The aim of the study was to explore particular challenges faced when designing virtual environments for children with autism, with the purpose of training social skills. Our findings are based on studying autistic behavior during three years (primary and secondary sources), analysis of related system and other computer mediated assistive technology, as well as general game design. From these studies, we have identified eight critical design parameters that must be adjustable in a system suitable for autistic persons. The importance of the parameters, their variation range, as well as the need for independent adjustment of these were estimated and verified by experienced expert pedagogues. Copyright © Freund Publishing House Limited.

The purpose of the study is to explore particular challenges faced when designing virtual environments for children with autism, with the purpose of training social skills. Our findings are based on studying autistic behaviour during three years (primary and secondary sources), analysis of related system and other computer mediated assistive technology, as well as general game design. From these studies we have identified eight critical design parameters that need to be adjustable in a system suitable for autistic persons. The parameters importance, their variation range, as well as the need for independent adjustment of these were estimated and verified by experienced expert pedagogues.

Advertising is something that we get in touch with on a daily basis and more or less everywhere. Advertising is used in different mediums, such as magazines, television, radio, internet, cellphones et.c. The aim of the present study is to find out if there are any recurrent dissimilarities how advertising is constructed among the mediums regarding rhetorical and semiotical theories. Two different mediums have been chosen for a comparison, printed advertisments versus internetbanners. The study has been based on a total of ten qualitative image analyses. To get a spread among the input material regarding the adverts, five different types of businesses have been chosen from a set of criteria that has been decided for this specific study. From every type of business, one advertisment from magazines or newspapers and one type of internetbanner have been chosen and have resulted in a total of five pair of matches which has been analyzed with an image analysis model. The result of this study clearly showed that there are recurrent dissimilarities among the two analyzed mediums. Adverts in magazines or newspapers contained generally more text than the internetbanners did, the adverts in papers also used more arguments than the internetbanners. The result also showed that the adverts in the papers contained more rhetorical figures than the internetbanners did. One potential reason why there were less text in the internet banners may be due to the phenomena called Banner blindness and the differences of the mediums.

New technologies have always teased the imagination of avant-garde artists on how to challenge existing cultural paradigms. For instance, experience design for the creative industries of today provides exciting challenges with a potential to innovate practices and creating new ways of interaction between the artist and her audience. In an ongoing research project we aim at framing the design space for virtual experiences. The paper presents and discusses the role of technology in such context and use three ongoing case studies where ICT has been used to augment and support consumers of cultural experiences. The analysis shows how technology-driven interventions are less oriented towards radical change compared to interventions that are rooted in their nondigital origins.

In this article an ethnographical study of laptopers' activities during lectures in a university milieu is analyzed as different kinds of involvements. Through interviews and observations we have focused on how these involvements influence the laptopers' alignment towards the educational practice. The analysis shows the importance of separating the educational practice and the personal learning situation. Studying students' learning intentions, rather than certain laptop related activities, we get a deeper understanding of the role the laptop can take during learning activities. Five general characteristics of laptoping are found. Negotiating the laptops' different roles in the educational practice opens up for an understanding of the students personal learning situation as being more than just listening to a lecturer. Additionally, competent integration of digital tools into the learning situation extends the dimensions of the lecture beyond the lecturing hours and personal note taking. Such knowledge is vital for creating foundations for digital competency in a digitized society. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Current trends among business companies imply that sources of human competencies are spread across intra-organisational and inter-organisational units into networks of organisations of different kinds. This paper explores the challenges for design of competence management systems (CMS) raised by inter-organisational collaboration in a network of private companies. We take the point of departure from the co-workers’ abilitly to explore and manage their competence. The research question to be answered is: How can a network perspective on competence management systems empower co-workers? The paper presents findings from an on-going research project aiming at identifying design implications of a network competence management system (nCMS), where the role of the individual is valued crucial for its success. We argue that there is a need to take a critical stand towards common assumptions of CMS as a tool for intra organisational strategic work - instead a nCMS should empower the individual member of the network organization.

Designing for learning at work in a manner that embraces the rich situatedness of practice involves a number of challenges in bridging normative and descriptive perspectives, as well as closing the gap between IS design theory and practice. In this paper, we propose a grounded approach that combines influence from learning theories with studies of existing learning practices. This approach could result in learning models, constituted of a sequence of learning activities that outlines the didactics of the workplace. The arguments are based on the empirical findings from an action-oriented research project in collaboration with six SME:s, and are illustrated through a e-learning model called “The Competence Kick-off”.

This paper presents lessons learned from an action research venture involving a network of SMEs and a group of IS researchers. The purpose is to discuss some fundamental methodological issues that we learned when doing action research with a network of interrelated organizations, rather than report the action research project itself. Our results are presented as four dualities that should be addressed throughout diagnostic and therapeutical activities in a network action research project. The dualities (teach–learn, local–global, multifaceted–unified, and liquid–crystal) are forwarded as analytical scaffolds to cope with the inherent difficulties of understanding and acting in IS action research projects, especially network action research.

The purpose of this paper was to identifying the opportunities for SMEs to obtain revenue with their productions online. The aim was also to investigate what SMEs think about how they can use the different revenue models.

