Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Talking turns and amount of talk.
The idea of taking the time that group members speak to
understand group process is not new. In 1949, Eliot Chapple created the chronograph
interaction; a device to measure persons' amount of talk with the intention of analyzing talk-
turns structure (Chapple, 1949). Since then, frequency and duration of speech have been
useful tools for the analysis of group interaction in a number of ways, for example to create
regulatory tools for meetings as in (Bergstrom & Karahalios, 2007). The students' rates of
speech will help to determine if they are participating during discussion periods and to
what extent.
Artifacts manipulation and implementation.
When the group's common goal implies
implementation, it is desirable a maintained balance between dialogue and action (Jermann,
2004). Artifacts manipulation is an object form of nonverbal behavior, as it can be part of the
answer to an expression. The amount of work a student realizes, aside of its quality, is a
good indicative of that student's interest and participation on the task.
Gazes
. The eyes direction is a reliable indicative of a persons' focus of attention (Bailenson et
al., 2003). Via the students' gazes, it can be determined to what they are paying attention.
Deictic Gestures
. Deictic terms such as “here, there, that”, are interpreted resulting from the
communication context, and when the conversation is focused on objects and their
identities, they are crucial to identify them quickly and securely (Clark & Brennan, 1991).
Consequently, deictic gestures directed to the shared objects or the workspace should be
useful to determine whether students are talking about the task.
In the application, the user does not see his/her own avatar −see Figure 2. The users' avatars
do not have a natural behavior; they are just seated representations of the user that need a
metaphorical representation of their actions in the environment.
The significant entities associated to the avatars actions are: colored arrows coupled to their
hair color (yellow, red, or brown) that take the place of their hands, and can be used to point
the objects or grab them to be moved; by a mouse click, the arrow is activated. To move the
objects once they have being selected, the WASD keys can be used to direct them.
Fig. 2. Experimental application
