Search results for "Interaction"

Mobile media, gender, and power in rural India

2019

This article traces the diffuse connections between mobility and power by exploring how mobile phone use contributed to gendered power relations in rural India. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork on the use of mobile phones, conducted periodically between 2005 and 2013 in the village of Janta in West Bengal, India, and compared to earlier fieldwork in Janta, before the village had any phone system. Analysis of the increased mobility reveals how mobile phone use emerges within interconnected, changing fields of power. The political sphere earlier perceived as predominantly local was replaced by translocal political practices characterized by increasing mobility. Although new political pra…

Why Study Online in Upper Secondary School? Qualitative Analysis of Online Learning Experiences

2015

In Finland, online learning has become more common in recent years. In this study, we examined why adult students chose to study online for upper secondary school. The research also focused on the support needed for learning from a special education perspective. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using an electronic questionnaire. In total, 58 students responded. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the content analysis technique. The findings indicate that the main reasons for online studies are similar in Finland to those found internationally: flexibility of timetables, the student’s health condition, and family situations. The findings also indicate that a student’s…

Warm experts for elderly users : who are they and what do they do?

2018

This paper examines “warm experts”—that is, nonprofessional persons who help inexperienced users come to terms with digital devices—and their significance for the use of digital media in everyday life by elderly Swedes. We analyze data from a national survey (N = 1264) and from qualitative, semistructured interviews with 18 elderly Swedes (aged 65+). Our data reveal that the warm expert usually is a closelyrelated person, often a child or grandchild, who is strongly involved in nearly every stage of technology domestication, from appropriation (i.e., identifying the need, buying the item, and installing and adjusting it) to incorporation (i.e., choosing and downloading suitable apps, teachi…

Codesigning technology for a voluntary-sector organization

2019

© 2019 Khushnood Naqshbandi, Simon Hoermann, David Milne, Dorian Peters, Benjamin Davies, Sophie Potter, & Rafael A. Calvo. This paper presents an investigation into the experiences and perceptions of volunteers and community managers of an Australian voluntary-sector organization that supports young help-seeking people. The process focused specifically on the design of a chat tool, a rudimentary version of which was conceptualized and tested during a trial completed prior to this study. The process explored the motivations and experiences of these volunteers using a codesign approach, which led to the development of specific features of the chat tool that were tailored to the nature of the…

Help! Is my Chatbot Falling into the Uncanny Valley? : An Empirical Study of User Experience in Human-Chatbot Interaction

2019

Original article available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17011/ht/urn.201902201607 Advances in artificial intelligence strengthen chatbots’ ability to resemble human conversational agents. For some application areas, it may be tempting not to be transparent regarding a conversational agent’s nature as chatbot or human. However, the uncanny valley theory suggests that such lack in transparency may cause uneasy feelings in the user. In this study, we combined quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate this issue. First, we used a 2 x 2 experimental research design (n = 28) to investigate effects of lack in transparency on the perceived pleasantness of the conversation in addition to percei…

Teachers' contribution to the social life in Finnish preschool classrooms during structured learning sessions

2013

This study aimed to clarify and deepen the knowledge on and understanding of the role that teachers’ practices during teacher-led learning sessions play in creating and enhancing social life in Finnish preschool classrooms. Observational data pertaining to 20 preschool teachers were analysed according to the principles of thematic analysis. Four identified themes reflected teachers’ contribution to social life in preschool classrooms in relation to their practices under different group compositions: (1) managing children’s peer-relations; (2) promoting the coherence of the group; (3) supporting individual child as a part of group; and (4) discussing friendship and respectfulness. As a concl…

The organizational use of online stock photos: The impact of representing senior citizens as eternally youthful

2018

The digital divide due to age is declining quickly. But this does not necessarily mean that the willingness to use stock photos depicting older people accompanying digital information is the same among all senior citizens. Three research questions are at the core of this paper: (1) To which extent can various senior citizens (women and men, younger old and older old, living alone or together, full of vitality or fragile) identify with online stock photos of older people accompanying information about pensions, income, health and housing?, (2) Which are the connotations of the visual signs used in such stock photos? and (3) What are the policy implications for organizations aiming at offerin…

INVESTIGATING PERCEPTUAL AND BIOLOGICAL FEEDBACKS IN HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION

The Human Robot Interaction (HRI) is a new discipline that has attracted more attention in the last years due to the increasing presence of robots in people’s everyday life. It is a field of study dedicated to understanding, designing, and evaluating robotic systems for use by or with humans. Interaction, by definition, requires communication between robots and humans. A social robot is an autonomous or semi-autonomous robot capable of interacting and communicating with humans or other autonomous physical agents following social behaviours and rules related to its specific role. In order to interact effectively with the human being, a robot must be able to decode the complex system of human…

Toward hyper-realistic and interactive social VR experiences in live TV scenarios

2022

© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. Social Virtual Reality (VR) allows multiple distributed users getting together in shared virtual environments to socially interact and/or collaborate. This article explores the applicability and potential of Social VR in the broadcast sector, focusing on a live TV show use case. For such a purpose, a novel and ligh…

ADI DESIGN INDEX 2017

2017

ADI Design Index è la selezione annuale del miglior design italiano ed è parte integrante del sistema di selezione del Premio Compasso d’Oro ADI: ogni anno, grazie all’Osservatorio Permanente del Design ADI – un gruppo di lavoro costituito da oltre cento esperti, anche esterni all’associazione – prende in esame su tutto il territorio italiano il design dei nuovi prodotti messi in produzione. Dopo una strutturata selezione (commissioni territoriali, tematiche e comitato di selezione finale), i migliori prodotti di design vengono presentati, con un commento critico che evidenzia i motivi della scelta, su ADI Design Index. I volumi diventano la base su cui lavora la giuria internazionale del C…