LSRI: Constraining 'natural' user interfaces to support collaborative learning

Yvonne Rogers

The Open University

There is much interest in how 'natural' user interfaces, such as multi-touch surfaces, can help students learn and work together. A claim is that they provide more opportunities for flexible forms of collaboration compared with other technologies (e.g. PCs, mobiles) enabling co-located learners to interact more smoothly. However, there seems to be no clear rationale for why these new kinds of interfaces provide an apparently superior means for collaboration. In my talk I will describe a new framework we have been developing, based on behavioural mechanisms and constraint, that characterizes how multi-user technologies can be designed effectively to support desired forms of collaboration. I also challenge the idea that interaction across such interfaces is necessarily natural and instead argue that it is only through the judicious use of constraints that effective collaboration will ensue.

This event will be live streamed via http://www.lsri.nottingham.ac.uk/live/

This talk will take place in Room 35a, Flexible Learning Room, LSRI, The Exchange, Jubilee Campus