Interactive story authoring: A viable form of creative expression for the classroom

The unprecedented growth in numbers of children playing computer games has stimulated discussion and research regarding what, if any, educational value these games have for teaching and learning. The research on this topic has primarily focused on children as players of computer games rather than builders/constructors of computer games. Recently, several game companies, such as BioWare Corp. and Bethesda Softworks, have released game story creation tools to the public, along with their games. However, a major obstacle to using these commercial tools is the level of programming experience required to create interactive game stories. In this paper, we demonstrate that a commercial game story construction tool, BioWare Corp.’s Aurora Toolset, can be augmented by our new tool, ScriptEase, to enable students in two grade ten English classes to successfully construct interactive game stories. We present evidence that describes the relationship between interactive story authoring and traditional story authoring, along with a series of factors that can potentially affect success at these activities: gender, creativity, intellectual ability, previous experiences with programming, time playing computer games, and time spent online. Results indicate that students can successfully construct sophisticated interactive stories with very little training. The results also show no gender differences in the quality of these interactive stories, regardless of programming experience or the amount of time per week playing computer games or participating in general online activities, although a subset of female students did show a slightly higher level of performance on interactive story authoring. In the educational context of this study, we show that ScriptEase provides an easy-to-use tool for interactive story authoring in a constructionist learning environment.     

If Prolog is the Answer, What is the Question? or What it Takes to Support AI Programming Paradigms

Knowledge programming, which makes use of the explicit representation and interpretation of knowledge to create intelligent programs, requires specialized languages and tools to help programmers. Prolog, an implementation of a logic programing language, provides some of these tools; it and other languages have been argued to be the "best" way to do such knowledge programming. This paper raises questions which suggest that any single paradigm of programming (e.g., logic programming or object-oriented programming) benefits by being integrated in a single environment with other paradigms of programming. Integration of these paradigms with each other, and within a flexible, user-friendly computing environment is also necessary. Such an environment must provide source level debugging and monitoring facilities, analysis and performance tuning tools, and an extended set of user communication programs.     

Guarding the castle keep: teaching with the fortress metaphor

The computer security field is replete with metaphors - the original and most commonly used metaphor is the computer (or network) as a fortress, the walls of which must be guarded against potential breaches. This metaphor is useful, but like all metaphors, it is not precise. Understanding the differences, between the metaphor of a fortress and the realities of securing a system is crucial to students understanding the subtleties of computer security. We discuss the fortress metaphor as a pedagogical tool, both how it succeeds and how it fails to aid student understanding.     

Pictorial Representation and Metaphor in Visual Language Design

This paper reports the results of seven different experiments, assessing the benefit that users gain from the inclusion of pictorial features such as pictorial metaphor, visual mnemonics or support for visual imagery in visual languages. The experiments are based on typical programming tasks such as problem solving, construction and interpretation. They employed a number of experimental languages, including both implicit pictorial representations and explicitly verbal metaphorical explanations. The results of these experiments indicate that special design considerations apply to visual languages. Direct application of Graphical User Interface metaphors does not result in automatic improvements in usability of visual languages for typical programming tasks. Visual languages can benefit from pictorial mnemonics, but systematic explanatory metaphors (whether visual or verbal) are less useful than consistent presentation of language abstractions.     

Leveraging declarative languages in web application development

Web Applications have become an omnipresent part of our daily lives. They are easy to use, but hard to develop. WYSIWYG editors, form builders, mashup editors, and markup authoring tools ease the development of Web Applications. However, more advanced Web Applications require servers-side programming, which is beyond the skills of end-user developers. In this paper, we discuss how declarative languages can simplify Web Application development and empower end-users as Web developers. We first identify nine end-user Web Application development levels ranging from simple visual customization to advanced three-tier programming. Then, we propose expanding the presentation tier to support all aspects of Web Application development. We introduce a unified XForms-based framework—called XFormsDB—that supports both client-side and server-side Web Application development. Furthermore, we make a language extension proposal—called XFormsRTC—for adding true real-time communication capabilities to XForms. We also present XFormsDB Integrated Development Environment (XIDE), which assists end-users in authoring highly interactive data-driven Web Applications. XIDE supports all Web Application development levels and, especially, promotes the transition from markup authoring and snippet programming to single and unified language programming.     

Execution traces and programming-language semantics

The trace of a program-a string representing the sequence of statements executed for a particular input- and a program's trace language-all such strings-are considered as an expression of the control-flow possibilities inherent in the program. It is shown that, for a language like Turing's, programs always have trace languages that are context-sensitive but not always context-free. Such low-level languages lose most of their computing power if restricted to context-free traces. For languages in which individual statements are more powerful than those of a Turing machine, the trace languages may fail to be recursive, but the context-sensitive behavior may be regained by slightly altering the idea of a trace. In any case, it is also shown that it is impossible to effectively identify programs that have trace languages more restrictive than the widest class available in the programming language.     

