Older Adults Using Technology for Meaningful Activities During COVID-19: An Analysis Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory

Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected people's opportunities to engage in activities that are meaningful to their lives. In response to these constraints, many people, including older adults, turned to digital technologies as alternative ways to pursue meaningful activities. These technology-mediated activities, however, presented new challenges for older adults' everyday use of technology. In this paper, we investigate how older adults used digital technologies for meaningful activities during COVID-19 restrictions. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 older adults and analyzed the interview data through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Our analysis shows that using digital technologies for meaningful activities can both support and undermine older people's three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We argue that future technologies should be designed to empower older adults' content creation, engagement in personal interests, exploration of technology, effortful communication, and participation in beneficent activities. © 2023 ACM.

Smart-thing design by children at a distance: How to engage them and make them learn

In recent years, research in Child-Computer Interaction has shifted the focus from design with children, giving them a voice in the design process, to design by children to bring child participants different benefits, such as engagement and learning. However, design workshops, encompassing different stages, are challenging in terms of engagement and learning, e.g., they require prolonged commitment and concentration. They are potentially more challenging when held at a distance, as in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores at-a-distance smart-thing design by children, how it can engage different children and support their learning in programming. The paper reports a series of design workshops with 20 children, aged from 8 to 16 years old, all held at a distance. They were all organised with the DigiSNaP design framework and toolkit. The first workshop enabled children to explore what smart things are, to start ideating their own smart things and to scaffold their programming. The other workshops enabled children to evolve their own smart-thing ideas and programs. Data were gathered in relation to children's engagement and learning from different sources. Results are promising for future editions of smart-thing design at a distance or in a hybrid modality. They are discussed along with guidelines for smart-thing design by children at a distance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Android Based Smart Appointment System (SAS) for Booking and Interacting with Teacher for Counselling

An appointment system is going to be popular nowadays. The necessity of these types of systems is increasing day by day specially in education sector. Worldwide COVID-19 pandemic provoke the demand of these types of application. In this research paper, an Android-based appointment is built for booking an appointment and communicating with the teacher. To use this system both student and teacher have to an android device with connection of the internet. A single android application will be used for both types of users. Students can get the information of all teachers and book an appointment with teachers and teachers can accept or decline this appointment. Java programming language is used for this system and Google's Firebase is used for the database. In addition, the modern coding Architecture pattern MVVM (Model- View-View Model) followed to build this system. Hopefully, this system saves valuable time and makes the teacher-student interaction journey easier. © 2023 IEEE.

Formation of Digital Skills of Personnel in the Cooperative Sector of the Economy in the Face of New Challenges

Industry 4.0 is the central topic of numerous publications by foreign and Russian scientists, most of which are conceptual in nature. The current labor market requires the formation of new competencies and skills demanded in the digital economy. Digital reality dictates the need to develop new competencies—digital skills. Knowledge of computer technology, the use of software, and programming have become essential. For most organizations worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization and adoption of digital ways of working. The development of new forms of employment (remote and combined) using digital technology will contribute to positive changes in the labor market. Based on these trends in the digital transformation of current society, the research aims to examine the digital skills of employees in the cooperative sector of the economy and their demand in the labor market in the context of Industry 4.0. The authors use descriptive statistical methods to process official data from the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation and the Higher School of Economics. The research indicates that the transformation of the labor market and forms of employment requires the development of new competencies demanded in Industry 4.0. In the digital economy, employment opportunities increasingly depend on a person's digital skills and competencies. This paper is one of the first comprehensive studies of the changing labor conditions, working environment, and the emergence of new competencies in Industry 4.0. This research contributes to the problem of studying digital skills as a component of human capital and can be the basis for further research in this subject area. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Patchwork: The Hidden, Human Labor of AI Integration within Essential Work

This paper examines the rapid introduction of AI and automation technologies within essential industries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on participant observation and interviews within two sites of waste labor in the United States, we consider the substantial effort performed by frontline workers who smooth the relationship between robotics and their social and material environment. Over the course of the research, we found workers engaged in continuous acts of calibration, troubleshooting, and repair required to support AI technologies over time. In interrogating these sites, we develop the concept of "patchwork": human labor that occurs in the space between what AI purports to do and what it actually accomplishes. We argue that it is necessary to consider the often-undervalued frontline work that makes up for AI's shortcomings during implementation, particularly as CSCW increasingly turns to discussions of Human-AI collaboration. © 2023 Owner/Author.

