We shall discuss ways of enriching courses on Computers and Society and Computer Ethics to better engage and stimulate students, including those from Computer Science as well as other disciplines. This topic is significant because society is experiencing increasing stress due to data breaches, privacy invasions, fake news, election hacking, corporate concentration with increased power by a few dominant high-tech firms; and recent advances in AI. Based upon participant interest, we shall discuss and share experiences dealing with issues such as: 1) prerequisites, 2) kinds of assignments and projects; 3) teaching materials including media; 4) the mix of individual and group assignments; 5) how to handle the increasing numbers of desirable topics; 6) how much of the course to focus on AI; 7) methods of teaching ethics; 8) level at which to teach the course, including use in secondary schools; 9) differences between CS courses and general education courses; 10) integration with other CS courses; 11) follow-on options for students wanting to learn more. BOF attendees will be able to hear multiple viewpoints and connect with other people in similar situations, so they can share resources and techniques for teaching such courses. The audience is expected to consist of professors and lecturers who teach, are planning to, or are considering teaching such courses.

Adoption and use of novel technology by the institutionalized 'oldest old' (80+) is understudied. This population is the fastest growing demographic group in developed countries, providing design opportunities and challenges for HCI. Since the recruitment of oldest old people is challenging, research tends to focus on older adults (65+) and their use of and attitudes towards existing communication technologies, or on their caregivers and social ties. Our study deployed a novel communication appliance among five frail oldest old people living in a long-term care facility, which included field observations and usability and accessibility tests. Our findings suggest factors that facilitate and hinder the adoption of communication technologies, such as social, attitudinal, digital literacy, physical, and usability. We also discuss issues that arise in studying technology adoption by the oldest old, including usability and accessibility testing, and suggest solutions that may be helpful to HCI researchers working with this population.

Large numbers of individuals, many of them senior citizens, live in social isolation. This typically leads to loneliness, depression, and vulnerability, and subsequently to other negative health consequences. We report on research focused on understanding the communication needs of people in environments associated with social isolation and loneliness, and how technology facilitates social connection. Our work consists of successive iterations of field studies and technology prototype design, deployment, and analysis. Particular attention is paid to seniors in retirement communities and in long-term care settings (nursing homes). We present design implications for technology to enable seniors' social connections, the "InTouch" prototype that satisfies most of the implications, and a report on one older adult's experience of InTouch.

Reading from devices such as Kindles, Nooks, and tablets (“e-readers”) is an increasingly common practice. A primary reason users purchase e-readers is to read for pleasure, as opposed to reading for work or school purposes. With paper, people sometimes read together from a single book (e.g., reading a bedtime story with a child) – a practice we call partnered reading. This practice, and the goals of e-reading for pleasure more generally, remain underexplored in the HCI literature. This paper contributes findings from a deployment study wherein participants used an e-reader application to read with a partner. These findings (a) provide descriptive accounts of how people use e-readers to read together, and (b) identify opportunities to improve the design of e-readers to support partnered e-reading for pleasure.

Reading is an activity that is not only informative or pleasurable, but can have significant social benefits. Especially in a family setting, it is part of the interaction between children and their parents, it helps create a bond between children and their grandparents, and even bring adults and their older parents closer. However, with families increasingly living or spending time in different locations or managing busy schedules that afford very little time together, the social opportunities enabled by reading are often lost. Furthermore, reading can be a challenge for older adults or for those with impaired eyesight. To address these problems, we are proposing ALLT -- an Accessible, Large-Print, Listening and Talking e-book. ALLT is a tablet-based e-reading application that enhances the capabilities of e-book readers through customizable and intelligent accessibility features. It provides support for asynchronous "reading together" by synchronizing the audio recording of one user with the text that is later read by another user. This addresses the needs of a variety of users, from visually impaired adults reading together with a loved one, to children being able to replay an interactive story previously read together with their grandparents. In this demo paper we present ALLT's features and detail how they support asynchronously reading together.

Chronic pain is an illness that affects nearly a third of senior citizens. Uncontrolled chronic pain can manifest constantly and/or intermittently, and can disrupt seniors' ability to plan or to maintain synchronous and scheduled contact with others. Such disruptions can expose seniors to stigma from others who do not understand this illness, social isolation, and a range of challenges to their social autonomy. We present results from an interview study of 27 seniors with chronic pain exploring how they mitigate and manage these disruptions in their lives. Drawing on Goffman's theory of impression management, we found that participants invested significant effort into controlling both the context of interactions and others' expectations, in order to mitigate the potential negative social consequences of disruptions. In performing this work, seniors were selective about what information they revealed to others about their chronic pain and availability. Given such efforts, seniors with chronic pain have unique needs for technologies to support their social interactions.

