The University of Brussels in Belgium has released information on a new tool they've developed called "Probo," an interactive robotic friend. Early studies they've done has had success with rehabilitation activities with autistic children.

The picture looks a lot creepier than it does in the video when it's "live". More info on the Probo Site.

A recent study by the University of Texas-Austin shows differences in cognitive abilities of children by the age of two, correlating with the income level of the families. The lead author notes that this is more a reflection of the effect of early access to resources than of any sort of innate superiority of wealthy children. He says often wealthier families have more resources as well as more time to spend with their children, which directly influences their cognitive development. It is interesting in light of schools like the Harlem Children's Zone, which requires heavy involvement from parents at an early age. It could also mean that efforts to increase graduation rates and close achievement gaps may need to start much much younger.

Full Study published in Psychological science available through Sage Publications here.

A new book by Bill Moggridge discusses the connections and conflicts between old and new media through a series of interviews with participants in these various types of media.

Video of some of the interviews are available online through the Designing Media Website.

Via SwissMiss

Per Amazon:
Mainstream media, often known simply as MSM, have not yet disappeared in a digital takeover of the media landscape. But the long-dominant MSM—television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and books—have had to respond to emergent digital media. Newspapers have interactive Web sites; television broadcasts over the Internet; books are published in both electronic and print editions. In Designing Media, design guru Bill Moggridge examines connections and conflicts between old and new media, describing how the MSM have changed and how new patterns of media consumption are emerging. The book features interviews with thirty-seven significant figures in both traditional and new forms of mass communication; interviewees range from the publisher of the New York Times to the founder of Twitter.

RWW introduces an online e-book platform that allows you to take notes, as well as hold discussions within the text of a book. This seems like it could have great use both with a limited community (like a class), or opening it up to everyone.

Article Here.

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A friend of mine who's a taxonomist for UNICEF just sent me this site as a good example of site organization. Coincidentally enough, it's all about a topic which we've been discussing.

Prevention Web

The Complex Emergency page has some information we may want to look at as well for inspiration with this project.

enjoy!

THE EVOLVED USER EXPERIENCE: USING SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES TO DRIVE UX DESIGN AND PRODUCT STRATEGY by Alexander Negash

This article from UX magazine talks about the incorporation of Social Media into traditional User Research methods. Since users view them as an integral part of their lives, Social Media platforms can offer more "natural" feedback than some of the more "Test" like approaches to User Studies.

This article from "Technology Review" talks to the Editor in Chief of MacWorld about their "minimalist" approach to design. They've found value in maintaining a similar design to the site's original appearance (in 1999) not only for simplicity, but also for "legacy".

Many of us rely on surveys to give us a view of people's behaviors and feelings about those behaviors. This article approaches statistics from the angle of a reader, however as researchers these are good things to keep in mind while designing surveys and picking sample populations.

Full Article Here

In First Monday's most recent issue, Sara Kjellberg reports on the study she did on the use of blogs among researchers. Researchers felt that blogs supported many elements of their professional lives. Blogs allowed them to discuss smaller topics which they feel are important, but may not have enough content for a more traditionally published paper. Along those same lines, regular blog posting encourages researchers to stay current with trends and issues that may only tangentially relate to their research, but are relevant to their field of study. Blogs also served as "notebooks" where ideas for larger papers could develop, and be critiqued and considered by a community of other researchers.

On the social front, blogs allowed researchers to interact and reach out to people outside of their discipline. The author frequently remarks on the emotional benefits the researchers feel from maintaining a blog as a "tool for creativity". In light of Pressible, most of the digital content and services are geared towards the sciences (the "hard sciences" specifically), though the results of this study indicate the universality of the benefits of researcher's blogging.