Games and Play SIG: Connecting Through Social and Playful Technologies

Games have always been popular for connecting people, from local single-player and couch co-op, to massively multiplayer online. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, remote games that involved and fostered social interactions and connections were a highlight among strategies for staying connected. For this year's games and play SIG, we come together to discuss the relevant and timely topic of social and playful technologies, and how they can be designed to best foster meaningful social connections over a distance. We bring together attendees from not only the games community, but also those in the broader field of CHI focusing on social and playful technologies. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Enriching Social Sharing for the Dementia Community: Insights from In-Person and Online Social Programs

The dementia community faces major challenges in social engagements, which have been further complicated by the prolonged physical distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Designing digital tools for in-person social sharing in family and care facility settings has been well explored, but comparatively little HCI work has focused on the design of community-based social technologies for virtual settings. We present our virtual fieldwork on remote social activities explored by one dementia community in response to the impacts of the pandemic. Building upon our previously published on-site fieldwork in this community, we expand on our initial publication by follow-up interviewing caregivers and facilitators and reflecting on a virtual social program. Through thematic analysis and contrasting in-person and online formats of the program, we deepened the understanding of virtual social engagements of the dementia community, examining their efforts to leverage physical objects and environments, enhance open and flexible experiences, and expand collaborative space. We propose to open new design opportunities through holistic approaches, including reimagining community social spaces, rethinking agency in people with dementia and caregivers, and diversifying HCI support across communities and stakeholders. © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

Social Media, Emotions and Technology: Identifying Possibilities and Attitudes during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple challenges tested states, countries, and people. Regarding the latter, information, and communication technologies, together with social media platforms, became a resource that helped to reduce the shortcomings that arose because of the criticality at that moment. However, they also contributed to redirecting the emotional dimensions towards the digital space. This work proposes a novel approach to the case of Panama, by estimating the emotivity through opinion mining. The study used as a reactive element the official announcements issued by the Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) related to the pandemic. The resulting reactions were recorded for six months through a popular social media platform. The results indicate a strong and negative impact on people's sensitivity. In addition, the data acquisition methods used, their processing, and analysis are provided as valuable contributions to the Latin American context for similar studies. © 2022 IEEE.

The nature of teachers’ professional learning through a personal learning network: Individual, social and digitally connected

Ongoing professional development (PD) enables school teachers to manage rapidly changing social and educational conditions, especially the isolating impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, research shows that commonly provided one-size-fits-all models of PD are often ineffective and leave teachers feeling frustrated. Formally structured approaches often overlook self-directed digitally mediated learning, and the innovative practices that some teachers already engage in. Until now the nature and benefits of professional learning though a personal learning network (PLN) – a system of digital connections between people and resources that an individual constructs using social technologies – has received limited attention. This paper reveals partial findings of a qualitative case study that explored the recent PLN experience of 13 teachers around the world. The five selected vignettes present different ways that teachers connect with peers to share their professional learning needs and interests. These vignettes illustrate the case study's key findings that the nature of teachers’ professional learning through PLNs is individual, social and digitally connected through social technologies. These findings are of significance to researchers, education policy makers, school administrators and practitioners to inform the development of flexible, innovative and remotely accessible approaches to professional learning.

