We describe an interactive table designed for supporting face-to-face collaborative learning. The table, Reflect, addresses the issue of unbalanced participation during group discussions. By displaying on its surface a shared visualization of member participation, Reflect is meant to encourage participants to avoid the extremes of over-and under-participation. We report on a user study that validates some of our hypotheses on the effect the table would have on its users. Namely we show that Reflect leads to more balanced collaboration, but only under certain conditions. We also show different effects the table has on over-and under-participators.

Energy systems researchers are proposing a broad range of future smart energy infrastructures to promote more efficient management of energy resources. This paper considers how consumers might relate to these future smart grids within the UK. To address this challenge we exploited a combination of demonstration and animated sketches to convey the nature of a future smart energy infrastructure based on software agents. Users' reactions suggested that although they felt an obligation to engage with energy issues, they were principally disinterested. Users showed a considerable lack of trust in energy companies raising a dilemma of design. While users might welcome agents to help in engaging with complex energy infrastructures, they had little faith in those that might provide them. This suggests the need to consider how to design software agents to enhance trust in these socio-economic settings.

In the so called 'post-truth' era, characterized by a loss of public trust in various institutions, and the rise of 'fake news' disseminated via the internet and social media, individuals may face uncertainty about the veracity of information available, whether it be satire or malicious hoax. We investigate attitudes to news delivered by social media, and subsequent verification strategies applied, or not applied, by individuals. A survey reveals that two thirds of respondents regularly consumed news via Facebook, and that one third had at some point come across fake news that they initially believed to be true. An analysis task involving news presented via Facebook reveals a diverse range of judgement forming strategies, with participants relying on personal judgements as to plausibility and scepticism around sources and journalistic style. This reflects a shift away from traditional methods of accessing the news, and highlights the difficulties in combating the spread of fake news.

Abstract. In face-to-face collaborative learning, unbalanced participation often leads to the undersirable result of some participants experiencing lower learning outcomes. Providing feedback to the participants on the level of their participation could have a positive effect on the their ability to self-regulate, leading to a more balanced collaboration. We propose a new approach for providing this feedback that takes the shape of a meeting table with a reactive visualization displayed on its surface. The meeting table monitors the collaborative interaction taking place around it using embedded microphones and displays a real-time feedback to the participants on an array of LEDs, inviting them to balance their collaboration. We report on an ongoing study that currently shows a positive effect our table has on group regulation.

The assumed role of humans as controllers and instructors of machines is changing. As systems become more complex and incomprehensible to humans, it will be increasingly necessary for us to place confidence in intelligent interfaces and follow their instructions and recommendations. This type of relationship becomes particularly intricate when we consider significant numbers of humans and agents working together in collectives. While instruction-based interfaces and agents already exist, our understanding of them within the field of Human-Computer Interaction is still limited.As such, we developed a large-scale pervasive game called 'Cargo', where a semi-autonomous ruled-based agent distributes a number of text-to-speech instructions to multiple teams of players via their mobile phone as an interface. We describe how people received, negotiated and acted upon the instructions in the game both individually and as a team and how players initial plans and expectations shaped their understanding of the instructions.