Complex group dynamics in physical educational spaces, such as the classroom, can lead to significant learning benefits. Outstanding teachers apply these dynamics, but their adoption is not extensive. One of the reasons behind the lack of broad adoption refers to their implementation inconveniences, including the time and attention that teachers and students need to dedicate to the orchestration of the dynamic. This workshop paper discusses a technology, the Signal Orchestration System (SOS), which facilitates the organization of group activities in physical spaces by exploiting awareness indications. Using the SOS, students wear a device that renders signals denoting orchestration aspects (e.g., color signals indicating group formation) in a way that the signals are collectively perceived. The paper states the problem and presents the proposed solution discussing different designs for the wearable devices.
Exploiting awareness to facilitate the orchestration of collaborative activities in physical spaces indicate group formation, students’ devices show color signals. The students with the same color form a group. Blinking lights can indicate role or resource distribution, sound signals change of activity, etc. However, the actual meaning of each signal depends on the needs and creativity of the teacher who design the collaborative dynamic and its orchestration.
The wearable devices achieve an ambient awareness effect that cannot be easily
achieved with mobile devices. Three different low-cost designs have been
implemented and used in several Jigsaw collaborative learning dynamics (Fig. 1). The
use of the first two designs (a, b) was evaluated in two experiments framed in real
scenarios [
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1. Wearable signaling devices (a) necklace (b) fabric belt (c) arm bracelet Considering these observations, we propose an arm bracelet as an intermediate approach (Fig. 1, c). It has been designed so that it is more compact (adapted to the size of its hardware components) and can be fixed to a bracelet worn in the arm. Its position in the arm facilitates the visibility of the signals even when the participants are sitting down at their desks. Fig. 1 (c) shows how students wearing the bracelets look for other students with the same color signals to form a group. We are currently analyzing the data collected in an experiment that compares the use of the SOS arm bracelets with a controlled group using a traditional approach based on paper cards. Preliminary results indicate that the awareness facilitated by the SOS leads to a more agile classroom orchestration promoting a more satisfactory learning experience. Acknowledgments This work has been partially funded by the Spanish EEE (TIN2011-28308-C03-03) project.