'Together, We Dance Alone' Building a Collective Toolkit for Creatives in a Pandemic

Braybrooke discusses the development of the Covid Creatives Toolkit which collective toolkit for creatives in the COVID-19 pandemic. The Covid Creatives Toolkit emerged from the uncertainties brought by the pandemic as a mutual-aid effort aimed at offering some of that much-needed support, by helping creative practitioners who needed to quickly migrate their practice onto digital places and spaces as a result of the virus. The toolkit has become a living archive that articulates what co-creation as a form of care making can look like in a crisis. Public contributions to the kit have varied widely, from mutual education and collaborative digital gatherings aimed at challenging social isolation.

Co-Evolutionary Location-Routing Model of Medical Isolation Areas for Major Public Health Emergencies Considering the Uncertainty of Future Traffic Environment

With the continuous development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the selection of locations for medical isolation areas has not always been optimal for the timely transportation of infected people, or those suspected of being infected. This has resulted in failure to control the rate of spread of infection cases in time. To address this problem, this paper proposes a co-evolutionary location-routing optimization (CELRO) model of medical isolation areas for use in major public health emergencies to develop a rapid location-routing scheme for epidemic isolation, including the selection of locations of medical isolation facilities per area and the optimal route per vehicle to each infected person. Specifically, this paper solves the following two sub-problems: (i) calculate the shortest transportation times and corresponding routes from any medical isolation area to any person infected or suspected of being infected, and (ii) calculate the location scheme for distribution of isolation areas. Different from previous studies, the vehicle operating characteristics and the interference of uncertainty of the traffic environment are considered in the proposed model. To find an appropriate scheme for location of medical isolation areas with the shortest travel times, a co-evolutionary clustering algorithm (CECA), which is a combination of some separated evolutionary programming operations, is proposed to solve the model. Various network sizes and uncertainty combinations are used to design some comparative tests, which aim to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. In the experiment section, CELRO reduced travel time by at least 14% compared with other methods. This finding can provide an effective theoretical basis for optimizing the spatial layout of medical isolation areas or the location planning of new medical facilities. © National Academy of Sciences.

To Do or not to Do Previous Homework in Computer Education

The first contact of freshmen students with computer thinking and programming languages is not an easy task. There are several strategies that can be used before, during and after face-to-face classes. Flipped classes are a way to save time in activities that can be better done in the form of previous work - guided by the teacher. A n d the time gained in person can be used in tasks that are much more productive than traditional lectures. This study is based on an introductory programming semester of post lockdown COVID-19, initially with 101 students, with the strategy of providing study materials for students to work on before class (as in flipped classes). We use attendance in classes, acce ss-work MOODLE, the two grades obtained during the semester, as well as some information about the student (age, course, gender, previous knowledge of programming languages), and the level that the students think it was their presence in classes and on MOODLE in the middle and at the end of the semester to measure the success of the experiment. It seems that this type of strategy can be excellent for students who attend classes weekly and do their homework, but it can be a cause of dropout if taken to the extreme. © 2022 IEEE.

Interaction with Immersive Cultural Heritage Environments: Using XR Technologies to represent multiple perspectives on Serralves Museum

Museums have increasingly been using digital approaches to explore new ways to provide new experiences with Cultural Heritage (CH). The need for these solutions exploded with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing museums and cultural organizations to move towards a digital transformation to engage their audiences. Although, with a lack of guidelines on how to create eXtended Reality (XR) experiences with multiple perspectives for CH environments. This project aims to provide Museums with novel approaches to include interactive and immersive activities targeted at the cultural assets of their exhibitions and educational activities. Firstly, we will map and critically access current participatory practices in museums;then, we will develop a new methodology for creating and implementing experiences using XR technology in a range of workshops. The concept of multiple perspectives on cultural heritage will be explored through the application of co-creation practices, towards engaging different communities with cultural heritage contents from Serralves Museum. © 2022 ACM.

