Argunaut’s 1st teachers’ workshop

An example of a design workshop in the initial stages of

tool development

The Digalo discussion tool

• Graphical, synchronous e-discussion• Ontology of shapes and connectors• Small groups of 3-6 discussants• Moderated / un-moderated

The Idea of Argunaut

Planning the workshop…

• The “Hen and Egg” problem• Solution strategy: using mock-ups• Initial awareness indicators selected based on:

– Literature review– Pedagogical experience

• Mock-up visualizations:– Static vs. animated vs. interactive– Familiar vs. unique/innovative– Amount of data in one graph?

Brief description of the workshop• Questions: What awareness data are needed for

effective online moderation of e-discussions? How should these data be presented to the moderator?

• Participants: 12 teachers with Digalo classroom experience.

• Schedule: 1. Introduction to the ideas of Argunaut. 2. Visualization workshop (mock-ups->feedback).3. “Free” annotation/evaluation of Digalo maps

• Data sources: questionnaires, group discussion, observation sheets

A taste of the visualization workshop…

For each of the following displays, please note:• How important/useful is the type

information displayed, for moderating Digalo discussions online?

• How intuitive/easy to understand was the display of information? (Also Likert scale)

• Any comments?

Activity1

Activity2

Social network - simplified

Social network - full

Sample feedback & reflection• Activity 1 > Activity2• SNA-simple > SNA-full

– “Information should be added, like coloring the arrows from one to the others in colors of support/opposition.” (SNA-simple)

– “I prefer the user's name to automatically appear inside the circle, the shapes are too abstracted for me.” (SNA-simple)

– Information overload, too many shapes. Not suitable for real-time (=on-the-fly) work, requires too much time to process/analyze. (SNA-full)

– There are a lot of things you have to know in order to interpret the information. (SNA-full)