Understanding and analysing activity and learning in virtual communities

Abstract  The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary framework to observe, analyse and evaluate both activity and learning in virtual communities. So various types of virtual communities will be studied by examining their relationship to socialisation and learning. After a presentation of the main ideas of Wenger's social learning theory, the principal components of the social context of the emergence and evolution of virtual communities will be described. It will show how taking this context into account enables the definition of four principal types of virtual communities: community of interest, goal-oriented community of interest, learners' community and community of practice and describe how the activity of these communities develops according to the goals they set for themselves and to the strategies they adopt to reach them. For each type of virtual community, an attempt will be made to determine the process of negotiation of meaning at the base of learning, and to describe the learning performed in terms of participation and reification processes.     

Designing mobile technologies to support co-present collaboration

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities for childrens educational activities in that they can be used across different locations and times. Naturally, some instances of mobile technology use will necessitate, or be enhanced by, the sharing of information. Social interaction is important for sharing ideas, constructing and shaping understanding and fundamental for educational development. However the physical size of mobile technologies presents interesting challenges when designing for collaborative activities. When designing mobile technologies the importance of collaborative tasks has often been overlooked. The replacement of low-tech artefacts with digital devices, for supporting multiple users, can inhibit the shareability of information. We present three projects where mobile technologies have been used as part of a larger mixed reality experience. Novel technologies were used to support childrens collaborative activities in storytelling, an adventure game and during an outdoor field trip. Interaction with mobile devices within each project is reviewed and the authors highlight important considerations for their design and use across multiple contexts.     

A dialogic understanding of the relationship between CSCL and teaching thinking skills

How to teach flexible thinking and learning skills, particularly creativity and the skill of “learning to learn,” is a key concern for CSCL in the context of the emerging Networked Society. The currently dominant paradigms for supporting pedagogical design within CSCL, including socio-cultural theory, are limited in the support that they can offer to the project of teaching general thinking skills. This paper uses critical literature review, conceptual analysis, and evidence from case studies to argue for the value of a dialogic interpretative framework that links the goal of teaching thinking with the method of CSCL. The evidence reviewed suggests that dialogue is itself the primary thinking skill from which all others are derived. It is argued from this that dialogic theory offers a possible solution to the problem of how to conceptualize general thinking skills for CSCL: this is that teaching dialogue as an end in itself promotes the learning of general thinking skills. Implications of the proposed framework for pedagogical design are brought out through case studies illustrating the use of CSCL to broaden and deepen dialogic spaces of reflection.     

基於稳态映照记忆模型的自学习控制

本文介绍了基於系统集的通用智能控制器的设计思想。作为示例，我们对一类具有相同特征与约束的系统集给出了基於稳态映照记忆模型的自学习算法，证明了它的可学习性与收敛性，在不同的对象上验证了它的通用性。     

Knowledge-directed Adaptation in Multi-level Agents

Most work on adaptive agents have a simple, single layerarchitecture. However, most agent architectures support three levels ofknowledge and control: a reflex level for reactive responses, a deliberatelevel for goal-driven behavior, and a reflective layer for deliberateplanning and problem decomposition. In this paper we explore agentsimplemented in Soar that behave and learn at the deliberate and reflectivelevels. These levels enhance not only behavior, but also adaptation. Theagents use a combination of analytic and empirical learning, drawing from avariety of sources of knowledge to adapt to their environment. We hypothesize that complete, adaptive agents must be able to learn across all three levels.     

独立学院学生计算机基础学习兴趣的培养

独立学院计算机基础课程教学多会出现学生学习兴趣不浓的问题,结合计算机基础的课程特点,分析目前计算机基础教学的现状,阐述学生学习兴趣不浓的原因,经教学实践提出增强学生学习兴趣的若干方法,为提高学生计算机基础课程学习兴趣提供新的思路。     

Investigating factors that influence social presence and learning outcomes in distance higher education

There are many factors that influence distance learning especially in higher education where collaborative and communicative discourse is necessary for pursuing knowledge. Social presence, among other factors, is an important concept to be facilitated, developed and sustained in distance higher education as it promotes and supports discourse based learning. This study examines the relationship among demographic and other variables, social presence and learning satisfaction. Results showed demographic variables, such as gender, online learning experience and work status were not significant factors in terms of influencing on either social presence or learning satisfaction. While media integration and instructor’s quality teaching were significant predictors of both social presence and learning satisfaction, interactivity among participants was a predictor of social presence but not of learning satisfaction. Along with the study findings, some implications were discussed for online learning practitioners in higher education setting.     

Suppressing intersample behavior in iterative learning control

Iterative Learning Control (ILC) is a control strategy to improve the performance of digital batch repetitive processes. Due to its digital implementation, discrete time ILC approaches do not guarantee good intersample behavior. In fact, common discrete time ILC approaches may deteriorate the intersample behavior, thereby reducing the performance of the sampled-data system. In this paper, a generally applicable multirate ILC approach is presented that enables to balance the at-sample performance and the intersample behavior. Furthermore, key theoretical issues regarding multirate systems are addressed, including the time-varying nature of the multirate ILC setup. The proposed multirate ILC approach is shown to outperform discrete time ILC in realistic simulation examples.     

Guiding students to the right questions: adaptive navigation support in an E‐Learning system for Java programming

Rapid growth of the volume of interactive questions available to the students of modern E‐Learning courses placed the problem of personalized guidance on the agenda of E‐Learning researchers. Without proper guidance, students frequently select too simple or too complicated problems and ended either bored or discouraged. This paper explores a specific personalized guidance technology known as adaptive navigation support. We developed JavaGuide, a system, which guides students to appropriate questions in a Java programming course, and investigated the effect of personalized guidance a three‐semester long classroom study. The results of this study confirm the educational and motivational effects of adaptive navigation support.     

《计算机基础知识》教学谈讨

为了提高《计算机基础知识》的课堂教学质量，教师必须关注教学策略的设计和运用。要采取多种教学手段，为学生提供多样化的教学平台，激发他们的求知欲望，保持恒久的学习兴趣和动力；培养他们主动求知和渴望创造的学习品质，让他们获得成功的体验，提高学生的学习效能。