CMS-based simulations in the writing classroom: Evoking genre through game play

The incarnation of many Internet-based courses is informed by traditional notions of classroom instruction in which course/content management systems (CMSs) like WebCT™ and Blackboard™ are used to reproduce actions undertaken in brick-and-mortar classrooms. In this article, I argue that the way in which the CMS is configured and deployed can provide students with the sense that they are immersed in a social activity other than taking a college course. Elaborating on a simulation-building methodology developed by Clark Aldrich, I show how we have created a CMS that helps communication instructors evoke and immerse students in discourse-demanding situations. This sense of immersion is especially important for communication-intensive courses in which students seek to practice disciplinary and workplace genres whose social motive may not be readily reproducible within the confines of the (computer) classroom.     

Multimodal Composition in a College ESL Class: New Tools, Traditional Norms

Research has noted that multimodal writing allows for better communication of knowledge and expression of personal identities through various modes of representation. Studies of multimodal composition have tended to examine separate modes, or have looked at connections between only a few selected available modes. Less attention has been devoted to multimodal composition from a holistic perspective. Drawing on the concept of synaesthetic semiosis [Kress, Gunther. (1998). Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication: The potentials of new forms of text. In Ilana Snyder (Ed.), Page to screen: Taking literacy into the electronic era (pp. 53-79). London: Routledge; Kress, Gunther, & Van Leeuwen, Theo. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge], the present study examines how ESL writers in a freshman composition class used available modes in multimodal argumentative essays posted on the World Wide Web. The findings indicate that word-dominated discourse was the primary factor in selecting available modes. Non-linguistic modes were primarily used to illustrate written essays. However, students also used non-linguistic modes to project cultural and national identities and to express emotional connections with their topics. The ways in which the students synthesized multiple meaning-making modes represented the social practices of learning multimodal genres in which they were engaged. The paper concludes with suggestions for pedagogy and research in multimodal composition.     

Computers and writing: Casting a broader net with theory and research

Today, teachers of English are faced with the problem of developing new vantage points from which to consider the use of computers in writing programs, writing classrooms, and individual writing processes. Until this time, the profession has subscribed to a limited view of computers and their effects on writing — a view circumscribed by the paradigms of other disciplines or by our own past experiences with teaching machines and paper-and-pencil composing. These visions are not capable of accommodating the larger and more radical changes wrought by the electronic medium we are now using. By subscribing to them, English teachers may, as Coleridge says, have created a tacit compact not to pass beyond a certain limit in speculating about computers. This paper suggests four overlapping areas of exploration, four points of departure that might help us spark creative re-formations of our thinking about computers and their relationship to writing: 1.) Computers and teaching writing, 2.) Computers and language theory, 3.) Computers and learning from the past, 4.) Computer research in other fields.Cynthia Selfe has been chair of the NCTE assembly of Computers in English and a member of the CCCC Committee on Instructional Technology. Billie J. Wahlstrom is chair of the Graduate Program in Rhetoric and Technical Communication at Michigan Technological University and a consultant on interactive videodisc design for Michigan Tech Software.     

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.     

The psychological functions of avatars and alt(s): A qualitative study

Prior research has shown that approximately 50% of active participants in the 3D virtual world of Second Life have one or more secondary avatars or “alts” in addition to their primary avatar. Thus, these individuals are operating a “multiple or poly-identity system” composed of a physical self, a primary avatar, and one or more alts. However, little is known about the functions these virtual identities serve for the virtual-world user. The current study involved qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with Second Life participants (N = 24) who had a primary avatar and at least one alt. Interviews were coded to examine the functions that primary avatars and alts served. Eight functions—seven suggested by previous research on virtual world identity and one that emerged from analyses—were reflected in a large majority of the transcribed interviews and are described in the article. The current findings add to our understanding of how multifaceted identity systems operate, as more individuals augment their physical self with a set of virtual identities.     

A Constraint-Driven Approach to Automate the Organization and Playout of Presentations in Multimedia Databases

We introduce a constraint-driven methodology for the automated assembly, organization and playout of presentations from multimedia databases. We use inclusion and exclusion constraints for extracting a semantically coherent set of multimedia segments. Presentationorganization constraints are utilized for organizing the multimedia segments into apresentation, which in turn helps decide the playout order of the extractedmultimedia segments. The playout order of the segments is represented in a presentationgraph. If the specified set of organization constraints are not sufficient toconstruct a unique presentation graph, we propose two techniques so that a unique graph isconstructible. We also propose two playout algorithms, one for the generation, start andtermination of playout agents, the other for dynamic control of playout management on organized presentations.The characteristics of these algorithms are expressed in terms of presentation playout parameters.     

