is a interactive multimedia tool for presenting an integrated thematic unit. As a HyperCard stack, it intoduces students to factual information on dinosaurs in an appealing and motivating way

A Trial of Improving Learnersʼ Phonetics Comprehension through Remote Teaching

In 2020, the spread of COVID-19 forced schools to adopt distance learning using multimedia technology. Universities provide online classes in order to avoid making students commute to school. For remote teaching, there are considerable choices in learning management systems adopted by schools and methods employed by teachers. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, so a combination of those choices can bring multiplier effect. However, person-to-person communication plays a critical role particularly in language education. How do teachers survive this crisis? This paper makes suggestions about class activities by means of written information on a remote real-time lecture. It focuses on an English phonetics course which deals with pronunciation skills and aural information by minimum usage of a video meeting system. This paper also includes a survey of mental associations similar to synesthesia as an example of how to teach an abstract concept. The results are analyzed and observed to mention potentials of vowels. This paper also refers to the benefits of teaching online and on campus. Learnersʼ viewpoints collected through activities are mentioned throughout

The Effect Of Different Presentation Formats Of Hypertext Annotations On Cognitive Load, Learning And Learner Control

This dissertation study was intended to verify whether the positive effects of the roll-over annotation presentation format on reducing cognitive load and enhancing vocabulary and comprehension of 5th-grade children (Morrison, 2004) can be extended to college students\u27 learning from a web-delivered text. In order to answer this research question, relevant constructs, such as cognitive load, learner control and learning, have been examined in this experimental study of 149 undergraduate students in a state university at College of Education. No single effect of annotation presentation format on cognitive load was found, but an interaction effect on cognitive load was revealed between annotation presentation formats and pre-existing knowledge in this study of online education, similar to the interaction effect between annotation presentation formats and learners\u27 reading experience found in traditional textbook learning (Yeung, Jin and Sweller, 1998; Yeung, 1999). Besides, students\u27 computer experience also had a significant impact on their perceived cognitive load. One more key finding from this study was that the embedded annotation presentation format generated the least learner control, significantly different from other annotation presentation formats. In conclusion, an adaptive approach to the design of annotation presentation formats is recommended, for example, individual differences including learners\u27 familiarity with content should be considered along with different annotation presentation formats so as to reduce learners\u27 overall cognitive load. Additionally, learners\u27 computer experience should be examined when hypertext annotations are used. Finally, choices of annotation presentation formats should be well-conceived to balance cognitive load, learning, and learner control