A Study of Voice-Recognition Software as a Tool for Teacher Response

Voice-recognition technology (VRT) promises ease of use in responding to student writing, but its impact on writing processes and the quality of teacher commentary is unclear. This article details the results of a study undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of VRT in responding to student writing. Over the course of two semesters, in response to texts written by students in his first-year college composition course, one of the authors composed 58 end comments, alternating between two methods of composition: typing on a keyboard and dictating directly into text by means of VRT. While his writing processes in the respective modalities differed dramatically, particularly in terms of revision, the quality of the resulting texts appeared roughly the same: A detailed content analysis of the comments, using Richard Straub and Ronald Lunsford's (1995) typology, revealed significant variation in only 1 of 25 variables, measured as a proportion of total words. Meanwhile, students surveyed indicated they found few differences between the typed and dictated comments in terms of their usefulness, clarity, and tone. These findings, along with a comparison of time on task and user impressions of the two modalities, indicate that VRT represented a valuable tool for producing end comments that the user was able to dictate fluently, but that the technology was ineffective for the limited editing and revising attempted within the design of the study.     

The interactive use of a video database in teacher education: Creating a knowledge base for teaching through a learning community

This study explores how pre-service student teachers acquired knowledge of good teaching practices through the interactive use of a video database and an online discussion forum, where the student teachers shared their teaching videos and received comments or suggestions from members of a learning community. A small group of student teachers was involved in this collaborative learning community during their teaching practicum in their third and fourth years of study. Content analysis of the sharing in the discussion forum and individual student teacher reflections provides insight into the use of a collaborative learning community to create a knowledge base for teaching. Suggestions regarding how this new technology can support teacher education are discussed.     

Notebook与Word的通信及其在教学中的应用

本文介绍了Microsoft Word与Madab Notebook之间的通信过程,M-book模板的创建和启动,以及Notebook的功能和使用方法,通过Word和Notebook的交互,可以在Word中实现可视化编辑,并方便地在电子讲义中实现文本和图像结合,丰富教学内容.     

The impact of e-feedback on the revisions of L2 writers in an academic writing course

This study explored the relationship between electronic feedback (e-feedback) and its impact on second-language (L2) writers’ revisions specifically focusing on how L2 students responded to their peers and what kinds of revisions they made as a result of the feedback they received. The 20 L2 writers wrote, responded, and revised on a database-driven web site specifically designed for writing and responding. Other forms of feedback they received included oral feedback from friends and peers and from face-to-face meetings with university writing center tutors. Results suggest students preferred oral feedback. However, e-feedback had a greater impact on revision than oral feedback, implying that e-feedback might be more useful. Additionally, e-feedback helped L2 writers focus on larger writing blocks. Thus, L2 writers may use e-feedback to create macro revisions. This exploratory study highlights a new form of revising and responding and offers insights into joining oral response to online collaboration.     

E-portfolios supporting primary students' writing performance and peer feedback

E-portfolios show great promise for supporting students' writing performance and facilitating peer feedback, but empirical research of their use in primary education is limited. To address this gap, a yearlong study was conducted in a 4th grade primary class in Cyprus implementing e-portfolios (n = 20) to help students document their progress and send feedback to peers. A generic, open source weblog tool localized into Greek was used as an e-portfolio tool. Data sources included 176 student-essays, 1306 instances of peer feedback, students pre- and post-tests on writing performance, nine videotaped student interviews and one teacher interview. A paired samples t-test analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference between students' pre-test (M = 62.6, SD = 9.82, n = 20) and post-test (M = 76.5, SD = 12.6, n = 20) on writing performance (t (19) = −8.03, p < .01). A repeated measures analysis of variance on e-portfolio artifacts showed that there were learning gains with respect to students' writing performance over time [F(4.01, 76.25) = 31.59, p < .01, η² = 0.89]. A qualitative analysis of students' comments showed that students provided more thorough peer feedback over time and became gradually more capable of providing corrective feedback. The qualitative analysis of student interviews provided evidence that students valued peer feedback in their portfolios. The analysis of the teacher interview showed that average and high-ability students benefited the most from peer feedback. This study provided evidence that e-portfolios can support the development of students' writing performance and peer feedback skills in the context of primary school essay writing. Instructional implications for portfolio implementation are offered.     

