Information Space Technologies:
Year 2 Case Studies at Middlesex
A Week In The Life:
Crit Cycles In The Info Space
Bob Fields, Tamara Al-sheikh, Andy Bardill
ISCC Project
Middlesex University
Introduction
This note describes in very concrete terms how the whole information space might be
used. The cycle typically takes place on a weekly basis – though this regularity is
disrupted by assessed presentations and so on.
The description here is based, most closely on what happens in the course of the
Product Design projects (and what did happen on the MSc Interaction Design) – case
study 2. As the description proceeds, the details of Case study 1 (Undergraduate
computer science students studying a second year module on HCI).
The aim of this description (the first bit, without variations, at least) is to be as concrete
as possible, reflecting the way things actually happen as far as is possible. So, it would be
good to extend this with more details as much as possible, maybe including pictures of
recordings, snapshots of or excerpts from blogs, etc.
This note complements and adds detail to “ISCC Year 2 – the case study landscape”,
which set out the overall space of case studies across year 2 of the project, highlighting
the differences and similarities between them.
Context
Students are working on individual, student-defined final year projects, over a period of
a little over 1 term. Although working as individual projects, students have formed into
self-selecting common interest groups or tribes. Tribes tend to share information, ideas
and pointers or references, and tend to receive crits together, in the sense that tribe
members are likely to contribute to individual crits. Each student has a weekly 15-30
minute crit session in which all members of his/her tribe members are present as well
as two tutors for feedback and discussion.
Case study 1 variation: second year undergraduate students work in teams rather than
individually. Tutors define the projects that students work on (though the brief is quite
open and allows teams a good deal of latitude in defining their design concept). The
process they follow is structured around a number of assessment points at which the
teams must present particular elements of their work. Students have a weekly 20minute crit session with their tutor in which they report on their progress as a group
and get feedback and set future goals.
Technical setup and Information infrastructure
Students have the following technical setup to support them during the crit session.
There is a downward pointing projector, and a table that is covered with a scroll of large
format tracing paper or white board, making the table into a large writable display
surface. A Bluetooth mouse and keyboard made available so that everyone could control
the computer when needed. Students and tutors work around this table; they are
encouraged to write on the table as well as bringing physical artifacts and prototypes to
discuss ideas and receive feedback from peers and tutors. A visual timer is displayed
which is divided into “reporting”, “discussion” and “targets” in order to make managing
the crit sessions easier.
These sessions are recorded using a Logitech high-resolution web cam with built in
microphones. In addition to in class support of crit and discussions, offline support is
provided. Each student has a personal blog (Accessible by tutors and other students of
the module) in which he/she could post material, discussions and ideas. Students could
view each other’s blog entries, comment and critique each other’s designs. However,
students preferred to have face-to-face discussions and critiques about designs than
commenting on each other’s work via blogs. On the other hand, all students have the
recorded crit session automatically uploaded to their personal blogs for future replay
and reflection (see Figure 1 for an example of a student’s personal blog). To make sure
that most details of the crit session is captured, high resolution images are taken and
manually uploaded to a module level general purpose blog in which students could link
to. The framework that is used in this study is the Apple’s MacOS X TeamServer, which
provides wiki, blog, and calendar that is integrated with Apple’s Podcast Producer
system. This utility facilitates crit sessions recording using Apple Podcast Capture that
automatically uploads the recorded videos of the crit sessions to the students’ blogs.
Figure 1. A student's personal blog showing video of a crit session and some student's posts
In order to make this technical setup more easily available and portable, a specially
designed aluminum box with Perspex shell was used (Figure 2). This “Pod” contains a
projector, Logitech webcam, an apple Mac Mini and all necessary power supplies and
cables. These pods made available during the sessions as well as out of class hours for
students to use.
Figure 2. "Pod" in use
Case study 1 variation: The technical setup at the Hendon campus (the undergraduate
group based projects) is slightly different. Each group meet with one tutor for the crit
session in the centre of the room while other groups carry on working in groups. An
apple mini computer and a projector are fixed to the ceiling. A white board or flexible
erasable white board like paper is used to convert the table into a writable surface. An
external omni-directional microphone as well as Bluetooth mouse and key board are
used in similar. The use of blogs is somehow different here. Students have a group blog
in which only group members of the group (5-6 students) and their tutor have access to.