解析C语言的运算符和表达式

C语言的运算符具有使用灵活的特点,可以用于解决许多其它编程语言难以处理的复杂问题。但在实际应用中,因对其理解不深,可能出现各种难以意料的结果。该文对运算符教学过程中使用容易出现问题的地方进行了分析,并给出提出了相应的解决方法。     

解析C语言的运算符和表达式

C语言的运算符具有使用灵活的特点,可以用于解决许多其它编程语言难以处理的复杂问题。但在实际应用中,因对其理解不深,可能出现各种难以意料的结果。该文对运算符教学过程中使用容易出现问题的地方进行了分析,并给出提出了相应的解决方法。     

Examining modality usage in a conversational multimodal application for mobile e-mail access

As Third Generation (3G) networks emerge they provide not only higher data transmission rates but also the ability to transmit both voice and low latency data within the same session. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of a multimodal application (voice and text) that uses natural language understanding combined with a WAP browser to access email messages on a cell phone. We present results from the use of the system by users as part of a laboratory trial that evaluated usage. The user trial also compared the multimodal system with a text-only system that is representative of current products in the market today. We discuss the observed modality issues and highlight implementation problems and usability concerns that were encountered in the trial. Findings indicate that speech was used the majority of the time by participants for both input and navigation even though most of the participants had little or no prior experience with speech systems (yet did have prior experience with text-only access to applications on their phones). To our knowledge this represents the first implementation and evaluation of its kind using this combination of technologies on an unmodified cell phone. Design implications resulting from the study findings and usability issues encountered are presented to inform the design of future conversational multimodal mobile applications.     

Annotating Expressions of Opinions and Emotions in Language

This paper describes a corpus annotation project to study issues in the manual annotation of opinions, emotions, sentiments, speculations, evaluations and other private states in language. The resulting corpus annotation scheme is described, as well as examples of its use. In addition, the manual annotation process and the results of an inter-annotator agreement study on a 10,000-sentence corpus of articles drawn from the world press are presented.     

幻灯片制作自动评测系统的设计与实现

借鉴了 Excel和 Word自动评测系统中的很多设计 ,在试题录入方面作了改进 ,采用了根据考核知识点来自动生成标准答案和试题描述文件 ,保证了形式语言、试题描述、标准答案文件与原考核试题完全一致 ,避免了人工录入试题描述产生的歧义和标准答案不一致的现象发生。经多次运行 ,幻灯片制作自动评测的准确度高、速度快。     

Lexical Choice and Conceptual Perspective in the Generation of Plural Referring Expressions

A fundamental part of the process of referring to an entity is to categorise it (for instance, as the woman). Where multiple categorisations exist, this implicitly involves the adoption of a conceptual perspective. A challenge for the automatic Generation of Referring Expressions is to identify a set of referents coherently, adopting the same conceptual perspective. We describe and evaluate an algorithm to achieve this. The design of the algorithm is motivated by the results of psycholinguistic experiments.     

Rethinking Authenticity: Voice and Feedback in Media Discourse

As authentic communicative practices, news writing and media discourse have the potential to serve as pedagogical tools for foreign language students to explore content of interest. This study analyzed university students’ media discourse in the virtual world of Second Life and subsequent revisions of their works in progress with respect to (1) journalistic headlines, (2) journalistic vocabulary, (3) journalistic organization, and (4) journalistic style. The results have revealed connections between voice and composition—that is, exchanging and sharing true thoughts and feelings while maintaining a self-image facilitated more concise, engaging, clear, and relevant news writing from new or different perspectives. Participants’ actions, perceptions, and movements also facilitated a better understanding of communicative practices specific to the virtual world. The results suggest that we should rethink authenticity in terms of content, contexts, purposes, and audiences to design computer-mediated collaborative learning tasks and support students’ authentic engagement of peers or other international speakers in lingua franca communication. This study may shed light on the future use of new media literacy and playful peer discourse in foreign language writing.     