Effectiveness of feedback for enhancing English pronunciation in an ASR‐based CALL system

This paper presents a study on implementing the ASR‐based CALL (computer‐assisted language learning based upon automatic speech recognition) system embedded with both formative and summative feedback approaches and using implicit and explicit strategies to enhance adult and young learners' English pronunciation. Two groups of learners including 18 adults and 16 seventh graders participated in the study. The results indicate that the formative feedback had a positive impact on improving the learners' speaking articulation, and the summative feedback aided the learners' self‐reflection and helped them to track their speaking progress. Furthermore, the implicit information such as model pronunciation with full sentences and audio recast benefitted the adult learners, whereas the young learners preferred the explicit learning information such as textual information of individual words for self‐correction. In addition, the results of this study also confirm that learners have different perceptions of the media modalities designed with implicit and explicit strategies in the feedback. Feedback with audio modality is more suitable for adults, whereas juxtaposed textual and audio modalities are better for young learners.     

The Development of Early Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction (1960–1978): The Double Logic of Media and Tools

This essay traces a distinction between computer-mediated writing environments that are tools for correcting student prose and those that are media for communication. This distinction has its roots in the influence of behavioral science on teaching machines and computer-aided writing instruction during the 1960s and 1970s. By looking at the development of the time-shared, interactive, computer-controlled, information television (TICCIT) and early human–computer interaction (HCI) research, this essay demonstrates that hardware and software systems had the potential to work as both tools and media. The influence of this double logic is not only historical but also has implications for post-secondary writing instruction in the age of Microsoft Word, ETS's e-rater, and the reading/assessment software tools being developed by Knowledge Analysis Technologies (KAT). This essay challenges composition researchers and computational linguists to develop pedagogies and software systems that acknowledge writing environments as situated within the logic of both tools for correction and media for communication.     

信息反馈在大学计算机公共基础课程中的运用

教学中的信息反馈既是教学过程的重要环节,也是实施教学活动、完成教学任务及提高教学质量的基本方式和重要手段.教师可通过多种途径获取有效的信息反馈,并正确的运用到教学中.学生可通过教师提供的信息反馈增强学习的自觉性和积极性,从而提高自身学习成绩.     

Effects of real‐time visual feedback on pre‐service teachers' singing

This pilot study focuses on the use real‐time visual feedback technology (VFT) in vocal training. The empirical research has two aims: to ascertain the effectiveness of the real‐time visual feedback software ‘Sing & See’ in the vocal training of pre‐service music teachers and the teachers' perspective on their experience with VFT. Forty participants from an undergraduate music teacher education programme were randomly assigned to three groups. The first two groups were assigned the teacher and student versions of Sing & See, respectively, and the third group served as a control group without access to the software. The experimental groups were given 12 weeks to use the software for vocal training on a self‐regulated basis. The technique of complex selections (TCS) was designed to assess the pitch accuracy and richness of vocal timbre. Pre‐ and post‐test singing tasks showed that the participants from the experimental groups significantly improved their vocal timbre. A questionnaire survey conducted after the training period found that most of the participants in the experimental s were positive about the effectiveness of VFT software in vocal training. As future leaders in the implementation of music education technology, pre‐service music teachers expressed a positive attitude towards the use of VFT as a technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) component in music education.     

