Reducing dominance in multiple-mouse learning activities
Venue
CSCL'09: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Computer supported collaborative learning, International Society of the Learning Sciences (2009), pp. 360-364
Publication Year
2009
Authors
Andrea Moed, Owen Otto, Joyojeet Pal, Udai Pawar Singh, Matthew Kam, Kentaro Toyama
BibTeX
Abstract
In resource-constrained classrooms in the developing world, it is common for
several students to share each computer. Unfortunately, dominance behavior often
naturally emerges in these situations, when one child monopolizes the mouse and
keyboard. One way to mitigate this phenomenon is by providing each child with a
mouse and a corresponding on-screen cursor so that everyone can interact. Though
such multiple-mouse configurations reduce the possibility of total domination by
one individual, they do not automatically eliminate dominance behavior completely.
We propose the use of a design for small-group learning on shared computers based
on enforced turn-taking in a split-screen, multiple-mouse environment. In an
evaluation with 104 rural schoolchildren in India, we found that dominance behavior
was indeed reduced through these design choices.