A City Metaphor to Support Navigation in Complex Information Spaces

A major problem in modern information systems is to locate information and to re-find information one has seen before. Systems like the World Wide Web are heavily interlinked, but do not show structures that help users to navigate the information it contains. The use of appropriate navigation metaphors can help to make the structure of modern information systems easier to understand and therefore easier to use.We propose a conceptual user interface metaphor based on the structure of a city. Cities are very complex spatial environments and people know how to get information, how to reach certain locations in a city, and how to make use of the available infrastructure, etc. Cities provide a rich set of navigational infrastructure that lends itself to creating sub-metaphors for navigational tools. A city metaphor makes this existing knowledge about a structured environment available to the user of a computerized information system.We first focus on several properties necessary for future user interfaces (or user interface metaphors) that will distinguish them from current systems, like the richness of information or the use of visualizations to show the structure of information spaces. We also describe the strengths and problems of spatial user-interface metaphors. Then we present the structure of the information city metaphor, its structuring and navigation metaphors and what we see as its main advantages and problems. We further outline a few scenarios of how an Information City might work. Finally, we compare implementing this metaphor using either a textual or a graphical virtual environment or a combination.     

Mind the gap: Impact on learnability of user interface design of authoring tools for teachers

Few teachers include information and communication technology in the classroom, despite their potential for increasing attention and motivation for students. Educational authoring tools are intended to turn teachers into designers and deliverers of technology-enhanced educational content, and increasing the adoption of these tools is a key element for speeding up this transformation. This paper emphasizes the importance of learnability for preventing rejection or abandonment by of such an authoring tool, and how acceptance is deeply affected by the interaction paradigm and the creation metaphor used in the tool. We present an analysis comparing two design paradigms: the widespread menu-based and choice-guided interaction paradigm versus a consistent metaphor with direct manipulation. The latter was implemented in DEDOS-Editor, a novel authoring tool that allows the creation of diverse educational activities that can be performed on different devices, such as PCs, digital blackboards, tablets, and multitouch surfaces. An experimental study shows the tremendous impact that interface choices have on the tool's learning curve. The results provide the first mapping of the choice of a direct-manipulation interface and its effect on the learning curve's entry point, as well as a consistent interaction metaphor with smoother and fast-growing learning curves. This allows users to complete more tasks and gain more knowledge through experience, in contrast to menu-based interfaces. The initial use of the tool is thus made easier for users with no experience or information about the tool, and the advantages of experience and expertize in facing new challenges are facilitating. This work also highlights the appropriateness of learning curves as a tool for measuring learnability.     

Representing UNIX Domain Metaphors

The language used to describe technical domains like UNIX is filled with metaphor. An approach to metaphor, based on theexplicit representation of knowledge about metaphors, has beendeveloped. MIDAS (Metaphor Interpretation, Denotation, andAcquisition System) is a computer program that that has been developedbased upon this approach. MIDAS can be used to representknowledge about conventional metaphors, interpret metaphoric languageby applying this knowledge, and dynamically learn new metaphors asthey are encountered during normal processing.     

Developing technologies for broad-network concurrent computing

Recent developments in networking infrastructures, computer workstation capabilities, software tools, and programming languages have motivated new approaches to broad-network concurrent computing. This paper describes extensions to concurrent computing which blend new and evolving technologies to extend users' access to resources beyond their local network. The result is a concurrent programming environment which can dynamically extend over network and file system boundaries to envelope additional resources, to enable multiple-user collaborative programming, and to achieve a more optimal process mapping. Additional aspects of the derivative environment feature extended portability and support for the accessing of legacy codes and packages. This paper describes the advantages of such a design and how they have been implemented in the environment termed “IceT”.     

Visualization Metaphors

In the paper, a new approach to the notion of visualization metaphor is suggested based on semiotic analysis. The structure of the metaphor and the notion of visualization language are considered. Critical analysis is performed on how the notion of metaphor has been used in the theory of computer–human interface (CHI) and in the modern practice of interactive and visual environment design. Prototype tools for formal and empirical quality evaluation of visualization metaphors and languages based on the notion of adequacy in visualization are described.     

A framework for automatic semantic video annotation

Hypermedia composite templates define generic structures of nodes and links to be added to a document composition, providing spatio-temporal synchronization semantics. This paper presents EDITEC, a graphical editor for hypermedia composite templates. EDITEC templates are based on the XTemplate 3.0 language. The editor was designed for offering a user-friendly visual approach. It presents a new method that provides several options for representing iteration structures graphically, in order to specify a certain behavior to be applied to a set of generic document components. The editor provides a multi-view environment, giving the user a complete control of the composite template during the authoring process. Composite templates can be used in NCL documents for embedding spatio-temporal semantics into NCL contexts. NCL is the standard declarative language used for the production of interactive applications in the Brazilian digital TV system and ITU H.761 IPTV services. Hypermedia composite templates could also be used in other hypermedia authoring languages offering new types of compositions with predefined semantics.     

