KidzFrame: Supporting Awareness in the Daycare

2007

This paper examines the communication needs of busy parents that can be served by awareness systems: systems supporting a continuous and semi-automated flow of information about the activities of communicating individuals. We report an online survey involving 69 participants. This survey focused on whether the types of information offered by awareness systems as these are introduced in current research literature are appreciated by busy parents.

Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 2010

Does pervasive technology have a role to play in supporting the communication of busy couples? Especially when they are already living together and already have a high degree of awareness of each other’s rhythms of daily life, their whereabouts and needs? A two week long field study of an awareness system allowed eight working couples to automatically exchange place, activity and calendar information as well as messages and photos. Data analysis provides both qualitative and quantitative evidence which suggest strongly that such a system can provide support for availability, coordination, reassurance and affection for this group. Findings which inform the design of such systems are: the need for transitions in places instead of location information to support coordination, the two tracks of daily communication of busy parents (reassurance and emergency) and usability barriers in current mobile applications which prevent this group from engaging in photo sharing. The contexts and unexpected uses that participants found in the system are described in detail.

Mobile Technology for …, 2009

Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on …, 2009

Developments in ubiquitous and pervasive computing herald a future in which computation is embedded into our daily lives. Such a vision raises important questions about how people, especially families, will be able to engage with and trust such systems whilst ...

Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie, 2008

We hypothesized that advanced information and communication technology (ICT) would be acceptable to parents in a pediatric surgical, and diagnostic imaging day care setting.

2011

Upon leaving the hospital, parents of high-risk infants experience a variety of challenges in providing care at home. In this work, we present results from a qualitative study to understand the role of social interaction and information-sharing surrounding high-risk infants among both home caregivers and health professionals. These results demonstrate challenges in communication and social support for caregivers of these infants. Based on these results, we present design guidelines for collaborative communication technologies for this population and a prototype system design that demonstrates how these design guidelines might be met in a mobile application. Finally, we discuss how collaborative technologies can serve to improve communication with professionals as well as provide much-needed social support.

In an increasingly globalized world with English as a lingua franca, European countries are competing in their efforts for their populations to speak English. The main goal of this study was to compare the English writing proficiency of one class in the Basque Country and one in Sweden at the end of their compulsory education. Both classes took an essay test in which verb use, conjunction use, spelling and text length were measured. The Swedish students outperformed their Basque counterparts in almost every measured area, which was suggested to be due to a combination of teacher-related factors (methodology, command of the language, use of the language and learning environment) and external factors (language typology, language input and student motivation). The teaching skills and command of English of Basque teachers should be improved as well as audiovisual tools and communicative approach introduced in order to compensate for the lack of language input and language use possibilities. Learning of English as a foreign language is an imperative reality in a world largely shrinking with the advent of various revolutions, both socio-political and economic. However, it is seen that foreign language acquisition, especially of English, leaves a great deal to be desired as the learners so far in the geographical area of our study, i.e., Saudi Arabia, have failed to achieve native like fluency with the current teaching-learning practices. This raises questions as to the policies adopted vis-à-vis curriculum, pedagogy and most importantly, the stage at which foreign language learning is introduced in Saudi Arabia. The current study has undertaken an in-depth review of the available literature, which is followed up with modern testing methods to arrive at conclusions. It witnesses a dichotomy between speaking and writing abilities of college level young learners. The trend is towards a higher score on writing-ability tests as compared to the oral language proficiency tests. Thus a major communicative drawback is faced by the 'products' of this system of education, and numerous causes and remedies are suggested herein. Introduction The process known as " globalization " has increased the need for communication at a speed and at a reach unimaginable just 20 years ago and with the help of the Internet, computers and cell phones, we are being brought together politically, culturally, socially and economically. Eating a kiwi picked in New Zealand, chatting with somebody in Colombia and moving out to Spain for work are natural things that nobody raises an eyebrow for anymore. This reality puts new demands, one of which is the English language. English has established itself as the new lingua franca of the world (Ives, 2006:121-122) and has become an invaluable tool that grants access to professional and academic opportunities, literature, sports, movies, TV, music, games and an expanded social life with people from all around the world. Languages in general have now gained so much recognition that EU's goal is for every European citizen to speak two European languages besides their own. Writing is the other globalization demand. From being exclusive property of cultural and administrative elites in Ancient and Medieval times, and until its generalization among the population in the 19th-20th centuries, writing has been slowly increasing in importance. Writing is of so great value in our western society that it is nowadays one of the central goals of the school system because unlike oral language, written language is not naturally acquired but it has to be consciously studied. As Raimes (cited in Wahlström, 2006:3) puts it: 'An integral part of participating fully in a new cultural [language] is learning how to communicate when the other person is not right in front of us'. Furthermore, good reading and writing skills are needed to access knowledge and cope with the school system first and a professional life later. In fact, with literacy rates above 90% in all developed countries, being illiterate is a handicap to be avoided at all costs. English is the only foreign language taught from 4 th grade through the first year in college, in Saudi Arabia. Hence, all Saudi students would have studied English for at least nine years. This lengthy experience in English made the students able to demonstrate grammatical knowledge on a discrete-point grammar examination very well, but most of them lack the ability to speak English accurately and fluently. As Rao (2002) reports, students who have studied English for several years have gained knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, can read well, and get high marks in English exams. However, they lack good training in English listening and speaking skills; they are unable to use English for communication in their daily lives. Students' poor level of English proficiency has raised many concerns about English education in Saudi Arabia. A lot of attempts to promote students' communicative competence should be considered. These attempts have led to a real change in the methods of teaching to

Mesure et évaluation en éducation, 2007

Cette étude propose une analyse théorique du rôle de l'autoévaluation dans le développement des compétences réflexives et de la capacité à apprendre de l'expérience des stages de terrain des futurs enseignants. Nous mettons en évidence quatre conceptions de l'articulation théorie-pratique prévalant dans les discours scientifiques concernant la formation à l'enseignement : le référent de l'autoévaluation varie selon la conception de l'articulation théorie-pratique défendue. Nous approfondissons ensuite l'analyse critique des écrits de Schön et de Dewey : la réflexion sur l'action s'inscrit dans un projet d'autorégulation de l'action et nécessite par conséquent l'engagement de la personne dans une démarche autoévaluative. Cette étude identifie des conditions favorables à l'utilisation de l'autoévaluation pour stimuler la réflexion sur la pratique. Elle circonscrit également un écueil majeur à cette utilisation en situation d'évaluation certificative : le paradoxe « apprendre et réussir ».