bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interactivating Rehabilitation through Active Multimodal Feedback and Guidance
Authors: Bongers Bert , Smith Stuart
Published: May 2011

This chapter outlines a Human-Computer Interaction inspired approach to rehabilitation of neurological damage (e.g. spinal cord injury) that employs novel, computer guided multimodal feedback in the form of video games or generation of musical content. The authors report an initial exploratory phase of a project aimed at gaining insight into the development of spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation tools. This exploration included observation of a number of patient interactions in their current rehabilitation routines; the development of initial prototype proposals; and finally through to the development of rapid prototypes which can be used in rehabilitation settings. This initial phase has yielded an understanding of the issues surrounding the development of novel technologies for rehabilitation that will direct further research in the area of rehabilitation engineering. Through the integration of novel methods, in particular the use of interactive physical devices, to the rehabilitation of SCI patients, larger scale research into efficacy of the devices we are developing can be undertaken. These developments may eventually beneficially impact upon the instruments used, the training methods applied and the rehabilitation routines undertaken for individuals living with neurological damage.
Mapping Input Technology to Ability
Authors: Garzo Ainara , Carmien Stefan P. , Madina Xabier
Published: May 2011

Accessibility is a critical aspect of health care system design, particularly E-health systems. Ability to access services may change as ones abilities vary, by situation as in the use of a cell phone while driving, by condition, as during an illness or as a result of an accident and in the process of aging. As the European population becomes increasingly skewed towards elders, the ability to communicate with and via computers will become more and more important. Communication consists of two processes: presenting information in an accessible manner and receiving input from the user in a mode that fits the users skills and needs. This chapter describes the design process in providing an alternative to a keyboard for input by persons with motoric disabilities.
Restoring Balance
Authors: Benini Maria Júlia S. , Bruinink Marijn , Pekel Atike D. , Talbott Walter A. , Visser Albertine , Markopoulos Panos
Published: May 2011

Bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) is a disorder of the balance sensory organs in the inner ear; it can cause falls which may have grave consequences, particularly among elderly. This chapter presents the iterative user-centered design of a vibrotactile feedback mechanism for substituting the balance sense. Six wearable prototypes were created to compare the suitability of different body parts (foot, ankle, knee, waist, shoulder, upper arm) for perceiving this type of feedback and to compare different encoding mechanisms (number, intensity, and rhythm of vibrations). In a second iteration, two of these wearable devices (for the ankle and the waist), in two feedback encoding mechanisms (directional and non-directional) were improved and evaluated. Based on the combined studies and interviews conducted with patients and specialists, it is argued that vibrotactile non-directional balance feedback should be applied to ankles, and that such devices should be integrated in training systems.
Perspectives on the Adoption of Electronic Resources for Use in Clinical Trials
Authors: Planas-Silva Maricarmen D. , Joseph Rhoda C.
Published: May 2011

Clinical trials are specific medical studies that use human subjects for the advancement of medicine. Evidence-based medicine requires the use of clinical trials to evaluate new treatments, devices, drugs, and modalities for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Clinical trials have not been particularly aggressive in their adoption of information technology (IT). In this analysis, we examine the impact of electronic resources on the execution and management of clinical trials. Further, we present a theoretical model showing the main areas of clinical trials that can be directly impacted by the adoption of electronic resources. The four areas identified are recruitment, data collection, process data management, and information dissemination.
Factors Affecting the Adoption of ICT for Health Service Delivery in Namibia
Authors: Maumbe Blessing M. , Shivute Meke I. , Owei Vesper T.
Published: May 2011

The article examines ICT use in health service provision in Namibia. The patterns of ICT use for health services by patients, public and private health service providers are not yet fully understood. This study describes ICT applications in health service delivery to patients in the Khomas and Oshana regions of Namibia. The study interviewed 134 patients and 21 health service providers. Factor analysis on ICT use identified three main factor groupings namely, ‘high technology’, ’mobile technology’ and ‘traditional technology’. Multinomial regression results showed the major factors affecting multiple ICT awareness in the two regions as functional literacy, diverse sources of health information services, age and educational level of the patients. Logistic regression results on individual ICT use identified functional literacy, personal privacy, cost of ICT, age, education, and positive perceptions about ICT applications in improving health services as statistically significant factors influencing adoption by both rural and urban patients in Namibia.
Information Completeness
Authors: Hackbarth Gary , McQuade John
Published: May 2011

