Domain expertise and the effectiveness of dynamic simulator interfaces in the acquisition of procedural motor skills

Previous research into the effectiveness of dynamic versus static instructional design paradigms has reported divergent findings. Dynamic instructions have been shown to be more effective in teaching novel procedural skills. In contrast, the apparent benefit of dynamic over static instructions has been attributed in other studies to the cognitive capabilities and previous knowledge of the learner. Can the benefit of dynamic instruction persist in learners with domain expertise on learning novel tasks? In this paper, we report the result of an experiment that shows that irrespective of the learner's previous knowledge, dynamic instructions retain a significant effectiveness over statics for teaching intra‐domain novel task performance. Twenty‐four participants with domain expertise were divided into three independent groups to perform a procedural motor task following treatment with different training interfaces. After controlling for spatial abilities and excluding previous specific‐to‐task knowledge, we observe that participants that trained with interfaces containing dynamic content recorded better task performance measures than others using non‐dynamic interfaces. This suggest that within the context of motor skill acquisition, dynamic instructional interfaces can yield significant increases to post‐learning task performance measures, which is independent of the learner's cognitive capabilities or previous knowledge.     

You have e-mail,what happens next? Tracking the eyes for genre

This paper reports on an approach to the analysis of form (layout and formatting) during genre recognition recorded using eye tracking. The researchers focused on eight different types of e-mail, such as calls for papers, newsletters and spam, which were chosen to represent different genres. The study involved the collection of oculographic behavior data based on the scanpath duration and scanpath length based metric, to highlight the ways in which people view the features of genres. We found that genre analysis based on purpose and form (layout features, etc.) was an effective means of identifying the characteristics of these e-mails.     

Learning study as a clinical research practice to generate knowledge about the learning of historical primary source analysis

There is a demand for educational research that addresses questions found in teachers’ practice. This line of research can be referred to as practitioner research, and it is motivated by the realisation that teacher professionalism is one of the most influential factors in determining student achievement. One question is whether the primary purpose of practitioner research should be to improve teaching practices, or to contribute to theoretical knowledge. Some argue that the primary concern should be contributions to changing practices, whereas others suggest that contributions to theory are equally important. The purpose of the article is to discuss how Learning study, regarded as a clinical research practice, can contribute to developing teaching practices and theory of history didactics in conjunction. Learning study is commonly described as an interventionist, iterative and collaborative research approach, focusing on the teaching of an object of learning, which in this case was the learning of primary source analysis in history. Examples of how the Learning study contributed to practice and theory are presented. Contributions include the suggestion that knowing primary source analysis involves the ability to distinguish and separate three critical aspects in a temporal, human and contextual dimension, and that the students’ personal perspectives are vital and should be regarded in the design of tasks and teaching. Based on the findings it is argued that practitioner research could aim at developing educational practices in conjunction with contributions to theory, and that practice and theory are necessarily entwined in the research process.     

A shared document-based annotation tool to support learner-centred collaborative learning

A shared document‐based annotation tool was presented, and its usefulness in two different real‐life web‐based university‐level courses (adult learners, n= 27 and adolescent learners, n= 23) was empirically investigated. The study design embodied three data collection phases: (1) a pretest measuring self‐rated motivation, learning strategies, and social ability; (2) log file data analysis showing actual use of the system features; and (3) a posttest in a form of an email survey. For both groups, the results showed that the level of motivation has a positive effect on activity in the system and the final grade. The learners, who reported to have good time‐management strategies, were the most active users of the system. The level of social ability predicted both the number of consecutive comments in the documents and the threads in document‐related newsgroup discussions. Log file data analysis showed that user activity in the system was positively related to the final grade in both samples. Results of the posttest showed that all the respondents agreed when asked: (1) if the system brought added value to the learning process; (2) if the use of the system changed their studying habits favourably; and (3) if they would like to use the system in other courses.     

Teachers’ experiences of using eye gaze-controlled computers for pupils with severe motor impairments and without speech

The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ experiences of using eye gaze-controlled computers with pupils with severe disabilities. Technology to control a computer with eye gaze is a fast growing field and has promising implications for people with severe disabilities. This is a new assistive technology and a new learning situation for teachers. Using a reflective lifeworld approach, 11 teachers were interviewed twice. The essence of the phenomenon of teaching pupils who use an eye gaze-controlled computer is to understand what the pupil does with the computer and relate this to what the pupil wants to express through the computer. The pupils have emotions, wishes and knowledge that are trapped in their own bodies. The eye gaze computer creates opportunities to get a glimpse of these thoughts to others, and creates hope concerning the pupil’s future possibilities. The teacher’s responsibility to try to understand what is inside the pupil’s trapped body is a motivating factor to integrate the computer in everyday classroom activities. The results give directions for teaching and for implementation of eye gaze computers in the school system, and also suggest improvements that could be made to computers.     

Querytogether: Enabling entity-centric exploration in multi-device collaborative search

Collaborative and co-located information access is becoming increasingly common. However, fairly little attention has been devoted to the design of ubiquitous computing approaches for spontaneous exploration of large information spaces enabling co-located collaboration. We investigate whether an entity-based user interface provides a solution to support co-located search on heterogeneous devices. We present the design and implementation of QueryTogether, a multi-device collaborative search tool through which entities such as people, documents, and keywords can be used to compose queries that can be shared to a public screen or specific users with easy touch enabled interaction. We conducted mixed-methods user experiments with twenty seven participants (nine groups of three people), to compare the collaborative search with QueryTogether to a baseline adopting established search and collaboration interfaces. Results show that QueryTogether led to more balanced contribution and search engagement. While the overall s-recall in search was similar, in the QueryTogether condition participants found most of the relevant results earlier in the tasks, and for more than half of the queries avoided text entry by manipulating recommended entities. The video analysis demonstrated a more consistent common ground through increased attention to the common screen, and more transitions between collaboration styles. Therefore, this provided a better fit for the spontaneity of ubiquitous scenarios. QueryTogether and the corresponding study demonstrate the importance of entity based interfaces to improve collaboration by facilitating balanced participation, flexibility of collaboration styles and social processing of search entities across conversation and devices. The findings promote a vision of collaborative search support in spontaneous and ubiquitous multi-device settings, and better linking of conversation objects to searchable entities.     

Cognitive skills in the reading process: a review

Some current problems in reading, as viewed by cognitive psychology, are discussed around a summary of a symposium on Reading and Lexical Access held ac, part of the International Conference on Practical Aspects of Memory (Gruneberg, Morris arid Sykes, 1978). The analysis of component processes in reading, and the analysis of reading dynamics provide apparently opposing approaches to the study of reading, but they often lead to similar conclusions about reading behaviour and are seen here to be complementary approaches. Prompted by the discussion of phonological mediation in a number of the papers we are led to the conclusion that whereas phonological reading can be observed to be used on some occasions, it is not necessaryfor word recognition and reading. Three hypotheses of its use by skilled readers are suggested—for sequential attention control, for the generation of a working memory code, and for the resolution of ambiguity by prosodics. The beginning reader may have a further use in gaining a spoken representation, and therefore recognition, of new words.