December 12th 2016

Gesna Aggarwal
Annotated Source List

"About SIGCHI." SIGCHI, www.sigchi.org/about. Accessed 29 Oct. 2016.

This is the website for SIGCHI. It is the premier international society for professionals,
academics and students who are interested in human-technology and human-computer
interaction (HCI). SIGCHI provides a forum for the discussion of all aspects of HCI through 24
sponsored and over 40 in-cooperation conferences, publications , communities, web sites, email
discussion groups, and other services. SIGCHI members are involved in the design,
implementation and use of interactive computer-based systems in the broadest sense, ranging
from desktop computing, to interactive TV devices. Other members are researchers seeking to
understand human-technology interface from many perspectives, including psychology,
sociology, anthropology, industrial design, and ergonomics.
This website was especially helpful because under its resources tab, it has a HCI
bibliography link which provides access to all of their conference proceeding along with
scholarly articles of most of its member on various aspects of human-computer interaction
ranging from the graphics to the psychology. Additionally, SIGCHI provides links to a ACM
Digital Library and TOCHI (ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction) which have
all of SIGCHI articles in the multidisciplinary field of human-computer interaction. This one site
provides thousands of reliable sources that can be used to find more information on any aspect of
HCI.

Braman, James, et al. "Learning Computer Science Fundamentals through Virtual

Environments." Towson University.
This source is based of the research done by three students at Towson University about
the beneficial and adverse effects of a virtual-interactive platform called Second life to help teach
computer classes at all levels of proficiency. The students implement Second life in the
following classes: Computers and Creativity, Information technology for Business, Data
Organization, and Programming Languages. All of the listed sources are in an ascending order of
difficulty. The experiment concluded that each of the classes had the same result. However, an
in-depth analysis was not provided and no discrepancies were reported.
The application of Second life helped students get a more visual, real-life and interactive
learning experience, which helped them grasp and retain concepts better. In situations where
equipment cannot be used due to expense or resource allocation, simulations via second Life
were speculated to be a useful alternative.However, what was also noted was that most of the
students had no prior knowledge to Second life. Thus, they were not interested or wanted to take
out any time to understand Second life. This lack of participation takes away from the entire
purpose of an online community. A feasible solution proposed by the authors of the paper was to
ask class instructors to give a brief overview on Second life. This brief introduction could serve
as the impetus for many students to consider joining a local online community. Overall this
source was slightly helpful. It showed how increasing the rigor of class does not make an online
community's presence weaker. It also showed how, despite the few glitches in regards to
accessibility and usability, the students preferred being taught using applications like Second life.
However, the authors used very little experimental data and most of the paper was theoretical.
Thus, the proofs were not very convincing, making it a less reliable source than many of the
other research papers.