Medical information is readily online to patients, family’s doctors and others in search of enhanced or supplementary information arising from healthcare concerns. To a large extent, this information varies greatly in terms of information quality and depending on the healthcare information source, is often incomplete. This study used an indirect qualitative analysis of the information completeness of 31 Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) checklists using CATPAC and found that these sources differed in both the depth and breathe of information provided. We suggest that users of healthcare information may be underserved and that healthcare information providers might act in a more collaborative way to better balance the presentation of their information in terms of depth and breathe of presented content. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]
Mobile Solutions for Managing Health Care
Authors: Alasaarela Esko , Nemana Ravi , DeMello Steven , Oliver Nick S. , Miyazaki Masako
Published: May 2011

Wirhe project is an international collaborative study that focused on the future of healthcare needs, technology requirements and solutions for effective use of wireless platform for health care delivery. In this chapter, the authors present results of a Wirhe survey of 85 experts and individual interviews with 35 experts. The authors asked their opinions on the current status of adopting wireless equipment in health care, unmet needs in serving hospital in-patients and outpatients, and their views on the incorporation of wireless platform for future health care delivery and personal health management. Key findings are that 1) both remarkable quality improvements and process enhancements can be expected from thoroughly utilizing the wireless technologies and mobile solutions, 2) integration of personal health monitoring and professional health management is a key issue to be addressed and 3) health promotion and illness prevention will grow by utilizing mobile solutions. As a result of this study, they propose a framework that can be used in developing wireless health care solutions for managing diseases and related health problems. It can also be used to structure and stratify the needs by importance and utility, to anticipate which technologies and solutions are needed next, and to estimate how large the market size may be for industries.
Telepractice
Authors: Miller Thomas W. , Wood Jennifer A.
Published: May 2011

Telehealth is viewed as the removal of time and distance barriers in the provision of health care and patient education to underserved populations. Examined is a twenty first century clinical consultation model of healthcare. Offered are specific applications within a broad spectrum of services utilizing telehealth technology. Important technology shifts for administrative paradigms, clinical models, and educational information technology for healthcare services through telehealth technology are examined. The future of telehealth and its interface with various critical components of society needs to examine the potential benefits over risks in providing healthcare consultations and services through the educational settings available. Addressed is a technology model, which demonstrates the capability of reducing time and distance barriers in the provision of health care and education through telehealth technology. The use of telehealth technology in rural settings is seen as a viable medium for providing needed diagnostic and clinical consultation for underserved and rural.
Clinical Continuity by Integrated Care
Authors: Larsen Torben
Published: May 2011

The fragmented delivery of healthcare and social services was put on the research agenda by WHO in 2002. Integrated Homecare (IHC) combining efficacy with net savings represents a prototype of integrated care for better clinical continuity. Frequent chronic conditions as stroke, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exhibit parallel results as explained by a common neuroeconomic framework. A SWOT analysis of IHC emphasizes: 1) Strength: health economic dominance; 2) Weakness: fragmented financial conditions; 3) Opportunity: low-tech patient benefits affordable to European countries facing tight finances as the elder share grows; 3) Threat: low levels of trust across professions and settings. A meso-strategy for EU recommends: 1) A health technology assessment (HTA) of IHC by multidisciplinary teamwork across the hospital and primary care interface synthesizes existing research for health care decision-makers. 2)Dissemination focuses on a regional level with direct contact between the clinical and financial level, see information on practical implementation guides at www.integratedhomecare.eu.
A Review of Wireless Sensor Networks for Wellness Monitoring in Residential Aged Care
Authors: Chan Leroy Lai Yu , Celler Branko George , Zhang James Zhaonan , Lovell Nigel Hamilton
Published: May 2011

