Archive for the 'research' Tag

The Case for Shared Computing

My elementary school’s computer lab probably had 50 computers, where we frequently played Oregon Trail and made flashy presentations in HyperStudio. My middle school had a lab of iMacs and rolling carts full of brand new iBooks. My high school had hundreds of PCs available for use in computer labs, classrooms, and even in the hallways. Needless to say, as I grew up, I always had individual access to computers and never needed to share.

In most of the world, this isn’t the norm.

Due to the fact that computers cost money, resource-constrained schools simply cannot afford to provide kids with access to one computer each. One approach to this issue is that of Nicholas Negroponte, which is to reduce the cost of computers to the point that One Laptop per Child is a feasible ideal.

Unfortunately, even if Negroponte achieves his goal of producing laptops at $100 each (they’re $200 today), maintenance expenses will bring the real cost of deploying these machines to over $250 per year. In India, where the government spends under $100 per student per year, deploying such technology is obviously an impossibility given these budget constraints.

Another approach is to split a single computer for simultaneous use by multiple people. Microsoft Research India has done much work in this field, through projects such as MultiPoint and Split-Screen — these projects connect multiple input devices to a single computer and thus allow people to have individual access to the machine, allowing for shared computing.

I’m currently working on a project for the Computing for the Developing World capstone course at UW with three other friends to explore the use of shared computing via multiple numeric keypads in improving primary education. Called MultiMath, our software provides arithmetic drills to four students at once, allowing for shared computer use, individualized attention, and adaptive questioning in competitive and collaborative environments.

This week, we are in Bangalore, running preliminary field tests at government schools in the area. We’ve learned a lot, but I’ll save that for another post.

MultiMath will be presented as a demo at ICTD 2009 in Doha, Qatar.
Interested in similar projects at UW? Check out Change.

March 26, 2009 | no comments | tags: computerscience, education, ictd, india, multimath, research, sharedcomputing

A Practice Interview

I have always been a little apprehensive about conducting interviews, since I’ve never been in a position where I think the time I’m asking of someone else would be worth giving up for them. In this case, however, it was a good experience. We were assigned to conduct an interview to practice for ones we might be conducting while researching in Amsterdam, using Dr. Philip N. Howard’s in-depth research format.

I chose a few questions related to wayfinding that we might ask in Amsterdam, and found someone in the dorm where I live whom I didn’t know particularly well. This selection wasn’t aimed at someone particularly comfortable with wayfinding, as we will be interviewing students similar to ourselves in our research. I didn’t indicate my subject area of interest before the interview began.

Content wise, I started off with “have you ever” questions, and followed them up with “why?” in order to gain a better idea of the circumstances or intentions at play. This combination yielded two discoveries. First, the interviewee was very eager to share in both instances, and provided a lot of interesting details when asked to describe their experiences and/or intentions. Second, it gave me a clear idea of how long a simple interview could potentially last if not kept in control. As mentioned above, I want to keep interviews both interesting and useful to maximize what we can learn from them, while not wasting anyone’s time, if possible.

I didn’t record or take any notes of the conversation, as the questions were very straightforward and I don’t have a problem remembering the responses I received. Of course, this will not be the same in our research methods, as we’ll have to document and analyze numerous similar interviews.

Questions and answers that came up during the interview are not posted here in order to avoid confounding our research results, as everyone in our research group will likely read this post.

May 23, 2007 | no comments | tags: amsterdam, research, studyabroad

Ethnographic Research: More Questions

The questions never stop. We began by identifying areas of interest, then created research groups, tried to come up with a research question, and are now trying to design a research method.

Today’s post brings about three questions:

• What is our study group?
  In order to make the most of our month in Amsterdam, we will need to find a convenient group that is easily accessible, and large enough to draw reasonable conclusions from.
• What questions can we ask of that study group?
  If each researcher has a slightly different research question, how can we develop a cohesive research method that answers all of those questions without being a significant stress on the study group?
• How do we deal with differing levels of technological savvy?
  Granted that this is a research question within itself, a “digital native” will be more comfortable answering our questions than a non-native. Can or should we somehow make the transition easier for people uncomfortable with new technologies?

May 14, 2007 | 1 comment | tags: amsterdam, research, studyabroad

Defining and Implementing E-Research Techniques

research, n.¹
1. The act of searching (closely or carefully) for or after a specified thing or person. [oed]

If E-Research is simply the use of the Internet in research methods, it could be any of the following:

• using an online card catalog to find relevant books
• using Google to find relevant web content
• using any number of other webapps for experiment execution or analysis

Unless the object of study is actually the Internet, or some phenomena occurring on it, it doesn’t seem like these tools actually change research methods more than they aid them, by providing unparalleled access to information and analysis of just about anything, whether it be the last hour’s news or an eighteenth-century scientific survey.

On the other hand, E-Research could involve the study of online representations of any subject, through methods such as link analysis and usage studies. This latter definition seems to be what the VKS is focused on.

A study of wayfinding practices like the one we are planning can easily incorporate all of the above. In the first context, online research tools can be used to find previously published information in helping to design and substantiate a research plan. That plan can in turn incorporate an online component, such as a study of how people use some technology to aid their wayfinding behavior.

May 2, 2007 | no comments | tags: amsterdam, internet, research, studyabroad, wayfinding

Creating a Research Group

As is rather apparent at this point, I’m quite interested in utilizing the resources of the Virtual Knowledge Studio to conduct research related to the flow of information online and the social implications which follow. Of course, this range of interest is extremely broad, and I am definitely open to a topic that is outside of the range I outlined in my previous post. In particular, the discussion of virtual wayfinding techniques and the question as to how national identities are presented online have piqued my interest. I think that any of these ideas can effectively extend the research being done by other members of our group and can successfully make conclusions about the use and social implications of technology.

In terms of how I would like this research to be situated, my main goal for the trip is “international engagement,” so I have not seriously considered working towards published material. However, it is my perception that all or most of the research I am concerned with could be done without significant involvement of human subjects, since much of it could involve social network analysis and other related methods of study. If this turns out to be true, it might be worth pursuing the idea of a publication, as these topics are currently of wide interest to the academic community.

Challenges to be faced in the near future include the process of narrowing a research topic and creating a group where everyone is interested in and comfortable with the topic we choose to commit ourselves to. Let’s do this!

April 9, 2007 | 2 comments | tags: amsterdam, research, studyabroad, wayfinding