The simpler, the better? Presenting the COPING Android permission-granting interface for better privacy-related decisions

One of the great innovations of the modern world is the Smartphone app. The sheer multitude of available apps attests to their popularity and general ability to satisfy our wants and needs. The flip side of the functionality these apps offer is their potential for privacy invasion. Apps can, if granted permission, gather a vast amount of very personal and sensitive information. App developers might exploit the combination of human propensities and the design of the Android permission-granting interface to gain permission to access more information than they really need. This compromises personal privacy. The fact that the Android is the globally dominant phone means widespread privacy invasion is a real concern. We, and other researchers, have proposed alternatives to the Android permission-granting interface. The aim of these alternatives is to highlight privacy considerations more effectively during app installation: to ensure that privacy becomes part of the decision-making process. We report here on a study with 344 participants that compared the impact of a number of permission-granting interface proposals, including our own (called the COPING interface — COmprehensive PermIssioN Granting) and two Android interfaces. To conduct the comparison we carried out an online study with a mixed-model design. Our main finding is that the focus in these interfaces ought to be on improving the quality of the provided information rather than merely simplifying the interface. The intuitive approach is to reduce and simplify information, but we discovered that this actually impairs the quality of the decision. Our recommendation is that further investigation is required in order to find the “sweet spot” where understandability and comprehensiveness are maximised

Replication study: a cross-country field observation study of real world PIN usage at ATMs and in various electronic payment scenarios:towards understanding why people do, or do not, shield PIN entry

In this paper, we describe the study we carried out to replicate and extend the field observation study of real world ATM use carried out by De Luca et al., published at the SOUPS conference in 2010. Replicating De Luca et al.'s study, we observed PIN shielding rates at ATMs in Germany. We then extended their research by conducting a similar field observation study in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Moreover, in addition to observing ATM users (withdrawing), we also observed electronic payment scenarios requiring PIN entry. Altogether, we gathered data related to 930 observations. Similar to De Luca et al., we conducted follow-up interviews, the better to interpret our findings. We were able to confirm De Luca et al.'s findings with respect to low PIN shielding incidence during ATM cash withdrawals, with no significant differences between shielding rates across the three countries. PIN shielding incidence during electronic payment scenarios was significantly lower than incidence during ATM withdrawal scenarios in both the United Kingdom and Sweden. Shielding levels in Germany were similar during both withdrawal and payment scenarios. We conclude the paper by suggesting a number of explanations for the differences in shielding that our study revealed

The Efficacy of the Collaborative Teaching Model for Academically-Able Special Education Students: A Research Report

Collaborative teaching is a model of teaching students with disabilities who are academically-able in general classes. This service delivery model is unlike paradigms of the past that denoted least restrictive place (i.e. resource room instruction and mainstreaming). This model is predicated on direct services in general classrooms where both special education and general education teachers team teach in order to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The model is being used more and more across the country, and it is gaining favor in school divisions in the greater Richmond area. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the collaborative model in serving students with disabilities at all educational levels. A qualitative research design was utilized to gather an analyze information on the collaborative teaching process. Eight focus groups sessions were held in each of the schools that participated in the study. Individuals who were interviewed has experience with the collaborative teaching model. They were: Building administrators, general and special education teachers, parents of general and special education students, and general and special education students from five school divisions. In total 307 individuals participated in the interviews representing elementary, middle and high schools. Overall, the collaborative teaching program gets high marks from all who were interviewed. Respondents expressed satisfaction with the positive results shown thus far. Scheduling administrative support, planning time, training and multiple service delivery options were seen as key to program success. Whereas the model proved to be efficacious there were a number of remedial efforts that could be instituted to upgrade the entire collaborative system. Among those included were: greater attention to class composition (including number of students with a disability and severity of disability), more effective staff development, better efforts to inform parents about the program, and assurance of the program continuation throughout the grades. The general recommendations and five training recommendations were generated from the study. These were compiled by a research study group of collaborative teachers and administrators after a complete review of the results of the study

The Efficacy of the Collaborative Teaching Model for Serving Academically-Able Special Education Students: A Review of Liturature