How COVID-19 Pandemic Drives Digital Transformation of the Workplace: A Case Study of an Industrial SME

The digital transformation of SMEs is unstoppable and one of its consequences will be the change of the workplace, which implies advantages but also disadvantages for companies and employees. The COVID-19 pandemic and the related lockdown made remote work, facilitated by digital technologies, a necessity. Based on a case study in an industrial SME, through semi-structured interviews, we obtained relevant information on the response given to this new situation. As a result, we propose three issues to be addressed to advance in the digital transformation of the workplace: firstly, SMEs must address needs at the operational level;secondly, professional relationships and, finally, new requirements derived from the very nature of digital work. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Study on Exercise Evaluation based on Pose Estimation for Remote Exercise System

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has caused the whole world to quarantine. Since most of the gyms are closed during the pandemic, people are opting to exercise from home. The goal of this research is to combine video chat application and pose estimation function to design a multiuser fitness website that can increase the competition or cooperation level, which in turn increases the motivation to continue exercise in a remote fitness setting. This paper presents an evaluation method of exercise with "MoveNet"model and describes the design of the remote fitness application using that method. As a result, in our system, we have implemented four different exercises such as "Jumping Jacks,""Squat,""Pushup,"and "Curls."Our system allows the evaluation of those exercises and can design remote exercise applications using this algorithm. © 2022 ACM.

THE MATTER OF INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: REDEFINING THE SENSE OF HOME IN A PANDEMIC WORLD

Undeniably, the home is a place of comfort, a place to relax and to feel safe. A home is what many people strive to build during their lifetimes, both externally--the outside, the furniture, the garden--and internally (the feeling of a home, a place to recover from the world outside, raising kids, having friends and family over, throwing social events). As the Covid-19 virus started spreading, prompting individuals, mainly older adults, to stay inside and moving almost all outside activities inside, many struggled with involuntary social isolation within their own homes. This meant that many aspects of what makes a home a home were not possible for an (at the time) unforeseeable future. The home became a more fragile place, forcibly filled with new elements, one of them being activities mediated by technology.

INTERACTION DESIGN SOLUTIONS FOR ONLINE MEETINGS: A UNIVERSITY TEACHER'S WISH LIST

This article is an attempt to constructively reflect on a sudden and intense personal experience with online meetings, brought about by the Covid pandemic. In online classes, a teacher's challenge is not only to perceive and understand students but also to understand what students perceive. An inclusive discourse focusing on desirable design solutions could be a way for users to say, "This is how we want our technology."

Sustaining Well-Being of Teachers in Higher Education

Given the growing burnout of teachers during the pandemic, it is necessary to recommend that higher education institutions apply careful planning in developing teacher well-being programs. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the well-being of teachers in higher education to reveal the well-being tendencies. Sustaining and developing teacher well-being programs represents a high priority for higher education institutions. This paper first conducted a systematic literature review to identify and critically appraise available secondary data. Second, a short survey was conducted to explain teachers' responses to identified psychological factors from the systematic literature review. Moreover, the authors interviewed several teachers to collect more evidence. Lastly, the authors synthesized all information to present conclusions and recommendations. The findings of this paper illustrated significant factors in relation to the well-being of teachers and revealed the well-being tendencies. Moreover, it outlined a foundation for further research to investigate sustaining teachers' well-being. This paper is the introductory paper of the research, which has been in progress for the last two years. The current paper offers much-needed evidence to the researchers and not only to enhance or propose or even create one universal model for teachers' well-being. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Teaching through Flipped Classroom and Learning Communities: Analisys of a Computer Programming Course during Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, education underwent an important change, forcing courses to follow an online modality. This article shows the case study of a Computer Programming course at the National University of Colombia, using the flipped classroom methodology, where students through an LMS could view content and perform exercises, and subsequently had synchronous sessions with teachers. Additionally, learning communities were created through the use of instant messaging that allowed interaction between students with classmates and teachers. The results and reflections obtained with the proposed methodology are presented from the review of the use of tools but also from student progress and perceptions. © 2022 IEEE.

