Portable Composition: iTunes University and Networked Pedagogies

The development of mobile, convergent media networks is altering the context of professional, educational, and everyday communication. This essay examines the incorporation of iTunes University into writing and new media composition instruction, including institutional and technological contexts and faculty and student responses. This examination suggests the value of studying networked composition by following the expanding web of local interactions that link the conventional scene of composition—the student at the computer—with other events, such as college policy decisions, technology design choices, and the multitude of other compositional events behind the media available to students across the Internet. As these mobile networks become more powerful and pervasive, they will have a greater impact on compositional practices and will require a shift in habitual, disciplinary approaches to authorship and to the relationship between the more formal discourses of academics and the informal communications on mobile networks.     

二次开发claroline系统搭建网络教学平台

网络技术的日益普及,网络教学成了传统教学的重要辅助手段。通过网络,师生交流模式也有了新的发展。本文探讨了网络教学平台的功能设计与基于claroline平台的二次开发的技术策略。     

Human Pacman: a mobile,wide-area entertainment system based on physical,social, and ubiquitous computing

Human Pacman is a novel interactive entertainment system that ventures to embed the natural physical world seamlessly with a fantasy virtual playground by capitalizing on mobile computing, wireless LAN, ubiquitous computing, and motion-tracking technologies. Our human Pacman research is a physical role-playing augmented-reality computer fantasy together with real human–social and mobile gaming. It emphasizes collaboration and competition between players in a wide outdoor physical area which allows natural wide-area human–physical movements. Pacmen and Ghosts are now real human players in the real world, experiencing mixed computer graphics fantasy–reality provided by using the wearable computers. Virtual cookies and actual tangible physical objects are incorporated into the game play to provide novel experiences of seamless transitions between real and virtual worlds. We believe human Pacman is pioneering a new form of gaming that anchors on physicality, mobility, social interaction, and ubiquitous computing.

Teaching with technologies: A reflexive auto-ethnographic portrait

This reflective article chronicles the process of my development as a writer, a learner, a teacher, and a researcher who happens to engage the practices of writing, learning, teaching, and researching with emerging technologies. Using a colonial metaphor that captures my initial exposure to school-based literacies, I demonstrate how a colonial pattern permeates current dynamics of technology used both in and out of schools. I use this frame to raise issues and ask questions about teaching with technologies in socially just and responsible ways.     

信息技术对计算机基础教学质量的提升研究

信息技术的飞速发展,在为教育提出严峻挑战的同时,也为教育创造了无限的机遇,为教学思想、教学体制、教学模式和方法带来变革性的影响,更丰富和延伸了教学的内容.计算机基础教学相比其他科目的信息化教学更有着得天独厚的优势.从教学的实际情况出发,对计算机基础教学中运用信息技术手段,提升教学的质量进行探究.     

Improving touchscreen keyboards: design issues and a comparison with other devices

The study explored touchscreen keyboards using high precision touch-screen strategies. Phase one evaluated three possible monitor positions: 30°, 45°, and 75° from horizontal. Results indicate that the 75° angle, approximately the standard monitor position, resulted in more fatigue and lower preference ratings. Phase two collected touch bias and key size data for the 30° angle. Subjects consistently touched below targets, and touched to the left of targets on either side of the screen. Using these data, a touchscreen keyboard was designed. Phase three compared this keyboard with a mouse-activated keyboard, and the standard QWERTY keyboard for typing relatively short strings of 6,19, and 44 characters. Results indicate that users can type approximately 25 words/minute (wpm) with the touchscreen keyboard, compared to 17 wpm using the mouse, and 58 wpm when using the keyboard. Possible improvements to touchscreen keyboards are suggested.     

MusicCube: a physical experience with digital music

Listening to digital music on a computer has led to a loss of part of the physical experience associated with earlier media formats such as CDs and LPs. This paper presents a series of steps and decisions that led to the design of MusicCube, a tangible user interface that allows users to control digitally stored music on a computer by means of gestures and positioning. Interaction with the MusicCube is enriched by offering feedback through multi-coloured light effects and clicking sounds together with computer-generated speech. Despite some ergonomic shortcomings, when comparing to the iPod, users appreciated the design and enjoyed using it.     

Modeling interregional commodity flows with incorporating network autocorrelation in spatial interaction models: An application of the US interstate commodity flows

Spatial interaction models are frequently used to predict and explain interregional commodity flows. Studies suggest that the effects of spatial structure significantly influence spatial interaction models, often resulting in model misspecification. Competing destinations and intervening opportunities have been used to mitigate this issue. Some recent studies also show that the effects of spatial structure can be successfully modeled by incorporating network autocorrelation among flow data. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of network autocorrelation among commodity origin–destination flow data and its effect on model estimation in spatial interaction models. This approach is demonstrated using commodity origin–destination flow data for 111 regions of the United States from the 2002 Commodity Flow Survey. The results empirically show how network autocorrelation affects modeling interregional flows and can be successfully captured in spatial autoregressive model specifications.     

