Exploring Distributed Cognition Collaborative Group Learning on Interactive Tabletop Displays

Abstract

Learning and education are research fields with a myriad of different theories, frameworks and methods. They cover everything from the traditional classroom session to how the population of a whole country learns over decades. One specific type of learning is how a small group of people sitting around a table solving problems learn from each other and the material at hand. This type of learning is often modeled as Distributed Cognition learning. Specifique AS develops a type of paper tool that fits right into the Distributed Cognition category of learning and has been working on it for over 20 years. Their wish is to re-­‐imagine this tool in digital form to improve its function. Taking analog tools and improving them by making them digital has a very successful history, and making this specific kind of learning digital is a relatively unexplored field. It is just now that this kind of technology is cheap enough and readily available to make it feasible for a bigger market. There is a clear opportunity to break new ground. Touchtech AB is a Gothenburg based company that focuses on multi-­‐touch and other NUI solutions to various problems. Utilizing their and Specifique's knowledge in their respective fields the goal of this thesis is to take a step in the direction of how to design a new tabletop display based DC learning tool. The method used is a variation of a Goal Directed design method. Starting with scope definition, stakeholder interviews, audit of existing work, user observations, design phase and user tests. This was conducted in two iterations. The final results of the thesis are a set of key design considerations for designing tabletop display DC learning tools. Because of the thesis' limited scope it is difficult to draw any general conclusions on the benefit of using a digital tool instead of an analog one, but the results seem to indicate that using a digital tabletop display instead of a analog has clear benefits. Mainly by giving designers more tools in their toolbox to shape the user experience. The design considerations in this thesis is a list of guidelines that help designers use those tools in the right way to facilitate DC learning.