Only connect: teaching, technology and telesis

Abstract This paper describes an approach to the design of interactive multimedia materials being developed in a European Community project. The developmental process is seen as a dialogue between technologists and teachers. This dialogue is often problematic because of the differences in training, experience and culture between them. Conditions needed for fruitful dialogue are described and the generic model for learning design used in the project is explained.     

Automatic coding of dialogue acts in collaboration protocols

Although protocol analysis can be an important tool for researchers to investigate the process of collaboration and communication, the use of this method of analysis can be time consuming. Hence, an automatic coding procedure for coding dialogue acts was developed. This procedure helps to determine the communicative function of messages in online discussions by recognizing discourse markers and cue phrases in the utterances. Five main communicative functions are distinguished: argumentative, responsive, informative, elicitative, and imperative. A total of 29 different dialogue acts are specified and recognized automatically in collaboration protocols. The reliability of the automatic coding procedure was determined by comparing automatically coded dialogue acts to hand-coded dialogue acts by a human rater. The validity of the automatic coding procedure was examined using three different types of analyses. First, an examination of group differences was used (dialogue acts used by female versus male students). Ideally, the coding procedure should be able to distinguish between groups who are likely to communicate differently. Second, to examine the validity of the automatic coding procedure through examination of experimental intervention, the results of the automatic coding procedure of students, with access to a tool that visualizes the degree of participation of each student, were compared to students who did not have access to this tool. Finally, the validity of the automatic coding procedure of dialogue acts was examined using correlation analyses. Results of the automatic coding procedure of dialogue acts of utterances (form) were related to results of a manual coding procedure of the collaborative activities to which the utterances refer (content). The analyses presented in this paper indicate promising results concerning the reliability and validity of the automatic coding procedure for dialogue acts. However, limitations of the procedure were also found and discussed.     

Measuring and analyzing agents’ uncertainty in argumentation-based negotiation dialogue games

Nowadays, multiagent systems have become a widely used technology in everyday life, and many authors have adopted the view of communication or interaction between agents as a joint activity regulated by means of dialogue games. Dialogue games are a set of communication rules that agents can combine in their complex interactions. In these games, uncertainty is an important problem that each agent faces when making decisions, especially in the absence of enough information. This paper focuses on the uncertainty in a particular type of dialogue games, namely argumentation-based negotiation. There exist several proposals on this type of dialogue games in the literature, and most of them are concerned with proposing protocols to show how agents can communicate with each other, and how arguments and offers can be generated, evaluated and exchanged. Nevertheless, none of them is directly targeting the agents’ uncertainty about the exchanged arguments and how this uncertainty could be measured at each dialogue step to assist those agents make better decisions. The aim of this paper is to tackle this problem by defining a new set of uncertainty measures in negotiation dialogue games from an external agent’s point of view. In particular, we introduce two types of uncertainty: Type I and Type II. Type I is about the uncertainty index of playing the right move. For this, we use Shannon entropy to measure: (i) the uncertainty index of the agent that he is selecting the right move at each dialogue step; and (ii) the uncertainty index of participating agents in the negotiation about the whole dialogue. This is done in two different ways; the first is by taking the average of the uncertainty index of all moves, and the second is by determining all possible dialogues and applying the general formula of Shannon entropy. Type II is about the uncertainty degree of the agent that the move will be accepted by the addressee. In this context, we introduce a new classification for the arguments based on their certainty to be accepted by the addressee.     

