Day 2 was an exciting day for the ProHealth group. After an important presentation on ethics, we were able to start learning some LaTex basics. You can review my professional bio (https://www.sharelatex.com/read/yfmrqqrynbrv) and my bio for the K-12 students (https://www.sharelatex.com/read/yfmrqqrynbrv).
We made our first basic paper circuit and ran our first LilyPad Arduino program.
(I love the hands on work!) I look forward to our outreach projects later in the summer when we will present this technology to the Girl Scout camps and Mini-University students. I have my “light up” card all ready!
Article Summaries:
MacLeod et al. looked at ways of conducting group-based studies online instead of in the traditional, in-person interview setting. With their focus on rare diseases, the total number of people affected by the disease was small, with participants scattered over a broad geographical area, making “in-person” access very difficult. The researchers recruited nationally and internationally to reach a reasonable number of participants and to ensure they covered a representative sample. The project lasted 22 weeks and included 13 participants, all of which were paid a $50 honorarium.
One of the challenges of this research is how best to conduct research with remote participants, especially in HCI, where group-based methods are valuable. Participants were recruited through a Facebook support group and Facebook was used as the communication platform. Several suggestions were made about the efficacy of using Facebook as a research tool.
Observation Homework:
Summary: For the data collection exercise, I chose to observe the cell phone interactions of young adults/students in the food court of College Mall (Tuesday, May 22nd, 6:45 – 7:15 pm). For 20 minutes, I attempted to track the interaction of students with their cell phones that either were sitting and eating or were walking through the food court area. While walking through the food court area, approximately half of the subjects had the cell phone visible in their hand as they walked. However, once they were seated, it was very common to see cell phones either out in the hands of the subjects or in front of them on the table. In this observation setting, most of the subjects were interacting with each other. I did not observe any apparent influence of one group (either a group of students or a single individual) on any other groups within the context of patterns of smart phone usage, as might be seen at a more solitary location, such as a bus stop.
The Food Court was not very busy on a Tuesday night during the last week of classes for school-age students. Perhaps more interesting data could be collected during a time that there would be more young adults at the mall.
With the use of the Object Mapping technique, focused on the inanimate object of the smart phone, I believe that this exercise would be exempt from the Institutional Review Board. All observation subjects were in a public space, and there was no interaction between the observer and the subjects. There is no way to identify the identity of the subjects under observation. However, given that there is not a way to guarantee that the students under observation are over the age of 18, this observation would require expedited review.
Observations: (Time is noted as a gauge of the length of the time that subjects were under observation, with the timer starting at 20:00 and counting down to 0:00.)
19:29 – Male student, holding a smart phone, has earbuds looped over his ears, but not actually inserted in his ears. He is talking with his friends and occasionally looks at his phone, but seems engaged with his three friends.
18:40 – Two female students, sitting at a table across from each other, are simply staring at their phones. No visible interaction between the two.
18:14 – Single student, sitting alone, typing on the phone.
17:53 – Two students walking through the mall, heads bent over their phones.
17:25 – Two female students sitting across from each other: one student has her phone in her hand (appears, from a distance, to have stickers across the back of the phone) and gestures with her phone while talking. She shows her companion her phone briefly.
15:15 – Female student walks through, phone in hand.
15:38 – Two female students, both with a phone in their hands, gesturing with their phones.
14:45 – Female student, sitting alone, eating and staring at phone.
13:29 – I notice that half? more than half? of the students have their smart phones in their Hands when they enter my field of vision.
12:33 – Two students sitting across from one another, talking, looking at each other, then resume looking at the phone.
11:50 – One male, one female: talk to each other, then return their attention to their phones.
10:24 – Male student that had the earbuds looped over his ears earlier is still sitting at a table with his friends, but the earbuds are now completely off of his ears and he is talking to one of the four at the table.
10:01 – Male inserts one earbud into his ear.
9:30 – Friend of “earbud guy” leaves, staring at phone.
8:54 – Female student sitting at table with a woman who appears to be her mother. Mother is eating, student is staring at the phone.
8:20 – “Earbud guy” gets up to leave, one earbud in ear, other dangling.
8:02 – “Earbud guy” inserts other earbud in ear and leaves the vicinity.
7:30 – Mother/daughter duo – Daughter looks around, attention returns to phone.
6:30 – Male student and female student sitting at a table across from each other, talking. Notable because a cell phone sits on the table between them, with the screen dark.
6:05 – Two female students, sitting side-by-side, both looking at their phones. They talk briefly, both looking at one phone, then attention returns to individual phones.
4:26 – Mother/daughter duo – Daughter finally gets food, attention immediately returns to phone when she sits down.
2:57 – A male and female student walking to a table with ice cream. Female is looking at phone as they walk, shows screen to male, but phone goes face down on the table when they sit down.
1:23 – Mother/daughter duo – Mother and daughter are covering for the first time I’ve seen, but daughters focus appears to still be on her phone.