Networking,Storytelling and Knowledge Production in First-Year Writing

As writing teachers, we seek to validate the knowledge that students bring to the classroom while introducing and cultivating new methods, strategies, techniques and technologies that may serve them now and in the future. In this article we describe an approach we take that integrates curricular and extracurricular co-apprenticeship strategies using public writing models in conjunction with social networking tools. With publication as a final goal, we urge students to move from expressing personal problems to addressing social issues, using a private, non-commercial learning network NoDiff <http://NoDiff.com> as a safe zone for skills development, knowledge production and social inquiry. In taking this approach, we resist dichotomies that place professional skills training in strict opposition to critical pedagogy. We argue that many of the so-called “extracurricular” composing activities that most of today's students engage in lay the groundwork for both professional and civic participation. Acknowledging that we as composition teachers are also beginners in the world of 21^st century communication, we emphasize both (1) the continual transference of skills and knowledge among teachers and learners; and (2) the importance of providing what is often lacking in skills-based ‘new literacy’ training, namely a critical pedagogical approach to learning as social engagement and critical intervention.     

Scaffolding game-based learning: Impact on learning achievements,perceived learning,and game experiences

One of the central challenges of integrating game-based learning in school settings is helping learners make the connections between the knowledge learned in the game and the knowledge learned at school, while maintaining a high level of engagement with game narrative and gameplay. The current study evaluated the effect of supplementing a business simulation game with an external conceptual scaffold, which introduces formal knowledge representations, on learners' ability to solve financial-mathematical word problems following the game, and on learners' perceptions regarding learning, flow, and enjoyment in the game. Participants (M_age = 10.10 years) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: a “study and play” condition that presented the scaffold first and then the game, a “play and study” condition, and a “play only” condition. Although no significant gains in problem-solving were found following the intervention, learners who studied with the external scaffold before the game performed significantly better in the post-game problem-solving assessment. Adding the external scaffold before the game reduced learners' perceived learning. However, the scaffold did not have a negative impact on reported flow and enjoyment. Flow was found to significantly predict perceived learning and enjoyment. Yet, perceived learning and enjoyment did not predict problem-solving and flow directly predicted problem solving only in the “play and study” condition. We suggest that presenting the scaffold may have “problematized” learners' understandings of the game by connecting them to disciplinary knowledge. Implications for the design of scaffolds for game-based learning are discussed.     

A language learning support system using course-centered ontology and its evaluation

This paper presents a course-centered ontology for assisting learning support systems to embody the relations among knowledge points and also among the learning materials for those knowledge points. An “individual-class-individual” ontology design (first an individual-class design, then an innovative design about relations among bottom individuals), was applied to the construction of a course-centered ontology for an existing Japanese grammar course. Furthermore, a customizable language learning support system was built to manipulate the course-centered ontology to provide an interface for the learning objects arrangement which displays the visual representation of knowledge points and their relations. The intention underlying the development of the system is to encourage instructors to orient their teaching materials to specific knowledge points and even directly to relations between knowledge points. With these orientations, the learning support system is able to provide an environment in which learners can readily distinguish between related knowledge points. Finally, based on the result of a preliminary evaluation, a study to explore the impact of learning styles and learning habits on learning performance was conducted to further evaluate our ontology-based learning support system. The results of the study suggest three main points: (a) the experimental students who learned with our system achieved significantly better learning achievement than those who just did self-study with textbooks after studying the same target contents for 60 mins; (b) the learning achievement of experimental group was not related to either their learning style in Sequential/Global dimension or their habit of “learning from comparison”; (c) in terms of the learning perception of experimental group, compared to “Sequential learners”, most “Global learners” had a stronger feeling that the comparison function is useful in improving their learning performance, and the learners who don't habitually “learning from comparison” were more likely to suffer from lack of the attention and feel more pressure than those who do habitually “learning from comparison”.     

