SHARE-IT: School-Home Research Environment through Intelligent Technologies

自闭症谱系障碍（ASCs）是一种神经发育疾病，影响全球越来越多的人，在英国每100个孩子中就有一个。患有ASCs的儿童在社会交往和沟通技能方面存在明显的困难，在执行需要发起和响应社会行动的任务方面也存在明显的困难，例如模仿，轮流和合作（联合）行动。许多患有ASCs的儿童会经历一生的失业和严重的心理健康问题。ASCs无法治愈。然而，早期干预和持续的支持，也是随着时间和环境的变化而持续的，对于提高儿童应对社会状况的能力，提高他们及其照顾者的生活质量和前景至关重要。自闭症最佳实践社区和许多为ASC学生提供专业服务的学校倡导为校内和校外的儿童提供持续和可持续的支持。现代干预措施强调在不同背景下的一致支持，并让教师和家长通过共同创造学习经验来分享每个孩子的目标管理。越来越多的教师和家长将技术视为一种有效的补充干预措施，由于移动的和云计算的日益普及和有效性，它们可以为家庭和学校为儿童提供的支持之间的持续和可持续联系提供基本的基础设施。最近，自闭症TEIs有了大规模的增长，但与以前的教学创新一样，设计和研究是按顺序发展的，对实践的直接影响很小，在现实世界的课堂上进行的研究也很有限。成熟的移动的和云计算使得在学校和家庭中创建和提供干预措施的开放系统变得可行。鉴于自闭症最佳实践社区呼吁建立这样一个开放平台，他们认为这也是必要的、相关的和及时的。人工智能技术，如机器学习和视线跟踪，越来越多地嵌入到日常技术中，可以将这种开放平台从交换想法和经验的地方转变为可以动态共同创建的地方。SHARE-IT的目标是系统地研究如何单独和一起使用不同的个人和移动的设备，为自闭症谱系障碍（ASCs）儿童创建可扩展的智能学习环境。总体目标是促进在学校、家庭和其他相关环境中对儿童的持续支持。SHARE-IT有两个研究问题：（Q1）：自闭症干预的有效性是否可以通过使用技术来优化学校，家庭和儿童现有的治疗方案？(Q2)如何通过以下两个方面的结合来维持这种技术基础设施：（i）教师和家长的持续自愿投入;（ii）应用人工智能（AI）技术实时跟踪和记录儿童在自然环境中的行为？SHARE-IT的潜在影响是重要的，因为它的研究结果，沿着研究过程本身，可以在许多情况下影响许多人：教师如何在学校为儿童提供支持;父母如何以与学校干预一致的方式在家里帮助他们的孩子，以及他们如何应对照顾患有ASC的儿童的重大需求;为儿童提供量身定制的按需支助。在EPSRC下进行野外研究对于实现SHARE-IT的雄心壮志至关重要，因为这种机制既满足了所需的工程工作，也满足了利益相关者在创建对他们相关和有用的技术过程中的关键参与。

Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) are neurodevelopmental conditions that affect an increasing number of individuals globally, and 1 child in 100 in the UK. Children with ASCs have marked difficulties in social interaction and communication skills and in performing tasks that require initiation of and responding to social actions, such as imitation, turn-taking and collaborative (joint) actions. Many children with ASCs go on to experience a life-time of unemployment and often severe mental health difficulties. There is no cure for ASCs. However, early intervention and consistent support that is also sustained over time and contexts is paramount to improving the child's ability to cope with social situations and, to enhancing their and their caregivers' quality of life, and outlook. Provision of consistent and sustainable support for children in and outside of school is advocated by the autism best practice community and by many schools with specialist provisions for ASC pupils. Modern interventions emphasise consistent support across contexts, and for teachers and parents to share the management of goals for each child through co-creation of learning experiences. Increasingly, teachers and parents look to technology as an effective complimentary intervention that, thanks to growing affordability and efficacy of mobile and cloud computing may provide the basic infrastructure for a continuous and sustainable link between the support given to children at home and at school.Recently there has been a massive growth in TEIs for Autism, but as with previous teaching-learning innovations, design and research have evolved in a sequential manner, with little direct influence on practice and limited research having been conducted in real-world classrooms. Maturing mobile and cloud computing make an open system for intervention creation and delivery in school and at home viable. Given the calls from the autism best practice community for such an open platform, they make it also necessary, relevant and timely. Artificial Intelligence techniques such as machine learning and gaze-tracking, which are increasingly embedded in everyday technologies, can transform such open platforms from places where ideas and experiences are exchanged, to places that can be co-created dynamically. The objective of SHARE-IT is to systematically investigate how different personal and mobile devices can be used individually and together to create a scalable intelligent learning environment for children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs). The overarching aim is to facilitate continuity of support for children across school, home and other relevant contexts. SHARE-IT has two research questions: (Q1): Can the efficacy of autism interventions be optimized by using technology to interface across school, home and the child's existing therapeutic regime?; (Q2): How can such technological infrastructure be sustained over time through a combination of (i) continuous, voluntary input from teachers and parents and (ii) the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to the real-time tracking and logging of children's behaviours in naturalistic environments?The potential impact of SHARE-IT is significant as its findings, along with the research process itself, can affect many people in many contexts: teachers in how they deliver support to children at school; parents in how they help their children at home in a way that is consistent with school intervention and in how they cope with the significant demands of caring for a child with an ASC; children in being offered a tailored and on-demand support. Undertaking research in the wild under the EPSRC is crucial to achieving SHARE-IT's ambitions because this mechanism caters for both the engineering effort required and the crucial involvement of stakeholders in the process of creating technology that is relevant and useful to them.