Marcelle Pereira Mota

Ambiente Integrado à Plataforma Moodle para Apoio ao Desenvolvimento das Habilidades Iniciais de Programação

In the presence of the actual world context, the importance of knowing the technological resources and making use of them to improve the performance of human activities is realized. Educat ion cannot be laid aside of this reality, on the contrary, it has to be allied and seek for resources to improve even more the process of teaching and learn ing through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Thus, the dof Araucaria/PR, through the Educational Technology Project, has pro vided access to these resources establishing informatics laboratories, ev aluating and reorganizing the used method, as an example, the accomplishment of the Leader-Teacher function related to the laboratory monitor one. Resumo. Diante do contexto do mundo atual, percebe-se a imp ortância de conhecer os recursos tecnologicos e fazer uso deste s para melhorar o desempenho das atividades humanas. A educacao nao pficar a margem desta realidade, ao contrario, deve buscar meios de aprimorar o processo de ensino e aprendizagem por meio das Tecnologias da I nformacao e Comunicacao (TICs). Assim, o municipio de Araucari a/PR, atraves do Projeto de Tecnologia Educacional, tem viabilizado o acesso a estes recursos com a implantacao de laboratorios de informatica, ae reorganizando os metodos empregados, como por exemplo, a implemen tacao da funcao de Professor-orientador em detrimento a funcao do moni tor de laboratorio.

Guidelines for Graphical User Interface Design in Mobile Augmented Reality Applications

The technological advancement of mobile devices allowed the entry of innovative technologies in users’ daily lives, due to miniaturization and advancement of sensors, cameras and computer resources. These technologies make it possible to increase the user’s interaction and perception about places and objects around him, allowing, for example, the use of augmented reality. However, this opportunity presents new challenges, such as application design and development, aspects to this new context of ubiquitous devices, heterogeneity of mobile devices, and how the user interacts with these applications. Thus, this paper aims to present the results of Mobile Augmented Reality application usability evaluation, identifying a list of problems in the application Graphical User Interface and propose some guidelines for building Graphical User Interfaces to avoid these problems. The chosen usability evaluation is the Think Aloud protocol, which was performed with 20 participants in the Mobile Augmented Reality application named ARguide.

On signifying the complexity of inter-agent relations in agentsheets games and simulations

This paper reports the results of an empirical study about the semiotic engineering of signs of complexity for live documentation of games and simulations built with a visual programming learning environment. The study highlights the essence of the semiotic engineering process and shows how its outcome has been received by a group of users who can speak for a large portion of the live documentation systems user population. It also shows how the communication of complexity is, in and of itself, a major design challenge, especially when mastering complexity is one of the prime purposes of the documented object. Because the study was carried out in the context of a live documentation system, its conclusions can also illustrate how to conduct semiotically-inspired interaction design.

Signifying software engineering to computational thinking learners with AgentSheets and PoliFacets

Nonprofessional end user programs have increased remarkably in volume and diversity. However, for such programs to be usable and reliable, their creators should be familiar with software engineering practices that are typically not part of their range of competence and source of enjoyment. While the expansion of computational thinking acquisition (CTA) initiatives at schools and the availability of improved programming environments have contributed to facilitate the learners’ coding tasks, much less has been done to facilitate the acquisition of software quality notions. This paper reports on a Brazilian CTA program guided by semiotic principles and describes a study of how the technology used in it prefigures elements of software engineering in the participants’ programs created with AgentSheets. Our research contributions touch on the semiotic potential of CTA infrastructures and on associated pedagogical considerations for expanding CTA programs with software engineering basics. We also propose items for an interdisciplinary research agenda.

Evaluation of Information Visualization Interaction Techniques Using Gestures and Widgets in 3D Environments

This paper presents the results of usability evaluation of an Information Visualization tool with touchless gestural commands. The tool has well-known visualizations tasks implemented in itself, allowing users to interact on a 3D scatterplot visualization technique. The chosen usability evaluation was the Think Aloud protocol, together with questionnaires conducted by an interviewer, both of them performed with five participants in a controlled environment.

A Proposal for an Adaptive Game to Support the Skills Development in Children with Disabilities

This paper presents a proposal of adaptive game, Puzzle type, which aims to support the development of cognitive and motor skills of children with disabilities. It was developed considering especially the initiation of these children the technology and the possibility of adapting it for each child, with specific characteristics and difficulties. As a research strategy to verify the potential of this tool, we conducted a qualitative study with the participation of specialists from a Reference Center on Educational Inclusion. The results indicate a significant degree of acceptance of this type of technology in this context.

Adaptation and Automation of a Cancellation Test for Evaluation of Exploratory Visual Behavior

Tests that evaluate the individual strategies of visual exploration may be useful for characterizing deviations from typical development, such as autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia. One subgroup of visual exploration tests, called cancellation tests, require the identification of specific targets surrounded by distractors. However, the lack of automated versions of these tests limit their availability to a larger audience. In the present paper, we present an automated version of a cancellation test: the car test. The test is designed to be used by specialists and to be user-friendly optimizing its application and the analysis of collected data. We evaluated the car test in a group of 6-9 y.o. infants enrolled in a private school. The results suggest the car test is effective in providing information about visual exploration strategies of infants and is in agreement with the results of similar tests found in the literature.

Usability Considerations For Coercion-Resistant Election Systems

Coercion is an inherent problem of any Internet election. Because voters can vote from any connected place and there is no voting booth to protect them while voting, coercers can easily force them to select their candidates. Although there is no optimal solution for this problem, modern Internet election systems can mitigate it. In other words, these system usually allow voters under coercion to deceive adversaries by casting fake votes. When in safe, voters can vote again; this time, for their legitimate candidates. This idea helps voters to fight coercive attacks. However, these systems require additional actions from the voters that may have problems to perform them correctly. In particular, voters under coercion can have problems to defeat coercive attacks by means of fake votes. In this work, we investigate usability issues with regards the voter action when interacting with coercion-resistant election systems. In order to accomplish this and trying to balance usability and security, we performed a set of usability tests using one of these systems as a case study. This system is based on one of the most efficients cryptographic protocols available. Our results show usability problems that might appear when using these systems in realistic elections. In addition, we present recommendations that can help to design more user friendly coercion-resistant systems.

A Study on Knowledge Transfer Between Programming Languages by Programs Meanings Facets

This paper presents a study about how different ways of representing meanings in programs can help in knowledge transfer of programming logic from a visual programming language to a textual programming language. These representations were carried out based on a model grounded on Semiotic Engineering theory from Blocky, a visual programming tool made by Google. The representations, named facets of meanings, have the main goal of assisting in the teaching and learning process of programming languages. An assessment of the produced facets with programming novices revealed that they are accomplishing part of their purposes, and there is evidence of the potential of this kind of technology in this context.

Aspects of Voice Interaction on a Mobile Augmented Reality Application

Mobile Augmented Reality has become more popular mainly because computational resources available in mobile devices, and in the enhanced view of real world that can be seen by the user. The interaction becomes an important point for success of these applications, featuring a natural and intuitive way for the user, and the chance of one, or two hands free for other interaction or activity. Therefore, this work presents the usability analysis of a Mobile Augmented Reality, the ARGuide, with the use of a voice service for interaction. The usability test analysis is based upon the most common interaction tasks of the users in this type of application. In the end, some good practices for the application interface building and speech interaction are shown.