To investigate this, we used a mapping of revenue models and a group interview. The mapping was based on previous research and was used to obtain an overview of the revenue models used by companies today. The group interview was used to allow the company's to discuss with each other how different revenue models can be used, and how they feel about the use of alternative payment methods. In our study we found several different revenue models and that companies often use more than one revenue model. The interview showed us that SMEs often see more negative aspects of different revenue models than what they find the positive aspects. The study shows that there are a number of different revenue models that SMEs can make use of the internet, but they must be innovative and find ways to combine different revenue models to thrive online.

The Squares Family is a game developed as a learning aid in mathematics. With its graphical representation of the decimal system, the four basic arithmetic operations and positive and negative numbers together with a learning agent as pedagogical approach, the game’s primary purpose is to motivate students in their learning of mathematics. Although the game is strictly based on mathematical rules it attempts to encourage students to play and work with math without experiencing it as mathematics as this is initially not obvious. The game being internationally tested on normal performing students, this project introduced the game to six Swedish students who experience low motivation for and/or difficulties in mathematics. The students from fifth up to seventh grade participated therefore in a three weeks’ study. The ultimate goal of this project is to make suggestions on the integration of the game in the students’ learning environment and on the adaptation of it to fit their needs. In order to be able to make such recommendations, following question was raised: How does the learning situation look like for students experiencing difficulties in mathematics? An attempt to understand the complexity of their learning situation was made through several tests in students’ attitude, self-efficacy and understanding of mathematics, through observations of their game playing, interview with their pedagogue and through a questionnaire on their attitude towards the game and their special education in mathematics and in their understanding of traditionally vs. graphically represented mathematical problems. Despite the time limited study it is obvious that the students’ difficulties in mathematics are not independent of other factors, as the majority of these students display a negative attitude, a low self-efficacy and a sensibility for disturbances and reactions from their social network.

We present a study of integrating an educational game in special math education, to explore challenges faced during the process. The game promotes an unconventional approach supporting students having math difficulties, through visual representations, learn-by-exploration and learn-by-teaching models. Our conclusion is that integration in special education is more challenging than in the main stream counterpart, due to social vulnerability of the students, learning/teaching challenges in content, motivation and attitude, a non-typical learning situation, and the challenge of matching learning peers.

We describe a mathematics computer game for children designed to promote causal reasoning, choice-making, and other higher-order cognitive activities. The game consists of a choice-based board game, enhanced with a conversational, teachable agent, taught to play the game, by the child, through demonstrations and questions. Game design is motivated by causal reasoning theory and educational psychology. The game is currently evaluated in an ongoing large-scale study that seeks to investigate the game’s effects on the players’ abilities to reason and make productive choices. The study involves 20 elementary-school classes at different levels.

We propose a model for arithmetic, based on graphical representations, to complement the symbolic language of mathematics. The focus is conceptual understanding of arithmetic. We argue that the graphical model supports understanding concepts known to be difficult for learners with dyscalculia, such as number-sense and decimal system. The proposed graphical representation share properties of the decimal system, but is closer to the semantic representation of numbers vital to the number-sense. The model is evaluated with school-children, but needs to be further tested by learners with dyscalculia. 

An educational game in mathematics targets cognitive skills oincluding pattern finding and generalization from example by teaching an agent. These can be difficult for young children, let alone teaching about them. Therefore, we have designed a new way of teaching an agent, the teach-by-guiding model. We describe the model and its basic implementation. Because this is a work-inprogress, we end by raising questions of how such an agent is perceived, and in what respect it may differ from other pedagogical agents.

The objective of this study is to introduce the concept of utility games, to develop a characterization of such a game category, and to explore design and evaluation issues particular for this category. By utility games, we refer to games predominantly designed for utility purposes, and where gaming is viewed as a design strategy to achieve the utility. Four utility games were analysed, with the following dimensions: the overall context, the utility objective, the game setting, evaluations performed and challenges related to design and evaluation. The analysis shows that the utility aspects and the game design are highly interrelated and affect each other on all levels of the design, and that evaluations of utility games have many dimensions to consider. A summary of lessons learnt and some recommendations to utility game designers are provided.

We address the question of usefulness of virtual reality based rehabilitation equipment in practical therapy, by letting experienced therapists explore one such equipment during six months in their regular practice under natural circumstances. By protocols, questionnaires and focus group interviews we collect data regarding which activities they considered useful, why these are useful and what might improve usefulness of such activities, based on the therapists’ professional judgement and experiences. This resulted in a set of purposeful activities, identified values for therapeutic work, and design guidelines. The conclusion is that such equipment has benefits beyond real life training, that variation in content and difficulty levels is a key quality for wide suitability and that the combination of challenging cognitive activities which encourage motor training was considered particularly useful.

This research aims at innovative IT support for competence management (CM) integrating organizational, group and individual perspectives. Our method is action case research resulting in a design model. This paper addresses our overall approach towards an integrative CM system, which is usage-oriented. Based on in-depth analysis of seven business companies’ CM activities, we present a new interactive visualization model for CM. The model is suitable for explorative analysis and for communicating competence situations at individual, group or organizational levels. It provides support for constructing competence information incrementally. We view competence descriptions as negotiable estimations with varying verification levels, and use a competence representation which deals with uncertainties of estimations. Our view on competence is novel, and has far reaching consequences. Future work includes a running prototype and planned pilot studies.