Collaborative teaching is the latest attempt by the field of education to address the instructional needs of students with disabilities in at least restrictive environment. It is distinctive in design because of the focus of the collaborative teaching concept is keeping students with disabilities in regular classes to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers (a keep in program versus a pull out program. In a collaborative teaching arrangement both regular and special educators use their coincidental and complementary skills to teach students with disabilities. Because of the diversity of learning arrangement needed in classrooms with students with disabilities, collaborative teaching is a flexible system of curriculum, instruction, and behavior management. It is dynamic and responsive to the individual needs of students with special needs. Presently, collaborative teaching is used for a variety of students with disabilities. These students are considered mostly to be academically able. A large number are judged to be mildly disabled and the great preponderance of students come from the high incidence category - learning disabled. Collaborative teaching should not be equated with the concept of full inclusion , although there can be some overlap. In theory, full inclusion is an administrative arrangement for serving all students with disabilities, whereas collaborative teaching is an instructional arrangement to meet the unique educational needs of academically-able students with disabilities in the regular classroom. The distinct difference is the disabled population to be served and the overall goals of individual educational programs. Full inclusion includes ALL students with disabilities - including student with severe disabilities. Currently, there is a fair amount of writing done on the topic of collaborative teaching. But there is a paucity of research on the collaborative teaching model. Efforts to evaluate its efficacy have been limited. Even those who have written extensively about the model have not fully researched its short, intermediate or long-term effects. Preliminary data have shown positive views from teachers, students, and parents

Encouraging Privacy-Aware Smartphone App Installation: Finding out what the Technically-Adept Do

Smartphone apps can harvest very personal details from the phone with ease. This is a particular privacy concern. Unthinking installation of untrustworthy apps constitutes risky behaviour. This could be due to poor awareness or a lack of knowhow: knowledge of how to go about protecting privacy. It seems that Smartphone owners proceed with installation, ignoring any misgivings they might have, and thereby irretrievably sacrifice their privacy

Transverse "resistance overshoot" in a Si/SiGe two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall effect regime

We investigate the peculiarities of the "overshoot" phenomena in the transverse Hall resistance R_{xy} in Si/SiGe. Near the low magnetic field end of the quantum Hall effect plateaus, when the filling factor \nu approaches an integer i, R_{xy} overshoots the normal plateau value h/ie^2. However, if magnetic field B increases further, R_{xy} decreases to its normal value. It is shown that in the investigated sample n-Si/Si_{0.7}Ge_{0.3}, overshoots exist for almost all \nu. Existence of overshoot in R_{xy} observed in different materials and for different \nu, where splitting of the adjacent Landau bands has different character, hints at the common origin of this effect. Comparison of the experimental curves R_{xy}(\nu) for \nu = 3 and \nu = 5 with and without overshoot showed that this effect exist in the whole interval between plateaus, not only in the region where R_{xy} exceeds the normal plateau value.Comment: 3 pages, 5 EPS figure

Versorgung Digital : AALBridge

Pflege- und Alterseinrichtungen bekunden zunehmend Interesse an Active Assisted Living (AAL)-Lösungen. Aktuell fehlen aber Wegleitungen für deren Einsatz, insbesondere bei Sondersettings. AALBridge untersucht einerseits das Sondersetting «Brückenfunktionsangebot » als ein neues mögliches Angebot von Pflege- und Alterseinrichtungen für ältere Menschen nach einem Spitalaufenthalt. Andererseits sollen konkrete user-centred AAL-Lösungen und digitale Daten- und Informationslösungen für dieses Setting identifiziert werden. Ziel ist es, zu verstehen, wie eine bessere Integration smarter ICT-Lösungen aus dem AAL-Bereich und digitaler Informationen (des medizinisch-pflegerischen und des nicht-medizinischen Bereichs) erreicht werden kann. Egal, ob wir in Zukunft Sondersettings im Sinne eines Hospital at home oder eines Brückenfunktionsangebotes realisieren, jedes Angebot für ältere Menschen braucht konsequent die Abstimmung und Vernetzung aller Beteiligten, also der älteren Menschen, der Angehörigen und des Fachpersonals über die institutionellen Grenzen hinweg