Person: Romero Hernández, Alejandro
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First Name
Alejandro
Last Name
Romero Hernández
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Informática
Department
Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial
Area
Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos
Identifiers
3 results
Search Results
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Item Comparison of a Tablet Versus Computer-Based Classical Theatre Game Among 8–13 Year Children(IEEE Access, 2021) Gonzalez-Riojo, Manuel; Sagredo-Olivenza, Ismael; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José BorjaIn the last ten years, many studies have shown the advantages of videogames as tools for learning, engagement, raising awareness, or increasing interest in different fields. Schools are often the main focus of those studies. However, schools have either PCs or tablets in their classrooms, but rarely have both. That represents a severe limitation to videogame researchers since they can only deploy their video games in schools with the adequate platform for their video games. Researchers are therefore restricted in the number of schools in which they can conduct their experiments. In this paper, we study a videogame’s effectiveness in increasing interest towards classical theatre, depending on the platform deployed (computer or mobile device). To that aim, we used ‘‘The Courtesy of Spain,’’ a point-and-click videogame created explicitly for this study, based on the play of the same name by Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega. To measure the abovementioned effectiveness, we implemented a quasi-experimental design with a comparison and an experimental group. The experiment involved 542 students between 8 and 13 years old from several middle schools in Madrid’s Community (Spain). The study indicates that the videogame developed is equally effective on both devices (Sig <0.05). Our results will allow serious game developers to design one-fits-all games without jeopardizing their efficiency, which broadens the target schools where their games can be testedItem Designing a VR game for public speaking based on speakers features: a case study(Smart Learning Environments, 2019) El-yamri, Meriem; Gonzalez-Riojo, Manuel; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José Borja; SPRINGEROratory or the art of public speaking with eloquence has been cultivated since ancient times. However, the fear of speaking in public -a disproportionate reaction to the threatening situation of facing an audience- affects a very important part of the population. This work arises from the need to help alleviate this fear through a toolwhere to train the ability of public speaking. To this purpose, we built a virtual reality system that offers the speaker a safe environment to practice presentations. Since the audience is the only way to receive feedback when giving a speech, our system offer is a virtual audience that reacts and gives real-time feedback based on the emotions conveyed by three parameters: voice tone, speech content and speaker’s gaze. In this paper, we detail the modelling of a behavioural-realistic audience just focusing on the speakers’ voice tone: 1) by presenting an algorithm that controls the audience’ reactions based on the emotions beamed by the speaker, and 2) by carrying out an experiment comparing the reactions generated by the agents with those of a real audience to the same speech, in order to refine the given algorithm. In this experiment, the audience subjects are asked to fill a questionnaire - level of engagement and perceived emotions - for a speech performed by professional actors representing different emotions. Afterwards, we compared the reactions of said audience with the ones generated by our algorithm, and used the results to improve it.Item The Effectiveness of a Video Game as an Educational Tool in Incrementing Interest in Dance among Younger Generations(Educational technology & society, 2022) Gonzalez-Riojo, Manuel; El-Yamri, Meriem; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José BorjaThe performing arts are currently in a critical situation worldwide. Various reports warn that the lack of audience. If we focus on dance, and especially folk dances, the situation is worse. In various countries and continents, folk dances are slowly disappearing. In Spain, we find evidence of the downward trend in terms of the number of attendees to performances of Spanish dance -an art form that is highly valued throughout the world. In a generation marked by technological advancements, the only way for classic performing arts to reach young audiences - or digital natives – is to speak the same language they use with new technologies. This paper presents a study in collaboration with the Spanish National Dance Company, carried out with 877 students (aged from 9 to 12) from 12 different schools in the community of Madrid, Spain. We designed a two-phase experiment. In the first phase, we separated the students into 3 groups: students who played a videogame called “Dancing a Treasure,” those who received a workshop from professional dancers, and a control group. In the second phase that took place two weeks later, the participants attended to a real show of Spanish dance, and we studied how the previous educational approaches affected to the students increase of interest after the show. The experiment demonstrated that the videogame was, at least, as effective in increment interest about dance in younger generations as a workshop taught by expert dance professionals. Thus, in terms of scalability, the videogame is a better option because it can be applied with the same results to larger groups with no additional cost.