Authors
Meg Cramer, Sen H. Hirano, Monica Tentori, Michael T. Yeganyan, Gillian R. Hayes
Occupation
Meg Cramer, Sen Hirano- students at UC Irvine
Monica Tentori- assistant professor at UC Irvine
Michael Yeganyan- group researcher at UC Irvine
Gillian Hayes- assistant professor at UC Irvine
Location
CHI '11 Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference New York
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors believe that improved interactive and collaborative assistance can be used to give aid to students with Autism by using their vSked system.
Methods
The testing of the vSked system was done over a period of five weeks. The testing consisted of interviews and commenting by teachers and school workers.(the students were not interviewed due to their personal impairments) The effectiveness of the whole system was based on several points: consistency, predictability, teacher awareness, behavior. Researchers went over the data to see the different needs the students and teachers needed and looked for themes/patterns. A mixed method approach was used to analyze the data. The data analyzed included the following: images, videoes, interviews, etc.
Result
Based on the observation, the authors were able to see a increase sense of independence by the students through the usage of the device. In overall terms the amount of focus exerted by the students increased noticeably as they did not require as much teacher assistance when doing tasks. The device also help connect the students with each other as the students were interested at looking at their peer's progress as well (done through a large screen in the class). The system also allowed as improvement in consistency. This was done by using the system to set the students schedules and would allow changed made by the teacher to see seen on the same device.
Based on the observation, the authors were able to see a increase sense of independence by the students through the usage of the device. In overall terms the amount of focus exerted by the students increased noticeably as they did not require as much teacher assistance when doing tasks. The device also help connect the students with each other as the students were interested at looking at their peer's progress as well (done through a large screen in the class). The system also allowed as improvement in consistency. This was done by using the system to set the students schedules and would allow changed made by the teacher to see seen on the same device.
Content
The paper is on a new system called vSked. By using this the authors claim that it can help and aid autistic students to a great degree in terms of cooperative learning. Their paper talks about the ways it was implemented in a experimental study for around five week and the feedback given out by both the subjects as well as the other party members involved (ex. Teachers). The paper also talks about its future potential as well as points that could be improved in the future.
Discussion
I personally think its a good way to improve the lives of other who are more unfortunate. I also thought that it was some what innovative that existing technology could be used to such an extent as well. Although it has a more humanitarian touch to it, I am some what skeptical how effective it will be in the market due to its use not leaning towards mass production but rather a small target demographic.
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