CONTROL OF A REMOTE COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM BY CHILDREN

When an elementary or secondary school student is away from school for an extended period of time due to illness, the student is provided wi th a tutor or access to in-hospital classrooms to keep up with his/her studies. This arrangement is not only expensive but isolates the chil d from normal, everyday classroom experiences. A remote controlled vid eo conferencing system was developed which allows a student access to regular classroom activities while in a remote location (e.g. hospital ). The video conferencing system allows two-way visual and audio commu nication between the class/teacher and the remote student. The remote control provides the student (remote location) with the ability to dir ect the in-class video camera as desired (pan, tilt, zoom). One of the challenges in the development of the communication system was the des ign of the interface used by the student to remotely access and contro l the video camera Control of remote computer systems is a difficult t ask (Hammel et at, 1989). The complexity of a video conferencing syste m magnifies these difficulties. A Nintendo(TM) controller was adapted and integrated with the video conferencing system because children ide ntified it as a desirable interface. The Nintendo controller allowed a better physical and cognitive map to the required control tasks than either a keyboard or a mouse interface. A pilot study was conducted wi th a group of cub scouts with one cub participating from a remote loca tion. Use of the system to participate in the activities was the focus of this study. Results seem to indicate that the system can be used w ith relatively few errors when performing the majority of the required tasks. However, gaining the attention of the teacher through the syst em seems to be more difficult.