“Growing Smarter Over Time”: An Emergence Model for Administrating a New Media Writing Studio

This article reports on efforts to create an administrative structure for learning and teaching multimodal composing that depends not on the leadership of a new media writing expert but on the collaboration of relative novices organized according to principles of emergent learning. Based on four years’ experience in a grant-funded program that supports new media composing in multiple disciplines, I report on the benefits of a bottom-up, emergent approach while raising questions about the long-term sustainability of such an approach. I conclude by describing efforts to create more top-down support for new media composing, while remaining committed to serving the teachers and students who are the real agents of change.     

Group interaction styles in a virtual context: The effects on group outcomes

The influence of communication and information technologies (TICs) on group functioning and group outcomes is an important topic. Interdependent group work implies the need to communicate in order to share information and knowledge related to the task. The importance of this group interaction in the group functioning and outcomes stands out. In this sense, a line of investigation has arisen to study the role of interaction styles in the relationship between communication technology and group outcomes, as some functional or dysfunctional outputs depend on group interaction styles. From this perspective, the objective of this study is twofold: (1) to analyze the group interaction styles in virtual teams over time, and (2) to analyze whether the group virtuality level moderates the relationships between group interaction style and group outcomes over time. Data was collected from a laboratory study in which 44 groups of four members participated. Groups were randomly assigned to communication contexts with different virtuality levels. The results obtained have shown a differential role of group interaction style according to the group virtuality level. Virtuality level plays a moderate role in the relationships between passive group interaction style and objective and subjective outcomes and between constructive interaction style and subjective outcomes.     

Coding with power: Toward a rhetoric of computer coding and composition

This article explores the connection between computer programming (coding) and traditional composition. It first looks at how a discussion about adopting the open source community's copyleft publishing model suggests a deeper parallel between coding and composition than has been previously acknowledged. By repositioning the rhetorical triangle as a coding triangle, the article argues that the act of writing programs for a machine informs the process of constructing an audience, in traditional composition. To better inform the act of how a traditional writer invokes an audience, the article summarizes how Walter J. Ong has characterized this process. The article then examines how Claudia Herbst's portrayal of the cultural power of computer code raises questions as to how computer users similarly invoke an author. It also briefly considers how computer programming texts have characterized coding as an act of writing. Next the parallels between coding and composition and their treatment thus far in composition literature and new media theory are considered. The article considers Alfred Kern's work in employing BASIC programming to teach grammar and composition and then offers suggestions for thinking of new ways that a knowledge of coding can inform the teaching of writing. This article concludes with guidelines for writing teachers who wish to incorporate computer coding into their curriculum.     

The Network as a Storage Device: Dynamic Routing with Bounded Buffers

We study dynamic routing in store-and-forward packet networks where each network link has bounded buffer capacity for receiving incoming packets and is capable of transmitting a fixed number of packets per unit of time. At any moment in time, packets are injected at various network nodes with each packet specifying its destination node. The goal is to maximize the throughput, defined as the number of packets delivered to their destinations. In this paper, we make some progress on throughput maximization in various network topologies. Let n and m denote the number of nodes and links in the network, respectively. For line networks, we show that Nearest-to-Go (NTG), a natural distributed greedy algorithm, is -competitive, essentially matching a known lower bound on the performance of any greedy algorithm. We also show that if we allow the online routing algorithm to make centralized decisions, there is a randomized polylog(n)-competitive algorithm for line networks as well as for rooted tree networks, where each packet is destined for the root of the tree. For grid graphs, we show that NTG has a competitive ratio of while no greedy algorithm can achieve a ratio better than . Finally, for arbitrary network topologies, we show that NTG is -competitive, improving upon an earlier bound of O(mn). An extended abstract appeared in the Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX 2005, Berkeley, CA, USA, pp. 1–13, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 1741, Springer, Berlin. S. Angelov is supported in part by NSF Career Award CCR-0093117, NSF Award ITR 0205456 and NIGMS Award 1-P20-GM-6912-1. S. Khanna is supported in part by an NSF Career Award CCR-0093117, NSF Award CCF-0429836, and a US-Israel Binational Science Foundation Grant. K. Kunal is supported in part by an NSF Career Award CCR-0093117 and NSF Award CCF-0429836.     

Interacting with electronic mail can be a dream or a nightmare: a user''s point of view

Diffusion of electronic mail (e-mail) is not yet universal. So far, e-mail has been implemented successfully within organisations, but its implementation for communications between organisations has been rather limited. This situation is surprising, given the great potential of e-mail for interorganisational communication. E-mail encounters from a user's point of view, reviewed in this paper, suggest that users of BITNET, one of the predominant e-mail networks in the academic world, face difficulties while interacting with e-mail. These include addressing difficulties, unreliability issues, medium limitations, and interface problems. BITNET is just one of many interorganisational networks and may not be representative. Still, e-mail technology is unlikely to survive if human engineering and reliability are not uniformly satisfactory across all e-mail systems. Poorly engineered e-mail systems frustrate not only their users, but also users of other networks because of gateways between the networks. Therefore, e-mail users might resort to other communication media like facsimile or the telephone, and abandon e-mail altogether.