Linguistically-tailored video feedback increases total and positive emotional expression in a structured writing task

A strength of computer-based interventions is the capacity to tailor to individual differences, but most studies have tailored to self-report, rather than linguistic, data. The purpose of the present study was to develop and evaluate the effects of linguistically-tailored feedback on an Internet-based expressive writing intervention. Two hundred eighty-one participants were asked to engage in 3 days of expressive writing and were randomly assigned to one of 3 feedback conditions: control (no feedback), simple (feedback about levels of emotional expression), and directive (simple feedback + suggestions for emotional processing). A Perl-based implementation of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) was developed in order to provide dynamic feedback to participants based on levels of emotional expression identified in their writing. This implementation provided near-perfect correlations with standard LIWC output, r’s = .98-1.00. Positive and total, but not negative, emotional expression increased over time for those who received simple or directive feedback. These findings suggest that linguistically-tailored feedback has the potential to alter patterns of engagement in computer-based interventions. However, additional research is needed to identify the most effective types of feedback in order to enhance immediate effects on writing and longitudinal effects on relevant outcomes.     

Processing of texts and videos: A strategy‐focused analysis

This study examined strategies used across two modalities of information presentation. Students were presented with two sources on endangered species, either as two texts or two videos. Then, participants were asked to annotate the two sources either using the track changes function in Microsoft Word, for the text condition, or using the VideoAnt, video annotation platform, for the video condition. Students' annotations were coded for the strategies evidenced. More strategies were reported in association with the text condition and a greater number of higher‐level strategies and emphasis‐related strategies were reported. Moreover, students were found to report consistent strategies when processing two different sources, on two different topics, and were found to report strategies disproportionately early during processing, particularly for the video condition.     

在Microsoft Word 中使用和操作MATLAB

Microscft Word软件在文字处理方面功能最强,而MATLAB的数值计算功能最优,本文为了充分发挥Microsoft Word和MATLAB的优点,提出了两者的结合,为学者在撰写科技报告、论文、专著等时提供了很大方便。介绍了基于MATLAB的文字处理工具——Notebcek,阐述了在Notehcok基础上,通过M-bcok文档实现在Microsoft Word中使用和操作MATLAB。通过Microscft Word2000中使用MATLAB6．1这个例子,体现出这结合的优越性。     

Short answers to deep questions: supporting teachers in large‐class settings

In large class settings, individualized student–teacher interaction is difficult. However, teaching interactions (e.g., formative feedback) are central to encouraging deep approaches to learning. While there has been progress in automatic short‐answer grading, analysing student responses to support formative feedback at scale is arguably some way from being widely applied in practice. However, analysing student written responses can provide insights into student conceptions, thus directly informing teacher actions. Indeed, we argue that analysing student responses to provide feedback directly to teachers is as worthy a goal as providing individualized feedback to students and is achievable given the current state‐of‐the‐art in natural language processing. In this paper, we analyse student written responses to short‐answer questions posed in the context of a large first year health sciences course. Each question was designed to elicit deep responses. Our qualitative analysis illustrates the variability in student responses and reveals multiple relationships between these responses, course materials and the questions posed. Such information can be invaluable for teacher praxis. We conclude with a conceptual ‘dashboard’ that categorizes student responses and reveals relationships between responses, course resources and the questions. Such a dashboard could provide timely, actionable insights for teachers and help foster deep learning approaches for students.     

Student Perceptions of Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication in Face-to-Face Courses

While there are many distance education studies of student satisfaction or perceptions of CMC, studies on residential student perceptions of CMC are rare. A paper survey was administered to 105 residential graduate and undergraduate students at a midwestern U.S. university. Results indicated that the majority of students preferred face-to-face discussion over CMC for most tasks; however, CMC was preferred overall for simple learning tasks. Content analyses of student responses to open-ended questions revealed that some students perceived face-to-face discussion to be faster, easier, and more convenient, while others perceived that CMC saves time and is more convenient. A discriminant analysis revealed several important factors that predicted those who preferred CMC for discussion. Students further commented that they would learn better from CMC if their instructors were more involved with and enthusiastic about CMC. Speed and convenience appear to be more important to students than whether discussion is face-to-face or CMC .     