Brandtzaeg, Peter Bae, and Jan Heim. "Why People Use Social Networking Sites?"
SITEF.
This source is based of an experiment done by two norwegian researchers to find the
motivations for people to use social media. For this experiment, 1200 social networking site
(SNS) users were asked questions regarding their primary motivator for using a SNS. Since this
study was done in Norway, it was catered to a community with a very high usage of information
and communication technologies. This experiment was carried out in 2007, that is why the SNS
used are not websites like Facebook or MySpace. Rather, they are Underskog.no, Nettby.no,
HamarUngdom.no and Biip.no.
This source proved to be helpful. It gave a more clear understanding to why societies
choose to use SNSs, which is a form of human-computer interaction. This is critical knowledge
for designers and human factor engineers who build SNSs. The authors used content analysis to
understand the data they received through the questionnaire. Content analysis has been proven to
be useful in describing and making inferences about the characteristics of communications and
patterns of usage, as well as making inferences about the consequences of communication. Thus,
making it an excellent choice for this experiment. Additionally, to avoid user statements that
lacked meaning or had low information value, the researchers decided to select the 1,200 longest
user statements in terms of number of characters. This was based on the assumption that longer
statements were given by users who had taken time to reflect on the questions. This approach
seems slightly erroneous, as some good quality responses may have been lost lost in this
fine-tuning of data. However, the researchers made sure to provide a more qualitative
assessment. This was done to assess the respondents incentives for use, beyond analyzing the
mere frequency of responses. The experiment showed that 31% of the people used SNS to
develop new relations and 21% of the people used SNS to connect with old friends and family.
Thus, the atmosphere surrounding SNS is one of socializing and hearing new ideas. It was also
observed that this tendency might be due to the fact that an SNS makes it possible to verify the
person and his or her profile (e.g., interests, look, friends) and to see if he or she is interesting or
safe, as opposed to ordinary open chat rooms without any public profiles. Another important
reason SNSs are so popular for catching up and socialising is because they are both cheap and
efficient. Even the other important topics like, information or debating signify that for a
successful human-computer interface you need to have a wide and varied user base which allows
the users to interact with one another. Another thing to be noted from this experiment is how the
trend this friending behavior was also seen in older online communities. Thus, the chances of
this trend changing seems unlikely. Lastly, it is interesting to note that self-presentations or
identity are not mentioned as a key personal driver for participating in SNSs, despite the fact that
researchers name SNSs as a technology for personal branding.Thus, contact with friends may be
linked to a strong social feeling of belonging and a sense of shared or social identity. Overall,
this source does a good job in presenting the attraction received by SNSs and gives an insight on
how those same driving factors can be used in other forms of technology.

Chris Frew. Personal Interview. 9 Oct 2016.

Mr. Chris Frew is the Vice President of Sales for a startup called Breezio. Breezio has an
office at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Towson University
where he earned a Bachelor in Science degree. He has worked as a Management Consultant of
Venture Partners from February 2011. He also founded BioBuzz, a volunteer based organization
that provides a Biotech workforce networking group exclusively for employees or students in the
Bioscience industry. Its mission is to bring the community together and help build a stronger,
more connected bioscience industry & workforce in our region. Breezio is a company that
provides a Community Engagement Platform which combines knowledge exchange, professional
development, and content management in a comprehensive and user-friendly community
engagement platform.

Enyinna Anthony. Personal Interview. 9 Oct 2016.

Mr. Enyinna Anthony is the Chief Executive Officer of Anthony Management Group, a
startup at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Morgan State
University, with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He worked as an Electrical
Engineer in the US Army Corps of Engineers from 2001-2003. Later, he joined the United States
Department of Defense as a General Engineer/Project Manager from 2003-2011 where he
Managed over $100 million dollars in Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. After
which he was promoted to Facilities Planner/Master Planner. In 2008, he started building
Anthony Management group which is a small company that strives to provide project
management, construction management, risk management, acquisition & contracts management,
facility management, process improvement, A/E design, interior design, computer aided design,
BIM, scheduling, cost estimating, quality assurance/control RFI review, submittal review,
document control, and inspections.
Froese, Tom, et al. "Using Minimal Human-computer Interfaces for Studying the
Interactive Development of Social Awareness." Frontiers in Psychology.
This source is based of an experiment done by three researchers to analyse the perceptive
skills of two different patients and how they realise each other's physical presence. In the
experiment the participants can only engage via a human-computer interface. This reduces the
scope for embodied interaction to a bare minimum. Each time one of the participants touches the
hand held device provided to them it starts to vibrate. Once the participants have recognized that
the object they have been interacting with was their partners avataar, they are requested to click.
This experiment showed how imitation and joint action are ingrained parts of human personality
and how when put in a situation with another person, humans tend to adapt to that person.
This source was not very helpful . It talked about the psychology behind the perceptive
behavior of humans. While I thought they would talk about social awareness as a means of
increasing social knowledge, it ended up meaning social perceptiveness. While it did talk about
human-computer interfaces (HCI), it only does so for a brief period. The concept of HCIs is
introduced to demonstrate how physically unconnected the two participants were, nothing else.
The experiment focuses more on virtual trajectories and changes in the number of clicks, which
is not remotely close to my interests.