Many people cannot communicate effectively with those around them. The causes vary but several tools and strategies can support their communication. These tools, which collectively fall under the banner of Assistive and Augmentative Communication (AAC), are rarely adaptive. Of those that are, few provide context-based or just-in-time vocabulary support to users even though the proliferation of smartphones makes this possible. To meet this need, we developed four algorithms to retrieve relevant vocabulary from Internet-based corpora. We used discourse completion tasks to evaluate each algorithm's ability to identify appropriate vocabulary across a set of specific contexts. The results indicate that our approach identifies appropriate context-specific words that complement general AAC vocabularies: when combined with a typical base vocabulary, the algorithms outperformed the support provided by the base vocabulary alone. They did this by adding small targeted vocabularies.

Research has shown that personal memory technologies are a promising way to address the needs of older adults with memory impairments. In this article, we review three recently completed studies that evaluated technologies for personal memories intended for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In the first study, we worked with 12 participants with AD or MCI and their families to construct DVD-based Multimedia Biographies that depicted prominent events, people, and places from the participant's past. We then evaluated over a period of 6 months psychosocial effects that viewing the biographies had on the participants and their family members. These effects included stimulating reminiscence of past events, triggering predominantly positive emotions of happiness and occasional moments of sadness, and engaging conversations with family members. In our second study, we designed a home-based ambient display that allowed a man with AD to similarly review his past life, in com...

Increasingly, systems are being developed and used in ways that involve end of life issues such as death, dying, and bereavement. Yet design considerations and guidelines for technologists working in this sensitive area are not well-established. We therefore report on exploratory fieldwork consisting of focus groups, observations, and consultation with bereavement experts aimed at understanding how technology might be designed to support bereaved parents. From this fieldwork, we derive a set of considerations useful for researchers and designers developing systems that deal specifically with bereavement, and with the end of life more broadly. These considerations focus on interpersonal communication, new ways of being in the world, and materiality. We conclude with a distillation of these considerations into practical design guidelines for working in this area.

The loss of memory can have a profound and disabling effect on individuals. People who acquire memory impairments are often unable to live independent lives because they cannot remember what they need to do. In many cases, they rely on family members who live with them to accomplish everyday activities, such as coordinating a doctor's appointment. To design technology for persons with amnesia and their families, we involved end users in the participatory design of a collaborative memory aid called Family-Link. We evaluated Family-Link by comparing it to a commercially available calendar application. We found that participants shared significantly more events when using Family-Link. Qualitative evidence also suggests that Family-Link increased participants' awareness of family members' schedules, enabled caregivers to track the person with amnesia leading to a greater a sense of security and reduced stress, and reduced the amount of caregiver coordination effort. The paper concludes with design implications.

Following the death of a loved one, bereaved family members use technology in several ways to respond to their loss. However, very little is known about how technology intersects with the lives of the bereaved. We present a survey and interview study which examines how the bereaved inherit personal digital devices, use technology to remember the deceased, and reflect on their own digital estates. The study provides one of the first characterizations of technology use by the bereaved, and presents a set of empirically-grounded design opportunities and challenges.

This paper describes "Communication Skills for Computer Scientists," a novel undergraduate course at the University of Toronto. We describe in detail the three major instructional streams of the course: writing, speaking, and interpersonal communications. We present a novel approach to teaching writing, interactive multimedia web technology to teach public speaking, and specific interpersonal skills training as the integral parts of the course. We contribute a detailed description of the curriculum and report measures of success, both quantitative data and reactions from students in their own words.

We present a framework for technological aids for cognition intended primarily for individuals with cognitive impairments and seniors experiencing cognitive decline. We illustrate the framework with concrete research projects and near-term challenges.

Instructor/student interaction in e-learning environments can positively impact both student learning and instructor satisfaction. In online webcast lectures, however, interaction can be difficult because instructors lack basic awareness information about their remote students. Our goal is to better understand the kinds of awareness information that instructors should have if they are to interact frequently and effectively with their students in e-learning environments. We conducted an exploratory study -- via interviews and observations -- of instructor attention in face-to-face classrooms at a large university. Our results imply that a webcast system should provide instructors with overview and detailed data about their students, but that this detailed information should not be displayed publicly.

One challenge in facilitating skimming or browsing through archives of on-line recordings of webcast lectures is the lack of text transcripts of the recorded lecture. Ideally, transcripts would be obtainable through Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). However, current ASR systems can only deliver, in realistic lecture conditions, a Word Error Rate of around 45% -- above the accepted threshold of 25%. In this paper, we present the iterative design of a webcast extension that engages users to collaborate in a wiki-like manner on editing the ASR-produced imperfect transcripts, and show that this is a feasible solution for improving the quality of lecture transcripts. We also present the findings of a field study carried out in a real lecture environment investigating how students use and edit the transcripts.

