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End-User Programming to

Support Classroom Activities on Small

Devices

Craig PrinceUniversity of Washington

VL/HCC 2008

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Classroom Presenter

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Classroom Network

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PublicDisplay

Instructor

Students

A

A

A B

B

D

C

Classroom Network

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Example Activities

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Ideal Classroom?

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More than Tablets

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Challenge for Teachers

How do you create activities for the classroom when every

device might have different input/output capabilities ?

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Abstract Solution

Common Representation

Clustered Responses

Responses

Disambiguate

Cluster

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Concrete Solution

1. Disambiguate• Step 1: Specify the activity• Step 2: Specify the semantics

2. Cluster• Step 3: Program Clustering

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Step 1: Authoring the Activity

PPT = Familiar + Basic set of objectsExtend with Tagging

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Step 2: Activity Semantics

Abstract

Responses

Schema for what valid responses look like!

Relations

-Count

-Location

-Layout

Objects

-User/Background

-Scale

-Text/ShapeSchematized

Responses

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Example

Specification

3 Regions where:

• Area

• Position

• Annotation [Opt.]

Are Important

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Example

Specification

3 Regions where:

• Area

• Position

• Annotation [Opt.]

Are Important

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Step 3: Interpret Responses

Use a visual language Easier to debug/understand Not trying to be Turing Complete Goal to end with similar results clustered

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Language DetailsCanvas

Region

Blob

Add Up Leaf Node Values

Mark Leaf Nodes Switch

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Responses (Data)What:Objects and Relations specified in Steps 1&2Plus Tag value Pairs

Output:Cluster Independently: Classification=???

-or-Similarity Metric: Slide A + B similarity #

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BlobsPrimitive Operations:

• Conditionals: if, switch• Iteration: while, for, goto• Comparison: <, ==, >, !=• Boolean: and, or, xor• Tag Assignment• Other: sum, count

High Level Operations:• Graph operations: isomorphism• Text operations: search, synonyms, stemming• Machine learning

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RegionsSpecial type of Blob

Purpose: Comment Code Encapsulate

Blobs are opaque functions, regions are not.

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Important Goals Transparent

Should be able to see the path a response took and ask why

Shareable

Others should be able to reuse and modify the templates

Add Up Leaf Node Values

Mark Leaf Nodes

Switch

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Evaluation Iterative Design

Teachers are our target audience Lab Tests

Time to develop clustering Effectiveness of clustering Surveys

Real Deployments First, 2 device environments Then 2+

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Contact Information

Craig Princecmprince@cs.washington.edu

Classroom Presenterhttp://classroompresenter.cs.washington.edu

Prof. Richard Anderson anderson@cs.washington.edu

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Activities: Textual

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Activities: Annotation

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Activities: Identification

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Activities: Diagrammatic