Middleware for pervasive computing: A survey

The rapidly emerging area of pervasive computing faces many challenging research issues critical to application developers. Wide heterogeneity of hardware, software, and network resources pose veritable coordination problems and demand thorough knowledge of individual elements and technologies. In order to ease this problem and to aid application developers, different middleware platforms have been proposed by researchers. Though the existing middleware solutions are useful, they themselves have varied features and contribute partially, for context, data, or service management related application developments. There is no single middleware solution that can address a majority of pervasive computing application development issues, due to the diverse underlying challenges. In this survey paper, we identify different design dimensions of pervasive computing middleware and investigate their use in providing various system services. In-depth analysis of the system services have been carried out and middleware systems have been carefully studied. With a view to aid future middleware developers, we also identify some challenging open research issues that have received little or no attention in existing middleware solutions.     

Fostering an informal learning community of computer technologies at school

Computer technologies develop at a challenging fast pace. Formal education should not only teach students basic computer skills to meet current computer needs, but also foster student development of informal learning ability for a lifelong learning process. On the other hand, students growing up in the digital world are often more skilled with computer technologies than their teachers. We describe an online course design project in which a group of students designed an online health course for their middle school, and teachers played the roles of facilitators and learners. We suggest fostering an informal learning community of computer technologies at school as a supplemental method of formal computer education to address the shift in educational context and as a place offering opportunities for students to work on real-life projects and solve real-life problems.     

Designing social videogames for educational uses

In this paper we analyze the main areas of research into educational videogames and in the evolution of the technologies and design methodologies that are making these interactive systems increasingly natural, immersive and social. We present the design and development of a prototype for a collaborative educational videogame based on a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) engine for use in various educational contexts in (a) university education and (b) secondary education.     

Supporting pervasive computing applications with active context fusion and semantic context delivery

Future pervasive computing applications are envisioned to adapt the applications’ behaviors by utilizing various contexts of an environment and its users. Such context information may often be ambiguous and also heterogeneous, which make the delivery of unambiguous context information to real applications extremely challenging. Thus, a significant challenge facing the development of realistic and deployable context-aware services for pervasive computing applications is the ability to deal with these ambiguous contexts. In this paper, we propose a resource optimized quality assured context mediation framework based on efficient context-aware data fusion and semantic-based context delivery. In this framework, contexts are first fused by an active fusion technique based on Dynamic Bayesian Networks and ontology, and further mediated using a composable ontological rule-based model with the involvement of users or application developers. The fused context data are then organized into an ontology-based semantic network together with the associated ontologies in order to facilitate efficient context delivery. Experimental results using SunSPOT and other sensors demonstrate the promise of this approach.     

Deconstructing and reconstructing: Transforming primary science learning via a mobilized curriculum

The history of science education reform has been fundamentally centered around science curriculum development and implementation. The advent of mobile technologies has necessitated a re-examination of how students could better learn science through these 21st century tools. Conventional teaching materials may not prepare students to learn the inquiry way and to become self-directed and social learners who could learn “everywhere and all the time (seamlessly)” using mobile technologies. This paper is based on our first year of work in our mobile learning research project in transforming primary three science lessons into a “mobilized” curriculum for a classroom context in which students routinely use mobile technologies. Using an exemplar fungi topic, we discuss our approach as well as experiences in deconstructing and reconstructing an existing curriculum through a co-design approach with teachers in a Singapore local school. In doing so, we make a contribution to the methodology for developing mobilized science curricula for in-class learning that also extends to out-of-class learning.     

Educating reflective systems developers

Abstract. Systems development research shows that practitioners seldom follow methods and that the competencies required for successful development of computer‐based systems go well beyond those represented in contemporary methods. These insights make us question the role that methods should play in educating would‐be developers. Pedagogical theories, such as situated learning and double‐loop learning, complement these insights. Integrating the two, we argue that students need to complement the simplified accounts that methods express, with reflections on methods‐in‐use and on development practice in general. We present operationalizations of this idea in two quite different academic settings. Based on a retrospective analysis of our experiences in these settings, and a comparison and evaluation of the two approaches, we propose a number of lessons that can be used to improve the education of would‐be developers.     

AthenaTV: an authoring tool of educational applications for TV using android-based interface design patterns

Education has become a key component of any society since it is the means by which humanity functions and governs itself. It allows individuals to appropriately integrate into a given community. For this reason, new ways of interaction between students and educational contents are emerging in order to improve the quality of education. In this context, devices such as computers, smartphones, or electronic tablets represent new ways of accessing educational resources which do not limit students to their usage merely inside the classroom since these devices are available anywhere. Nowadays, television has become one of these technological tools able to support the teaching–learning process through documentary films or movies, among others. However, two main issues appear. First, some of these educational contents are not those needed by a professor since information is restricted, and second, the development of TV-based applications requires an integrative approach involving the support of several specialists in education who provide the guidelines needed to build high-quality contents, as well as application designers and developers who are able to deliver the educational applications demanded by students. This work presents a system called AthenaTV to generate android-based educational applications for TV. AthenaTV takes into account the 10-foot design scheme used by Google to develop interfaces based on interface design patterns established in Google TV, and it is based on the android development guidelines and HTML5 standard.     