With the increasing shift in the population profile to the older demographic and rising healthcare costs, it is more critical for developed countries to deliver long-term and financially sustainable healthcare services, especially in the area of residential aged care. A consensus exists that innovations in the area of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are key enabling technologies for reaching this goal. The major focus of this article is WSN design considerations for ubiquitous wellness monitoring systems in residential aged care facilities. Major enabling technologies for building a pervasive WSN will be detailed, including descriptions on sensor design, wireless communication protocols and network topologies. Also examined are data processing methods and knowledge management tools to support the collection of sensor data and their subsequent analysis for health assessment. To introduce future healthcare reform in residential aged care, two aspects of wellness monitoring, vital signs and activities of daily living (ADL) monitoring, will be discussed.
Nursing Homes and E-Health
Authors: Xie Shuyan , Xiao Yang , Chen Hsiao-Hwa
Published: May 2011

A nursing home provides skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services to people with illnesses, injuries or functional disabilities, but most facilities serve the elderly. Nursing homes provide various services for different residents’ needs, including daily care, assistance for the mentally disabled, and drug rehabilitation. The levels of care and quality of care provided by nursing homes have increased significantly over the past decade. The trend is toward continuous quality development and resident satisfaction; therefore, healthcare technology plays a significant role in nursing home operations. This article discusses general information about current nursing home conditions and systems in the United States and explores how technology and e-health help improve the nursing home development based on the present needs and trends. The authors also report on Thomasville Nursing Home, discussing current trends in nursing home technologies.
Application of Single Electron Devices Utilizing Stochastic Dynamics
Authors: Sato Shigeo , Nakajima Koji
Published: May 2011

Single electron devices utilizing the Coulomb blockade phenomenon have attractive features such as extreme low power consumption, one by one electron flow controllability, small device size, etc. However, besides promising applications such as the current standard and charge detection, it is not easy to apply the single electron devices to conventional computational tasks due to its stochastic operation and low amplification capability. Therefore, it is important for us to consider suitable applications of single electron devices. In this paper, we show three applications such as a noise generator, a stochastic neural network, and a charge detector employing stochastic resonance. Trough these applications, we see the advantages of single electron devices and study the direction of applications.
Full Adder Operation Based on Si Nanodot Array Device with Multiple Inputs and Outputs
Authors: Kaizawa Takuya , Jo Mingyu , Arita Masashi , Fujiwara Akira , Yamazaki Kenji , Ono Yukinori , Inokawa Hiroshi , Takahashi Yasuo , Choi Jung-Bum
Published: May 2011

A highly functional Si nanodot array device that operates by means of single-electron effects was experimentally demonstrated. The device features many input gates, and many outputs can be attached. A nanodot array device with three input gates and two output terminals was fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer using conventional Si MOS processes. Its feasibility was demonstrated by its operation as both a half adder and a full adder when the operation voltage was carefully selected.
Simple Collision-Based Chemical Logic Gates with Adaptive Computing
Authors: Toth Rita , Stone Christopher , Costello Ben de Lacy , Adamatzky Andrew , Bull Larry
Published: May 2011

We present a method that is capable of implementing information transfer without any rigidly controlled architecture using the light-sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction system. Chemical wave fragments are injected into a subexcitable area and their collisions result in annihilation, fusion or quasi-elastic interactions depending on their initial positions. The fragments of excitation both pre and post collision possess a considerable freedom of movement when compared to previous implementations of information transfer in chemical systems. We propose that the collision of such wave fragments can be controlled automatically through adaptive computing. By extension, forms of unconventional computing, i.e., massively parallel non-linear computers, can be realised by such an approach. In this study we present initial results from using a simple evolutionary algorithm to design Boolean logic gates within the BZ system.
The Synthesis of Stochastic Circuits for Nanoscale Computation
Authors: Qian Weikang , Backes John , Riedel Marc D.
Published: May 2011

