The way in which students perceive their learningsituation is the starting point for a successful learning process in school, aswell as the starting point for individualized teaching. The study´s aim was todescribe the findings from a group of students at a secondary special schoolwho use a tablet as a tool in learning situations. The study is based onqualitative methods with focus group interviews and research underpinning thecollated data. The study connects students´ perceptions with the conceptsmediated artifacts, motivation and availability to clarify students´ experiencesin different situations. The results shows that the tablet is a flexible toolwhere the possibilities for personalization are great if there is knowledgeabout how, when and for what purpose it will be used. Students express bothinterest and a good understanding of the use of the tablet as a tool, but theyalso experience the obstacle of inaccessibility, depending on how much tabletuse the teacher allows during lessons. Research shows that students withintellectual disabilities feel stimulation from the use of the tablet as atool. This is useful in special educational contexts where the focus is onproviding students with the right conditions to acquire and develop skills.

Active Reading is an important part of a knowledge worker’s activities; it involves highlighting, writing notes, marking with symbols, etc., on a document. Many Active Reading applications have been designed in seeking to replicate the affordances of paper through digital-ink-based annotation tools. However, these applications require users to perform numerous steps to use various types of annotation tools, which impose an unnecessary cognitive load, distracting them from their reading tasks. In this thesis, we introduce GestAnnot, an Active Reading application for tablet computers that takes a fundamentally different approach of incorporating multi-touch gesture techniques for creating and manipulating annotations on an e-document, thus offering a flexible and easy- to-use annotation solution. Based on the literature review, we designed and developed GestAnnot and then performed lab and field evaluations of the software. In lab evaluation, GestAnnot performed better than one of the best existing annotation application in many aspects, including number of steps. The design was then refined based on the feedback received. The field evaluation of the improved design helped us to understand the performance of the application in the real world. We proposed a set of design guidelines through the feedback received from both evaluations, which any future Active Reading application could benefit from.

Studiens syfte är att analysera hur förskolebarn och surfplattor interagerar med varandra för att beskriva det samspel som uppstår ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande. Datainsamlingen är gjord på två olika förskolor och har bestått av observationer av barn 3-5 år, när de sitter tillsammans med en eller flera kamrater vid en surfplatta. Begrepp från en sociokulturell syn på lärande har använts för att analysera det insamlade materialet ur ett lärandeperspektiv. Resultatet visar att barnen interagerade med varandra och med surfplattan genom verbal kommunikation i form av tal, och icke-verbal kommunikation såsom blickar, gester, beröring, med mera. Interaktionerna visade sig vara vad som kan kallas för antingen lyckade eller misslyckade. Resultatet visar även att surfplattan påverkade barnens interaktioner genom att surfplattan skapade olika positioner bland barnen. Beroende på vilken position barnen intog eller fick interagerade de på olika sätt och olika mycket. De fick därmed olika möjligheter till lärande. De positioner som uppstod bland barnen vid surfplattan var ägar- deltagare- och åskådarposition. Ägarpositionen visade sig vara attraktiv för barnen och de förhandlade och argumenterade för att få denna position eller för att få behålla den. Resultatet visar också att det som påverkade barnens interaktioner var även deras fokus på surfplattan. Det visade sig genom att barnen hade blicken koncentrerat fäst på skärmen. Det kunde ibland orsaka att barnen inte såg på varandra när de pratade, inte uppmärksammade kamratens interaktion i tid eller missade den helt. I resultatet framkommer det även att barnen vägledde varandra och sig själva i användandet av surfplattan. Vägledningen av varandra skedde genom scaffolding och vägledningen av sig själva skedde genom att barnen använde språket för att stödja tänkandet.

We are studying the use of tilt-enabled handheld touchscreen devices as an interface for top-down strategy games. We will explore how using different input modes (tilt and touch) compare for certain tasks in terms of efficiency and comfort. Real-time and turn-based strategy games are a popular form of electronic gaming, though these games currently have only minor representation on tablets. This genre of game requires both a wide variety of input and the display of a wealth of information. We are exploring whether, with suitable interface developments, this genre can become as accessible on tablet devices as on traditional computers. These interface approaches may also prove useful for expanding the presence of other game genres in the mobile space.