The effects of participation,performance, and interest in a game‐based writing environment

We have observed that many computer‐supported writing environments based on pedagogical strategies have only been designed to incorporate the cognitive aspects, but motivational aspects should also be included. Hence, we theorize that integrating game‐based learning into the writing environment may be a practical approach that can facilitate student participation, not only helping students learn how to write, but also sustaining their willingness to write. In this study, we investigate the effects of the game‐based writing environment on improving students' participation, performance, and interest in writing. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of 2 approaches to writing in language arts at an elementary school. Two hundred forty‐five third grade students participated in the experiment over a period of 1 year. One hundred thirty‐nine students were assigned to an experimental group and learned with a game‐based writing environment, and 106 students were in the contrast group and learned with an online writing environment. The empirical results show that the game‐based writing environment can effectively promote students' writing participation, writing performance, interest in writing, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational self‐management games. Some implications of the experimental results are also discussed.     

Modeling and simulation in support of the design of a data fusion system

This paper uses a modeling and simulation approach in the engineering process of designing a data fusion system for military applications. Fundamental issues in the design of a data fusion system are the selection of appropriate architecture and efficient and dedicated real-time algorithms for the application of interest. Selection of data fusion algorithms is performed using a simulation test bed where realistic modeling of sensor performance is being performed. The test bed also allows the use of multiple algorithms in a dynamic sense based on the particular regime in which the fusion system is operating. This paper first presents the data fusion system engineering guidelines that are being used. Then the paper addresses the complex problem of the tactical picture compilation. Finally the paper shows a case study where the selection of data fusion algorithms is performed for an airborne platform.     

How to be a gamer! Exploring personal and social indicators of gamer identity

Over the past decades, digital games have continued to extend their audience as they moved into the cultural mainstream. Despite this fact, however, only a portion of those who play games consider themselves a gamer. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, this study explores the factors that contribute to why people attribute a gamer identity to self or others. It does so by considering 2 sites of identity construction: the social context of players and the broader cultural milieu. Results suggest that a gamer identity is first and foremost associated with stereotypical behaviors that find their origin in a consumption logic. Friendship networks, however, provide an important environment in which a gamer identity can be performed.     

Student papers across the curriculum: Designing and developing a corpus of British student writing

This paper reports on a collaborative project, currently being carried out by the Centre for English Language Teacher Education and the Warwick Writing Programme at the University of Warwick, England, to compile a multimillion-word corpus of student writing. Since May 2001, we have collected samples of proficient written coursework produced by students at all levels and in a range of disciplines. We believe this student writing collection will eventually provide an invaluable database for use by researchers and writing teachers, enabling them to identify and describe, in a systematic way, the characteristics of assigned work across disciplines and levels of study. Our corpus is confined to shorter assignments assessed within departments—the most common form of student writing, but unpublished and therefore generally unavailable to researchers. This paper describes the project, and explains the rationale for developing the corpus. It also considers the corpus’ potential role as a resource for research and teaching within and across subject disciplines.     

基于证书实现多媒体会议安全身份认证的方案

多媒体会议系统的安全性是其运行成功与否的关键因素之一。文章基于数字证书,利用公开密钥加密和数字签名等技术,提出了一种在多媒体会议系统中对与会人员的信息保密传输和身份认证的方案,并给出了具体的实现,成功解决了多媒体会议系统中一个安全管理的问题,实践证明该方案是行之有效的。     

Learning word meanings and grammar for verbalization of daily life activities using multilayered multimodal latent Dirichlet allocation and Bayesian hidden Markov models

Intelligent systems need to understand and respond to human words to enable them to interact with humans in a natural way. Several studies attempted to realize these abilities by investigating the symbol grounding problem. For example, we proposed multilayered multimodal latent Dirichlet allocation (mMLDA) to enable the formation of various concepts and inference using grounded concepts. We previously reported on the issue of connecting words to various hierarchical concepts and also proposed a simple preliminary algorithm for generating sentences. This paper proposes a novel method that enables a sensing system to verbalize an everyday scene it observes. The method uses mMLDA and Bayesian hidden Markov models (BHMM) and the proposed algorithm improves the word inference of our previous work. The advantage of our approach is that grammar learning based on BHMM not only boosts concept selection results but enables our method to process functional words. The proposed verbalization algorithm produces results that are far superior to those of previous methods. Finally, we developed a system to obtain multimodal data from human everyday activities. We evaluate language learning and sentence generation as a complete process under this realistic setting. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.