Individuals with cognitive deficits and their families are prime examples of collaborative "systems" that seek to perform everyday tasks together. Yet there has been little investigation into how these families communicate and coordinate in basic tasks like remembering appointments. In this paper we take a distributed cognition approach to studying ten families struggling with amnesia through nonparticipant observation and interviews. Our data show that the families work closely together as cognitive systems that must compensate for memory volatility in one of the members. We explore our participants' strategies for overcoming these difficulties and present lessons for the design of assistive technologies, highlighting the need for redundancy, easy and frequent synchronization, and awareness of updates. We conclude with implications for distributed cognition theory.

Mobile phones can provide a number of benefits to older people. However, most mobile phone designs and form factors are targeted at younger people and middle-aged adults. To inform the design of mobile phones for seniors, we ran several participatory activities where seniors critiqued current mobile phones, chose important applications, and built their own imagined mobile phone system. We prototyped this system on a real mobile phone and evaluated the seniors' performance through user tests and a real-world deployment. We found that our participants wanted more than simple phone functions, and instead wanted a variety of application areas. While they were able to learn to use the software with little difficulty, hardware design made completing some tasks frustrating or difficult. Based on our experience with our participants, we offer considerations for the community about how to design mobile devices for seniors and how to engage them in participatory activities.

Universities have long relied on written text to share knowledge. As more lectures are made available on-line, these must be accompanied by textual transcripts in order to provide the same access to information as textbooks. While Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is a cost-effective method to deliver transcriptions, its accuracy for lectures is not yet satisfactory. One approach for improving lecture ASR is to build smaller, topic-dependent Language Models (LMs) and combine them (through LM interpolation or hypothesis space combination) with general-purpose, large-vocabulary LMs. In this paper, we propose a simple solution for lecture ASR with similar or better Word Error Rate reductions (as well as topic-specific keyword identification accuracies) than combination-based approaches. Our method eliminates the need for two types of LMs by exploiting the lecture slides to collect a web corpus appropriate for modelling both the conversational and the topic-specific styles of lectures. Index Terms: speech recognition, language modelling, corpus building, topic dependent, lecture transcription.

Two approaches for supporting personalization in complex software are system-controlled adaptive menus and user-controlled adaptable menus. We evaluate a novel interface design for feature-rich productivity software based on adaptable menus. The design allows the user to easily customize a personalized interface, and also supports quick access to the default interface with all of the standard features. This design was prototyped as a front-end to a commercial word processor. A field experiment investigated users' personalizing behavior and tested the effects of different interface designs on users' satisfaction and their perceived ability to navigate, control, and learn the software. There were two conditions: a commercial word processor with adaptive menus and our prototype with adaptable menus for the same word processor. Our evaluation shows: (1) when provided with a flexible, easy-to-use and easy-to-understand customization mechanism, the majority of users do effectively personalize their interface; and (2) user-controlled interface adaptation with our adaptable menus results in better navigation and learnability, and allows for the adoption of different personalization strategies, as compared to a particular system-controlled adaptive menu system that implements a single strategy. We report qualitative data obtained from interviews and questionnaires with participants in the evaluation in addition to quantitative data.

The widespread availability of broadband connections has led to an increase in the use of Internet broadcasting (webcasting). Most webcasts are archived and accessed numerous times retrospectively. In the absence of transcripts of what was said, users have difficulty searching and scanning for specific topics. This research investigates user needs for transcription accuracy in webcast archives, and measures how the quality of transcripts affects user performance in a question-answering task, and how quality affects overall user experience. We tested 48 subjects in a within-subjects design under 4 conditions: perfect transcripts, transcripts with 25% Word Error Rate (WER), transcripts with 45% WER, and no transcript. Our data reveals that speech recognition accuracy linearly influences both user performance and experience, shows that transcripts with 45% WER are unsatisfactory, and suggests that transcripts having a WER of 25% or less would be useful and usable in webcast archives.

We present a study comparing usability testing of a single interface versus three functionally equivalent but stylistically distinct designs. We found that when presented with a single design, users give significantly higher ratings and were more reluctant to criticize than when presented with the same design in a group of three. Our results imply that by presenting users with alternative design solutions, subjective ratings are less prone to inflation and give rise to more and stronger criticisms when appropriate. Contrary to our expectations, our results also suggest that usability testing by itself, even when multiple designs are presented, is not an effective vehicle for soliciting constructive suggestions about how to improve the design from end users. It is a means to identify problems, not provide solutions.