Students here were more conscious about having their blogs accessible by their peers
from different groups. They did not feel comfortable enough to have their blogs open, as
they wanted to protect the integrity and ownership of their design and ideas. This could
be because all groups are working on the same design brief which could lead to some
similarities in designs. On the other hand, students had a module level blog and wiki in
which the high resolution images as well as any useful announcements and news was
posted there. This blog was accessible by all students in this module.
The process
That is, the process of:
1. The student does some work (in their own time) to move their project forward.
2. The student collects materials as part of this work, and posts them on their blog.
These materials might be:
a. Electronic notes and summary of group meetings and out of classes work.
b. Photos, work in progress snapshots of systems and prototypes of their systems.
c. Materials to support preparation of the assessed presentations such as drafts of
slides and presenter notes.
d. Photos and links to existing similar systems and references.
3. The student comes to the crit armed with what is on their blog as well as ‘other stuff’.
The other stuff may be very important and could include physical prototypes, other nondigital materials, etc.
4. Key to the whole process: the student has their crit – a conversation with their peers
and tutors during which they: describe what they have been doing, engage in a
conversation that follows from their report-back, and decide on some targets,
opportunities for further development and avenues for pushing the project forward.
The crit takes place in a setting rich with physical affordances and cultural cues that
signal the appropriateness of conversation: around a table. The table surface is the locus
of the student displaying what they have to say: physical artifacts can be placed here,
paper prototypes can be demonstrated here, and digital materials and presentations can
be projected onto here. In addition, the table surface can be written on, as a regular
whiteboard – so the digital and physical objects can be augmented and annotated in real
time.
5. The crit session is video recorded, so that the performance, demonstration and
annotation is captured for later review.
6. The captured video is posted automatically to the student’s blog. In addition the
student, or their colleagues may have taken still photographs that can also be manually
posted to the blog later on. A ‘capture everything’ policy prevails, so the tutors
photograph the table at the end of each session, and these photographs are posted to a
shared blog. Students can later choose to copy photos to their own personal blog if they
so choose (the advantage of doing so is usually that the still image is at a higher
resolution than the video that will have been captured by default and automatically
posted).
7. After the crit session, the student will begin to reflect on the experience and on the
comments made by those who were present. Part of this reflection involves reviewing
the video, photos, and anything else generated in the crit. 1 Students review the related
material in two occasions: as a group and individually. The tribe reviewing usually takes
place after the crit session. Students gather together in part of the workshop to continue
discussions about the points that were raised during the crit sessions. They discuss how
the session went in general, what are the common concerns and question that they have.
These informal crit sessions last for about 20-30 minutes in which students make sure
that everyone understand what to do next in their project. Students believe that this
session creates sense of community within the tribe. On the other hand, students review
the material of the crit sessions individually. Each student has a specific time in which
he/she “re-creates” the crit session at his/her convenience by replaying the video,
viewing the still images and blog simultaneously to reflect what the feedback that they
received. This activity is crucial as students rely on it to evaluate their progress and set
future steps to do in the next week. Students have to do this review session to start
working on the project for the next cycle.
1The
issue of how students make use of the video and other materials as part of their
reflection and work outside of the crit sessions, remains an area of ongoing research and
analysis.
8. After the reviewing stage, students start working on their design again and use what
they have learnt to generate more material and post new thoughts to their blog. The
reflective process here is partly introspective, and partly generative – in that the student
will make blog postings that capture their reflections on the crit that has just happened,
and provide a seed or spark for the next cycle.
Figure 3. The process
The variations
Clearly this, while typical, is not the only way the process can unfold, and many
variations are possible.
The most obvious variation is that some (or perhaps all) of the process does not take
place. Notably, students sometimes may or may not make progress outside of the class,
but their efforts are not reflected in blog postings. Similarly even though a crit session is
recorded, a student may never view the video recording, or may view the video without
any reflections about it being recorded in the blog or elsewhere.
