A Socio-Technical Study (Non-Technical)

This is a non-technical blog.  More technical blogs are on the way.  This is a comment on a socio-technical study.

I was asked to read and analyze a socio-technical paper entitled "Affectibility in Educational Technologies:  A Socio-Technical Perspective for Design."  A socio-technical perspective means looking at the social effects of a technology.  Affectibility measures the emotional response to a technology.

The Socio-Technical Plan

In the Hayashi and Baranauskas paper, the authors wrote up their research project, which was based upon a plan to give 500 young students in Brazil each a laptop computer to enhance their education as a part of the XO project of aiding education in developing countries.  The students were monitored in the formal, in-class activities, as well as informal at-home activities, and some activities out of school in the public (Hayashi and Baranauskas, 2013). The students were also monitored in terms of their affectivity, or how the technology emotionally affected them in their activities with the laptops.

The methodology was qualitative.  Data was collected using participant observation and interviews conducted in workshops.  

Goals of the plan included trying to make educational technology (the laptops) more sensible to the users, integrating formal (in school) and informal (at home or elsewhere) learning, i.e., integrated learning scenarios, and an experience that included affectivity with the laptops.

Four cases or scenarios were executed as a part of the plan and study.  

Case/Scenario One:  Homework Assignments

In class (formal) problem solving was done with the laptop connected to the internet.  The exercises showed superior results over the same exercises conducted without the computer or internet at home.  Affective responses to the improved results were monitored in the classroom.

Case/Scenario Two:  Interdisciplinary Use of the Laptops. 

 

Students used the webcam capability of the laptop to take pictures of food nutrition labels on boxes of food at home and then brought the pictures to class.  The pictures were used as data to aid a discussion of nutrition in school.  For another class students digitally photographed their utility bills and brought the data to class on their laptops.  A discussion of utility usage ensued with talk about kilowatt hours, usage, and payment.  Students were encouraged to help their parents lower their utility bills.  

Case/Scenario Three:  Using Laptops in and out of School.

Students demonstrated features of their laptops to various members of the public who do not own computers at various public venues.  Affective responses of the students in this exercise were monitored.

Case/Scenario Four:  Students Volunteer as Technicians

As the school did not have the funds to hire additional technical support for the XO Project, certain students were co-opted as volunteer technicians to help other students with their laptops and computer projects.  The student volunteers were aided by two teachers and four XO Project researches that included computer scientists.  The student volunteers were monitored and affectivity was assessed both in formal (meeting) settings and informal (working with other volunteers) settings.

Discussion/Conclusion of the Study

There were several challenges to the plan.  First there were technical challenges.  The internet was not fast enough with multiple students accessing it at the same time, which caused some difficultly using the equipment.  There were not always enough electrical sockets to recharge the laptops at school or at home.  Safe storage of the computers at school was a concern.  Many students did not want to take the computers home or in public for fear of theft.  Some teachers were reluctant to participate without having mastered the technology.

Evaluation

The plan succeeded in several of its goals to support an integrated environment of formal (in class) and informal (outside of class) learning.  I think scenario four created a positive affectivity among the student-tech volunteers.  However, the study is quite limited and strong conclusions are not warranted without doing further research.  Also, as a socio-technical study, more should have been said about the neighborhood environment and income level of the participating students, which could have had a major affect on the outcome of the study.

References

Hayashi, E. C. S., & Baranauskas, M. C. C. (2013). Affectibility in Educational Technologies: A Socio-Technical Perspective for Design. Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 57-68.