A person seeking someone else's attention is normally able to quickly assess how interruptible they are. This assessment allows for behavior we perceive as natural, socially appropriate, or simply polite. On the other hand, today's computer systems are almost entirely oblivious to the human world they operate in, and typically have no way to take into account the interruptibility of the user. This paper presents a Wizard of Oz study exploring whether, and how, robust sensor-based predictions of interruptibility might be constructed, which sensors might be most useful to such predictions, and how simple such sensors might be. The study simulates a range of possible sensors through human coding of audio and video recordings. Experience sampling is used to simultaneously collect randomly distributed self-reports of interruptibility. Based on these simulated sensors, we construct statistical models predicting human interruptibility and compare their predictions with the collected self-report data. The results of these models, although covering a demographically limited sample, are very promising, with the overall accuracy of several models reaching about 78%. Additionally, a model tuned to avoiding unwanted interruptions does so for 90% of its predictions, while retaining 75% overall accuracy.

similarities may be useful for some purposes (see Frost & King, 2001 [chapter 1]), but abstractions may present problems in actually accomplishing collaborative work. Second, the natural tendency to establish local territories may interfere with co-workers' identification with the larger collective, such as the distributed project group. Ambiguity of membership reduces group identity (Brown & Wade, 1987; see also Armstrong and Cole, 2001 [chapter 7]). Effects of Spontaneous Communication Distances between offices and work locations possibly have their highest impact on group functioning through their effect on informal, spontaneous communication opportunities (Brockner & Swap, 1976; Ebbesen, Kjos, & Konecni, 1976, Hays, 1985; Kraut & Streeter, 1995; Newcomb, 1981). That is, people who work in proximate offices run into one another at the water cooler, coffee machine, and copier. They see one another come and go to meetings. They meet in the lunch room. These casual encounters increase ...

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About Generations United Generations United (GU) is the national membership organization focused solely on promoting intergenerational strategies, programs, and public policies. GU represents more than 100 national, state, and local organizations, representing more than 70 million Americans. It is the only national organization advocating for the mutual well-being of children, youth, and older adults. GU serves as a resource for educating policymakers and the public about the economic, social, and personal imperatives of intergenerational cooperation. GU provides a forum for those working with children, youth, and older adults to explore areas of common ground while celebrating the richness of each generation. About Generations United’s Project SHARE Generations United (GU) believes that resources are better used when they unite rather than separate the generations. GU recognizes the inherent benefits of connecting generations, sharing resources, and strengthening communities through intergenerational shared sites and shared resource programs. With the generous support of the Helen

Replacing traditional lectures, tutorials and exams with a Knowledge Building Community (KBC): A constructivist, problem-based approach to pre-service primary teacher education

Research Symposium

Introduction A major problem in design and use of CSCW systems is the difficulty to evaluate user needs. Users are often unaware of their individual working habits. Furthermore, the working situation will change through the availability of electronic systems which open new action and cooperation opportunities. And last, often new forms of socio-technical working patterns emerge which can not be seen in advance. Ethnographic studies of workplaces are today a recognised means for the needs evaluation. However this does not prevent from system failures. Bardram (Bardram 1997) explanation for this is, that the plans which could be recorded in ethnographic studies were taken literally, but plans are only anticipations before execution and explanations after execution of an action. Thus using the plans found as guidelines for system design turned out to be inadequate. Bowers (Bowers 1994) pointed out that practical usage of existing systems raises new requirements, thus adaptation

A little recognized topic in the psychological and educational literature of problem solving is the linguistic and extra-linguistic or social-cognitive structure of problem presentation contexts. Word-, story- or text-problems, presented in classroom contexts, represent specific textual and situational patterns of a certain grammaticality. To verbally present a problem to a student in an educational setting always means to somehow organize a fact for the attention of a problem solver. There is the specific structure of the problem text itself by which situations, processes, actions, number relations are implicitly or explicitly expressed, questioned, commented, and there is also the stimulative nature of the pragmatic and social psychological context which shapes the student's textbook-problem solving behavior over a long time.

system. Given the many factors, including the infrastructure of aviation, that affect aviation safety, the role of culture remains uncertain. It is accepted that culture must exert some influence on the patterns of behavior enacted by flight crews on the flight deck, but different views of culture produce different hypotheses about the role of culture in the organization of behavior. We review the history of ideas about culture and describe a recently developed concept of culture that is based in contemporary cognitive science. We then use this modern theory of culture to evaluate recent attempts to understand the role of culture on the flight deck. Finally, we sketch a methodology for the study of culture on the flight deck.

meaning of places and locations--working with other employees at the office versus seeing family at home, for instance. They also reflect differentiation of the social meaning of time---the 9 to 5 workday versus the weekend. But today, wireless technologies, which help people cross space, time, activity and social networks, promise to bring us back to earlier times when the boundary between work and personal life was less distinct and to influence the meaning of space and time. This change is somewhat of a paradox, however, as wireless technology also will take us further afield, as it increases our temporal and spatial mobility. In this chapter, we discuss how this paradox is unfolding and draw on data from a field trial of digital cellular telephony to show some of the social implications for how we work and live. The social meaning and influence of settings Research in the tradition of "social ecology" (Barker, 1968) has shown that different settings for social behavior---offices,