Using Gamification to Motivate Students with Dyslexia
Learning Facilitaton
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Gooch, Daniel
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Vasalou, Asimina
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Benton, Laura
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Khaled, Rilla
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.969-980
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: The concept of gamification is receiving increasing attention, particularly
for its potential to motivate students. However, to date the majority of
studies in the context of education have predominantly focused on University
students. This paper explores how gamification could potentially benefit a
specific student population, children with dyslexia who are transitioning from
primary to secondary school. Two teachers from specialist dyslexia teaching
centres used classDojo, a gamification platform, during their teaching sessions
for one term. We detail how the teachers appropriated the platform in different
ways and how the students discussed classDojo in terms of motivation. These
findings have subsequently informed a set of provisional implications for
gamification distilling opportunities for future pedagogical uses, gamification
design for special education and methodological approaches to how gamification
is studied.
Problematizing cultural appropriation
Research paper presentations
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Vasalou, Asimina
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Khaled, Rilla
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Gooch, Daniel
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Benton, Laura
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human
Interaction in Play
2014-10-19
p.267-276
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Cultural appropriation in games entails the taking of knowledge, artifacts
or expression from a culture and recontextualizing it within game structures.
While cultural appropriation is a pervasive practice in games, little attention
has been given to the ethical issues that emerge from such practices with
regards to how culture is portrayed. This paper problematizes cultural
appropriation in the context of a serious game for children inspired by
Día de los Muertos, a Mexican festival focused on remembrance of the
dead. Taking a research through design approach, we demonstrate that
recontextualised cultural elements can retain their basic, original meaning.
However, we also find that cultural appropriation is inevitable and its ethical
implications can be far reaching. In our context, ethical concerns arose as a
result of children's beliefs that death affects prominent others and their
destructive ways of coping with death. We argue that revealing emergent ethical
concerns is imperative before deciding how and in what way to encourage
culturally authentic narratives.
Situated design for creative, reflective, collaborative, technology-mediated
learning
Reflection
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Dadzie, Aba-Sah
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Benton, Laura
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Vasalou, Asimina
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Beale, Russell
Proceedings of DIS'14: Designing Interactive Systems
2014-06-21
v.1
p.83-92
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: STEM subjects are typically seen as boring, geeky, difficult to learn and
with low relevance to real life. To counter this opinion, we aim to foster
engagement with and curiosity about STEM subjects, through an approach to
learning that facilitates the construction of understanding of key, threshold
concepts (TCs). To achieve this, we engender creativity by using performance as
a means of expression. We demonstrate how the process of collaboratively
crafting a video to explain a TC students have been introduced to helps them to
break down the concept, and through reflection on each piece of knowledge about
it, build understanding about its different aspects, and further develop their
knowledge. We aim through this approach to encourage students to work together
to discover, explore, engage in lateral, visual thinking, and therefore develop
deep, shared understanding of TCs in STEM subjects.
Understanding and fostering children's storytelling during game narrative
design
Thursday short papers
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Benton, Laura
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Vasalou, Asimina
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Gooch, Daniel
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Khaled, Rilla
Proceedings of ACM IDC'14: Interaction Design and Children
2014-06-17
p.301-304
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Children typically have extensive expertise and experiences of computer
games, which can enable them to make valuable contributions when involved in
the design of games. Within this paper we discuss our approach to the
involvement of children in the game design process, specifically to inform a
game narrative. We describe two design workshops with children, which focused
on the design of the narrative within a literacy game based on the Day of the
Dead festival. We describe how the knowledge that resulted from these workshops
furthered our understanding of children's storytelling schema and preferences
for games as well as their approach to story creation and expression during the
game design process. We also discuss how our findings informed an initial set
of design principles for guiding narrative design within children's games as
well as recommendations for including storytelling design activities within the
technology design process.
Diversity for design: a framework for involving neurodiverse children in the
technology design process
Participatory design
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Benton, Laura
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Vasalou, Asimina
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Khaled, Rilla
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Johnson, Hilary
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Gooch, Daniel
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.3747-3756
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: The neurodiversity movement seeks to positively reframe certain neurological
conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and dyslexia, by
concentrating on their strengths. In recent years, neurodiverse children have
increasingly been involved in the technology design process, but the design
approaches adopted have focused mostly on overcoming difficulties of working
with these children, leaving their strengths untapped. We present a new
participatory design (PD) framework, Diversity for Design (D4D), which provides
guidance for technology designers working with neurodiverse children in
establishing PD methods that capitalize on children's strengths and also
support potential difficulties. We present two case studies of use of the D4D
framework, involving children with ASD and dyslexia, showing how it informed
the development and refinement of PD methods tailored to these populations. In
addition, we show how to apply the D4D framework to other neurodiverse
populations.
Developing IDEAS: supporting children with autism within a participatory
design team
Health & children
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Benton, Laura
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Johnson, Hilary
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Ashwin, Emma
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Brosnan, Mark
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Grawemeyer, Beate
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2012 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2012-05-05
v.1
p.2599-2608
© Copyright 2012 ACM
Summary: IDEAS (Interface Design Experience for the Autistic Spectrum) is a method
for involving children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the technology
design process. This paper extends the IDEAS method to enable use with a design
team, providing specific added support for communication and collaboration
difficulties that may arise. A study to trial this extended method was
conducted with two design teams, each involving three children with ASD, in a
series of six, weekly design sessions focused on designing a math game. The
findings from this study reveal that the children were able to successfully
participate in the sessions and collaborate with other children. The findings
also highlight the positive experience that involvement in such a process can
offer this population.
Supporting children with autism to participate throughout a design process
Video presentations
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Grawemeyer, Beate
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Ashwin, Emma
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Benton, Laura
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Brosnan, Mark
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Johnson, Hilary
Extended Abstracts of ACM CHI'12 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2012-05-05
v.2
p.1449-1450
© Copyright 2012 ACM
Summary: A deficit in social communication is one of a number of core features of
autism that can result in the exclusion of individuals with autism from the
design process. Individuals with autism can be highly motivated by new
technology, and the design of technologies for individuals with autism could
potentially benefit from their direct input. We structured participatory design
sessions using Cooperative Inquiry specifically to support the needs of
individuals with autism. This video highlights how, when appropriately
supported, the challenges of the social communication deficits associated with
autism can be overcome and individuals with autism can take a full and active
role within the design process.
IDEAS: an interface design experience for the autistic spectrum
Works-in-progress
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Benton, Laura
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Johnson, Hilary
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Brosnan, Mark
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Ashwin, Emma
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Grawemeyer, Beate
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2011-05-07
v.2
p.1759-1764
© Copyright 2011 ACM
Summary: Designing products and services to meet the specific requirements of
children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be difficult due to their wide
ranging and individual needs. Participatory Design (PD) is a design method that
could be used to better meet these needs, by giving this population an
opportunity to directly contribute to software designed for their use.
Researchers have begun to involve children with ASD in the design process, but
there is not yet a design method specifically adapted to support the potential
difficulties this group may experience during PD sessions. This paper presents
a new design method, IDEAS, which attempts to fulfill this need. The
development of this method is described along with an initial pilot undertaken
to determine the feasibility of using this method with an ASD population. The
results indicate that the majority of children with ASD were able to produce a
successful final design using this method, and have the potential to be
involved in PD sessions as part of a design team.
