Scenario - interaction in a group

What is the age group?
The age group based in this scenario is the 5 to 9 age group. The gender of the group is equally balanced. There are 15 children in the group.


Which environment are we in (Inside / Outside / Classroom / Hall)?
Children are currently having a physical education lesson on the lower school playground. The day is currently sunny and the children have bought there water bottles with them.


What is the layout of the environment?


Source: http://www.croydon-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/images/LOGOS/layo2.jpg Date Accessed: 13th February 2007

The children are exercising at the Young Street play area at the right of Block 1. Around the boundary of the play area, there are large oak trees and wooden fences.

The play area is divided in two sections, one being concrete and one being grass. There is also a small sandpit that the children will be using for long jumps.

On the concrete there is a snakes & ladders paint outline and hopscotch area.

How many teachers are there in the area?
On average there are two teachers and two supervisors.

What are they currently learning?
The children are learning how to warm up – stretching and a light jog in preparation for a game of rounders. It is the first time the children have played rounders at school and the first 15 minutes will be used to show the children how to play the game.

What are the children’s attitudes?
The children enjoy the physical education lessons and are enthusiastic about playing rounders. Some children, however, have complained that its too hot.

What’s the time of day?
10:40am, although there was a delay of ten minutes.

What are the current teaching methods?
Involves supervisor demonstrating how to do warm-ups and the children practising in front of the teachers. Before the lesson, a small video is played in class to demonstrate some of the activities the children will be carrying out.

In this scenario how would the robot-teaching assistant interact with the children?


- The teaching assistant can demonstrate how to exercise and the children mimic this in a group

- Offer children help if they are confused about the rules

- During the game of rounders, the teaching assistant will be the referee

- Teaching assistant can participate in the game of rounders



Source: http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/New-ASIMO-exercising/
Date Accessed: 13th February 2007


Source: http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/New-ASIMO-exercising/
Date Accessed: 13th February 2007


In this scenario how would the children interact with the teaching assistant?

- Children may well be more interested in the teaching assistant than the physical education lesson itself

- The children may want to be the teaching assistant’s buddy/friend and may surrounded him

- There may well be some children that will be scared of the teaching assistant

Gaurav Chander
Bobby Biran Singh

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Scenarios - interaction with an individual

What is the age group?

Aged 5 to 9


Which environment are we in (Inside / Outside / Classroom / Hall)?

Inside – in classroom a small room near the head’s office where there is a bookcase for which the child chooses a book to read


What is the layout of the environment?

Small room maximum for 4 people with chairs and one desk and a couple of shelves where there are educational books and some posters.


How many teachers are there in the classroom?

1 teacher who listens to the child read


How many children are there?

1 currently reading and 3 listeners


What are they currently learning?

Reading skills and communication skills


The children’s attitudes?

May feel nervous, as they don’t know what to expect


What is the time of day?

After lunch. 2:00PM


What are the current teaching methods (IT)?

Teacher is there to help the child through any difficulties. No use of technology.


In this scenario how would the teaching assistant interact with the children?

- Interact with child by pronouncing difficult words
- Save time by listening to another child
- Act out a certain scene from a book
- More accurate speech would help less fortunate children / learning difficulties
- Help children understand grammar in terms of reading


Based on this, how would the children interact with teaching assistant?

- Would find it interesting
- Learned how to improve speech
- Found it a new fun way to learn
- New friend – someone to talk to about bullying
- Less pressure
- Read of the face where the book is played for the child after he has read, so that he can review

HCI Theory & Practice - Scenarios

I came across an interesting description of the theoretical aspects of a scenario, which is a tool, that can be used to describe stories of interaction between human and computer. In Chapter 5 of Human-Computer Interaction (Beale et al, Human-Computer Interaction, 2004), it describes scenarios as being “rich stories of interaction” and being one of the “most flexible and powerful” design representation tools.

Scenarios can be wide ranging in that some can be very short, describing a small situation and some can be large, describing a situation and environment. They can be essentially used in helping the group see what is required when designing the prototype, see how the children will react to the Robot Teaching Assistant etc. and can be reused at any stage of the project.

I think when understanding scenarios and its practicality in the context of our project, we should really focus on the existing environment in which the children work and play in at school. This way we can see how the robot teaching assistant would react or participate in that particular scenario which can aid in our design & prototyping stage at a later date.

However, we can be critical in that scenarios in that they do not highlight potential alternative paths. For example, interactions involved in the real world involve choices and in scenarios it does not necessarily show these potential alternative paths.

Initial Requirements Derived From The Personas

Here is a list of detailed requirements we derived from analysing the persona's (See Deriving User Requirements) : -

Usability
- The robot must be usable by the target audience it is intended (being asked queries)

- Users must be able to use the robot with minimal supervision

- Tasks must take as little time as possible to receive helpful responses from robot to the user

- Must be able talk to the end user and show facial expressions as a human would do

- One of the key assumptions we make is that AI technology has become so advanced to the point that robots can detect human emotion – This can be through a sensor component

- Offer support and assistance to students who request help

- Must be able to access the local school records for timetabling information through a Wireless Fidelity connection

Efficiency (Performance)
- The Robot must be able to handle different queries by different children simultaneously with minimal delay – in a group environment

- Response times should be minimised as much as possible

- The average time for a response must be less than 5 seconds

- It should also be able to deal with a number of queries during school time

Reliability
- The robot should be available 99% of the time during the time the children are at school.

Legislative
- When the teaching assistant attempts to access information held on the local school database, it must be kept confidential.

- The robot shall confirm to the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

Health and safety issues
- Must comply with Isaac Asimov's three laws (See Deriving User Requirements Post). We assume that AI technology has evolved to the point that Robots can comply with these laws.

- The robot must be waterproof and be immune to accidental spillage