Persistence of conversations has been found to be a useful feature in group chat tools. When conversations are stored and made accessible to all members of a group, they can facilitate organizational memory, group awareness, and other beneficial practices. However, the lack of structure in chat conversations makes it difficult for users to read and keep track of lengthy conversation histories. To contend with this problem, we have developed a persistent chat system that incorporates a number of features which facilitate participation in long, ongoing conversations.

The increased availability of broadband connections has recently led to an increase in the use of Internet broadcasting (webcasting). Most webcasts are archived and accessed numerous times retrospectively. One challenge to skimming and browsing through such archives is the lack of text transcripts of the webcast's audio channel. This paper describes a procedure for prototyping an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system that generates realistic transcripts of any desired Word Error Rate (WER), thus overcoming the drawbacks of both prototype-based and Wizard of Oz simulations. We used such a system in a user study showing that transcripts with WERs less than 25% are acceptable for use in webcast archives. As current ASR systems can only deliver, in realistic conditions, Word Error Rates (WERs) of around 45%, we also describe a solution for reducing the WER of such transcripts by engaging users to collaborate in a wiki fashion on editing the imperfect transcripts obtained through ASR.

The increased availability of broadband connections has recently led to an increase in the use of Internet broadcasting (webcasting). Most webcasts are archived and accessed numerous times retrospectively. One of the hurdles users face when browsing and skimming through archives is the lack of text transcripts of the audio channel of the webcast archive. In this paper, we proposed a procedure for prototyping an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system that generates realistic transcripts of any desired Word Error Rate (WER), thus overcoming the drawbacks of both prototypebased and Wizard of Oz simulations. We used such a system in a study where human subjects perform question-answering tasks using archives of webcast lectures, and showed that their performance and perception of transcript quality is linearly affected by WER, and that transcripts of WER equal or less than 25 % would be acceptable for use in webcast archives.

We present the participatory design and evaluation of an orientation aid for individuals who have anterograde amnesia. Our design team included six amnesics who have extreme difficulty storing new memories. We describe the methods we used to enable the participation of individuals with such severe cognitive impairments. Through this process, we have conceived, designed, and developed the OrientingTool, a software application for Personal Digital Assistants that can be used by amnesics to orient themselves when feeling lost or disoriented. Two complementary studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool in ecologically valid contexts. Our findings suggest that the OrientingTool can improve an amnesic's independence and confidence in managing situations when disoriented, and that participatory design may be productively used with participants who have significant cognitive disabilities.

This study examines a novel interface design for heavily-featured productivity software. The design includes two interfaces between which the user can easily toggle: (1) an interface personalized by the user containing desired features only, and (2) the default interface with all the standard features. This design was prototyped as a front-end to a commercial word processor and evaluated in a comprehensive field study. The study tested the effects of different interface designs on users' satisfaction and their perceived ability to navigate, control, and learn the software. There were two conditions: a commercial word processor with adaptive menus and our two-interface prototype with adaptable menus for the same word processor. Results showed that participants were better able to navigate through the menus and toolbars and were better able to learn with our prototype. There were also significant differences in satisfaction and control with our design

No abstract available.

Article Information archiving with bookmarks: personal Web space construction and organization Share on Authors: David Abrams Perceptual Robotics, Inc., 1840 Oak Ave., Evanston, IL Perceptual Robotics, Inc., 1840 Oak Ave., Evanston, ILView Profile , Ron Baecker Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4 Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4View Profile , Mark Chignell Interactive Media Laboratory, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4 Interactive Media Laboratory, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4View Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '98: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsJanuary 1998 Pages 41–48https://doi.org/10.1145/274644.274651Published:01 January 1998 163citation2,116DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations163Total Downloads2,116Last 12 Months63Last 6 weeks14 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

MAD (Movie Authoring and Design) is a novel design and authoring system that facilitates the process of creating dynamic visual presentations such as motion pictures and lecture-demonstrations.MAD supports the process by enhancing the author's ability to structure and modify a presentation and to visualize the ultimate result.It does this by allowing both top-down design and bottom-up creation with a hierarchical multimedia document representation; by supporting the flexible inclusion and combination of words, images, sounds, and video sequences; and by providing realtime playback of the best approximation to the ultimate presentation that can be produced at any stage of the design process.

Most studies of collaborative writing have focused on mature writers who have extensive experience with the process of writing together. Typically, these studies also deal with short, somewhat artificial tasks carried out in a laboratory, and thus do not extend over a period of time as real writing usually does.