Effectiveness of MMORPG‐based instruction in elementary English education in Korea

This study investigated the effectiveness of massive multiplayer online role‐playing game (MMORPG)‐based (massive multiplayer online role‐playing game) instruction in elementary English education. The effectiveness of the MMORPG program was compared with face‐to‐face instruction and the independent variables (gender, prior knowledge, motivation for learning, self‐directed learning skills, computer skills, game skills, computer capacity, network speed, and computer accessibility) were examined to see how accurately achievement was predicted in MMORPG instruction. The results indicated that students studying English utilizing online role‐playing games showed higher scores in areas of listening, reading, and writing than those who attended face‐to‐face instruction classes. It was also found that prior knowledge, motivation for learning, and network speed were factors affecting achievement in English learning. These findings suggest that MMORPGs can play an important role in improving English communicative skills.     

Understanding factors influencing information communication technology adoption behavior: The moderators of information literacy and digital skills

Digital inequality is one of the most critical issues in the “information age”, few studies have examined the social inequality in information resources and digital use patterns. In the rural areas, such information communication technology (ICT) facilities could not guarantee that users can easily access information technology and overcome the so-called “digital divide.” This research aims to discover the psychological factors that influence information and communication technology (ICT) adoption behavior, as well as confirm whether “information literacy” and “digital skills” have moderator effects in the research model. Using a survey of 875 participants and a structural equation modeling approach, we find that task characteristics and social interaction improve media richness, media experience, and media technostress, which in turn enhance ICT adoption behavior. The proposed theoretical model shows that the impact of ICT adoption behavior is moderated by information literacy and digital skills. The findings of this research can offer guidelines for policy makers and educators who evaluate a community's ICT adoption behavior so as to provide proper access to ICT and promote its visibility by incorporating ICT in educational activities.     

Exploring college English language learners’ self and social regulation of learning during wiki-supported collaborative reading activities

Students’ regulation has been conceptualized as an important impetus for effective and efficient collaborative learning. However, little empirical evidence has been reported about language learners’ regulatory behaviors in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of self and social aspects of regulation during wiki-supported collaborative reading activities in the context of learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Sixty Chinese college students organized in twelve groups participated in this study over a sixteen-week semester. Using an integrated method of content analysis and sequential analysis, students’ chat logs were coded and analyzed to explore the characteristics of students’ self and social regulatory behaviors in terms of regulation type, regulation process, and regulation focus. Results indicate that all groups demonstrated active social regulation in the collaborative activities. Compared with low-performing groups, high-performing groups displayed distinctively different patterns of regulatory behaviors in “social regulation,” “evaluating,” “content monitoring,” and “social emotional regulation.” Moreover, the analysis further reveals a more continuous and smooth regulation in the high-performing groups, while low-performing groups tended to be lost in a single repeated regulatory behavior pattern such as “self-regulation” or “organizing”. This study not only fills a gap in the current collaborative English learning literature, but also contributes to our knowledge of social regulation in CSCL. Pedagogical implications and future research are also addressed.     

《墨子》的几何学与图学成就及其科学价值

《墨子》是我国古代最早论述图学知识、图学思想的科技史著作。《墨子》一书 中的论述与记载表明：图形、图样与文字、数字一样,在人类的社会进步和科技发展过程中起 着不可替代的作用。对《墨子》的研究,特别是对其图学基本概念与基本理论的探讨及其历史 地位;仍是一个有待深入和系统阐明的课题。本文通过考察《墨子》对有关图学理论研究的尝 试,探讨中国古代科学技术中的图学实践与图学知识的成果,以及这些图学成果所体现的中国 图学传统与科学探索精神。     

Augmented learning,smart glasses and knowing how

While recent studies suggest that augmented learning employing smart glasses (ALSG) increases overall learning performance, in this paper we are more interested in the question which repercussions ALSG will have on the type of knowledge that is acquired. Drawing from the theoretical discussion within epistemology about the differences between Knowledge-How and Knowledge-That, we will argue that ALSG furthers understanding as a series of epistemic and non-epistemic Knowing-Hows. Focusing on academic knowledge acquisition, especially with respect to early curriculum experiments in various STEM disciplines as investigated by the BmBF “Be-Greifen” project, we take the Be-Greifen holo.lab setup as an example for showing that ALSG shifts the learning focus from propositional knowledge to epistemic competencies, which can be differentiated as “grasping”, “wielding”, and “transferring”.