Another variation is that other activities are inserted into the process. For example,
prior to a crit – either on the crit day or a different day, the student may enlist a circle of
friends – perhaps co-tribe members – to help work out an idea, assist in the review of
the project, test out a presentation, and so on. Students may use a pod as a ‘lightweight’
means of getting hold of a computer, projector ant the means to record what is said.
Also, students might gather in an informal and less structured session after a crit to
discuss common concerns and problems and reflect on the feedback that they have got
during a crit session from peers and tutors. These informal sessions increase the sense
of community and support among the tribe members. As an illustration of this, in Figure
4, a group of students have chosen to use a pod to support a group design conversation.
In addition to making use of the computer/projector facility, they are also using
podcasting to record some of what takes place, and this record will be supplemented
with photographs of the notes and sketches made on the table surface, which can
subsequently be posted on a student’s blog.
Figure 4. Impromptu use of Pod to support a student discussion
A further variation, of the kind used for Middlesex students at Hendon, is that students
are working in teams (4-5 students), and each team receives their crit at the same time
is that the recording and playback technology in no real sense under the control of the
students. In this case, the students are engaged in group work, rather than individual
projects, and the groups do tend meet after the crit session to reflect on what has been
said and discuss future steps. However, groups tend to rely less on videos of crit
sessions to reflect in this stage, making greater use of notes taken by one or two group
members, and on general memory.
Evaluation
The recorded crit session videos and blog activities were informally analyzed. We were
trying to identify, for example, different patterns of collaboration, conversation
structure and the use of physical and virtual objects. In addition, focus groups and
interviews were conducted with students to understand their experience and view
about the usefulness of the described technical setup. The interviews gave us insight
regarding how useful the recording of the crit session is, when and how they used them.
Summary: Key technical elements
Key features of the technical setup are:
Display and presentation of digital material is via downward-pointing projectors,
onto the table surface. The purpose of this is to create a more conversational space
where participants are fact-to-face around a table, rather than being orientated towards
a conventional presentation on the wall (and therefore not orientated towards one
another).
The table surface is writeable, and participants are encouraged to write notes, sketch
ideas, annotate what is being presented, as the conversation unfolds. The table can be a
wipe-clean whiteboard, or can be a regular table covered with paper (or it could be a
more exotic digital surface such as the MERL DiamondTouch or Microsoft Surface,
thought the benefits of such sophistication in this context are not at all clear).
Guiding conversational structure. It was found to be extremely useful to provide a
simple prop to guide, or even impose, structure and constraints on a conversation. A
simple timer was implemented in Flash that visually indicated how much time had
elapsed in a crit, and also divided the time allotted for a crit into different phases. Early
on in the project, an analysis of the typical patterns of what happens in a crit indicated
that a session often contains three segments: reporting back, open discussion, and target
setting.
Capture and recording. Conversations around the projected-on, writable table surface
are routinely video and audio recorded. Typically the recording captured from a single,
overhead webcam, but other camera positions have been explored and can sometimes
be useful. As the critical part of a crit is the conversation that takes place, effective audio
recording is import, and unfortunately is often problematic (e.g. because of ambient
noise). A number of types of microphone have been experimented with, and the most
successful have proved to be wired boundary microphones, and Bluetooth mic/speaker
devices.
Delivery and playback. Making recordings is of no practical value if the recorded
material cannot be subsequently made available to learners. Of critical importance is the
ease and simplicity of the process of making recordings available. If the procedure is too
complex, errors and lost recordings are highly likely as crits are intense and busy
encounters in which the additional work of processing and uploading video files would
be an unwelcome burden (and therefore a task prone to being inadvertently omitted!)
The Apple Podcast Producer framework was use to largely automate the capture and
processing of video and the subsequent posting of the video as a podcast on a blog.
Special ‘workflow’ scripts have been implemented to facilitate this process.
Resolution & quality. Capturing activities on and around the table for later reflection is
clearly of great importance, and to be useful, the quality of captured audio and video
material must be of a sufficiently high quality. In order to achieve the required visual
quality, still, high-resolution images are often taken, and these must be uploaded to the
blog, to make them browsable and accessible by users.