Implementing flipped classroom using digital media: A comparison of two demographically different groups perceptions

Flipped classroom is a relatively new model in education that primarily focuses on learner-centered instructions. In other words, the model allows both management and teachers to build a more active and dynamic learning environment on the campus. The current paper tries to document the implementation of the flipped classroom model in two big data courses. Here, the course contents have been curated from a couple of websites with different contents including videos and short books as well as reports. The mixed-method approach was applied while analyzing the student perceptions in demographically two different groups. It was found that students of both groups responded positively to the flipped classroom, with each focusing on their specific goals. Consequently, the first group focused on the academic achievement whereas the second group with managerial jobs focused on solving problems in their workplaces. Students of both groups, although preferred TED talks and documentaries, they were opposed to university-like videos and O'Reilly short books and reports. Meanwhile, the use of English language contents turned out to be both a challenge and an opportunity for students.     

体现使用反馈的APP软件用户评论挖掘

随着APP软件应用的普及,针对APP软件的用户评论数量急剧增加,基于用户评论挖掘有价值的软件使用反馈,可以帮助开发人员有针对性地维护和改进APP软件.针对不同类型的APP软件使用反馈,提出了评价对象和评价观点抽取规则,给出了评论模式和评论种子的定义;应用评论种子挖掘与之相同或相似的体现相同使用反馈类型的用户评论,基于人工标注的少量初始评论种子持续构建候选评论模式库;应用半监督自学习的方式,基于候选评论模式库动态扩充评论种子库;通过循环挖掘的方式,动态扩大挖掘体现不同使用反馈类型的APP软件用户评论的范围.实验结果表明,所提方法可以有效地挖掘体现使用反馈的APP软件用户评论,平均挖掘率达到77.82%.     

The effect of visual feedback types on the wait indicator interface of a mobile application

This study examines the essential effects of visual feedback on users’ perceptions of time and on their evaluations of waiting time for a mobile application user interface. The two variables adopted in this experiment are wait indicator visual feedback and waiting time. Three types of visual feedback were used: bar indicator, pie indicator, and cartoon indicator. Three waiting times were used: 2 s, 5 s, and 10 s. This study was conducted based on the attentional-gate model of Zakay and Block to help investigate user time perceptions. The experiment of this study was a 3 × 3 mixed factorial design to measure the impact of the research variables on the users’ perceptions of waiting time, wait evaluations, and preferences. Results showed that the users’ time perceptions and wait evaluations were affected by the feedback types and waiting times, and the results are consistent with Vierordt's law and the attentional-gate model. Furthermore, there was a positive impact on the participants' preferences when they perceived a shorter waiting time. The cartoon type feedback can help reduce the perception of waiting time, but it does not necessarily improve user experience regarding short waiting time.     

Audio peer feedback to promote deep learning in online education

We investigated the relation between providing and receiving audio peer feedback with a deep approach to learning within online education. Online students were asked to complete peer feedback assignments. Data through a questionnaire with 108 respondents and 14 interviews were used to measure to what extent deep learning was perceived and why. Results support the view that both providing and receiving audio peer feedback indeed promote deep learning. As a consequence of the peer feedback method, the following student mechanisms were triggered: “feeling personally committed,” “probing back and forth,” and “understanding one's own learning process.” Particularly important for both providing and receiving feedback is feeling personally committed. Results also show that mechanisms were a stronger predictor for deep learning when providing than when receiving. Given the context in which instructors face an increasing number of students and a high workload, students may be supported by online audio peer feedback as a method to choose a deep approach to learning.     

巧用Microsoft Office制作特殊格式文档

Microsoft Office办公软件中的文本编辑软件Word和电子表格编辑软件Excel是比较常用的办公软件。Word通常被用于编辑丰富格式文档;而Excel常用于编辑电子表格,并对数据进行分析,制作图表等。本文论述了综合使用Word软件的邮件合并功能和Excel软件的公式编辑功能,制作特殊格式文档的方法。     

用Word宏指令开发计算机考试系统

介绍了用Word宏指令设计计算机考试系统。由学生答题,答完后计算机可自动批阅并显示分类及正确答案。