Observations of first learners with different capabilities (abstract only)

  • Authors:
  • Amber Wagner;Jeff Gray

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA;University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2014

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Abstract

During the Summer of 2013, we participated in a United Cerebral Palsy supported summer camp for children with disabilities. While our initial motivation for attending the camp was to conduct a user study of a Vocal User Interface, we worked with the camp attendees outside of testing and beyond computer activities, and during these activities, we were able to ask the attendees about their computer experience and interest. The attendees' experience and interest was noted along with the results of the study. The study demonstrated that voice was a useful modality for this audience; however, we were more surprised to learn that the majority of the attendees were not enthusiastic about using the computer and preferred more social activities. Three different types of computer science education activities were offered during the six week camp. The first activity was a group activity in which roughly ten students participated. The next activity was completed with smaller groups consisting of 2-3 attendees in which five students participated throughout the camp. The final activity was a one-on-one activity, and only three students chose to participate in the one-on-one activity. This poster presents the details of these activities, results of the user study, and thoughts as to why few attendees chose to participate in the smaller group activities based on observations during the summer camp.