Over the last decade, extensive growth in digital educational content has opened up new opportunities for teaching and learning. Despite such advancements, digital learning experiences often omit one ofour richest and earliest learning modalities - touch. This lack of haptic (touch) interaction creates a growing gap in supporting inclusive, embodied learning experiences digitally. Our research centers on the development ofinclusive learning tools that can flexibly adapt for use in different learning contexts to support learners with a wide range of needs, co-designed with students with disabilities. In this paper, we focus on the development of a tangible device for geometry learning - the Tangible Manipulative for Quadrilaterals (TMQ). We detail the design evolution of the TMQ and present two user studies investigating the affordances o ft h eI M and the user strategies employed when explored in isolation and in tandem with a two-dimensional touchscreen-based rendering ofa quadrilateral. Findings illustrate the affordances of the I M Oo v e r traditional, static media and its ability to serve as an inclusive geometry learning tool.
more »
« less
Haptic paradigms for multimodal interactive simulations
Touch is often omitted or viewed as unnecessary in digital learning. Lack of touch feedback limits the accessibility and multimodal capacity of digital educational content. Touchscreens with vibratory, haptic feedback are prevalent, yet this kind of feedback is often under-utilized. This work provides initial investigations into the design, development, and use of vibratory feedback within multimodal, interactive, educational simulations on touchscreen devices by learners with and without visual impairments. The objective of this work is to design and evaluate different haptic paradigms that could support interaction and learning in educational simulations. We investigated the implementation of four haptic paradigms in two physics simulations. Interviews were conducted with eight learners (five sighted learners; three learners with visual impairments) on one simulation and initial results are shared. We discuss the learner outcomes of each paradigm and how they impact design and development moving forward.
more »
« less
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10318226
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal on technology and persons with disabilities
- Volume:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2330-4219
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
more » « less
Introduction: Informational graphics and data representations (e.g., charts and figures) are critical for accessing educational content. Novel technologies, such as the multimodal touchscreen which displays audio, haptic, and visual information, are promising for being platforms of diverse means to access digital content. This work evaluated educational graphics rendered on a touchscreen compared to the current standard for accessing graphical content. Method: Three bar charts and geometry figures were evaluated on student ( N = 20) ability to orient to and extract information from the touchscreen and print. Participants explored the graphics and then were administered a set of questions (11–12 depending on graphic group). In addition, participants’ attitudes using the mediums were assessed. Results: Participants performed statistically significantly better on questions assessing information orientation using the touchscreen than print for both bar chart and geometry figures. No statistically significant difference in information extraction ability was found between mediums on either graphic type. Participants responded significantly more favorably to the touchscreen than the print graphics, indicating them as more helpful, interesting, fun, and less confusing. Discussion: Accessing and orienting to information was highly successful by participants using the touchscreen, and was the preferred means of accessing graphical information when compared to the print image for both geometry figures and bar charts. This study highlights challenges in presenting graphics both on touchscreens and in print. Implications for Practitioners: This study offers preliminary support for the use of multimodal, touchscreen tablets as educational tools. Student ability using touchscreen-based graphics seems to be comparable to traditional types of graphics (large print and embossed, tactile graphics), although further investigation may be necessary for tactile graphic users. In summary, educators of students with blindness and visual impairments should consider ways to utilize new technologies, such as touchscreens, to provide more diverse access to graphical information.
-
more » « less
Graphical representations are ubiquitous in the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, these materials are often not accessible to the over 547,000 students in the United States with blindness and significant visual impairment, creating barriers to pursuing STEM educational and career pathways. Furthermore, even when such materials are made available to visually impaired students, access is likely through literalized modes (e.g., braille, verbal description), which is problematic as these approaches (1) do not directly convey spatial information and (2) are different from the graphic-based materials used by students without visual impairment. The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate a universally accessible system for communicating graphical representations in STEM classes. By combining a multisensory vibro-audio interface and an app running on consumer mobile hardware, the system is meant to work equally well for all students, irrespective of their visual status. We report the design of the experimental system and the results of an experiment where we compared learning performance with the system to traditional (visual or tactile) diagrams for sighted participants (
n = 20) and visually impaired participants (n = 9) respectively. While the experimental multimodal diagrammatic system (MDS) did result in significant learning gains for both groups of participants, the results also revealed no statistically significant differences in the capacity for learning from graphical information across both comparison groups. Likewise, there were no statistically significant differences in the capacity for learning from graphical information between the stimuli presented through the experimental system and the traditional (visual or tactile) diagram control conditions, across either participant group. These findings suggest that both groups were able to learn graphical information from the experimental system as well as traditional diagram presentation materials. This learning modality was supported without the need for conversion of the diagrams to make them accessible for participants who required tactile materials. The system also provided additional multisensory information for sighted participants to interpret and answer questions about the diagrams. Findings are interpreted in terms of new universal design principles for producing multisensory graphical representations that would be accessible to all learners. -
We present a multimodal physics simulation, including visual and auditory (description, sound effects, and sonification) modalities to support the diverse needs of learners. We describe design challenges and solutions, and findings from final simulation evaluations with learners with and without visual impairments. We also share insights from completing research with members of diverse learner groups (N = 52). This work presents approaches for designing and evaluating accessible interactive simulations for learners with diverse needs.more » « less
-
A joint project of design-based educational researchers, mechatronic engineers, and digital accessibility experts has created a new genre of pedagogical technologies — hybrid material–digital multimodal artifacts for collaborative learning of sensorily diverse students in inclusive classrooms. Here we present the Quad, a manipulable quadrilateral hand-held object that is linked in real time to its digital screen-based simulation, whose own transformation, in turn, activates content-oriented voice description and output sonification. Pilot studies with blind and visually-impaired student-participants suggest the Quad’s potential in grounding geometric reasoning, insight, and generalization in exploratory haptic–proprioceptive investigation. In its conception and development, the Quad exemplifies the ethical, philosophical, and theoretical perspectives of its collaborating designers respecting all children’s universal right to access and participate in cultural practices, including techno–scientific activities. As researchers, we harness technological innovations to realize moral obligations and, through that, to promote the study of human perception, action, and cognition. We look forward to mutual growth of our research program along with parallel efforts advancing an Italian project to promote teachers’ pre-service training and professional development surrounding implications of the embodiment turn in the cognitive sciences for school-based instructional practice.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
