Implementing digital game-based learning in schools: augmented learning environment of ‘Europe 2045’

It is widely agreed that the traditional process of schooling can benefit from the usage of computers as supportive tools. Of various approaches using computers in education over the last decade, e-learning and edutainment have become the most prominent. Recently, a number of authors have criticised these approaches arguing that they conserve traditional ‘drill and practice’ behaviouristic methods of teaching instead of enhancing and augmenting them. It has been proposed that a ‘paradigm shift’ is needed and that this shift may come through utilizing all the advantages of full-fledged video games, so-called digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, several case studies reported serious problems with the DGBL. Among the most notable issues are the lack of acceptance of games as an educational tool, problems with integration of games into formal schooling environments, and the so-called transfer problem, which is the problem of the inherent tension between game play and learning objectives, the tension that mitigates the ability of students to transfer knowledge gained in the video game to the real-world context. Here, we present a framework for an augmented learning environment (ALE), which verbalises one way of how these problems can be challenged. The ALE framework has been constructed based on our experience with the educational game, Europe 2045, which we developed and which has been implemented in a number of secondary schools in the Czech Republic during 2008. The key feature of this game is that it combines principles of on-line multi-player computer games with social, role-playing games. The evaluation which we present in this paper indicates the successful integration of the game and its acceptance by teachers and students. The ALE framework isolates key principles of the game contributing to this success, abstracts them into theoretical entities we call action-based spaces and causal and grounding links, and condenses them in a coherent methodological structure, which paves the way for further exploitation of the DGBL by educational game researchers and designers.     

Experimental Studies of Shift-Work I: A Comparison of ‘ Rotating ’ and ‘ Stabilized ’ 4-hour Shift Systems

Abstract

Efficiency at ‘ mental ’ tasks was observed when performed according to a time schedule imposed by following one of two different 4-hour shift systems for a period of 12 consecutive days. Twenty-eight subjects were assigned either to a ‘ rotating ’ system, in which each 4-hour period of the 24 hours was worked once every 72 hours in a repeating cycle, or to a ‘ stabilized ’ system, in which the work periods were from 1230 to 1630 and 2400-0400 each day. In the rotating system, alterations in the level of several aspects of performance at different times of day were found to be related quite closely to concurrent fluctuations in body temperature arising from its natural circadian rhythm. A shift in the phase of this rhythm in response to the now sleep/waking cycle imposed by the stabilized system was accompanied by a corresponding change in the relative levels of performance observed in the two work periods. Thus in both systems body temperature was, in effect, a predictor of performance efficiency. Some implications for the organization of shift working are discussed     

Of ‘knowing science’ and of ‘doing science’: A reaffirmation of the tacit and the affective in science and science education

Abstract:

Most of school science concentrates on helping students gain a knowledge and understanding of explicit science, which may subsequently be tested in examinations. It presents a picture of science as a secure body of knowledge, gained by scientists working according to the standard procedures of science. In this paper I stress a different model of science: the looseness of the knowledge held, the idiosyncratic methods by which it is obtained, and the personal way in which it is used to solve problems. I also stress the importance of tacit knowledge and the affective driving force, which describe the personal knowledge that scientists both hold and utilize; I analyse the nature of authentic science in terms of the type of knowledge that scientists know and the way in which scientists work. The arguments for and against such authentic science in schools are considered, together with the factors limiting its practicality. Influenced by the writing of Polanyi, Hodgkin, and Claxton and by experience of, and researches into, students doing problem‐solving projects in schools, I argue that it is desirable, and possible, to incorporate some such authentic science into the school science curriculum. In spite of many unsympathetic pressures acting on current schooling, I believe that there is a vital need to reaffirm the importance of the tacit and the affective in school science.     

Coping with client-based ‘people-problems’: the theories-of-action of experienced IS/software project managers

Through interviews with experienced IS and software project managers (PMs), I identify the strategies that they would recommend to others for addressing a range of serious client-based ‘people-problems’. The problems I focus on include: unrealistic customer expectations; lack of real ownership of the project; disagreement on project goals; personal deficiencies on the part of the customer’s PM; reluctant users; and the presence of hidden agendas or ‘nasty’ politics on the customer’s side.Many of the strategies are based on the same underlying principle: ‘Protect yourself through explicitness, clarity and formality’.I show that a number of the strategies are rational when judged in the light of agency theory and the literature on interorganisational trust.     

