This paper reports on a study pertaining to students at two elementary schools in Year 1 and Year... more This paper reports on a study pertaining to students at two elementary schools in Year 1 and Year 7 with the students using Lego robotics in their classrooms. More specifically the robotics is Lego’s green city challenge as the students will be studying sustainability. Data for this study will be collected from a variety of sources including student artifacts and interviews. This research will add to the body of literature on teaching robotics and in developing pre-service teacher confidence in using and teaching robotics.
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children - IDC '13, 2013
ABSTRACT In this article we present the design and study of Save the wild, a system designed to s... more ABSTRACT In this article we present the design and study of Save the wild, a system designed to support augmented play and learning for children. Save the wild is an augmented reality (AR) based system with which children can interact by creating origami paper characters printed with fiducial markers that can be recognised via the webcam attached to the computer. The system aims to give students a level of awareness around problems with sustainability. As children make visible their origami creations to the camera, the system displays animated virtual characters that are attached to simple storylines that relate to sustainability and environmental consciousness. We studied how Save the wild was used and interacted with by students in two environments: at a public exhibition and within a classroom. We found that the technologies that were used (fiducial markers) can be used to create environments that support multiple modes of interaction and different forms of engagement with educational content. The technology allows designers of these systems to augment physical play and activity without requiring new technologies to be introduced, rather using technologies already found within the classroom. We find that by using AR, it is possible to enhance play-based learning without it becoming focused on the technology -- rather it augments and guides the learners' own narrative. We conclude with a discussion on how AR/marker technology can enable technology to create a more exciting interactive and social experience for young students while they are learning.
Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction - OZCHI '10, 2010
ABSTRACT In this paper, we identify and analyse the problems associated with communicative overhe... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we identify and analyse the problems associated with communicative overheads of a fashion design and manufacturing workflow. We conduct a multi-stage qualitative study to investigate where the rich multiple channels of communication afford and constrain the workflow during remote collaboration. From this study, we define what communication channels we have in our system. We then use the video data that we had collected through user testing, together with the feedback from the video-assisted stimulated recall interviews, to identify three kinds of communicative overheads in our system: novelty of technology, ongoing constraints and operational problems. We analyse each communicative overhead with examples from our video data, and conclude that there are various overheads, some that participants may overcome through learning and familiarity with the system, some that may not be easily overcome, and some that may not even be unique to a remote collaborative environment, as they also occur in a face-to-face collaborative environment. We believe that offering richer communication channels does not necessarily equate to greater efficiency in the collaborative process, and that designers and developers of collaborative systems need to investigate the effect of communicative overheads before introducing new channels to their system, as these overheads may decrease the efficiency of any collaborative experiences.
ABSTRACT In this paper we explore some of the ethical issues associated with conducting Ethnograp... more ABSTRACT In this paper we explore some of the ethical issues associated with conducting Ethnographic Action Research (Tacchi, 2004; Tacchi et al., 2003) for understanding and facilitating distributed collaboration. Ethnography and action research are increasingly popular qualitative approaches to researching computer-supported collaboration and we are applying them together in a project within a distributed research centre. We identify ethical principles applied to the conduct of research in Australia and we briefly describe a number of ethical problems that arise due to the nature of Ethnographic Action Research.
This paper reports on a study pertaining to students at two elementary schools in Year 1 and Year... more This paper reports on a study pertaining to students at two elementary schools in Year 1 and Year 7 with the students using Lego robotics in their classrooms. More specifically the robotics is Lego’s green city challenge as the students will be studying sustainability. Data for this study will be collected from a variety of sources including student artifacts and interviews. This research will add to the body of literature on teaching robotics and in developing pre-service teacher confidence in using and teaching robotics.
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children - IDC '13, 2013
ABSTRACT In this article we present the design and study of Save the wild, a system designed to s... more ABSTRACT In this article we present the design and study of Save the wild, a system designed to support augmented play and learning for children. Save the wild is an augmented reality (AR) based system with which children can interact by creating origami paper characters printed with fiducial markers that can be recognised via the webcam attached to the computer. The system aims to give students a level of awareness around problems with sustainability. As children make visible their origami creations to the camera, the system displays animated virtual characters that are attached to simple storylines that relate to sustainability and environmental consciousness. We studied how Save the wild was used and interacted with by students in two environments: at a public exhibition and within a classroom. We found that the technologies that were used (fiducial markers) can be used to create environments that support multiple modes of interaction and different forms of engagement with educational content. The technology allows designers of these systems to augment physical play and activity without requiring new technologies to be introduced, rather using technologies already found within the classroom. We find that by using AR, it is possible to enhance play-based learning without it becoming focused on the technology -- rather it augments and guides the learners' own narrative. We conclude with a discussion on how AR/marker technology can enable technology to create a more exciting interactive and social experience for young students while they are learning.
Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction - OZCHI '10, 2010
ABSTRACT In this paper, we identify and analyse the problems associated with communicative overhe... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we identify and analyse the problems associated with communicative overheads of a fashion design and manufacturing workflow. We conduct a multi-stage qualitative study to investigate where the rich multiple channels of communication afford and constrain the workflow during remote collaboration. From this study, we define what communication channels we have in our system. We then use the video data that we had collected through user testing, together with the feedback from the video-assisted stimulated recall interviews, to identify three kinds of communicative overheads in our system: novelty of technology, ongoing constraints and operational problems. We analyse each communicative overhead with examples from our video data, and conclude that there are various overheads, some that participants may overcome through learning and familiarity with the system, some that may not be easily overcome, and some that may not even be unique to a remote collaborative environment, as they also occur in a face-to-face collaborative environment. We believe that offering richer communication channels does not necessarily equate to greater efficiency in the collaborative process, and that designers and developers of collaborative systems need to investigate the effect of communicative overheads before introducing new channels to their system, as these overheads may decrease the efficiency of any collaborative experiences.
ABSTRACT In this paper we explore some of the ethical issues associated with conducting Ethnograp... more ABSTRACT In this paper we explore some of the ethical issues associated with conducting Ethnographic Action Research (Tacchi, 2004; Tacchi et al., 2003) for understanding and facilitating distributed collaboration. Ethnography and action research are increasingly popular qualitative approaches to researching computer-supported collaboration and we are applying them together in a project within a distributed research centre. We identify ethical principles applied to the conduct of research in Australia and we briefly describe a number of ethical problems that arise due to the nature of Ethnographic Action Research.
Sonic Atomic Interaction Radio (SonicAIR) is an ambient awareness technology probe designed to ex... more Sonic Atomic Interaction Radio (SonicAIR) is an ambient awareness technology probe designed to explore how connecting the soundscapes of friends or family members might reduce the isolation of seniors living independently. At its core, SonicAIR instruments kitchen activity sites to produce an always-on real-time aural representation of remote domestic rhythms. This article reports how users in two pilot SonicAIR deployments used the sounds as resources for recognizing comfortable narratives of sociability. Used alongside telecare monitoring, such technologized interaction might enable older people to engage in community-oriented soundscape narratives of shared social responsibility.
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Papers by Stephen Viller