Teaching Technology and User Experience - Pedagogic Point of View of the Evaluation
Author(s):
Sari Yrjänäinen (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

16 SES 04, ICT, Pedagogy and Innovation

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
09:00-10:30
Room:
DSC03 (Smart Class III)
Chair:
Jo Tondeur

Contribution

Mwanza and Engeström (2003) state that as a result, ICT is being heralded as a catalyst for innovations in teaching and learning. For developers of educational technology, this perspective highlights the need to produce computer-based tools those are pedagogically adept and functionally relevant to the context and purpose of use. In practice, this entails exploiting the connectivity of psychological and pedagogical concerns whilst taking into consideration technology capabilities.

 

Much study which is connected to the visuality in the use of especially the social medium and in the use of web-based applications has been conducted. (Vaughn et al., 2009; Anglin, Towers & Levine, 2001). Based on the scales of student’s evaluation of teaching effectiveness and user satisfaction, Wang (2003) conducted an exploratory study directed at e-learners. The results of his work showed that a items could be classified into the following dimensions: content, personalization, learning community and learner interface.

Nokelainen has presented the criteria for evaluating the usability of digital learning material (2005). In that project the criteria had two parts: technical and pedagogical usability. The technical usability components were: 1. accessibility, 2. learnability and memorability, 3. user control, 4. help, 5. graphical layout, 6. reliability, 7. consistency, 8. efficiency, 9. memory load and 10. errors. Components of the pedagogical usability were: 1. learner control, 2. learner activity, 3. cooperative learning, 4. goal orientation, 5. applicability, 6. added value, 7. motivation, 8. valuation of previous knowledge, 9. flexibility and 10. feedback.

However, it is started in this article from the assumption that the technology based studying environment can be also other than web-materials. Multisensory active learning spaces contain the technology with the help of which the physical learning state the one supporting the pupil is made spatially, temporally and visually. The learner can control systems on his whole body (motion control), on his speech (voice control) or he can communicate with his environment by mobile for example utilizing the NFC technology. In these environments, technology, compatibility, usability and usefulness of the assessment becomes complex. On the other hand is expected to technical, usability and user experience, but on the other hand in the school environment are important pedagogical points of view.

In particular, user experience is still hard to evaluate. Turunen and al. (2009) have developed a systematic way to evaluate the user experience of the technical implementation needs. SUXES is an evaluation method for collecting subjective metrics with user experiments. It captures both user expectations and user experiences, making it possible to analyze the state of the application and its interaction methods, and compare results.

To develop a robust checklist of technology-based education system, various theories are taken into consideration; curriculum theories and instructional design theories, general learning theories, and subject matter learning theories. Curriculum theories, on the one hand, relate to what to teach in the domain concerned. Thus, in this presentation research question is what kind of things the teacher pays attention to when using technology in education.

Method

In the study nine subject teachers (at upper secondary school, subjects are mathematics, physics, English, Finnish) were interviewed in Finland. They were asked from the use of the technology in the teaching. It was clarified what points made the teacher use the technology and on the other hand reasons why the technology was not used. The analysis is based on the hermeneutical and autobiographical approach, and the methodology of analyses is qualitative. Each interview lasted about an hour and they were recorded and transcribed. The interview was semi-structured.

Expected Outcomes

The main positive things were the possibility of varying teaching different types of learners, learner-lateral working methods of use and ease of use. Students' responsibility for their own learning process can be increased, subject connecting the student's daily life increase, and students working together to increase. The teachers told us the reasons that prevented the use of technology. The most important one are curriculum goals and timing. Ready-made learning environments were considered troublesome, because they did not allow the freedom of the teacher's own pedagogical thinking. Students' incompetence was a challenge, because the teachers said that technology is not enough time to teach, because the center of gravity in high school lesson must be in the content. Technical learning environments biggest flaw is the lack of the subject content. Teachers' role is to teach and not to produce the material. If a system does not contain contents, its usability will be a zero. Various subjects including subject specific needs will determine the expectations that the technical applications and hardware set. Foreign-language teaching materials in teaching limited language skills of teachers and students.

References

Anglin, G. J., Towers, R. L., & Levie, W. H. (2001). Visual message design and learning: The role of static and dynamic illustrations. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology, 26, 755-794. Mwanza, D. & Engeström, Y. (2003). Pedagogical Adeptness in the Design of E-learning Environments: Experiences from the Lab@Future Project. In A. Rossett (Ed.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2003 (pp. 1344-1347). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Nokelainen, P. (2005). The Technical and Pedagogical Usability Criteria for Digital Learning Material. In P. Kommers & G. Richards (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2005 (pp. 1011-1016). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Turunen, M.; Hakulinen, J.; Melto,A.; Heimonen, T.; Laivo, T. and Hella, J. 2009. SUXES - user experience evaluation method for spoken and multimodal interaction. In Proceedings of IN- TERSPEECH 2009, pages 2567 -2570. ISCA, 2009. Vaughn, S., Martinez, L., Linan-Thompson, S., Reutebuch, C., Carlson, C., & Francis, D. (2009). Enhancing social studies vocabulary and comprehension for 7th grade English language learners: Findings from two experimental studies. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2, 297–324 Wang, Y.-S. (2003). Assessment of learner satisfaction with asynchronous electronic learning systems. Information & Management, 41(1), 75–86.

Author Information

Sari Yrjänäinen (presenting / submitting)
University of Tampere, Finland, Finland

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