DesignABILITY: Framework for the Design of Accessible Interactive Tools to Support Teaching to Children with Disabilities

Developing educational tools aimed at children with disabilities is a challenging process for designers and developers because existing methodologies or frameworks do not provide any pedagogical information and/or do not take into account the particular needs of users with some type of impairment. In this study, we propose a framework for the design of tools to support teaching to children with disabilities. The framework provides the necessary stages for the development of tools (hardware-based or software-based) and must be adapted for a specific disability and educational goal. For this study, the framework was adapted to support literacy teaching and contributes to the design of educational/interactive technology for deaf people while making them part of the design process and taking into account their particular needs. The experts' evaluation of the framework shows that it is well structured and may be adapted for other types of disabilities

Diseño y desarrollo de una plataforma computacional sobre dispositivos móviles para emulación de sistemas dinámicos

Este trabajo muestra el diseño y desarrollo de una plataforma computacional sobre dispositivos móviles que servirá de herramienta para el aprendizaje de conceptos de control automático y sistemas dinámicos. Para este propósito, se desarrolló una aplicación móvil para dispositivos con sistema operativo Android que permite simular un control en lazo abierto y cerrado de un sistema masa-resorteamortiguador. En este sistema, el controlador y la planta trabajan juntos en el mismo dispositivo, lo que se denominó modo embebido. Un modo de trabajo adicional se implementó, que consiste en simular el sistema separando el controlador y la planta para que trabajen de forma independiente en diferentes dispositivos, este forma de trabajo se llamó modo externo. Como método numérico para la solución de ecuaciones diferenciales del controlador y la planta, se usó un Runge-Kutta de 4to orden en cualquiera de los dos modos de trabajo implementado. Los resultados de la solución de las ecuaciones diferenciales fueron usados para visualizar las variables relevantes del sistema en el dominio del tiempo (posición de la masa, acción de control, error y referencia) e igualmente para crear la animación del sistema. La aplicación permite parametrizar la planta y el controlador de forma independiente. Además, la aplicación permite al usuario generar perturbaciones l sistema controlado usando el sensor de proximidad del dispositivoProyecto de grado (Magíster en Ingeniera)-- Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, 2015MaestríaMagíster en Ingenierí

CollabABILITY Cards: Supporting Researchers and Educators to Co-Design Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Activities for Deaf Children

Implementing Collaborative Learning (CL) activities to support the education of children is something that must be carefully designed to achieve the desired goals since just having a group of children working on the same activity does not guarantee proper collaboration. It is something that goes from defining the profile of the students to structuring the collaboration according to the learning objectives, the number of children per group, roles defined, and shared resources among others. Designing Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities may be even harder to achieve when collaboration is trying to be accomplished by children with some kind of disability due to differences in the way they communicate or understand the world around them, which is why in this study we decided to focus on designing CSCL activities for deaf children. Since there is not a clear path in the literature to achieve effective collaboration among deaf learners, we propose four stages to be followed through a set of 27 cards that were designed to guide designers/developers and educators through the process of co-designing such activities. The cards were implemented in such a way that they were easy to follow along with, with templates that allowed designers of the CL activity to register all the information related to it. Digital and printed versions of the cards were evaluated by researchers and educators with satisfactory results and a prototype for mobile devices was developed and tested by children through individual and collaborative learning activities

CollabABILITY Cards: Supporting Researchers and Educators to Co-Design Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Activities for Deaf Children

Implementing Collaborative Learning (CL) activities to support the education of children is something that must be carefully designed to achieve the desired goals since just having a group of children working on the same activity does not guarantee proper collaboration. It is something that goes from defining the profile of the students to structuring the collaboration according to the learning objectives, the number of children per group, roles defined, and shared resources among others. Designing Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities may be even harder to achieve when collaboration is trying to be accomplished by children with some kind of disability due to differences in the way they communicate or understand the world around them, which is why in this study we decided to focus on designing CSCL activities for deaf children. Since there is not a clear path in the literature to achieve effective collaboration among deaf learners, we propose four stages to be followed through a set of 27 cards that were designed to guide designers/developers and educators through the process of co-designing such activities. The cards were implemented in such a way that they were easy to follow along with, with templates that allowed designers of the CL activity to register all the information related to it. Digital and printed versions of the cards were evaluated by researchers and educators with satisfactory results and a prototype for mobile devices was developed and tested by children through individual and collaborative learning activities

Designing Interactive Experiences for Children with Cochlear Implant

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have grown exponentially in the education context and the use of digital products by children is increasing. As a result, teachers are taking advantage of ICTs to include mobile devices such as Tablets or Smartphones inside the classroom as playful support material to motivate children during their learning. Designing an interactive experience for a child with a special need such as a hearing impairment is a great challenge. In this article, two interactive systems are depicted, using a non-traditional interaction, by the following stages: analysis, design and implementation, with the participation of children with cochlear implant in the Institute of Blind and Deaf Children of Valle del Cauca, Colombia and the ASPAS Institute, Mallorca, Spain, who evaluated both interactive systems, PHONOMAGIC and CASETO. Positive results were obtained, showing that the use of real objects can greatly influence the environment in which children interact with the game, allowing them to explore and manipulate the objects supporting their teaching-learning processes

CollabABILITY cards: Supporting researchers and educators to co-design computer-supported collaborative learning activities for deaf children

Implementing Collaborative Learning (CL) activities to support the education of children is something that must be carefully designed to achieve the desired goals since just having a group of children working on the same activity does not guarantee proper collaboration. It is something that goes from defining the profile of the students to structuring the collaboration according to the learning objectives, the number of children per group, roles defined, and shared resources among others. Designing Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities may be even harder to achieve when collaboration is trying to be accomplished by children with some kind of disability due to differences in the way they communicate or understand the world around them, which is why in this study we decided to focus on designing CSCL activities for deaf children. Since there is not a clear path in the literature to achieve effective collaboration among deaf learners, we propose four stages to be followed through a set of 27 cards that were designed to guide designers/developers and educators through the process of co-designing such activities. The cards were implemented in such a way that they were easy to follow along with, with templates that allowed designers of the CL activity to register all the information related to it. Digital and printed versions of the cards were evaluated by researchers and educators with satisfactory results and a prototype for mobile devices was developed and tested by children through individual and collaborative learning activitie