For e-mail to be competitive in the communication arena, an interdisciplinary effort should be directed toward standardisation of features like better addressing conventions, international user directories, uniform user interfaces, and sophisticated management of e-mail messages.     

Boiling and two-phase flow in channels with extremely small dimensions: a review of Japanese research

Research concerning micro-actuators utilizing vapor–liquid interfacial phenomena has been carried out extensively to develop thermal devices applied to micromachines. On the other hand, the application of two-phase flow is useful for the removal of waste heat from the semiconductor chips with highly increased heat generation density to be integrated in notebook PCs. In the present paper, the latest Japanese research on boiling and two-phase flow in minichannels is reviewed, covering the topics for the fundamental phenomena and practical applications. Boiling in a narrow channel between parallel plates is an ideal system for the development of high-performance heat exchangers with extremely small sizes. The promising approaches to increasing the critical heat flux (CHF) are introduced, including those by the present author, to compensate for the disadvantages inherent in this system.     

Critical velocity of a load moving on a beam with a sudden change of foundation stiffness: Applications to high-speed trains

The transient dynamic response of a beam supported on a foundation with sudden stiffness change and subjected to a force moving with constant velocity is analysed. The abrupt change is located at the mid-section of the beam of finite length. Two analytical approaches are implemented. In the first one, the response is obtained by finite integral transformations incorporating global modes of vibration, while in the second the analytical responses of each half of the beam are linked by continuity conditions. The values obtained are used to study the influence of the abrupt change on the critical velocities. The analyses carried out enable to reach results and draw conclusions directly related to the knowledge of ground vibrations induced by high-speed trains.     

Managing a service system with social interactions: Stability and chaos

This paper investigates the dynamic behavior of a service system in terms of the arrival rate in the steady state under the influence of social interactions. Customers are backward looking and rational when making purchasing decisions. Existing customers’ re-purchasing decisions are based on their experienced utility – a function of the average waiting time and their expected utility. Potential customers are attracted through social interactions with existing customers. It is shown that the arrival rate of the system in the steady state can exhibit stability, periodic cycles, or chaos due to the effect of social interactions and customers’ purchasing behavior. Two examples based on an M/M/1 queueing system illustrate the role of social interactions and the effect of service rates on the stability of the arrival rate in the steady state. The result highlights the dynamical complexity of a simple service system under the impact of customers’ behavioral factors, or social interactions. It suggests a new perspective to managing service operations whereby social interactions may play a critical role in the fluctuations of demand.     

Sharing a life with Harvey: Exploring the acceptance of and relationship-building with a social robot

Social robots will become ubiquitous in our everyday environments. These robots could potentially extend life expectancy, and improve the health and quality of life of an aging population. A long-term explorative study has been conducted by installing a social robot for health promotion in elderly people’s own homes. Content analysis of interviews provided an in-depth understanding of the factors that influence the acceptance of and relationship-building with social robots in domestic environments. The permanent presence of a robot in users’ own homes yields the vital challenges social robots encounter to be successfully accepted by their users. These vital acceptance challenges are unlikely to be revealed in one-day laboratory human-robot interaction studies or even in multiple observations of short interactions between humans and robots.     

Non-visual interaction with graphs assisted with directional-predictive sounds and vibrations: a comparative study

Blind and visually impaired students need special educational and developmental tools to allow them to interact with graphic entities on PDA and desktop platforms. In previous research, stylus movements regarding the hidden graph were sonified with three directional-predictive sound (DPS) signals, taking into account an exploration behavior and the concept of the capture radius. The results indicated that the scanpaths were by 24–40% shorter in length and task completion times decreased by 20–25%. The goal of the study presented in this paper was to measure and compare the subjective performance recorded with directional-predictive vibrations (DPV) regarding the subjective performance achieved when the hidden graphic images were explored with DPS. The study also aimed to find out which kind of feedback cues would require less cognitive efforts in interpreting their meaning. The prototype of vibro-tactile pen with embedded vibration motor was used to produce DPV instead of sounds. The performance of eight blindfolded subjects was investigated in terms of the number of both feedbacks used and the time spent to complete non-visual inspection of the hidden graphs. There was a statistically significant difference between the average number of DPS and vibrations and task completion time taken by the players to discover the features of hidden graphs being explored with different capture radius. The experimental findings confirmed the beneficial use of DPS signals in the task when cross-modal coordination should benefit the user in the absence of visual information when compared with DPV patterns.     

Combining natural language with direct manipulation: the conceptual framework for a hybrid human-computer interface

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a conceptual model of an interaction system for future human-computer interaction. It is suggested that an integrated system is the most promising solution for diverse users and tasks. A ‘ hybrid interaction system’ is considered, which tries to efficiently direct manipulation, menu selection, and natural language. The mechanism of the natural language interface module is described in more detail. Finally, the allocation of functionalities for generalized tasks on the conceptual model is considered from the taxonomic approach.