No abstract available.

ing over time. This paper describes ten specific ways in Icons are used increasingly in interfaces because they are which animation could assist a user. It then focuses on one compact universal pictographic representations of specific kind of animation: the animated icon. computer functionality and processing. Animated icons can bring to life symbols representing complete applications or We define animated icons and discuss how animation might functions an application, thereby clarifying their solve some of the problems associated with icons while meaning, demonstrating their capabilities, and even Preserving their traditional strengths. We then discuss the explaining their method of use, TO test this hypothesis, we design of animated icons and describe our first attempt at a carried out an iterative design of a set of painting Set of animations for the Hypecard icons. Weaknesses icons that appear in the ~~~~rc~d tool palette. ~h~ design discovered through user testing led to a redesign which is discipline reseicted the animations to 10 to 20 second also described. The second set of animated icons was then sequences o~22x20 pixel bit maps, user testing was carried User tested in comparison with traditional static icons. The out on two interfaces - one with the static icons,.one with

A media space is a system that uses integrated video, audio, and computers to aHow individuals and groups to work together despite being distributed spatially and temporally. Our media space, CAVECAT (Computer Audio Video Enhanced Collaboration And Telepresence), enables a small number of individuals or groups located in separate offices to engage in collaborative work without leaving their offices. This paper presents and summarizes our experiences during initial use of CAVECAT, including unsolved technological obstacles we have encountered, and the psychological and social impact of the technology. Where possible we discuss relevant findings from the psychological literature, and implications for design of the next-generation media space.

This paper addresses issues in the human factors of computer program documentation. We develop a framework for research on enhancing the interface to the source code of computer programs through designing and automating the production of effective typeset representations of the source text. Principles underlying the design research and examples of sample production are presented.This work was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under DARPA Order 4469. We are grateful for valued assistance to the other members of the research team, Michael Arent, Design Director, Aaron Marcus and Associates, and Paul Breslin, John Jackson, Allen McIntosh, and Christopher Sturgess, Human Computing Resources Corporation, and to Trigraph Typesetters, Toronto.

No abstract available.

SIGGRAPH has long provided a forum for the presentation, discussion, evaluation, and appreciation of beautiful algorithms and beautiful pictures. The Video Panel Session on Interactive Systems is a new SIGGRAPH event, affording us the opportunity to look at beautiful systems.

Motion analysis is the systematic and usually quantitative study of the movements of humans, animals, organisms, cells, or other entities as recorded on movie film or video tape. Despite the utility of computer-aided motion analysis to many biological, social, and physical sciences, its role has been limited because it is so time-consuming and so expensive. Automated techniques can only be used on real images in very special cases; interactive techniques have involved laborious frame by frame operations.In recent years, Futrelle and Potel have revolutionized the process of interactive motion analysis by demonstrating how to digitize entire motions with a single sketch rather than with a sequence of operations on each constituent frame. However, their GALA-TEA system is applicable only to film and not to video tape records, and consists of equipment which cannot easily be engineered into a reliable and mass-producible laboratory instrument.The paper describes a prototype laboratory instrument for the interactive motion analysis of video tape records. The prototype includes a host PDP 11/45 computer, an experimental display processor called SPIWRIT, and a microprocessor-controlled video disk. SPIWRIT generates a computer-animated video representation of the phenomenon being analysed, and superimposes it on the actual video record being streamed from the video disk. SPIWRIT's bit-slice microprogrammable display processor produces true animation on a colour raster display by decoding segmented display file images into alternate halves of a double frame buffer.

Most digital video display systems have been capable of producing only text or static imagery. This paper shows that these limitations are not intrinsic to the technology, but are rather a direct consequence of the display system architecture. The paper begins by summarizing some of the background required to understand digital video display systems. The state-of-the-art is then surveyed, supported by an extensive bibliography. Existing systems are described in terms of a methodology which clarifies the effect of system architecture on capabilities and performance. It is shown how dynamic graphics capabilities can be provided if systems adhere to one or the other of two possible architectures. Examples of such systems are presented.

The terms "conversational" and "extensible" are defined and shown to be useful properties of computer animation systems. A conversational extensible system for the animation of shaded images is then described. With this system, implemented on a minicomputer, the animator can sketch images and movements freehand, or can define them algorithmically via the Smalltalk language. The system is itself implemented in Smalltalk, and hence can be easily extended or mcdified to suit the animator's personal style.

This paper describes two prototype systems which facilitate the production of teaching films containing animated representations of the execution of computer programs. With such systems, it is possible for an instructor to produce short quick-and-dirty single-concept film clips with only hours of effort, and more polished material with only slightly more effort. Demonstration clips produced in this way will be shown at the Symposium.