Re-Conceptualizing the E-Textbook for

Ubiquitous InteractionsIlya Shmorgun, David Lamas

Estonian Higher Education and Research- and Development Activities in Information and Communications Technology State Program 2011 – 2015.

Changing Practices

Digitization of Learning Materials

• There is an increased effort from academic publishers in the recent years to digitize existing learning materials.

• This process often results in the creation of PDF documents providing a synthesis of knowledge and meant to be read from beginning to end.

• The outcome does not facilitate interaction with available devices, people, and environments.

A Shift in Expectations

• Owning different devices becomes more commonplace.

• Users expect to be able to access their information from any device, which is close to hand.

• Schools are experimenting with different approaches, such as providing students with devices or BYOD strategies.

Shortcomings of Existing Approaches• Digital learning materials often directly mimic

the physical ones.

• There is not much support offered to students to take their individual learning paths and to better collaborate with teachers and fellow students.

• Design approaches such as Mobile First and Responsive Design offer solutions on the level of the user interface, not addressing much of the different ways of interacting with devices.

Ubiquitous E-Textbook

Ubiquitous Interaction

• Interaction with ubiquitous services, that offer valuable information to the user.

• Information is expected to move freely among the digital artifacts people use.

• Information is available right there and right now for supporting a specific activity the user is engaged in.

Goals• Enhancing learning experiences through the

use of new technological solutions.

• Designing and evaluating a proof-of-concept e-textbook solution, created for the ubiquitous interaction context and conceived as an aggregation of professional and user-contributed content.

• Advancing interaction design and evaluation approaches by understanding how humans interact with and through ecologies of artifacts when pursuing their activities.

Analytical Tools

• Ecology of artifacts

• Human-Artifact Model

Research Questions

• How to design ubiquitous interactions in the context of educational activities at schools?

• How can the educational activity be described with the help of the selected analytical tools?

• Is there something that needs to be modified in the analytical selected tools?

• Does the proposed proof-of-concept e-textbook solution work in a real-world school context?

Activities• Exploring the context through an

ethnographic study by investigating how students, teachers, and publishers relate to their artifact ecologies.

• Iterating the emerging e-textbook concept through design as well as conducting evaluation through field tests.

• Developing a range of digital artifacts to be used by learners, teachers, and content authors to facilitate the re-conceptualized e-textbook.

Foreseen Outcomes

• An understanding of what ubiquitous interactions are.

• An updated frame of reference to analyze ubiquitous interactions based on an overview and comparison of selected analytical tools.

• A theoretically informed framework for designing ubiquitous interactions.

Conclusion

Rethinking the E-Textbook

• We aim to provide a better understanding of how ubiquitous interactions are already taking place in schools and how an e-textbook can be designed as an aggregation of professional and user-contributed content.

• There is a need to rethink what the e-textbook of the future is by considering the adoption of digital artifacts and ongoing digitization of learning materials.