Emerging technologies for nanoscale computation such as self-assembled nanowire arrays present specific challenges for logic synthesis. On the one hand, they provide an unprecedented density of bits with a high degree of parallelism. On the other hand, they are characterized by high defect rates. Also they often exhibit inherent randomness in the interconnects due to the stochastic nature of self-assembly. We describe a general method for synthesizing logic that exploits both the parallelism and the random effects. Our approach is based on stochastic computation with parallel bit streams. Circuits are synthesized through functional decomposition with symbolic data structures called multiplicative binary moment diagrams. Synthesis produces designs with randomized parallel components—and operations and multiplexing—that are readily implemented in nanowire crossbar arrays. Synthesis results for benchmarks circuits show that our technique maps circuit designs onto nanowire arrays effectively.
Reinforcement Learning for Online Optimization of Banner Format and Delivery
Authors: Baccot Benoit , Grigoras Romulus , Charvillat Vincent
Published: May 2011

Results, showing the power and the efficiency of the two models to solve our problems, are also given. By comparing to a “ground truth” acquired by observing user browsing session on a test site, we conclude that our models are able to determine optimal advertising policies concerning banner formats and delivery.
Utilizing Sentiments in Online Contextual Advertising
Authors: Siddiqui Tanveer J.
Published: May 2011

Ever increasing number of internet users has attracted many of the companies on the internet for promoting their product and services. This has led to the development of new age of advertising called online or web advertising. The objective of this chapter is two-fold. First, it introduces concepts involved in online advertising. Second, it proposes a novel conceptual framework for contextual online advertising which attempts to utilize local context and sentiment for identifying relevant ads. Contextual advertising is an important class of online advertising in which ads are displayed automatically on web pages based on their content. The proposed framework works in two stages. The first stage retrieves ads for placement. The second stage uses sentiment analysis to filter out ads that do not agree with the sentiments (positive or negative polarity) being expressed in the document. The polarity is identified using SentiWordNet and context-based heuristics.
Linking Traditional TV Advertising to Internet Advertising
Authors: Duan Ling-Yu , Wang Jinqiao , Gao Wen , Lu Hanqing , Jin Jesse S. , Xu Changsheng
Published: May 2011

Web-based technologies and interactive TV had rapidly penetrated the advertising mainstream and displace traditional forms of advertising. As most television advertising goes unnoticed, more and more advertisers attempt to communicate their stories across media platforms. The consistent spikes in usage statistics on television, Internet and mobile devices dedicatedly support the three-screen advertising in a cross media environment. Maximizing opportunities for traditional TV ads in collaborating with Internet ads will continuously improve the impact of a mass media campaign. We present the current research efforts in the field of analyzing TV ads as well as linking TV ads with relevant Internet ads. While our relationship with TV remains strong and durable, consuming media from anywhere, at any time, is a crucial part of the much broader picture of consumers utilizing rich media. How to collect correlated advertisements across multiple media platforms such as TV and Internet would see significant growth potential in cross-media marketing campaigns.
Distributed Technologies for Personalized Advertisement Delivery
Authors: Tsatsou Dorothea , Papadopoulos Symeon , Kompatsiaris Ioannis , Davis Paul C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview on personalized advertisement delivery paradigms on the web with a focus on the recommendation of advertisements expressed in or accompanied by text. Different methods of online targeted advertising will be examined, while justifying the need for channeling the appropriate ads to the corresponding users. The aim of the work presented here is to illustrate how the semantic representation of ads and user preferences can achieve optimal and unobtrusive ad delivery. We propose a set of distributed technologies that efficiently handles the lack of textual data in ads by enriching ontological knowledge with statistical contextual data in order to classify ads and generic content under a uniform, machine-understandable vocabulary. This classification is used to construct lightweight semantic user profiles, matched with semantic ad descriptions via fuzzy semantic reasoning. A real world user study, as well as an evaluative exploration of framework alternatives validate the system’s effectiveness to produce high quality ad recommendations.
Enabling Quality of Geospatial Web Services
Authors: Moses Richard Onchaga
Published: May 2011

