{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.009253547193090685, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001850709438618137, 'mean_word_length': 5.2384615384615385, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Haptic Tool for Group Work on Geometrical Concepts Engaging Blind and Sighted Pupils

In the study presented here, two haptic and visual applications for learning geometrical concepts in group work in primary school have been designed and evaluated. The aim was to support collaborative learning among sighted and visually impaired pupils. The first application is a static flattened 3D environment that supports learning to distinguish between angles by means of a 3D haptic device providing touch feedback. The second application is a dynamic 3D environment that supports learning of spatial geometry. The scene is a room with a box containing geometrical objects, which pupils can pick up and move around. The applications were evaluated in four schools with groups of two sighted and one visually impaired pupil. The results showed the support for the visually impaired pupil and for the collaboration to be satisfying. A shared understanding of the workspace could be achieved, as long as the virtual environment did not contain movable objects. Verbal communication was crucial for the work process but haptic guiding to some extent substituted communication about direction. When it comes to joint action between visually impaired and sighted pupils a number of interesting problems were identified when the dynamic and static virtual environments were compared. These problems require further investigation. The study extends prior work in the areas of assistive technology and multimodal communication by evaluating functions for joint haptic manipulation in the unique setting of group work in primary school.