Topic Introductions (Week 3)

Today's class was basically an introduction to the Week 4 topic, "User Experience", for the presenters of the topic as well as the whole class. We were given the essential readings for this topic and encouraged to learn more about this topic.

In Katie's explanation she defined User Experience as "The way people feel about a product or device and their pleasure and satisfaction when looking at it, using it, touching it, sharing it". This I believe is the total experience whether good or bad gotten when using a product.

The goals of every user experience vary from the good aspects, such as;

• Satisfaction
• Excitement
• Creativity
• Fulfilment

to the bad aspects, such as;

• Boredom
• Frustration
• Childishness

We also tried to differentiate between usability goals of a product and its user experience goals by giving examples as well as having a discussion about this. The group presenting this topic was advised to state clearly the definitions of User Experience and to give good examples of methods used to accomplish this.

I am particularly excited about this presentation because most of the guys in this group are good presenters.

Katie then started the introduction for the "Ubiquitous Computing" which could also be called "Calm Computing". This essentially means technologies that do not exist until when they are need. Example of this was the video shown about Haptic Wrist Watch which enables the user know if there is any activity in his Email box without being too obvious that the user is actually checking his Email box.I am really interested in learning more about this topic because this was the topic that 2 groups had to flip a coin for.


There was an introduction for "Technology Enhanced Learning"  which is basically any form of learning that is technology-assisted. This is a very broad topic with various aspects to it which includes E-Learning, Intelligence Tutoring Systems and Games-based Learning.
We then discussed the various theories involved with this topic, which includes;

• Behaviourist: This is the theory that is based on the belief that learning is the acquisition of new behaviours through conditioning. Users of this theory believe that learner should be given information, tested on this information and then rewarded accordingly.
• Cognitivist: It is believed that learning is an internal mental process and learning processes are designed with knowledge of  cognitive processes especially memory.
• Constructivist: This theory is based on the belief that knowledge can be constructed and not transferred from a teacher to a learner. An example is the use of plays as learning activities.                 

This topic is the one topic dear to my heart as I am more interested in the findings of the presenting groups as well learning more as I read the essential reading.

In all, Today's class was enlightening and I am looking forward to hearing the presentations. Here are the links for the introduction for all the above mentioned topics;

https://studydirect.sussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=347709
https://studydirect.sussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=347712
https://studydirect.sussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=345645 

Context (Week 2)

Class was moved from Fulton to Pevensey 1 today, and the topic was "Context". There was a general discussion about the word, its definition and how it can be used in different perspectives. 

It was defined as the environment or condition or situation where a circumstance occurred but its definition is also subject to its usage, hence, Context has a lot of definitions. It was shown that this particular word is the basis for Ubiquitous computing. Its relevance can be seen in a lot of areas which was sub-grouped into various stages which includes;

• During requirements gathering.
• During design.
• During evaluation.    

The nature of knowledge (ontology) and the ways of generation of knowledge (epistemology) determines how researchers view about context. These views can be classified into 2:

• Positivist: Dourish, P. (2004) explains that "Positivists theories seek to reduce social phenomena to essences or simplified models that capture underlying patterns", which simply means that Positivists believe that there is an underlying truth which can be discovered only through the use of scientific methods which involves the observation and measurement of phenomena.
• Phenomenological: Dourish, P. (2004) also stated that "Abstract categories ...are things that need to be imposed on the world through our interactions with it and with each other, rather than things that exist within it". This means that knowledge cannot be gotten by measuring phenomena only, findings must be subjectively interpreted and that accepted knowledge is an agreement of interpretations.

There was a discussion about the above stated views and if we agreed with them. Various papers were cited and explained, there was also an explanation of how Context related to a lot of themes which included Technology Enhanced Learning, HCI in the wild and Ubiquitous computing.

For a small word, Context has a vast definition and meaning. Although I understood the meaning I could not really grasp its application and the explanation of the different views (extra reading required).

I had a great time in class today, learnt a lot but I definitely need to go study more about this word and its use.

This is the most relatable example I could find and it really made me understand the whole idea of context.

Introductory Class (Week 1)

Today I went for HCCS Advanced Topic class at Fulton. I was actually skeptical about this course since I did not do HCI in the first term but I am keeping an open mind, after all I am here to learn.

First of all, the timing of the course is so wrong but I enjoyed seeing a young lecturer, now I am fired up to go do my own PHD course. I enjoyed the fact that the class was not too formal; hence, I felt relaxed and enjoyed the class. I sat with my friend and I made a new friend, Marie, I guess everything is going well.

The lecturer, Katie, started asking about our expectations for the course; I just explained that I am hoping to pass the course as I am still not sure if I made the right decision. She also asked what our fears were and a guy stated the obvious that we did not want to fail.

There was a brief description about the course and what to expect. She also told us to start the reflective diary and explained how assessments would be made. We were shared into groups and we chose our presentation topics. There was a funny scene when two groups were arguing over a particular topic which was resolved by flipping of a coin (I love the class already). Katie also gave us where to do our literature searches and where to get materials for further reading.

All in all, today was quite educative and entertaining and being open-minded with my course choice is actually paying off. I believe I would learn great things in this course and probably meet good people. I am also hoping to get an "A" in this course....................
Here is the link for the slides for this class;
https://studydirect.sussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=342906