     

Virtual “Third Places”: A Case Study of Sociability in Massively Multiplayer Games

Georg Simmel [American Journal of Sociology 55:254–261 (1949)] is widely credited as the first scholar to have seriously examined sociability – “the sheer pleasure of the company of others” and the central ingredient in many social forms of recreation and play. Later Ray Oldenburg [The Great Good Place. New York: Marlowe & Company (1989)] extended Simmel’s work by focusing on a certain class of public settings, or “third places,” in which sociability tends to occur, such as, bars, coffee shops, general stores, etc. But while Simmel and Oldenburg describe activities and public spaces in the physical world, their concepts may apply as well to virtual or online worlds. Today Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are extensive, persistent online 3D environments that are populated by hundreds of thousands of players at any given moment. The sociable nature of these online spaces is often used to explain their success: unlike previous video games, MMOGs require players to exchange information and collaborate in real-time to progress in the game. In order to shed light on this issue, we critically examine player-to-player interactions in a popular MMOG (Star Wars Galaxies). Based on several months of ethnographic observations and computerized data collection, we use Oldenburg’s notion of “third places” to evaluate whether or not the social spaces of this virtual world fit existing definitions of sociable environments. We discuss the role online games can play in the formation and maintenance of social capital, what they can teach us about the evolution of sociability in an increasingly digitally connected social world, and what could be done to make such games better social spaces.     

A case study-based investigation of students’ experiences with social software tools

The term “social software” covers a range of tools which allow users to interact and share data with other users, primarily via the web. Blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking websites are some of the tools that are being used in educational, social and business contexts. We have examined the use of social software in the UK further and higher education to collect evidence of the effective use of social software in student learning and engagement. We applied case study methodology involving educators and students from 26 initiatives. In this paper, we focus on the student experience: educational goals of using social software; benefits to the students; and the challenges they experience. Our investigations have shown that social software supports a variety of ways of learning: sharing of resources; collaborative learning; problem-based and inquiry-based learning; and reflective learning. Students gain transferable skills of team working, negotiation, communication and managing digital identities. Although these tools enhance a student's sense of community, the need to share and collaborate brings in additional responsibility and workload, which some students find inflexible and “forced”. Our findings show that students have concerns about usability, privacy and the public nature of social software tools for academic activities.     

Seeking and providing assistance while learning to use information systems

Throughout their lives, people are faced with various learning situations, for example when they learn how to use new software, services or information systems. However, research in the field of Interactive Learning Environments shows that learners needing assistance do not systematically seek or use help, even when it is available. The aim of the present study is to explore the role of some factors from research in Interactive Learning Environments in another situation: using a new technology not as a means of acquiring knowledge but to realize a specific task. Firstly, we present the three factors included in this study (1) the role of the content of assistance, namely operative vs. function-oriented help; (2) the role of the user’s prior knowledge; (3) the role of the trigger of assistance, i.e. help provided after the user’s request vs. help provided by the system. In this latter case, it is necessary to detect the user’s difficulties. On the basis of research on problem-solving, we list behavioral criteria expressing the user’s difficulties. Then, we present two experiments that use “real” technologies developed by a large company and tested by “real” users. The results showed that (1) even when participants had reached an impasse, most of them never sought assistance, (2) operative assistance that was automatically provided by the system was effective for novice users, and (3) function-oriented help that was automatically provided by the system was effective for expert users. Assistance can support deadlock awareness and can also focus on deadlock solving by guiding task. Assistance must be adapted to prior knowledge, progress and goals of learners to improve learning.     

Information Counseling Inventory of Affective and Cognitive Reactions While Learning the Internet

Abstract

Library professionals in the information age are called upon to provide user-friendly information environments. To accomplish this, more detailed knowledge is needed about the information behavior of users. The concept “information counseling” reflects this new orientation and involves instruction activities such as: orienting, advising, and reassuring novice learners. The taxonomic approach transforms self-witnessing reports into classified segments of information behaviors at three levels of internalization and in three behavioral domains, including: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor behavior. Reference librarians and instructors are invited to contribute to the taxonomy and make use of it in planning and designing programs and facilities. This behavioral inventory of information behaviors learning the Internet is presented with illustrative entries under each category for affective and cognitive behavior. Suggested uses for the inventory include promoting information self-counseling skills, helping learners overcome technophobia through generational self-witnessing reports, and creating better point-of-use instructions for novices using complex information systems.     