Enterprises within the experience-based economy face big challenges when investing in IS applications for their products and services. Especially, organizations and services that offer different kinds of attractions and experiences have realized the emergent use of mobile technology. In this paper we explore in what way an IS (information systems) design can enhance experience-based activities conducted at a Swedish regional museum. The research presents an in-depth analysis of a case study along with requirements and design activities for a location-aware, auditory museum guide, primarily aimed for people with visual and language disabilities was developed. We argue that in order to keep in pace with the on-going growth of experience-based and IS design initiatives, enterprises and designer must consider its value for their businesses. Thus, we have developed a three-level strategy for valuing enhancements of a proposed IS application. The strategy proved to be particular fruitful for both designers and managers when assessing the potential of various enhancements to generate values for the different target groups.

Teachable agents are used to support transfer of game playing knowledge to domain knowledge for an educational, arithmetic game. A pre-posttest experiment study show promising learning effects for low ability students.

In all theory about Search Engine Optimization there are lots of different ideas on how to optimize search engines. Much of the theory concerns the technical aspects and only offers a short explanation on the importance of the actual content of the website. In this essay I will examine how web companies think and act around search engine optimization and web statistics, but also go deeper into how the relationship between customer and company affects where the market is heading. By doing qualitative interviews with web companies where the subject search engine optimization, paid ads and web statistics were discussed, a result has been formed.

Based on the latest articles, the answers from the respondents and my own personal reflections of the situation, there are clear signs that the definition of Search Engine Optimization has changed. The technical aspect is still there, but with less importance since the search engines keeps changing the algorithms in order to become smarter. Instead the focus is on the content. Rich content, good written text, interesting videos and images has a larger impact than changing the little things in the structure of a website.

The search market looks different today than it did a few years ago. The term Search Engine Optimization has changed its meaning into something more than just improving your own homepage. Now it also includes all the marketing your company does outside of the web.

We present an educational math game, including a teachable agent and a social chat, that trains basic arithmetic skills with a focus on grounding base-ten concepts in spatial representations. It employs a board-game design with a variety of different sub-games, game modes and levels of difficulty. When a student has learnt to play one of the sub-games, she may teach it to her Teachable Agent (TA). In the observation mode the TA “watches” the student play and picks up on game rules and on the student’s responses to multiple-choice questions, such as “Why did you choose this card?” Proper (or improper) choices of cards and answers promote corresponding skills in the TA throughout the game. In the try-and-be-guided mode, the agent is allowed to propose cards. The student either accepts the agent’s suggestion or rejects it and exchanges the agent’s card for another one. Again the agent asks for the reasons for the student’s behaviour, using the multiple-choice format. In other words, the basic game with the TA contains a form of on-task conversation between agent and student. But the game architecture also has been extended with a chat where the student can engage in conversation with the TA, writing freely by means of the keyboard and bring up basically any topic in a chat-like manner. We refer to this as off-task conversation and distinguish within it between on-domain conversation and off-domain conversation, the former referring to chat conversation related to school, math, the math game, etc., and the latter to any other topic. One reason to include off-task conversation is to enrich the game and its motivational qualities for the age group in question (12-14 year olds). Another is to be able to explore whether such a conversational module can enable pedagogical interventions, such as supporting pupils math self efficacy and change negative attitudes toward math in general. Notably the on-task and off-task conversations have very different formats, but are still designed as two interrelated and complementary activities. A recent study [1] indicates that the added off-task conversation module can i) improve students’ game experience, ii) improve learning outcomes, and iii) engage learners in voluntary on-domain chat.

The present study examined whether socio-motivational effects from working with a Teachable Agent (TA) might transfer from the formative learning phase to a summative test situation. Forty-nine students (9-10 years old) performed a digital pretest of math skills, then played a TA-based educational math game in school over a period of eight weeks. Thereafter, the students were divided into two groups, matched according to their pretest scores, and randomly assigned one of two posttest conditions: either with the TA present, or without the TA. Results showed that low-performers on the pretest improved significantly more on the posttest than did high-performers, but only when tested with the TA. We reason that low-performers might be more susceptible to a supportive social context – as provided by their TA – for performing well in a test situation.

Much research shows several implications that business collaboration and knowledge exchange takes place across several inter-organisational network constellations. As organisational boundaries become inter-connected into networks of people and resources there is a need to consider the value and effects of such non-traditional networking businesses. This paper portrays how business managers perceive the role of an organised business network and what values cross-company business networking generate. 16 in-depth interviews form the foundations of this preliminary findings. The research question is: Which are the incentives for participation in business networks? The aim is to better understand incentives and values for participation in order to design and manage the business network organisation more effectively. Our argument is that the specifics of incentives and preconceptions of business networking have big impact on how valuable the actual effects of such network participation are. From this study we also discuss implications of how the network can facilitate and coordinate for increased business opportunities.