"Home Page." EcoCloud360, ecocloud360.com. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

The EcoCloud60 website offers an in depth explanation of the different products and
services the company provides. Major emphasis is given to Microsoft Hosted Exchange,
Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft CRM as they are the most useful tools for small, growing
businesses to expand their consumer base. For example, the Microsoft Hosted Exchange
webpage explains how Eco Exchange is a green alternative that is equally effective because of
the strong Microsoft partnership the company has. In addition to the strong Microsoft
partnership, the website emphasises on the security measures, accessibility and affordability of
its products. Another important aspect of the website is its page that addresses eco-friendly
cloud computing and how the company uses a sustainable cloud to store and process data.
This source is very helpful as it is the website of the company I intern at. It helps me
understand the company, how its different from other cloud computing companies, and the
products and services it provides. In addition, the website has its own blog that provides a
comprehensive background and benefits of products like EcoMail, EcoBackup, Microsoft CRM,
Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Hosted Exchange. The blog also manages to answer many
major questions a user or potential customer may have about sustainable cloud computing, the
difference between carbon-free and carbon-neutral along with the actual environmental cost of
using fossil fuel powered servers.
Kindsmller, Martin Christof, et al. "Instant Online Communities as a Means to Foster
Conferences." Online Communities and Social Computing. Originally published in
University of Lbeck, Institute for Multimedia & Interactive Systems, Ratzeburger
Allee 160, D-23538 Lbeck, Germany.
This source is based on an experiment conducted by three students from the University of
Lbek in Germany, namely Martin Christof Kindsmller, Jan Milz, and Johannes Schmidt.
Through this experiment, the students introduced an instant online community (IOC) solution as
an add-on for existing websites and monitored its effects, both between users and the content
provider and the users. The main IOC the students analyzed was of the sixgroups.com
Livecommunity in the context of a joint conference to support communication. The
sixgroups.com Livecommunity is an IOC which is interwoven with an embedding website by
widget technology (JavaScript/HTML-snippet). Once integrated, the Livecommunity shows up
as a small bar at the top of each page of the hosting site . Interaction takes place in an
overlapping window which opens on click events. This particular study was done in the context
of conference. The conclusion discussed the shortcomings and benefits of an instant online
community.
This source proved to be incredibly helpful. It showed the real-life implications and
effects of online communities. Since this research paper was specifically focused on conferences,
it provided a streamlined view on possible online communities. By explaining what exactly an
online community is, it provided a clear view on what is expected. It also explained how even if
content providers do not intend to make their websites IOCs they end up evolving to form one
because of the similar audience it attracts due to practice, purpose, or circumstance. It also
elucidates the goals of both content providers and visitors. The goals of content providers
includes: communicating with visitors, gathering feedback from visitors, providing support for
visitors, increasing customer loyalty and stickiness. The goals of visitors includes: knowing who
else is or was online, interacting and communicating with others interested in the same content,
giving feedback to the content provider, expressing loyalty to the content provider. The paper
builds on these goals and explains how the sixgroups.com Livecommunity either achieved these
goals or failed to achieve them. The sixgroups.com Livecommunity has several elements that
includes a triangle that opens the Livestream, the last entry of the Livestream showing
community activity and/or events, a What is this? link to a short introduction to the
sixgroups.com Livecommunity, a link to login or join the community and a search field for
Google search. What was interesting was how in this application the livestream included items
such as messages, events, and media resources in chronological order, which could be further
filtered by media type such as Twitter message or Flickr photo. In addition, it showed which
members were online or have visited the website in the past along with a list of partner sites:
websites integrated into Livecommunity by a concept called webring. According to the paper,
this type of interactive user interface provided many varying results. The first one being that
there was a lack of visibility of the IOC, because the widget was too small to obtain the attention
of users on the conference website. Thus, one of the biggest solutions to an effective IOC is
increased visibility. Secondly, during the experiment the users were not made aware of the
benefits of IOC. It was concluded that if users were informed through help texts or email
introductions, there would be a higher number of users utilizing Livecommunity. In addition, if
the speakers at the conference informed their audience of the IOC and used it as a source for both
feedback and starting conversations, the percentage of users would have risen. Lastly, if the
usability of the IOC had a more seamless integration with the hosted website, the amount of
users that would chose to use IOCs would also increase. Furthermore, the results of the
experiment also shows that the people who used the IOC and/or certain aspects of it, tended to
share a common topic of interest. Overall, this paper explains the basic issues and betterment
techniques for existing IOCs in relation to a conference-type of user base.

"Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship." Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship,

www.hceda.org/maryland-center-for-entrepreneurship.aspx. Accessed 30 Oct. 2016.
The website for the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship offers an in-depth explanation
and overview of the office that I work in as well as the different startups that work there.The
Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship (MCE) is an initiative of the Howard County Economic
Development Authority. The MCE provides a robust, interactive community of innovators,
entrepreneurs, investors and advisors collaborating to successfully ignite innovation and launch
high-growth, technology-based companies in an entrepreneurial ecosystem abundant with
resources.
This source is very helpful as in addition to providing information about the MCE it also
provides links to the Howard Tech Council. The Howard Tech Council is at the epicenter of the
local tech community. Its active and engaged membership base spans a variety of industries,
which provides access to a diverse collection of organizations. Its programming supports the four
pillars of the HTC. It provides members a multitude of opportunities through monthly
networking events, bi-weekly speaker series, and affinity groups and round tables. The
integration of the Howard Tech Council with the Howard County Economic Development
Authority and the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship provides members with a unique value
proposition unlike any other Tech Councils in the region. Through the relationship with the
MCE, the HTC is able to offer members discounted MCE event access as well as low cost room
and facility rentals.

Olafur Olafsson. Personal Interview. 3 Oct 2016.

Mr Olafur Olafsson, my mentor, is the founder and CEO of EcoCloud360 Inc. Mr.
Olafsson is of Icelandic origin and quickly understood the value of the natural eco-friendly
power sources of his country. He started EcoCloud360 in July 2014, which aims to provide
sustainable cloud computing to individuals and businesses. EcoCloud360 Inc provided Microsoft
certified services like Sharepoint, CRM, virtual private servers, and mailing services. He is a
graduate of the University of Baltimore. EcoCloud360 is not the first company he has started, he
is also the founder and CEO of ComputerWORKS. ComputerWORKS is a full-service business
communications organization offering products and services for data, voice, and video.
ComputerWORKS provides a single point of contact to handle all facets of the enterprise
network. He started ComputerWORKS in 1993 and worked for it for almost 10 years.

Polikoff, Irene, et al. Capability Cases: A Solution Envisioning Approach.