The utilization of interactive technologies will affect learning in science classrooms of the future. And although these technologies have improved in form and function, their effective employment in university science classrooms has lagged behind the rapid development of new constructivist pedagogies and means of instruction. This dissertation examines the enlistment of instructional technologies, in particular tablet PCs and DyKnow Interactive Software, in a technologically enhanced, university-level, introductory physics course. Results of this qualitative case study of three university students indicate that (1) the use of interactive technology positively affects both student learning within force and motion and self-reported beliefs about physics, (2) ad hoc use of instructional technologies may not sufficient for effective learning in introductory physics, (3) student learners dictate the leveraging of technology in any classroom, and (4) that purposeful teacher structuring of classroom activities with technologies are essential for student construction of knowledge. This includes designing activities to elicit attention and make knowledge visible for low-level content, while augmenting student interactions and modelling procedural steps for higher-level content.

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<p>In this thesis, the strength-enhancing mechanisms of dry binders in direct compression were studied. The systems investigated were binary mixtures containing various compounds and binders. Among the binders used were a series of different molecular weights of polyethylene glycol. The proposed simplified tablet model describing the fracture path in a tablet during strength testing offers an explanation for the increase in tablet strength caused by the binder. The model and results in this thesis indicate that fractures will usually propagate around the tablet particles and through the interparticulate voids during tablet strength testing.</p><p>One important characteristic of the binder is its ability to be effectively and evenly distributed through the interparticulate voids in a compound tablet. Characteristics such as high plasticity, low elasticity and a small particle size were associated with a more even distribution and a consequent pronounced effect on pore structure and marked improvement in tablet strength. The strength of tablets containing less plastic binders was governed more by the compactibility of the binder. The tablet porosity, bonding mechanisms and volume reduction mechanisms of the compound also influenced the effect of the binder. For example, the plasticity and particle size of the binder had the most significant effects on tablet strength when the tablet porosity of the com-pound was relatively low. A combination of the plasticity and the compactibility of the binder determined the strength of tablets when the tablet of a compound was more porous. The positive effect of a binder on pore structure and tablet strength resulted in an increase in the disintegration time. Although addition of a superdisintegrant generally improved the disintegration time, the effect was decreased when the formulation included more deformable binders.</p><p>The choice of a suitable binder for a tablet formulation requires extensive knowledge of the relative importance of binder properties for enhancing the strength of the tablet and also of the interactions between the various materials constituting a tablet. Thus, the increased knowledge of the functionality of a binder obtained in this thesis enables a more rational approach to tablet formulation.</p>

The use of technology as an effective educational tool has been an elusive goal in the past. Specifically, previous attempts at using small personal computers in the classroom to aid students as collaborative and note-taking tools have been met with lukewarm responses. Many of these past attempts were hampered by inferior hardware and the lack of an efficient and user-friendly interface. With the recent introduction of Tablet PC products on the market, however, the limitations imposed on software developers for mobile computing systems have been dramatically lowered. We present a collaborative annotation system that allows students equipped with tablet computers to work cooperatively in either an ad-hoc or a structured wireless classroom setting. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The internal dynamics of powder systems under compression are as of yet not fully understood, and thus there is a necessity for approaches that can help in further clarifying and enhancing the level of understanding on this subject. To this end, the internal dynamics of powder systems under compression were probed by means of force distributions and a novel compaction equation. The determination of force distributions hinged on the use of carbon paper as a force sensor, where the imprints transferred from it onto white paper where converted through calibration into forces. Through analysis of these imprints, it was found that the absence of friction and bonding capacity between the particles composing the powder bed had no effect on how the applied load was transferred through the system. Additionally, it was found that pellet strength had a role to play in the homogeneity of force distributions, where, upon the occurrence of fracture, force distributions became less homogenous. A novel compaction equation was derived and tested on a series of systems composed of pellets with differing mechanical properties. The main value of the equation lay in its ability to predict compression behavior from single particle properties, and the agreement was especially good when a compact of zero porosity was formed. The utility of the equation was tested in two further studies, using a series of pharmaceutically relevant powder materials. It was established that the A parameter of the equation was a measure of the deformability of the powder material, much like the Heckel 1/K parameter, and can be used as a means to rank powders according to deformability, i.e. to establish plasticity scale. The equation also provided insights into the dominating compression mechanisms through an invariance that could be exploited to determine the point, at which the powder system became constrained, i.e. the end of rearrangement. Additionally, the robustness of the equation was demonstrated through fruitful analysis of a set of diverse materials. In summary, this thesis has provided insights and tools that can be translated into more efficient development and manufacturing of medicines in the form of tablets.