Bertha Lukov
June 9, 2007
Learning HCI through the VMT Experience
At the end of this course, I have learned many methods of evaluating human-computer interaction; however I am riddled with curiosity about the purpose and future of VMT and other HCI environments.
Course Reading
The textbook for the course was an excellent source. The first chapter was a broad introduction, but the later chapters were increasingly focused and had more technical information. The book was able to provide insight on both user needs, both those of which users are aware and unware, and how to cater to those needs. Examples throughout the text helped reinforce how the content can be applied; it gave me confidence in the content and therefore became easily readable.
Unlike the textbook, the articles on the other hand had ups and downs in terms of their application in this course. They are certainly well written articles for an audience who may not be familiar with the topic at hand, or may not have had contact with the topic since the last publishing. However, for a student in this class who is dedicating ten weeks of full attention studying the topic, there is far too much warm-up content. The new information is therefore scattered over the average of twelve(?) pages, making the articles a bit hard to bear through the reading. At the same time, students who may not be paying as much attention to follow the work schedule may find the repetition helpful in the learning process.
During this course, we reviewed many articles that discussed about VMT itself and other CSCL technologies. Many of the ideas seem to depend on the population qualifying a set of criteria in terms of their work habits and mind set. For example, in order for knowledge building community to be productive, it's voluntary members must be enthusiastic about the subject, must have a level of knowlege similar to that of other community members or at least have the capability to reach that level, and must be committed to communicating effectively and document their work sufficiently in case they should terminate their participation. It is only three requirements; but my.. what great expectations. Certainly, these are no greater expectations than a group of researchers at a company per se; except there are no stakes and no system in place to ensure progress and prevent chaos. I find the idea feasible, but only in the case that the participants have the feeling of ownership about their work.
On VMT
The VMT project seems to be an open-ended project for researching the interaction of K-12 students who are discussing math in an online environment. There are great research opportunities through this interface; topics of interest for Information Technologies, Psychology and Mathematics. Despite this freedom, I think that it is difficult to produce results efficiently as the intent or direction of the project is not well defined. From about week six to week eight, the articles seem to re-tell the same information about what VMT can do using different terminology and approach. But at week nine, the article clearly explained the kind of information that can be gathered from the VMT project which in turn made clear the application possiblities.
The Groups
In general, I think I spent nine hours a week just on group components of this course. Not everyone always showed up ready to work; it was difficult to settle on a specific meeting time; the group consisted of members from 3 time zones with different job/life-styles. All in all, we coordinated very well to meet and work together every week, but group readings could not be easily collaborated. We were more focused on getting work we needed to do together one, and the reading work, since we do not literally read as a group, would get pushed off either by one of us coming up with the reading notes or the like. Randomly we would chat about the content of the reading, but mostly we worked on the group design.
Much of the learning in this class was collaborative, and there really is a tuning period among members of a group before the group can be an effective knowledge buildling community. It was difficult to let go of the trust and "collaborative comfort zone" that had been developed with the existing group in order to change groups at week six. It had also taken a while to adapt to the new term schedule and the suggested meeting time of other groups were not acceptable to work. If the course were longer than 10 weeks, I think I would be less reluctant to change groups because there is greater opportunity for the second group to develop a relationship. It will also have been helpful if a reason for the group change were made more visible; in hind sight, I can see how changing groups will have germinated more issues in group dynamics which is useful knowlege for HCI.
Although I mention the development of relationships in my reflection, I am still strongly opposed to some of the extension ideas that were proposed in this course. The inclusion of a personal profile and blog for example would encourage the development of personal relationships among members as opposed to foster useful professional relationships. The communication methods between personal and professional relationships is too great; that should be evident by the fact that it is considered a conflict of interest in many business and legal situations. One example: in personal communication, there is greater use of terminology that is only understood within the clique. For a public knowledge building community, this would become a disadvantage for the transfer of knowledge to persons who are not part of the clique.
Consideration for the Users
In week eight or nine, Kate and I discussed about how we could have been directly guided to become more familiar with the VMT interface and it's intended purpose. We agreed that a guided tour through our groups' using VMT to solve a math problem will have provided better understanding from a student perspective. It will have given more fuel to our discussions and put us who have been away from K-12 math since college back in touch with the language of VMT's target group.
In the later half of the course, my mind also steered towards consideration for the disabled user. Members of my group were not too happy with the use of a Java interface. Although it was understood that the Java Machine allows for portability; we felt that Java caused restrictions for operating systems and did not offer many accessibility features.
In our group design of an extension for VMT, we were keen to develop other means of communicating that would lessen the asynchronous nature of communication among users in different time zones or following different life styles and schedules. It was a reflection on our own situations and how Eric had trouble passing along his ideas when he was on the road for work. Certainly, the K-12 students using VMT will rarely be on the road for days; but they are on the road daily to and from school and accompanying their caretakers on errands. Our design was full of assumptions; one of the worst was the assumption that the students will have access to a text message enabled cell phone and that the phone bill is of no issue. Living in Philadelphia, I know this is an unrealistic assumption that disadvantages many who will benefit the most from the outreach of a virtual learning community.