This source is a book that I found in the library at the Maryland Center for
Entrepreneurship. It provides a comprehensive overlook on the effective process of combining
solution envisioning and capability cases to achieve the optimal integration of new technology to
help businesses grow. The book explains that solution envisioning includes stating a basic
approach to fixing a problem, listing out the stakeholders, understanding the resources available,
and evaluating the benefits of the solution proposed. On the other hand, a capability case
identifies an IT solution concept as a cohesive group of software functions that deliver business
value. When Capability Cases are adopted in an organization, they become a method for
overcoming barriers between different stakeholders. In totality, solution envisioning is a method
of effectively analyzing the most effective solution for the organization and a capability case is
the solution that actually ends up causing the growth of the company. This book is divided into
three distinct parts, each of which address different parts that essential for this process to work
effectively. Part I explains what solution envisioning is and why todays businesses need to
utilize it. Capability cases are a part of solution envisioning. Part I elucidates how using the
process of Business Capability Exploration Solution Capability Envisioning Software
Capability Design helps effective communication between IT and business officials, which
results in a lot of out-of the box solutions, lowered costs and a lesser gap between IT
professionals and business heads. At the end of Part I, two case studies are presented. One of The
State Government Self-Service Project and the other of the NASA Digital Shuttle Project. The
chapter explains for capability cases worked in the favor for both projects and in the end helped
the organizations achieve their goals. Part II delves into the details that goes into the Business
Capability Exploration, Solution Capability Envisioning, and Software Capability Design.
Business Capability Exploration (BCE) is explained as the combination of establishing a
business situation and resources for the initiative, identifying business needs in terms of forces,
barriers and results, exploring possibilities, refining results informed by technology capabilities
and consolidating initial solution vision for broader sharing and evaluation. In a nutshell, BCE
starts with what matters to an enterprise and concludes with linking that with what can be done.
Solution Capability Envisioning (SCE) is explained as the combination of preparing for solution
envisioning process, conducting the solution envisioning workshop, and performing
post-workshop analysis of concepts. Finally, Software Capability Design (SCD) is explained as
the combination of selecting implementation technologies, developing software capability
architectures, and developing business case and solution roadmap. It is the phase where the
work products of previous phases are formalised and developed. The three strategies for
achieving this are listed as custom development, package implementation and component-based
development. The book continues to a part III which provides tips to tailor fit solutions for
different scenarios and the authors view on solution envisioning for the future.
This book proved to be a mixture of both helpful and unhelpful. Part I was more
concentrated on business techniques and effective communication between departments to
achieve set goals. It did not focus on actually creating the solutions that could be implemented by
organizations, but rather the benefits of incorporating IT based solutions in a globalizing
economy. Part II becomes more relevant as it starts talking about how the IT and business
departments need to work together. They elaborate on realistic methods used by officials in the
workplace to achieve technological strides for the company and minimize losses. Chapter 5 in
Part II explains how different techniques, including Power-Interest Grid, Storyboarding, and
mapping capabilities can help analyze root problems of the company and allow them to decide
whether any technological changes would be worth the investment. Chapter 6 in Part II builds on
Chapter 5. It explains that the capability cases introduced through BCE are further specialized
and mapped out through SCE. This process is carried out to streamline the advances made to
specifically cater to the company's needs as well as removes any previously existing feelings of
discomfort amongst employees. Through SCE, employees are also able to use a tool called
Future Retrospective. This is a technique used to do an evaluation of a capability case in the
future. Chapter 7 in Part III explains the last phase of solution envisioning, SCD. The book
explains that how on the completion of SCD the design of software solution has reached its apex
of desirability, feasibility, and adequacy. Thus, making it a very effective approach for solving
problems and technological improving company activities. Finally, Part III of the book acts as an
extension of chapter 7. It does not provide much new information. It simply builds on the
information already provided by part II. It explains methods to further streamline the process of
solution envisioning to better fit its purpose and provides a potential roadmap for the future.
Overall, this book does a great job in combining technology with business and explaining the
real life process of implementing new ideas in a workplace.

