Developing an Interactive Tabletop Mediated Activity to Induce Collaboration by Implementing Design Considerations Based on Cooperative Learning Principles

Abstract

Constructive collaboration can be a difficult matter. For this reason, we are implementing and studying an interactive-tabletop-mediated activity that aims at inducing collaboration among participants. The resulting activity 'Orbitia' is designed as a serious game. Participants are asked to act as a spacemining crew, which has to collect minerals with a rover and rely on a cameradrone for reconnaissance, while keeping the rover out of harm and managing limited resources. In this paper we provide an account of how we designed Orbitia's pedagogical structuring by relying on the Johnsons' cooperative learning approach whose fundamental concept is "positive interdependence". More particularly, we show how we worked on resource, role and task interdependence to design three collaboration-inducing 'flagship' devices: the roversteering-device (RSD), the item-locating-device (ILD) and the responsibilityactivating-device (RAD).

Reading Aloud in Human-Computer Interaction: How Spatial Distribution of Digital Text Units at an Interactive Tabletop Contributes to the Participants’ Shared Understanding

“…The 'info' tangible is also needed (on the table) for the other tangible widget ('drone' tangible) to display its attached written informing. In the subsequent version of Orbitia (described in [13]) we removed the info-widget and replaced it with distributed touch info-buttons. 180-degree rotation), the harder respectively the more strenuous it is to read them 3 .…”

“…180-degree rotation), the harder respectively the more strenuous it is to read them 3 . In contrast, distributed written informings (locally allocated according to each player's role in the game activity) should not be too easily accessible for other players in order for the informational asymmetry to induce collaborative exchange within the group [13]. Therefore, distributed informings face the respective individual player (and reader, see Fig.…”

“…Additionally, multiple essential resources like written informings are made accessible in different ways. They are designed to be either as equally 'shared' as possible, or locally 'distributed' among the participants across the interface according to their roles in the game [13]. The above-mentioned design implementations create an asymmetry of knowledge among the participants that aims at inducing collaboration within the group.…”

“…6c) and produce the reading (aloud) of the two words ('energy control', l. 14). Ted's response is designed for Liv to inform her about his understanding of what she is responsible of ('you have energy control', l. [13][14]. He is, on the one hand, responding to her question raised if her task in this game and player configuration was to control the steering all by herself ('it's me who could control it', l. [11][12], and, on the other hand, providing her with the information about what her personal station's label is actually saying.…”

“…Within the pause of Ted's above-described utterance, Bob initiates an utterance himself, overlapping with Ted's read-aloud part (l. 14). In particular, not only the realization of both utterances slightly overlaps, but also their content is partly congruent: Bob and Ted both utter 'you have energy' (l. [13][14][15].…”