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The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education pp 173–190Cite as

Beyond ‘Apps’ on Tablets: Making Sense of Learning Within Technology Ecologies

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Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

The vision of Vannevar Bush and Douglas Englebart of using computers to augment the human intellect more than half a century ago has been taken to heart by technology designers and computer scientists. Much technological progress has been made that allows the rampant use of laptops, desktops, tablets and smartphones in daily tasks to help us in thinking and learning. However, the single device can only go so far to facilitate higher-level thinking. We advance that the possibilities of the augmentation of human intellect by digital technologies are limited unless we design for the various technologies to function together in ecologies. In this paper, we present a theoretical foundation using Lev Vygotsky’s sign mediation theory to articulate a design framework identifying key processes that should be supported to assist higher-level thinking. We also provide examples of affordances that can help the design of effective technology ecologies within our framework.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partially supported by NSF grants # IIS-0954048 and IIS-1059398.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TAMU Embodied Interaction Lab (TEILab), Departments of Visualization & Architecture, Texas A&M University, 77840, College Station, TX, USA

    Sharon Lynn Chu & Francis Quek

Authors
  1. Sharon Lynn Chu
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  2. Francis Quek
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Correspondence to Sharon Lynn Chu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Texas A&M University, Sketch Recognition Lab, College Station, Texas, USA

    Tracy Hammond

  2. Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Texas A&M University, Sketch Recognition Lab, College Station, Texas, USA

    Stephanie Valentine

  3. Raytheon BBN Technologies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Aaron Adler

  4. Dept. Information Technology, Whitfield School, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Mark Payton

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Chu, S., Quek, F. (2015). Beyond ‘Apps’ on Tablets: Making Sense of Learning Within Technology Ecologies. In: Hammond, T., Valentine, S., Adler, A., Payton, M. (eds) The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15594-4_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15594-4_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15593-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15594-4

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