USABILITY ENGINEERING AND HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION:

Introduction:
This Topic was presented by Mr. Innocent Kihaka and Mr. Side S. Side. Actually to my opinions I can say it was the best presentation among the best presentations which have already presented.
Before going deeper to this topic let us have a look on some important terminologies which used in this topic which might confuse sometimes if not used well.
Usability; This usability means that something can be very easy to use but not necessary to be usefully. It is normally user friendly.
Usefulness; Usefulness means that something is very useful but it is very difficult to use i.e. not user friendly.

Why this UE and HCI?
Many years ago people were struggling on how to improve the efficient of the machine. The research made at that time showed that in order the efficient of the machine the computer users were diverse and there was a need of human interactive system. Over some years the ICT has developed into discipline/field in its own right.

By so doing they were intending to increase the productivity as its work force is more productive. Also decreases training and supportive costs as well as increasing the customer satisfaction and decreases technophobia. However they succeed to some extent since they reduces disastrous and fatal errors in the system which are dangerous to human life.

In fact they advanced a lot in designing products. They were having to approaches of designing products; the Product Centered Design and the User Centered Design. The product centered design is the means of producing products without caring the need of the user and the user centered design is the design by which the designing process usually considering the needs of the user. This style of designing proved to be efficient than the product centered. Here the user used to command the machine to do what the user needs and not the user do what the machine needs.

The user centered approach proved to have the following advantages based on the user; It is easy to learn and to use as well (Learn ability), it is supportive to products in carrying out a certain task (efficiency), also it is easy to memorize how the system is used once it has been learned. In addition to that, the user centered approach is safe and protecting the user from dangerous undesirable situations, it is entertaining and the most important thing is that it motivates by encouraging the user to continue working with it.

Difficulties of the User Centered Approach;
Since the user centered approach requires the suggestions from users, it is difficult to get the clear information especially from unskilled people. Also it needs large amount of in of fund in developing new products, very difficult to build a system which is suitable for all types of users and their needs.

UE and HCI are very important to human life especially in the world of today whereby computers are the great tool for facilitating the human work. In order to decrease the digital divide to our societies, computer products should be decreased the cost but still meet the intended quality. Also they should be made in such a way that they can be used in different groups of people no matter their level of professional i.e. layman can use them effectively.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Well, it very nice presentation given by Mr. Bahati Sanga on Friday April 25, 2009 concerning education technology. This task were to be done by Mr Sanga and Austin, unfortunately Mr. Austin was having some excuse so he was not around.

Introduction:
Education technology is the way of identifying, solving and facilitating learning process by using the available resources/tools. The education technology should not be mixed with technological education. In the education, the main goal is to teach the knowledge and techniques on developing technologically. These two things are quite different; technological education is the situation where by education is used to build up tools for education like machines etc.

Education technology has got so many objectives but here I am going to site to only some of them which are the most important in the human life and in the learning process. The first important thing which should be noted down first is to analyze the characteristics of the learner. That is some learners need to be given the overview of the content and then start finding the good things within and others want to follow the sequence of the topic from the beginning up to the end.

The second thing is to evaluate the learner's performance in terms of achieving educational objectives. The teacher as the facilitator should evaluate the performance so that he/she can know where the point was not clear to the learners and also to know if they can utilize the knowledge given in their daily life.

There are about three aspects which should be considered in the education technology;
There should be an input which involves the provision skills of teaching and awareness of teaching and training methods.

Another thing is a process whereby it generates situation for presenting the subject matter systematically. Here it is the ability of using the available tools for acquiring the knowledge for example projectors, computers etc.

The last thing which is obviously is the output; here it includes mainly the terminal behaviour of the activities which have been done and how the learner has been changed. It clarifies on how the objectives have been reached through the content. The learners should show the changes after learning certain content.

Conclusion:
Education technology is very important in our life especially in the developing countries. For example by considering the computers in the learning process it helps the learners to gain different skills from around the world rather than sticking to what the teacher teaches.

Moreover this should be kept seriously since in case used wrongly can totally spoil the learners and increase the number of failures/unskilled people in the society.