MODELS AND TRENDS IN PARALLEL PROGRAMMING

This paper introduces and discusses programming models for parallel processing and recent trends in the area of parallel programming. The paper discusses different parallel programming languages and tools that reflect various parallel computation models. These language differ in expressiveness, portability and performance. Software design and implementation largely varies by using different languages that make the programmer task easy or complex. We describe here the design goals and the main issues of parallel programming models and languages belonging to the following categories: shared-space based languages, message-based languages, parallel toolkits, data-parallel languages, parallel declarative languages, parallel object-oriented languages, and parallel composition-based languages. Tools and languages such as HPF, Linda, Java, OpenMP, PVM, MPI, Parallel C+ +, Sisal, Orca, Mentat, SkieCL, BSP and others are described in some detail. Their main features for design and implementation of high performance applications are discussed. Finally, we outline directions of research and development in the parallel programming area with a special attention to novel approaches based on high-level programming structures that make transparent to the users the architectural details of parallel computing machines.     

‘Don't forget to put the cat out’ — or why collaborative authoring software and everyday writing pass one another by!

Abstract

Hypermedia technology is seen as offering potentially innovative support for the process of writing as much as information access and reading. However authoring environments to date have had little impact in the real-world production of text. One possible reason is our poor conceptualisation of current writing practice. In the present paper, 31 adult writers kept diaries of their writing activities over the course of one week. The results indicate that for most people, real world writing is a short communicative act aimed at a limited audience and that technological support for such writing is less likely to resemble a hypermedia workstation than a portable personal communication device. Implications for work in the design of authoring tools are developed.     

What Approach for Searching Spatial Information?

This paper presents a survey of different approaches for searching information from geographic information systems (GISs) and spatial databases. The existing dichotomy between querying and navigation is highlighted and we emphasize the need to overcome it. Five categories of query languages can be identified: (1) natural languages, (2) artificial languages (e.g. extensions of SQL), (3) tabular languages: use of skeletons or forms, (4) graphical languages: use of symbols, which are only graphical conventions (like in the entity-relationship diagrams) and (5) visual languages: use of visual metaphors (e.g. icons, blackboard metaphor and map-overlay metaphor). The principles of each of them are presented. Respective strengths and weaknesses are pointed out, based on a predefined query. The last part of this paper is devoted to the hypermedia approach and describes the navigation in a hyperbase.     

Computer programming and the human thought process

This paper analyses certain human thought processes associated with computer programming and observes some limitations, inherent in the human mind, that affect the writing of good computer programs. The thought processes associated with computer programming fall into two major categories: those associated with the nature of problem solving; and those associated with man/computer communication using conventional programming languages. The questions raised in this paper bring to light the psychological and physiological implications of such programming tools and procedures as structured programming, code walkthroughs and top-down design in support of their use.     

Hypermedia authoring tools based on OLE technology

This paper report on recent and on going work related to the design of a set of hypermedia authoring tools intended to produce courseware, to be used for self learning or distance learning and training environments in a cooperative way. These tools have roots in a standalone hypermedia editor developed to create courseware, to which were added other tools to enhance its usability, namely a hypermedia player to view courseware in self study mode, and a hypermedia browser to create, to navigate and to display graphically the hypermedia document structure. The underlying metaphors are the overhead projector, the transparency and the layer. This system was developed for the MS-Windows environment, supporting OLE technology. We discuss the impact that such technology might have on the look and feel of hypermedia learning material and we describe the implementation of a Hypermedia Editor, Browser and Player tools.Part of this work is carried out in the context of the Co-Learn European project, which is aiming to design and to implement a third generation cooperative learning environment.     

Fei Teng 64 Stream Processing System: Architecture, Compiler, and Programming

The stream architecture is a novel microprocessor architecture with wide application potential. It is critical to study how to use the stream architecture to accelerate scientific computing programs. However, existing stream processors and stream programming languages are not designed for scientific computing. To address this issue, we design and implement a 64-bit stream processor, Fei Teng 64 (FT64), which has a peak performance of 16 Gflops. FT64 supports two kinds of communications, message passing and stream communications, based on which, an interconnection architecture is designed for a FT64-based high-performance computer. This high-performance computer contains multiple modules, with each module containing eight FT64s. We also design a novel stream programming language, Stream Fortran 95 (SF95), together with the compiler SF95Compiler, so as to facilitate the development of scientific applications. We test nine typical scientific application kernels on our FT64 platform to evaluate this design. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of FT64 and its compiler for scientific computing.