Interactive Python Notebooks for Physical Chemistry

Chemistry simulations using interactive graphic user interfaces (GUIs) represent uniquely effective and safe tools to support multidimensional learning. Computer literacy and coding skills have become increasingly important in the chemical sciences. In response to both of these facts, a series of Jupyter notebooks hosted on Google Colaboratory were developed for undergraduate students enrolled in physical chemistry. These modules were developed for use during the COVID-19 pandemic when Millsaps College courses were virtual and only virtual or online laboratories could be used. These interactive exercises employ the Python programming language to explore a variety of chemical problems related to kinetics, the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, numerical versus analytical solutions, and real-world application of concepts. All of the modules are available for download from GitHub (https://github.com/Abravene/Python-Notebooks-for-Physical-Chemistry). Accessibility was prioritized, and students were assumed to have no prior programming experience;the notebooks are cost-free and browser-based. Students were guided to use widgets to build interactive GUIs that provide dynamic representations, immediate access to multiple investigations, and interaction with key variables. To evaluate the perceived effectiveness of this introduction to Python programming, participants were surveyed at the beginning and end of the course to gauge their interest in pursuing programming and data analysis skills and how they viewed the importance of programming and data analysis for their future careers. Student reactions were generally positive and showed increased interest in programming and its importance in their futures, so these notebooks will be incorporated into the in-person laboratory in the future.

ON HONORING OUR VOLUNTEERS

The success of SIGCHI depends wholly on the time and energy that our volunteers are able to give to it. Through the years, and particularly upon the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have heard a great deal about volunteer burnout, prompting ongoing discussions within the Executive Committee and beyond about how we can support our volunteers better. In October last year, the EC hosted two open sessions on volunteering for SIGCHI, led by Volunteer Support Chair Priya Kumar. These were followed in November by a fireside chat with Geraldine Fitzpatrick on service and leadership. Here, we share some reflections from these conversations, and welcome your input on better caring for our volunteers--and for ourselves as volunteers. It is our commitment to make space for a culture of volunteering that is visible, nurturing, and compassionate, engendering a sense of belonging across SIGCHI.

Open science progress: A literature assessment of open access articles

The open science movement has been widely adopted in multiple scientific fields across nations. Its benefit has been proven in many cases, most notably when the practice accelerated the search for solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic both in medical and socio-economic contexts. Still, the movement has faced multiple challenges, including an imbalance in the adoption of its numerous aspects. For example, the open access aspect which indicates the starting point of the movement has been widely practiced. Unfortunately, while open access is essential, an open access practice alone is not enough to pursue open science. In this work, we would like to assess the imbalance of the adoption, especially to measure how open access practice contributes to other practices, namely open data and open source as a sub-aspect of the open reproducibility research. Our assessment is based on descriptive statistic analysis of 300 open access articles from three domains, that is engineering, social and life science. Our findings indicated that the free and open source computer codes were dominantly adopted by the three scientific fields. However, social science has the lowest involvement in public data. © 2022 ACM.

Implementation and Experiences of a Flipped Lecture Hall - A Fully Online Introductory Programming Course

The course Introduction to Programming is one of the first and fundamental courses within any computer science-related study program. Traditionally, such introductory courses are characterized by a large group of students, whereas this group has a heterogeneous prior knowledge of the topic. These courses are usually taught in a traditional setting due to a high number of participants. However, the Covid-19 pandemic situation required to shift from traditional teaching to alternative approaches. In the winter semester 2020, a total of 636 students actively participated in the course at Graz University of Technology. Therefore, the course was revised to a fully online flipped classroom course using asynchronous elements such as pre-recorded videos and synchronous elements such as live streams on Twitch. In this paper, we show how we implemented a fully online course using the flipped classroom approach. We present approaches that engage students in active participation and encourage self-paced learning. We found that a high community-related interaction with students has a major impact on students satisfaction. This can be reached using lively communication and different communication channels. These results may be useful for researchers and lecturers that want to have insights into experiences in flipped classroom settings. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An Authentic Peer-Led Team Learning Program for Community Colleges: A Recruitment, Retention, and Completion Instrument for Face-to-Face and Online Modality

The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) teaching model has been widely applied in several four-year institutions in STEM areas, including Computer Science. Although only a few two-year colleges have adopted similar teaching models, the number of contact hours and interaction between peer leaders and students are limited, and the implementation of an authentic PLTL model is constrained by students' schedules and location accommodation. The propelled migration from face-to-face to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced dissemination and implementation of such model alternative. The PLTL model was implemented for the fundamentals of Computer Science, i.e., CS 1, 2, and 3, where peer leaders learned pedagogical techniques, designed, implemented, and proctored programming activities for the three courses online. In this paper, we report the experience of the PLTL model applied to a computer science program in a community college. Experience includes the peer leaders' growth in disseminating material to their peers and how this model measures course performance, recruitment, retention, and completion. © 2023 ACM.