Playing ‘catch up’ with blended learning: performance impacts of augmenting classroom instruction with online learning

This study examines the efficacy of blended learning – an approach that combines in-class and online methods in a way that leverages the strengths of both – using a field experiment spanning 16 weeks. An information-processing model of learning suggests that learners will weigh the cost of information accessibility against its value in ways that will impact their interactions with the available information sources, which will consequently affect learning outcomes. Results of our study suggest that such an assessment did indeed occur and that it impacted learning performance. Specifically, our results support the idea that providing high-value content in both settings – the classroom (rich, yet high cost) and online (efficient, yet low cost), enhances performance. The largest gains in performance were seen by those who used the blended learning system the most, with the lowest gains by those who did not use the system at all (i.e. the control group).     

A quantum mechanical model of consciousness and the emergence of ‘I’

There have been suggestions that the unity of consciousness may be related to the kind of holism depicted only in quantum physics. This argument will be clarified and strengthened. It requires the brain to contain a quantum system with the right properties — a Bose-Einstein condensate. It probably does contain one such system, as both theory and experiment have indicated. In fact, we cannot pay full attention to a quantum whole and its parts simultaneously, though we may oscillate between the two. In a quantum theory of consciousness, emergent meanings arise as an inevitable consequence of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.     

Correction to ‘Analysis and design of ill-conditioned plants,Part 2: Directionally uniform weightings and an example’ and ‘Plant directionality,coupling, and multivariable loopshaping’

An upper bound stated in the title papers is incorrect. We derive a correct result and show that the conclusions reached using the incorrect bounds remain valid.     

Rethinking ‘IT/IS use in a technological mature society’ from the actuality point of view: critical learning in reflection on SSM meeting about ‘IT/IS use’

The history of the human-centered system movement (Gill in AI Soc 10(2), 1996) tells us that information technology (referred to as IT below) has come to dominate our life-world or societal functions. Since from 1990s, its streaming influence could be called ‘abnormal.’ Since entering the twenty-first century, the IT system has been on automatic acceleration and has been spreading more and more rapidly to many facets of our lives. In many sectors, this ubiquitous streaming of IT is seen to be central to societal development, and in a Japanese sense, IT could be seen as a resource to realizing technologically a mature society. This trend of IT seems to be unstoppable. In this sense, IT dominance can be regarded as abnormal to the point that IT-centered information systems (referred to as IS below) fall far short of the deep appreciation of the complex and diverse life needs of people and societies, and this leads to the implementation of IT/IS from technological perspective, with a belief that everything, which we can do could be and should be, done now by IT/IS. However, as IT/IS have become to be embedded in many facets of societies and are influencing over our everyday life, we need to examine them not from the point of ‘capability’ but ‘allowability,’ in other words, not from the perspective of technology (cognition), but from the prospective of intuition and feeling of actual life (action). We term reality as seen in the narrow sense of cognition and actuality as seen in terms of action (Uchiyama in Theory and practice of actuality, Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, 2003). We draw a distinction between the two classes of ‘IT/IS’ systems, those which belong to the ‘reality’ and those which belong to the ‘actuality.’ To appreciate this distinction, we propose that this requires not only an understanding of the design of these IT systems but of the methodology of their use and their evaluation. To carry out the process of evaluation of IT/IS systems, we need to develop a new ‘appreciation’ methodology which enables us to rethink ‘IT/IS’ as ‘A system to use IT/IS.’ This idea is similar to the idea of Beck’s (World risk society theory (trans: Shimamura K), Chikuma Scholastic Collection (in Japanese), 2010) reflecting the modern. So, we propose a strict distinction between the two systems classes of ‘IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘reality’ and ‘A system to use IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘actuality.’ The methodology to deal with ‘actuality’ has not yet been developed, but Checkland and Poulter’s (Learning for action, Wiley, New York, 2006) soft systems methodology (referred to as SSM below) intends to deal with this kind of class of systems, that is, ‘human activity systems.’ He uses the key concept of ‘accommodation’ which means ‘to live with different individual world views based on sharing of actuality,’ and thus, he proposes to overcome the idea of consensus which is the agreement with the ‘reality’ level. In this paper, we adopt a methodology based on the SSM’s accommodation and not based on the consensus on the ‘reality’ level. By using such a methodological thinking, we reconsider the problem of evolving technologically a mature society which can be seen as a problem relevant to ‘A system using IT/IS’ rather than the problem of IT/IS itself. In doing so, we could draw some innovative orientations in the field of IT/IS which by traditional methodology could not be drawn. It is not certain whether our attempt could make a difference to the runaway of IT/IS. We illustrate this purpose by studying a workshop process which highlights that even participating experts of IT/IS themselves felt apprehensive about the more and more focus on the implementation of IT/IS solutions both in the present and the future. We believe that the first step toward this purpose is to explore the new orientation of IT/IS use. The aim of this first step is to make a difference to the ‘abnormal’ situation and hope to create a foothold for the reorientation of ‘A system to use IT/IS.’     