The Paradigm Shift
The components of VMT are not totally new developments. The way these components interact distinguishes it from other such environments. Nonetheless, it lacks certain obviously helpful elements; for example, an entry tool for math formula. Microsoft Equation Editor had long ago achieved this for use in conjenction with their word processor; but a similar tool is not available for a math forum? Although this can be justified by the fact that it is a good method to guide students to speak math (ie, sequence of solution to an equation), it is not an improvement with respect to technology use in collaboration. A user who is impededed by his ability to communicate his knowledge will not be able to participate effectively in community building.
Autonomy in the VMT environment is wonderful. Users are able to communicate in a variety of ways, and K-12 users are able to interact without being supervised. This worries me as young people need the most guidance, hence they are typically supervised. It is easy to become side-tracked by topics that are more familiar, which would not be condusive to effective knowledge building.
How well a person can focus on a task at hand is a matter of traiing and habit. I think the VMT project is well on its way to developing a reliable formula for determining who are ideal candidates for the autonomous knowledge-building scenario. Also that it is working towards identifying scenarios where those not defined as ideal can benefit the most from the environment. If successful, VMT research can become a very significant contribution to engineering (by new education methods) a new generation of human beings who are self-reliant, effectively collaborative learners.
Feedback and discussion space on the course during the course was somewhat unclear. Discussion was always welcome everywhere on the Wiki, but distinguishing content from discussion was difficult. Differences in font or text color may have been helpful, but in a Wiki situation, user compliance and a clear set of rules will have been necessary. A lot of this course was about collaboration; but ultimately, I have been well trained in gauging my performance on a scale. Comments on work directed to all groups at once meant not knowing how my group was performing: no news = good news or no news = bad news? I definitely feel like my mind has visited new places, but it is still different from checking my answers at the back of the textbook.
The new generation of human beings mentioned earlier would be different from me. They will have participated in these ten weeks, not once itching from not knowing if they will finish with an A or a F; and likely will not have had concerns about changing groups because of familiarity. They will have spent more than nine hours a week on group components in the course, presented more robust designs and thorough evaluations. These people’s mental approach to a learning situation will be fundamenally unlike mine.
The drastic change is certainly feasible, and would be the achievement of the American Dream for education. I even faintly remember a teacher of mine speaking of this ideal when explaining the difference between the American approach to education versus the Asian approach to education. But I fear the change will be distant as the original American Dream.
Koi Resort (In Hind Sight)
Keeping with the bravado of what I interpret is the goal of the VMT project, I would put cost and modern technological limitations out of mind in designing the Koi Resort device. A keyword in the assignment description was “conceptual;” there is no mention about the feasibility of the device in the current day. Designing a device that uses technologies that is not yet available has been the inspiration of research and development in the past; why not for the Koi Resort?
The device will be a temporary implanted device that would be dissolved from the user when they depart. The device display will consist of a three-dimensional holographic projection that provides the user with the means to interact with all of the resorts activities and services. The device will include a translating module that will compensate for language barriers among staff and visitors; it will also act as a communications device for visitors in the same party, for broadcast messages, and other visitors that the device owner gives approval to communicate. Method of interaction will include verbal commands and spatial direction by pointing at elements projected through the holographic display.
The usage scenario would not be much different from what we had proposed as a group; but the sketched design would be much different.
What was the Point?
The focus of this course was human-computer interaction. Through the study of the VMT project, I have learned the types of interaction that have existed, currently exist, and is targetted as the result of the research gathered through the VMT project. In looking at the past, we find new solutions for the continuing issue of how technology participates in our lives to improve how we live with each other.
Image Sources
o Nakheel Co. PJSC. (2006). The World - Slideshow. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from The World Web site: http://www.theworld.ae/slideshow.html
o New York Pizza and Italian Deli. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from New York Pizza and Italian Deli Web site: http://onsmartpages.com/newyorkpizzaanditaliandel
o Sue (2006, May 20). Natures Corner: Dolphins Have Names. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from Natures Corner Web site: http://www.naturescornermagazine.com/NaturesBlog/archives/2006/05/dolphins_have_n.html
o University of Edinburgh (2006). CSE: Peffermill Individual Sports Provision. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from University of Edinburgh: Centre for Sport and Excercise Web site: http://www.sport.ed.ac.uk/facilities/playing_fields/playing_fields_individualsports.shtml
o King, A (2007). Crystal Garden Ballroom for Catered Private Parties at Navy Pier Chicago from Phil Stefani Restaurants. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from Phil Stefani Signature Restaurants Web site: http://www.stefanirestaurants.com/crystal.htm
o Secrets of Hawaii - waikiki. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from Secrets of Hawaii Web site: http://www.portaloha.com/SecretsOfHawaii/Waikiki.htm
o Impex Design CPCR Express Delivery. Retrieved June 9, 2007, from CPCR-Express Web site: http://english.cpcr.ru/ponakladn.htm
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