The Pandemic Social Services Market: New Practices and Technologies

This article analyzes the processes of development of the social service market, which is part of the social protection system. Through a comparative analysis of the Soviet and Russian models of social services, the authors conclude that the modern system, while partially retaining some characteristics of the Soviet system, is transforming and acquiring new specific features. Based on the generalization of the results of the authors' comprehensive sociological research using quantitative and qualitative methods (questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, content analysis), the innovative practices of working with consumers (recipients) of social services, which social efficiency in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic was noted by respondents, used by NCOs operating in the social services market. Despite the complexity of objective circumstances faced by organizations, regional NCOs still managed to maintain the quality of social services provided in both online and offline formats at a level that meets the needs of recipients. The prospects for the development of SO NPOs are connected not only with the creation and implementation of innovative technologies and practices, but also depend on strengthening the personnel composition of employees through the development and subsequent implementation of proposals for protecting their health and improving professional competencies by creating conditions for training, advanced training and mastering new specialties. The article notes the important role of regional media in covering the activities of NGOs in the difficult period of the spread of coronavirus infection and the establishment of a forced regime of social isolation. An analysis of video materials broadcast on official channels of Volgograd television is given, which contributed to strengthening the status of NGOs as competitive providers of quality social services. It is predicted that the experience gained during the "pandemic" period will be used by NGOs in their day-to-day activities in the future.Alternate : Ð’ статье анализируются процессы развития рынка социального обслуживания населения, являющегося частью системы социальной защиты. Посредством сравнительного анализа советской и российской моделей социального обслуживания населения, авторы статьи приходят к заключению, что современная система, частично сохраняя некоторые характеристики советской, преобразуется и приобретает новые специфические черты. На основе обобщения результатов проведенного авторами комплексного социологического исследования с применением количественных и качественных методов (анкетного опроса, глубинных интервью, контент-анализа) были зафиксированы используемые СО НКО, действующими на рынке социального обслуживания населения, инновационные практики работы с потребителями (получателями) социальных услуг, социальная эффективность которых в условиях пандемии COVID-19 была отмечена респондентами. Несмотря на сложность объективных обстоятельств, с которыми столкнулись организации, региональным СО НКО все же удалось сохранить качество социальных услуг, предоставляемых как в онлайн, так и в офлайн-форматах на ƒÑ€Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ðµ, удовлетворяющем потребности получателей. Перспективы развития СО НКО связаны не только с созданием и внедрением инновационных технологий и практик, но и зависят от усиления кадрового состава сотрудников посредством разработки и последующего внедрения предложений по охране их здоровья и повышению профессиональных компетенций путем создания условий для обучения, повышения квалификации и освоения новых специальностей. Отмечается весомая роль региональных СМИ в освещении деятельности СО НКО в сложный период распространения коронавирусной инфекции и установления вынужденного режима социальной изоляции. Приводится анализ видеоматериалов, транслируемых на официальных каналах волгоградского телевидения, которые способствовали усилению статусных позиций СО НКО, как конкурентоспособных поставщиков качественных социальных услуг. Делается прогноз, что полученный в «пандемийный» период опыт работы будет использован СО НКО и в дальнейшем в их повседневной деятельности.

Teleworker's Perception of Technology Use for Collaborative and Social During the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the flourish of collaborative and social technologies in the market since the pandemic, there is limited understanding of user's attitudes towards these technologies. We aim to understand teleworkers' perceptions of technology use during the pandemic and interviewed 46 teleworkers. We found that teleworkers generally hold a positive attitude towards social technologies and are creative to use these technologies to meet their social needs;they express overall negative feelings about remote collaboration technologies, though online communication flattens the communication hierarchy in the organization. The pandemic amplifies the extant challenges and highlights the shortcomings of technological design in well-established teleworking research and remote collaboration work. We suggest that future design should 1) combine and commercialize solutions that are well-grounded in prior work;2) consider scenarios that are typically missed and can be easily replaced with collocated interaction from the pre-pandemic context into the forced teleworking context. © Cai et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd.

Controlling Spread of COVID-19 Using VANETs

COVID-19 is spreading at an exponential rate and declared as 'Pandemic' by the World Health Organization (WHO). The only way of controlling its spread is 'social distancing' among the human beings. Apart from human beings, it can also spread through other objects such as metals and plastics which are used in public passenger buses, cars and trains. Studies reveal that the COVID-19 virus can stay on metallic things for 2-5 days. This makes traveling more difficult for regular employees to their workplace. Also, due to increasing number of COVID-19 patients, it is very difficult for a patient to find the required resources at hospitals. In this paper, we propose a VANET-IoT framework for detection of COVID-19 exposure in various entities such as vehicles. A vehicle is said to be virus-exposed if it carries any COVID-19 positive patient. We develop an Android application 'Corona Assistant' for travelers to find all virus-exposed vehicles and chose virus-free vehicle for traveling. In addition, a hospital recommendation system (HRS) is developed inside the 'Corona Assistant' application. HRS helps the COVID-19 positive patient to select the nearby hospital based on available resources.