Following concerted efforts in service chaining and increased maturity of requisite technologies, the potential of geospatial web services in mission-critical applications and business processes is increasingly becoming apparent. Use of geospatial web services in mission-critical applications and business processes nonetheless raises important quality concerns for which guarantees should be provided. As a contribution to the subject of quality of geospatial web services, this chapter identifies and elaborates quality concerns pertinent to geospatial web services and their use in mission critical applications and business processes. The chapter defines a quality model for geospatial web services comprising data quality and quality of service. Quality propagation is outlined and the influence of quality of input data and that of component geospatial web services in a service chain on the quality deliverable end-to-end illustrated. Further, an ontology framework for quality of geospatial web services is presented. The framework comprises an upper ontology, two domain ontologies and potentially many application ontologies. Collectively, the ontologies provide a consistent set of concepts that can be used to unambiguously define and reason about quality of geospatial web services. The chapter also proposes a domain middleware to facilitate efficient and cost-effective quality-aware chaining of geospatial web services. The service design and high-level architecture for the middleware are presented.
Security and Licensing for Geospatial Web Services
Authors: Schäffer Bastian , Gartmann Rüdiger
Published: May 2011

This paper presents an approach for enabling the commercial use of Geospatial Web Services in an on demand and ad-hoc fashion. The main goal is to go beyond classical Role-Based Access Control models in order to support ad-hoc license agreements directly in-process, without any prior offline negotiated agreements being necessary between georesource provider and geoprocessing user for on-demand access. Therefore, a general security and licensing architecture is defined as a transparent layer for Geospatial Web Services. In particular, this chapter focuses on state-of-the-art interface specifications from OGC and defines generic security extensions being applicable to all OGC standards based on OWS Common. The static model with trust relationships between the different components of the architecture in heterogeneous security domains as well the dynamic structure is studied. The presented ideas are verified by a proof-of-concept implementation following a real world scenario.
Using Distributed Semantic Catalogs for Information Discovery on Spatial Data Infrastructures
Authors: Gomes de Andrade Fabio , Leite Fábio Luiz , Baptista Cláudio de Souza
Published: May 2011

Spatial data sharing among both private and public organizations is an old issue. Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) have been proposed to solve data integration and discovery problems. Nonetheless, they can only partially work out these problems, as most of their catalog services are built on keyword based search. This approach always results in low precision on searching results. One of the greatest challenges in spatial integration is to provide the semantics for underlying data and services. This chapter describes a distributed catalog service that uses ontologies to describe underlying information so as to improve searching precision. The proposed catalog service can rewrite and propagate queries to other distributed catalogs to cooperate and exchange information directly without the traditional problems imposed by a centralized architecture.
Web Services for the Global Earth Observing System of Systems
Authors: Percivall George
Published: May 2011

Web services provide users ever better methods to access and use Earth Observation data. Development of a web services architecture for the Global Earth Observing System of Systems was conducted using an evolutionary development process that depended on standards for geospatial web services. Standards for geospatial web services provide interfaces that can be scaled to global deployment. The GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot defined an evolutionary development process and reusable architecting methods for applying web services to a global scale system of systems for Earth observations. ISO/IEC, OGC and other standards are used by the AIP architecture to meet the objectives of GEOSS to enable comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observation of the Earth and also efficient publication and use of the collected information.
Emotional Agent Modeling (EMAM)
Authors: Abu Maria Khulood , Abu Zitar Raed
Published: May 2011

