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Activity theory and interface design for autism treatment: tracking, collaborating, and enriching the classroom experience

Published:21 July 2013Publication History

ABSTRACT

Autism is a growing health issue in today's youth that necessitates careful monitoring and commitment to education. iPads have quickly proven to be a great tool in assisting autistic children through prompting, interactive educational games, and language development. However, the instructors and therapists of autistic children can also significantly benefit from iPads as an interactive tool to more quickly and accurately track student data, and ultimately be able to teach the child in a more individualized and precise way. Activity theory considers an entire working activity system (including teams and organizations) beyond just one user, focusing on consciousness, the relationship between people and things, and the role of artifacts (objects, such as an iPad) in everyday life. By analyzing data collected from instructors of autistic students, we can identify areas of sensorial, emotion, and interactions for maximizing user experience for three distinct collaborative audience segments: teachers, therapists, and students. With that understanding, we can then evaluate, ideate, and describe the functionality of an iPad interface that allows careful data tracking and collaboration to best position an autistic student for academic success.

References

  1. Nardi, Bonnie A. 1995. Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. Garrett, Jesse James. 2011. The Elements of User Experience.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

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  • Published in

    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGGRAPH '13: ACM SIGGRAPH 2013 Posters
    July 2013
    115 pages
    ISBN:9781450323420
    DOI:10.1145/2503385

    Copyright © 2013 ACM

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    • Published: 21 July 2013

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