The Paper as Interface in T-learning
Fábio de Jesus Lima Gomes
CINTED/UFRGS
[email protected]
José Valdeni de Lima
Institute of Computer Science /UFRGS
[email protected]
Abstract
The paper is ubiquitous, portable, easy to use,
inexpensive, can be annotated easily and provides
excellent readability properties. However, paper displays
are static and do not offer capabilities such as dynamic
content. Dynamic content can promote learning in several
ways as for illustration and simulation, for example. With
the digital TV, t-learning arises as an opportunity to
promote learning to a major amount of people and that
traditional e-learning can not reach. But, the use of
remote control in the digital TV has been resulted a
complex viewer interaction that may cause the user´s
frustration and irritation. The ease of use is one of the
most important factors in digital TV. This paper aims
linking the paper with digital TV, in order to get better
usabilility and promote better conditions to t-learning.
Rosane Aragón de Nevado
College of Education /UFRGS
[email protected]
through a TV or a device more like a TV than a personal
computer [1]. Bates [1] shows some reasons why it is
important to consider the role that digital TV has within a
broader e-learning strategy, such as:
x Most people have access to a television in their home;
x Not every household will have an Internet-enabled
computer;
x The TV has the potential for reaching more people and
offering learning opportunities, more than what
traditional learning institutions can do.
However, the TV cannot be considered an adjusted
media for reading [3]. For example, the viewers sit at a
distance of 1.5 m or more from the screen. In addition, a
study made by BBC [2] says that for a user to be able to
read, in a comfortable way on a TV screen, the TV must
presents 90 words in the maximum, but when presenting
video simultaneously this number should be decreased in
50%. The usability is concerned about such problems.
1. Introduction
3. Usability in the digital TV
Johnson et al. [8] claim that the use of paper in the
modern world is persistent because of the paper’s physical
properties and that paper’s utility will not disappear with
the increase of the electronic world, therefore the main
goal should be integrating, not removing paper from the
electronic world.
However, paper displays are static and do not offer
capabilities such as dynamic content and linking that can
be provided with electronic media, with a digital video,
for instance. The digital video can be used in t-learning
through the digital TV.
This paper aims linking the paper with digital TV, in
order to get better usabilility and promote better
conditions to t-learning.
The next section appraises t-learning. In section 3 the
question of the usability in the digital TV is presented.
Section 4 shows the related work to the proposal of this
paper. In section 5, a detailed description of this paper is
shown. Finally, section 6 presents the conclusions.
Usability in the digital TV is influenced by input
devices that TV viewers use, namely remote control, that
tend to be big, consisting of many buttons, and not so easy
to use, which complicates the interaction [3]. Previous
researches have shown that the ease of use is one of the
most important factors for digital TV [5, 7, 9].
New means of user interaction for the television
include joysticks and keyboards, voice control [11],
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) [10], and touchpad
devices [6] which address the drawbacks of traditional
remote controls such as the overabundance of buttons and
the lack of alphanumeric input
Another approach that has not been investigated in the
TV context is augmentation of physical paper [4]. This
approach can be a solution for the TV interaction problem.
2. T-learning
T-learning is about interactive access to video-rich
learning materials within the home or other fixed locations
like school, workplace or community learning centre,
4. Related work
Berglund et al [4] have been investigated the use of the
paper as an interface to digital TV. Their study provides
design implications for a new concept called Paper
Remote. Viewers tick designated areas on the computeraugmented TV guides with a digital pen to perform
actions such as channel switching, getting more
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'06)
0-7695-2632-2/06 $20.00 © 2006
IEEE
information, programming recordings of TV programs,
and interacting with TV program providers.
In their study an initial usability evaluation of the
Paper Remote concept was conducted. In summary,
results suggest that this concept provides straightforward
interaction and is appropriate for the TV setting.
5. The paper as interface in t-learning
This paper aims the printing of an educational text
material printed in common paper that goes beyond the
studied content. It will also contain links for digital videos
to be shown in the TV. These links will be printed in the
form of bar code (see figure 1).
x Design changes for the remote control of the digital
TV, with the inclusion of a bar code reader.
A prototype has been finished, and usability tests will
start to be carried out. The proposal of this paper can also
be used for education of blind and visually impaired
people. The printing of the content to be studied will be
made in braille code and links can be used (in the form of
bar code). They will be printed matters to the side of the
braille code, to make the linking between the common
paper and a spoken class, for example (see figure 3).
Audio about independence day
Figure 3. Text in braille code with bar code
7. References
Figure 1. Example and bar code reader
A pupil must have the educational text material printed
in common paper and the access to the TV channel that
will offer the course, the digital videos will be
downloaded and stored in the set-top box.
In case that the pupil wants to visualize at the TV a
video about what he/she is studying, it is enough to pass
the bar code reader in desired link, e.g., in the bar code
that is related to the video (see figure 2(1)). The bar code
reader will recognize the code and will send a request to
an application that is being executed in set-top box (see
figure 2(2)). After that, this application locates the
requested video which is stored in set-top box and shows
it in the screen of the TV (see figure 2(3)).
Figure 2. Example of use
6. Conclusions
As contributions, we can detach:
x The linking of media (paper and digital TV) with the
purpose to promote better usability in the digital TV;
x The existence of complementary electronic material to
the educational text material printed in common paper;
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Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'06)
0-7695-2632-2/06 $20.00 © 2006
IEEE