The effects of trust and constructive controversy on student achievement and attitude in online cooperative learning environments

This study investigated the effects of trust and constructive controversy on student achievement and attitude in online cooperative learning environments. Students in one university course were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups after they took part in a common initial workshop on general cooperative learning skills. The “trust” and the “constructive controversy” groups received subsequent associated skills training. The overall results indicated that after each group received the treatment during online cooperative group activities, the “trust” groups had significantly higher achievement than the “constructive controversy” groups. In addition, the “trust” groups had significantly more positive attitudes toward online cooperative learning than the “constructive controversy” groups. Specifically, using “trust” building strategies was significantly more effective than using “constructive controversy” strategies for improving the ‘openness and sharing’ and ‘acceptance and support’ components of student attitudes in online cooperative learning environments.     

Studying the effectiveness of multi-user immersive environments for collaborative evaluation tasks

Massively Multiuser On-line Learning (MMOL) Platforms, often called “virtual learning worlds”, constitute a still unexplored context for communication-enhanced learning, where synchronous communication skills in an explicit social setting enhance the potential of effective collaboration. In this paper, we report on an experimental study of collaborative evaluation in an MMOL setting with 21 graduate students enrolled in university courses in technology-mediated teaching and learning. This study was carried out using a prototype of a 3D MMOL platform built around an interactive space called “MadriPolis”. This space was used to recreate an adequate scenario for a collaborative experience about Learning Object evaluation using the mainstream Learning Object Review Instrument (LORI), which is based on a Convergent Participation Model (CPM). The same experience was carried out using a conventional LCMS (Learning Content Management System) platform with the aim of contrasting the outcomes and interaction patterns in the two settings. This study makes use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) measures to describe the interactions between tutors and learners. By dwelling on the advantages of immersive environments, SNA indexes revealed that these interactions were rather dense and that student participation was rather broad-based in the case of the MMOL. The results suggest that MMOL platforms could be used in collaborative evaluation tasks as a means to enhance both tutor interaction patterns and the strength of the group's relationship.     

A privacy self-assessment framework for online social networks

During our digital social life, we share terabytes of information that can potentially reveal private facts and personality traits to unexpected strangers. Despite the research efforts aiming at providing efficient solutions for the anonymization of huge databases (including networked data), in online social networks the most powerful privacy protection “weapons” are the users themselves. However, most users are not aware of the risks derived by the indiscriminate disclosure of their personal data. Moreover, even when social networking platforms allow their participants to control the privacy level of every published item, adopting a correct privacy policy is often an annoying and frustrating task and many users prefer to adopt simple but extreme strategies such as “visible-to-all” (exposing themselves to the highest risk), or “hidden-to-all” (wasting the positive social and economic potential of social networking websites). In this paper we propose a theoretical framework to i) measure the privacy risk of the users and alert them whenever their privacy is compromised and ii) help the users customize semi-automatically their privacy settings by limiting the number of manual operations. By investigating the relationship between the privacy measure and privacy preferences of real Facebook users, we show the effectiveness of our framework.     

European virtual classrooms: building effective “virtual” educational experiences

This paper presents Learning@Europe, an educational service, supported by VR, that has involved in year 2004–2005 more than 1,000 students from 6 different European countries. L@E has fostered the creation/reinforcement of three different kinds of communities: (1) the classroom community (reinforcing the bonds among students, and between students and their teachers), (2) communities among different schools competing together through 3D environments, (3) a global community (roughly involving 20% of the total) of all the teachers and students. A similar situation was created, at regional level, in the Italian Region of Lombardy, involving nearly 800 individuals. Given that the behaviours of the different communities in the two projects were very similar, it seems to be arguable that a pattern of community building through virtual environments has been detected. The important facts (detected by surveys of teachers and students, inspection, direct observation, qualitative data analysis) about these communities are: (1) the depth of the pedagogical impact, in terms of increased knowledge (about history and related subjects), skills (use of functional English, use of ICT in learning/teaching processes, group work) and attitudes (more curiosity towards history, increased motivation in school activities, improved respect and interest for other cultures). (2) The engagement of all the participants, with very high level of customer satisfaction. (3) The depth of the social impact, reinforcing existing relationships (within the same class) and creating new ones. The key feature of this success apparently lies in the sense of “social virtual presence”, that is, a feeling of being engaged in a virtual situation, so strong that the technological means become “transparent” and the social situation (meant at different levels and for different time frames) becomes “the king”. The paper will present the project, its main features and its outcomes, eventually discussing the role of social virtual presence into building effective and lively communities.     