A framework for comparing perspectives on privacy and pervasive technologies

Pervasive computing research has evolved, investigating mechanisms for supporting some predefined notion of privacy, typically favoring individual rights over the rights of the community. We offer a framework to consider individual and group rights so that technology developers can more effectively reason about concerns for existing technology as well as generate new technologies that respect a well-defined set of social norms. We outline a framework designed to help developers understand the conflict between privacy and pervasive computing technologies, particularly those technologies that deal with sensing and storage. Pervasive computing technologies, especially those that can automate perception of human activity and then store that information, can provide tremendous benefits. We offer an analytic method to assist developers in asking questions about the systems and applications they are creating. We believe this framework will help developers minimize the gap between design goals and actual effects on privacy.     

Supporting Human Capital development with Serious Games: An analysis of three experiences

Serious Games (SGs) are increasingly being used in formal educational settings and it is almost universally acknowledged that they have strong potential for bringing innovation to education and for enhancing learning, this way also contributing to the development of Human Capital. This paper proposes some reflections on the usefulness and effectiveness of SGs when used in formal learning contexts. The considerations are derived from a set of SG-based educational experiences carried out in three European countries: Italy, Spain and Romania. The paper briefly summarizes the key aspects of the three research experiences and, by referring to the main lessons learnt, it also draws some general conclusions as to the potential of SGs to support the development of Human Capital both from the cognitive and from the affective/behavioural standpoint.     

Impact of using interactive devices in Spanish early childhood education public schools

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies in early childhood education is crucial for adapting traditional classrooms to the digital era. Over time, young children are increasingly using touch screen technologies such as tablets at home and in early childhood settings. However, the literature shows that there is a significant gap in knowledge of using this technology in early childhood education. Most researchers have focused on the pedagogical theory behind using touch screen devices, but there have not been many empirical studies about how these technologies affect students' learning processes. This paper presents three learning experiences where early childhood students perform educational activities using tablet computers, interactive whiteboards, and paper cards. The results show that students who used the technology were more motivated and achieved better results that those who used paper cards.     

E-Science in the classroom – Towards viability

E-Science has the potential to transform school science by enabling learners, teachers and research scientists to engage together in authentic scientific enquiry, collaboration and learning. However, if we are to reap the benefits of this potential as part of everyday teaching and learning, we need to explicitly think about and support the work required to set up and run e-Science experiences within any particular educational context. In this paper, we present a framework for identifying and describing the resources, tools and services necessary to move e-Science into the classroom together with examples of these. This framework is derived from previous experiences conducting educational e-Science projects and systematic analysis of the categories of ‘hidden work’ needed to run these projects. The articulation of resources, tools and services based on these categories provides a starting point for more methodical design and deployment of future educational e-Science projects, reflection on which can also help further develop the framework. It also points to the technological infrastructure from which such tools and services could be built. As such it provides an agenda of work to develop both processes and technologies that would make it practical for teachers to deliver active, and collaborative e-Science learning experiences on a larger scale within and across schools. Routine school e-Science will only be possible if such support is specified, implemented and made available to teachers within their work contexts in an appropriate and usable form.     

Individual characteristics and computer self-efficacy in secondary education teachers to integrate technology in educational practice

The development of modern technologies and their extension to every domain of our daily life nowadays is an indisputable fact. The widespread use of computers renders training in these technologies necessary. Consequently, computers were soon introduced into the Greek educational system. Factors related to the nature of the teacher’s personality, such as computer self-efficacy, self-concept, attitudes, motivation and needs are considered crucial to the integration and development of modern technologies in education. This study examines the relationship between individual characteristics of secondary school teachers and computer self-efficacy as well as teacher prospects with regard to modern technologies.     

A typology of young people’s Internet use: Implications for education

Using data from a nationally representative survey of over a 1000 young people in the UK this paper proposes a typology of the ways young people are using the Internet outside formal educational settings; and examines the individual and contextual factors that help to explain why young people are using the Internet in this way. Specifically, this paper addresses two research questions. First, can we distinguish coherent profiles of young people’s Internet use? Second, how do these usage profiles relate to individual and contextual factors associated with the Internet user? From the results of latent profile analysis and multinomial regression four types of Internet usage profiles are identified: the peripherals, normatives, all-rounders and active participators, which were differentiated by individual characteristics and contextual features. Such research enables practitioners, researchers and policy makers to better understand how young people are using the Internet in order to think in a more informed way about how new technologies could be used to enhance education and learning; and to develop initiatives that more specifically target and support different segments of the population.     