‘Orchestrating’ sustainable crowdsourcing: A characterisation of solver brokerages

Exemplars of open innovation have revealed that intellectual property (IP) need not only be sourced through existing hierarchical or market relationships. Rather IP can be acquired from individuals and firms with whom an organization has no prior relationship. In such cases, an intermediary, operating as an innovation exchange or brokerage, frequently facilitates the development and acquisition of IP. This paper examines one type of innovation intermediary, the ‘Solver Brokerage,’ which enables innovation exchanges between organizations and unknown external firms and individuals (i.e. a crowdsourcing process). While the commercial success of Solver Brokerages indicates the potency of arguments concerning the potential of crowdsourcing, little is known about the operation of such brokerages or the crowdsourcing processes that they enable. This paper examines extant research on innovation networks, crowdsourcing, and electronic marketplaces to identify three processes (knowledge mobility, appropriability and stability) that we argue are necessary to ‘orchestrate’ crowdsourcing. Using a field study of four Solver Brokerages, an innovation seeking organization, as well as 15 innovation providers (i.e. members of the ‘crowd’), the paper illustrates the ways in which the three orchestration processes are enhanced in Solver Brokerages. It reveals that while knowledge mobility and appropriability processes can be enhanced by activities under the control of the Solver Brokerage, stability is largely determined by innovation seeking organizations and the innovation providers. The paper concludes that broker-provided value-added ‘orchestration’ services need to enable knowledge mobility and appropriability, and to ensure that ‘unsuccessful’ innovation seekers and providers appropriate sufficient value to participate again.     

A modal contrastive logic: The logic of ‘but’

In this paper we present a modal approach to contrastive logic, the logic of contrasts as these appear in natural language conjunctions such as but. We use a simple modal logic, which is an extension of the well-knownS5 logic, and base the contrastive operators proposed by Francez in [2] on the basic modalities that appear in this logic. We thus obtain a logic for contrastive operators that is more in accord with the tradition of intensional logic, and that, moreover — we argue — has some more natural properties. Particularly, attention is paid to nesting contrastive operators. We show that nestings of but give quite natural results, and indicate how nestings of other contrastive operators can be done adequately. Finally, we discuss the example of the Hangman's Paradox and some similarities (and differences) with default reasoning. But but us no buts, as they say.Also partially supported by Nijmegen University, Toernooiveld, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands.     

A comparison of ‘traditional’ and multimedia information systems development practices

As multimedia information systems begin to infiltrate organizations, there arises a need to capture and disseminate knowledge about how to develop them. Little is thus far known about the realities of multimedia systems development practice, or about how the development of multimedia systems compares to that of ‘traditional’ information systems. Herein are discussed the findings of a survey of multimedia developers in Ireland. Practitioners generally agree that systematic approaches are desirable in order to beneficially add structure to development processes, but they are predominantly using their own in-house methods rather than those prescribed in the literature.     

The role of regulation in medical student learning in small groups: Regulating oneself and others’ learning and emotions

This study examines the role of regulatory processes in medical students as they learn to deliver bad news to patients in the context of an international web-based problem based learning environment (PBL). In the PBL a medical facilitator and students work together to examine video cases on giving bad news and share their perspectives on what was done effectively and what could be done differently. We examine how regulation occurs within this collaboration. A synchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environment (CSCL) facilitated peer discussion at a distance using a combination of tools that included video-conferencing, chat boxes, and a shared whiteboard to support collaborative engagement. We examine regulation along a continuum, spanning from self- to co-regulation, in situations where medical students learn how to manage their own emotions and adapt their responses to patient reactions. We examine the nature of the discourse between medical students and facilitators to illustrate the conditions in which metacognitive, co-regulation and social emotional activities occur to enhance learning about how to communicate bad news to patients.     