Dynamic Bayesian networks and variable length genetic algorithm for designing cue-based model for dialogue act recognition

The automatic recognition of dialogue act is a task of crucial importance for the processing of natural language dialogue at discourse level. It is also one of the most challenging problems as most often the dialogue act is not expressed directly in speaker’s utterance. In this paper, a new cue-based model for dialogue act recognition is presented. The model is, essentially, a dynamic Bayesian network induced from manually annotated dialogue corpus via dynamic Bayesian machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, the dynamic Bayesian network’s random variables are constituted from sets of lexical cues selected automatically by means of a variable length genetic algorithm, developed specifically for this purpose. To evaluate the proposed approaches of design, three stages of experiments have been conducted. In the initial stage, the dynamic Bayesian network model is constructed using sets of lexical cues selected manually from the dialogue corpus. The model is evaluated against two previously proposed models and the results confirm the potentiality of dynamic Bayesian networks for dialogue act recognition. In the second stage, the developed variable length genetic algorithm is used to select different sets of lexical cues to constitute the dynamic Bayesian networks’ random variables. The developed approach is evaluated against some of the previously used ranking approaches and the results provide experimental evidences on its ability to avoid the drawbacks of the ranking approaches. In the third stage, the dynamic Bayesian networks model is constructed using random variables constituted from the sets of lexical cues generated in the second stage and the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approaches for designing dialogue act recognition model.     

Plans, Actions and Dialogues Using Linear Logic

We describe how Intuitionistic Linear Logic can be used to provide a unified logical account for agents to find and execute plans. This account supports the modelling of agent interaction, including dialogue; allows agents to be robust to unexpected events and failures; and supports significant reuse of agent specifications. The framework has been implemented and several case studies have been considered. Further applications include human–computer interfaces as well as agent interaction in the semantic web.     

A cross‐institutional approach to staff development in Internet communication

Abstract Recent upsurge in emphasis on larger class sizes and work‐based learning requires lecturers to be equipped to switch from traditional face‐to‐face teaching techniques to communicating with students using new technologies. Dialogue is the vital ingredient which underpins the successful learning experience, and staff in HE are facing a challenge in developing the necessary skills to make effective use of the emerging communication tools. These skills can only be acquired through practice, understanding of the pedagogy and awareness of the various options available. The aim of this paper is to explore, through presenting a case study, the potential benefits of cross‐institutional collaboration in information and communication technology staff development. Since both the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University were investigating ways of promoting good practice in the development and use of new learning technologies, it seemed prudent to combine forces and share ideas. The paper will examine how attempts were made to bridge the skills gap by enabling academic staff to experience Internet communication from the perspective of both student and teacher.     

A case based reasoning model for multilingual language generation in dialogues

The process of Natural Language Generation for a Conversational Agent translates some semantic language to its surface form expressed in natural language. In this paper, we are going to show a Case Based Reasoning technique which is easily extensible and adaptable to multiple domains and languages, that generates coherent phrases and produces a natural outcome in the context of a Conversational Agent that maintains a dialogue with the user.     

放射性废物安全纵横谈(一)

以对话的形式，从法律体系、安全和防护科学的发展、废物管理过程、废物安全的构成与内容、安全监督管理、安全文化素养等不同角度，讨论了放射性废物安全的各个方面。可以作为放射性废物管理人员和辐射防护人员专业培训的参考资料使用，亦可供有兴趣的非专业人士阅读。     

城市空间的情景对话* ——传统街道体验空间对城市步行街更新的启示

文章借用“情景对话”的概念并将其运用到传统街道的空间分析中,研究独特的传统街道空间形态和场所意象;剖析了场景与情节的构成要素,以及其如何被空间体验中的人们强烈地感知并唤起人们共同的场所记忆;探讨了营造空间认同感、体验感的途径。以期对现代城市步行街的更新设计有所启示。     

Two party immediate response disputes: Properties and efficiency

Two Party Immediate Response Disputes (tpi-disputes) are one class of dialogue or argument game in which the protagonists take turns producing counter arguments to the ‘most recent’ argument advanced by their opponent. Argument games have been found useful as a means of modelling dialectical discourse and in providing semantic bases for proof theoretic aspects of reasoning. In this article we consider a formalisation of tpi-disputes in the context of finite Argument Systems. Our principal concern may, informally, be phrased as follows: given a specific argument system, , and argument x within , what can be stated concerning the number of moves a dispute might take for one of its protagonists to accept that x has some defence respectively cannot be defended?