Harmonizing technology with interaction in blended problem-based learning

This paper discusses the harmonizing role of technology and interaction in a qualitative study on blended problem-based learning within the context of academic development in higher education. Within this setting, and as both designers and tutors in blended PBL, it is important to seek best practices for how to combine instructional strategies in face-to-face and computer-mediated environments that take advantage of the strengths of each and avoid their weaknesses. A qualitative study of the lived experiences of 17 academic staff participants in a blended problem-based learning module was considered likely to provide a much-needed analysis of current thinking and practice on the potential of interaction in this form of professional academic development in higher education. Specific aspects of interaction (technical, peer, content and the learning experience) within blended problem-based learning tutorials are analysed to provides research-based information about the realities of delivering a PBL programme using technology. The study argues that the intersection of PBL and learning technologies can offer different ways of teaching and learning that require exploration and reflection of pedagogy and technology as in integrated approach that must work effectively together. The synergy from the collaborative blended PBL approach in this module could result in the coherent and comprehensive provision of training, support and research work throughout higher education institutions.     

Specifying software features for composition: A tool-supported approach

Development of several computing and communication technologies is enabling the widespread availability of pervasive systems. In smart home applications, household appliances—such as security alarms, heating systems, doors and windows—are connected to home digital networks. These applications offer features that are typically developed by disparate vendors, and when composed together, these features are expected to work together harmoniously. Engineering these systems poses two main challenges. The first challenge is: how can developers of individual features specify the features in order to make them composable with other hitherto unknown features? The second challenge is: when composition of features does not produce the desired behaviour, what can be done to resolve this non-intrusively? This article argues that the two issues are intrinsically related, and proposes an approach that addresses the first challenge in a way that makes the second challenge manageable. In particular, we describe a way of writing feature specifications in which assumptions about the problem world are made explicit. These feature assumptions can then be evaluated at runtime in order to preserve the desired system behaviour to the extent possible. Our approach is illustrated with examples from smart home applications.     

网络入侵检测技术综述

随着互联网时代的发展,内部威胁、零日漏洞和DoS攻击等攻击行为日益增加,网络安全变得越来越重要,入侵检测已成为网络攻击检测的一种重要手段。随着机器学习算法的发展,研究人员提出了大量的入侵检测技术。本文对这些研究进行了综述。首先,简要介绍了当前的网络安全形势,并给出了入侵检测技术及系统在各个领域的应用。然后,从数据来源、检测技术和检测性能三个方面对入侵检测相关技术和系统进行已有研究工作的总结与评价,其中,检测技术重点论述了传统机器学习、深度学习、强化学习、可视化分析技术等方法。最后,讨论了当前研究中出现的问题并展望该技术的未来发展方向和前景。本文希望能为该领域的研究人员提供一些有益的思考。     

The strategic impacts of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and service work: An interdisciplinary review

A significant recent technological development concerns the automation of knowledge and service work as a result of advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields. We use the term Intelligent Automation to describe this phenomenon. This development presents organisations with a new strategic opportunity to increase business value. However, academic research contributions that examine these developments are spread across a wide range of scholarly disciplines resulting in a lack of consensus regarding key findings and implications. We conduct the first interdisciplinary literature review that systematically characterises the intellectual state and development of Intelligent Automation technologies in the knowledge and service sectors. Based on this review, we provide three significant contributions. First, we conceptualise Intelligent Automation and its associated technologies. Second, we provide a business value-based model of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and service work and identify twelve research gaps that hinder a complete understanding of the business value realisation process. Third, we provide a research agenda to address these gaps.     

Young students using iPads: App design and content influences on their learning pathways

The past few years have seen an array of new technological gadgets arrive on the education scene, perhaps the best known of these being Apple's i-Device range, particularly the iPad. Such devices have been described by some as ‘game changers’, and promoted as a key component to stimulating much-needed educational reform. However, history suggests the hype and rhetoric surrounding these technological innovations has failed to match the reality of their performance, in action. Some have attributed this failure to a lack of alignment by teachers of pedagogical models with the potential of technologies, while others argue that claims made are simply unrealistic sales hype. Regardless, schools continue to be seduced by these new technologies, purchasing ever increasing amounts based on the alleged learning promises they offer their students.This study presents an innovative approach to exploring student interaction with iPad apps, and is an attempt to begin to unpack factors that affect their learning pathways, in an effort to improve the educational potential of these popular devices. It focuses specifically on design and content features of apps selected by an experienced teacher to enhance literacy, numeracy and problem-solving capabilities of her 5 year old students. Findings reveal a complex matrix of influencing factors. These include the effect of embedded pedagogical scaffolds (eg., modelling, reflection time), corrective and formative feedback, text-to-speech functionality, imposed interaction parameters, impediments (eg., web links, advertisements, buying content) and the entertainment/education balance. Arguments are made for researchers, teachers and developers to work together and adopt methodologies such as that introduced in this article, to gather data to radically improve the design of apps used by young students for learning.