An Efficient Two-Phase Model for Computing Influential Nodes in Social Networks Using Social Actions

在社会网络的影响的测量在数据采矿社区收到了很多注意。影响最大化指发现尽量利用信息或产品采纳的有影响的用户的过程。在真实设置,在一个社会网络的一个用户的影响能被行动的集合建模(例如,份额,重新鸣叫,注释) 在其出版物以后由网络的另外的用户表现了。就我们的知识而言,在文学的所有建议模型同等地对待这些行动。然而,它是明显的一工具少些比一样的出版的份额影响的一份出版物相似。这建议每个行动有它影响的自己的水平(或重要性) 。在这份报纸,我们建议一个模型(叫的社会基于行动的影响最大化模型, SAIM ) 为在社会网络的影响最大化。在 SAIM,行动没在测量一个个人的影响力量同等地被考虑,并且它由二主要的步组成。在第一步,我们在社会网络计算每个个人的影响力量。这影响力量用 PageRank 从用户行动被计算。在这步的结束,我们得到每个节点被它的影响力量在标记的一个加权的社会网络。在 SAIM 的第二步,我们计算一个新概念说出 influence-BFS 树的使用的有影响的节点的一个最佳的集合。在大规模真实世界、合成的社会网络上进行的实验在计算揭示我们的模型 SAIM 的好表演,在可接受的时间规模,允许信息的最大的传播的有影响的节点的一个最小的集合。     

Hypermedia systems for improving knowledge,understanding and skills in engineering degree courses

Two contrasting computer based learning applications have been introduced into engineering degree courses. Both are based upon the “open” hypermedia approach, and both use Microcosm to organise and link resources, and Toolbook to present much of the material. One of the applications uses a traditional, “linear”, tutorial style approach, while the other presents students with a design problem and provides them with a large and diverse amount of poorly structured information which the students have to use to generate an engineering design. Both applications were evaluated in several ways and analysis of the responses leads to the conclusion that carefully written computer based applications can be effective not only for teaching basic knowledge at this level, but can also be used as a means of allowing students to develop skills in complex areas such as generating solutions to open-ended mechanical engineering design problems.     

Lessons learned from the design of situated learning environments to support collaborative knowledge construction

The main characteristics of situated learning environments (SLEs) are: to provide authentic contexts, activities, expert performances and integrated assessment; to support multiple roles and perspectives, collaborative knowledge construction, coaching and scaffolding; and to promote reflection and articulation. However, current SLEs have two limitations: (1) not all of these characteristics are included, particularly lacking collaborative knowledge construction, in most cases; and (2) most SLEs are designed to support learning activities outdoors, but not indoors. This paper presents the implementation of an SLE that overcomes these two limitations. This SLE is based on bidirectional Quick Response (QR) codes, which are enhanced QR codes that not only provide information when scanned but also collect user-generated content. This “Bidirectional SLE” is evaluated in an experiment in which it is compared with an equivalent “Traditional SLE”, which is built upon traditional QR codes. The purpose of this comparison is to understand if using bidirectional QR codes as a mechanism to support collaborative knowledge construction in indoor settings has an impact on students' learning outcomes and on their impression of the learning experience. Two hundred fifty-three students participated in this experiment. Data collected from this experiment indicate that the students who worked in the Bidirectional SLE (1) received better scores, providing better and more complete answers, and (2) evaluated their learning experience better than their peers' who worked in the Traditional SLE. Finally, a cross-analysis of these results including teachers' opinions led to a set of lessons learned about the design of SLEs to support collaborative knowledge construction.