Perceived ‘usefulness’ of online consumer reviews: An exploratory investigation across three services categories

Online reviews, a form of online word-of-mouth (eWOM), have recently become one of the most important sources of information for modern consumers. Recent scholarship involving eWOM often focuses on the transmission and impact of online reviews but sheds less light on the underlying processes that drive consumers’ receptions of them. Similarly, few studies have explored the recipients’ perspectives in the context of various services. This study addresses the aforementioned gaps in extant literature. The research model in this study is built upon the rich stream of literature related to how people are influenced by information and is tested on reviews collected from Yelp.com, a popular online advisory website dedicated to services businesses throughout the United States. The results of the study show that a combination of both reviewer and review characteristics are significantly correlated with the perceived usefulness of reviews. The study also finds several results that are anomalous to established knowledge related to consumers’ information consumption, both offline and online. The authors present the results of the study and discuss their significance for research and practice.     

‘KRISP’: A represnetation for the semantic interpretation of texts

KRISP is a representation system and set of interpretation protocols that is used in the Sparser natural language understanding system to embody the meaning of texts and their pragmatic contexts. It is based on a denotational notion of semantic interpretation, where the phrases of a text are directly projected onto a largely pre-existing set of individuals and categories in a model, rather than first going through a level of symbolic representation such as a logical form. It defines a small set of semantic object types, grounded in the lambda calculus, and it supports the principle of uniqueness and supplies first class objects to represent partially-saturated relationships.KRISP is being used to develop a core set of concepts for such things as names, amounts, time, and modality, which are part of a few larger models for domains including Who's News and joint ventures. It is targeted at the task of information extraction, emphasizing the need to relate entities mentioned in new texts to a large set of pre-defined entities and those read about in earlier articles or in the same article.     

The ‘Wheel of Misfortune’: a taxonomic approach to human factors in accident investigation and analysis in aviation and other complex systems

The analysis and reporting of the human factors aspects of accidents in aviation and other complex systems continues to present difficulties for investigators and analysts alike. Reason's ‘latent conditions’ model has had a major impact on the way accidents are conceptualized but it has proven difficult to apply as a practical tool. Recent attempts to overcome these difficulties are discussed and an alternative conceptualization is proposed. This conceptualization is based on a blend of several well-supported theoretical models in cognitive engineering and can be used to formulate a parsimonious analysis system for the investigation and reporting of the human factors aspects of accidents. Two well-known examples of transportation disasters are briefly described and related to the proposed conceptual framework. The proposed framework serves three important functions in accident investigation and analysis: a heuristic function, an investigative function, and an integrative function.     

Design for manufacture and design for ‘X’: concepts,applications, and perspectives

The implementations of design for assembly and design for manufacture (DFM) led to enormous benefits including simplification of products, reduction of assembly and manufacturing costs, improvement of quality, and reduction of time to market. More recently, environmental concerns required that disassembly and recycling issues should be considered during the design stages. The effort to reduce total life-cycle costs for a product through design innovation is becoming an essential part of the current manufacturing industry. Therefore, researchers begin to focus their attention on design for environment, design for recyclability, design for life-cycle (DFLC), etc. These studies are sometimes referred to as Design for X (DFX). Since the late 1990s, hundreds of papers have been published pertaining to DFX applications in manufacturing. Most of them are widely distributed over many different disciplines and publications. This makes it very difficult for one to locate all the information necessary for the application of DFX in manufacturing. A paper that can help researchers and practitioners applying this emerging technology is highly desirable. The objective of this paper is to present the concepts, applications, and perspectives of ‘DFX’ in manufacturing, thus providing some guidelines and references for future research and implementation.     

Human–robot collaboration and machine learning: A systematic review of recent research

Technological progress increasingly envisions the use of robots interacting with people in everyday life. Human–robot collaboration (HRC) is the approach that explores the interaction between a human and a robot, during the completion of a common objective, at the cognitive and physical level. In HRC works, a cognitive model is typically built, which collects inputs from the environment and from the user, elaborates and translates these into information that can be used by the robot itself. Machine learning is a recent approach to build the cognitive model and behavioural block, with high potential in HRC. Consequently, this paper proposes a thorough literature review of the use of machine learning techniques in the context of human–robot collaboration. 45 key papers were selected and analysed, and a clustering of works based on the type of collaborative tasks, evaluation metrics and cognitive variables modelled is proposed. Then, a deep analysis on different families of machine learning algorithms and their properties, along with the sensing modalities used, is carried out. Among the observations, it is outlined the importance of the machine learning algorithms to incorporate time dependencies. The salient features of these works are then cross-analysed to show trends in HRC and give guidelines for future works, comparing them with other aspects of HRC not appeared in the review.