Ponnada, Aditya, et al. "A Persuasive Game for Social Development of Children in Indian
Cultural Context." Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
This source is based of a persuasive game made by three students at The Indian Institute
of Technology, Guwahati. In this experiment the student interviewed 19 Indian families for
around 45 min to an hour. Each family had children that ranged from six to nine years of age and
attended schools that had English as the main medium of instruction. The purpose of this
experiment is to create a persuasive game that caters to Indian communities. The interviews held
by the students was a way for them to understand the type of behaviour the parents would like
improved in their children. In addition, the children were also asked their gaming and sporting
preferences. These questions helped streamline the focus of the game, which helped make the
impact of the game stronger. After the interview, it was seen that shy behaviour was on the top of
the list of qualities parents wanted changed in their children. Also, it showed that boys had a
stronger inclination towards cricket, online racing, and action games, while girls preferred
traditional simulation and board games. Using the Foggs Model, that states that the behaviour
change is dependant on three fundamental factors: motivation, ability, and trigger, the students
were able to come up with a viable solution that helped the children with their shy tendencies.
This source proved to be incredibly helpful, it explained how impactful game design
could be in the field of education, a match that I previously did not think was possible. By
logically explaining how the intensity of the different factors that go into to Foggs equation
helps come to the correct plan of action was very eye opening and provided a very different view
on game design. In the end, the students made a three-level bully based game. In which, in order
to pass a level, the player had to cross a bully. He/She could do so either him/herself or they
could make friends and do it collectively. This innovative way of teaching lessons and concepts
gave a complete new spin on human-computer interaction. Overall, this source does an excellent
job at presenting how a simple concept can be taught in such an innovative way.

Reis, Jlio Cesar, et al. "Mobile Phone Interfaces for Informal Education." Institute of
Computing- State University of Campinas.
This source is an article that explains the theory and principles behind using mobile
phone interfaces for informal education. The paper starts by explaining key terms like
communities of practice, informal education, and collaborative learning. These terms are used
throughout the paper to help explain the ideas of the authors. Communities of practice (COP) is
the idea that as humans we have the tendency to make communities wherever we go, and these
communities act as a medium of collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is defined as the
concept of gaining knowledge from members of a community or culture. Finally, informal
education is the knowledge of the common sense, personal knowledge or practical, largely
developed through experiences. The authors of this paper state that all humans are constantly
learning from their surrounding communities informally and that, that process of learning could
be more streamlined through the use of the mobile learning.
This source is helpful as it provides some insight into the field of technological advances
in education through the mobile. The reason this is so significant is because, phones are
ubiquitous in todays world. They are amongst the most used pieces of technology, making its
implications huge. If an effective mobile based application is made, it has the potential to reach
out and affect millions of people. What I particularly liked about this paper was how, after
explaining the key concepts, the authors provide prototypes of existing mobile interfaces. This
gives a clear perspective on the areas of improvement as well as the insight to concepts already
successfully implemented. The prototype interface included an instantaneous chat, the option to
consolidate messages, a voting system, and media options like videos. All of these methods act
as outlets for the users to communicate their experiences with their community, which then acts
as a forum of collective learning. The interfaces allow people from specific groups discuss
problems in a little structured way, since they have freedom to propose questions, interact and
express. Decisions and solutions are built through interactions, constituting a collective
consensus over time. Overall, this source provides deep and comprehensive insight to a new
concept of community engagement- mobile applications.

Tracy Lee Turner. Personal Interview. 9 Oct 2016.

Ms. Turner is the Director of the Howard Tech Council. She has an office at the
Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship and serves as a mentor and a role model. She is a graduate
of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and the Universit de Montpellier, France, with
degrees in Mass Communications and Languages. She worked as an administrator and director
of the Carroll Technology Council in Westminster from 2008-2013. She joined the Maryland
Center for Entrepreneurship after that and now works in areas including program development
and management, event coordination, nonprofit administration and community outreach. A
recent graduate of the inaugural class of the Towson University Professional Leadership Program
for Women, Ms. Turner also serves on the Howard County Public Schools Applications and
Research Laboratory Early College Program/Network Security Advisory Board, the Arc of
Howard County Employment Advisory Committee, and the Conscious Capitalism of Central
Maryland Advisory Board.

"Transactions." The IEEE Computer Society, www.computer.org/web/guest/. 9 Oct. 2016.

This is the website for the the IEEE computer society. The world's leading
membership organization dedicated to computer science and technology. The IEEE Computer
Society sponsors more than 200 technical conferences and events each year, all over the world,
aimed at research and industry professionals. Their publications are peer-reviewed, indexed, and
authored by technology thought leaders worldwide, and include 17 scholarly journals and 13
magazines featuring the latest technology trends. The goal of the society is to be essential to the
global technical community and computer professionals everywhere and be universally
recognized for the contributions of technical professionals in developing and applying
technology to improve global conditions.
This website was especially helpful because under its publications tab, it has a transaction
link which provides access to a variety of high-quality, peer-reviewed, scholarly journals
representing the best in all aspects of computer science, computer engineering, technology, and
applications. Amongst the available transactions are - IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing
and IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing. The cloud computing database provides
articles which directly correlate to the software working of my internship. While, the sustainable
computing database provides articles on alternative research to help advance the role of
computing using green technology. Their are other available databases on specialized facets of
computing which acts as a great resource to help streamline my research focuses.
Yannier, Nesra, et al. "Learning from Mixed-Reality Games: Is Shaking a Tablet as
Effective as Physical Observation?" Carnegie Mellon University.
This source is based on research done by three students at Carnegie Mellon University. In
the experiment the students tested the effects of solely virtual learning tools and mixed-reality
learning tools on ninety-two 6-8 year old children. The experiment was done using a educational
game called EarthShake which tests concepts pertaining to height, symmetry, center of mass
and wide bases to maintain stability and balance. The experiment was a 2x2, crossing
mixed-reality vs. screen-only with the presence vs. absence of a simple hands-on or physical
control. As outcomes, they measured enjoyment of the game and pretest to posttest learning
gains, both on paper and through a hands-on task. The results showed how the students both,
learned more and enjoyed the mixed-reality version of the game more, while the presence or
absence of a simple hands-on/physical control did not affect the children much.
This source proved to be incredibly helpful. It helped give insights to possible working of
human-computer interaction in the field of education. This paper helped gauge the benefits of
different approaches to educational games and the efficiency of each. The reason this is helpful is
that it can help the educational gaming industry produce products with the highest rate of
retention. Secondly, it helps investors know which type of educational pattern will be the best
pay-off. Thus, helping them make smarter investments. The main debate throughout this paper
was that which one yielded the better benefits: physical interaction or virtual interaction.
Additionally, the researchers wanted to check if any particular criteria increased either learning
or enjoyment. The paper stated that experiencing physical phenomena in real life may help
people perceive and mentally visualize the physical objects in 3D in their minds, make
connections with objects they are familiar with, and as a result remember the concepts better.
This observation was extremely noticeable in infants that were 24 to 30 month old. When the
benefits for older kids and adults were tested, it was observed that there was no significant
difference. However, when physical and virtual interaction were combined, the retention rate
was seen to significantly increase. In addition to physical interaction, the researchers also
included a physical control, such as shaking the tablet, to see if there were any significant
differences. This is the one thing I really like about this research paper, the authors test all
possible avenues of potential education technology, leaving little room for speculation. By
addressing most combinations of human-computer interaction, this paper provides a
comprehensive overview of the benefits of each option. After the researchers divided different
possibilities of games amongst different children, the results were recorded in terms of learning
and enjoyment. The null for this paper was that mixed-environments were more effective than
simply a virtual or physical learning environment, and that there was no difference between
mouse-controls and physical-controls. However, the results of the experiment showed otherwise.
According to post-game questions and surveys it was found that mouse-controls had a better
retention rate and that physical controls had a better enjoyment rate. This is significant as it
shows the value of different aspects of the same game. One possible reason physical-controls,
like pushing a button, would be more enjoyable is that children would find it more exciting.
Thus, steering them away from the educational value of the game. It was also observed that if
more physical activities were included in the game, such as building towers, the children would
have learnt better. Finally, the game employed the use of a fictional, virtual gorilla that acted as
the children's mentor. He urged them to reason the right answer if they got it wrong and also told
the children if their reasoning was right. It was noted that the presence of such a character greatly
increased engagement throughout the game and urged the children to try harder. Overall this
paper does a good job explaining the various different aspects to look at while making successful
applications which produce definitive results.