Artificial emotions play an important role at the control level of agent architectures: emotion may lead to reactive or deliberative behaviors, it may intensify an agent’s motivations, it can create new goals (and then sub-goals) and it can set new criteria for the selection of the methods and the plans the agent uses to satisfy its motives. Since artificial emotion is a process that operates at the control level of agent architecture, the behavior of the agent will improve if agent’s emotion process improves (El-Nasr, Ioerger, & Yen, 1998; El-Nasr & Yen, 1998). In this introductory chapter, our aim is to build agents with the mission "to bring life" several applications, such as: information, transaction, education, tutoring, business, entertainment and e-commerce. Therefore we want to develop artificial mechanisms that can play the role emotion plays in natural life. We call these mechanisms “artificial emotions” (Scheutz, 2004). As Damasio (1994) argues, emotions are necessary for problem solving because when we plan our lives, rather than examining every opinion, some possibilities are emotionally blocked off. We will try to investigate if artificial emotional control can improve performance of the agent in some circumstances. We would like to introduce the readers to our model, which is based on both symbolic and computational relations. Simulations are left for another publication. The space available is barely enough to give an overall picture about our model. The main contributions of this proposal model is to argue that emotion learning is a valid approach to improve the behavior of artificial agents, and to present a systematic view of the kinds of emotion learning that can take place, assuming emotion is a process involving assessment, emotion-signal generation, emotion-response and then emotion learning (LeDoux, 1996). To come across as emotional, an agent needs to incorporate a deeper model of personality, sensitivity, mood, feeling and emotions, and, in particular, directly connect these affective concepts. For agents to be believable, the minds of agents should not be restricted to model reasoning, intelligence and knowledge but also emotions, sensitivity, feeling, mood and personality (Nemani & Allan, 2001). We will propose EMAM (Emotional Agent Model) for this purpose. EMAM generates artificial emotion signals, evaluates and assesses events, takes into account the integration of personality, sensitivity, mood, feeling and motivational states then takes proper action or plans for actions (sequence of actions) (LeDoux, 1996; Gratch, 2000).
Game Mods
Authors: Fanning Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

A game mod describes a modification within an existing commercial, computer-based game that has been created by a user. By game modding, a user can participate in the creative process by taking the setting of their favorite game and customizing it for entertainment purposes or to convey information. For years, commercial computer-based game developers committed considerable resources towards preventing users from “hacking” into or “hijacking” their games. Now several computer-based game developers provide editors with their products to encourage users to create content, and to allow educators, for instance, to take advantage of the benefits and production quality of commercial computer games to create customized instruction. This chapter focuses on mainstream, accessible games with straightforward modding tools that can be easily integrated into a learning environment.
Games and Simulations
Authors: Akilli Göknur Kaplan
Published: May 2011

Computer games and simulations are considered powerful tools for learning with an untapped potential for formal educational use. However, the lack of available well-designed research studies about their integration into teaching and learning leaves unanswered questions, despite their more than 30 years of existence in the instructional design movement. Beginning with these issues, this chapter aims to shed light on the definition of games and simulations, their educational use, and some of their effects on learning. Criticisms and new trends in the field of instructional design/development in relation to educational use of games and simulations are briefly reviewed. The chapter intends to provide a brief theoretical framework and a fresh starting point for practitioners in the field who are interested in educational use of games and simulations and their integration into learning environments.
Games, Simulations, and Simulation Games for Learning
Authors: Sauvé Louise , Renaud Lise , Kaufman David
Published: May 2011

The authors of this chapter carried out a systematic review of the literature from 1998 to 2008 with the goal of developing conceptual definitions of game, simulation, and simulation game based on their essential attributes. This chapter first describes the motivation for this project and its methodological approach. It then introduces the databases consulted, and the analysis grid used. Finally, it presents the review results, which suggest a differentiation among games, simulations and simulation games. This analysis is intended to improve the precision of future research studies concerning the effects on learning of games, simulations, and simulation games.
Principles of Educational Digital Game Structure for Classroom Settings
Authors: Baek Youngkyun
Published: May 2011

The scope of learning with games is determined by their genre, characteristics and scenarios, or content. Therefore, the frame of a game containing its type and content somewhat confines the activities of players to learn and to play. Game-based learning adopts much of the same interactional techniques that have been used in traditional instruction. Learning with games includes activities such as ‘learning by practice and feedback’, ‘learning by doing’, ‘learning by making mistakes’, ‘learning by discovery’, and ‘learning by role playing’. Games are adopted for classroom based learning to motivate students, to support main curricular activities, to strengthen what is learned, and to summarize and evaluate what is learned. There is no straightforward guideline on how to use a game effectively in classroom settings. However, the instruction for teaching and learning with games needs to be designed before any other actions are taken.
Simulation in Teaching and Training
Authors: Martens Alke
Published: May 2011

Simulation has always been about learning. For being able to simulate something, a model of a system must be developed. Thus, the perspective of teaching and training with modeling and simulation is necessarily twofold. Sometimes the model builders are the primary learners. They learn by constructing models of scratch, and by changing model parameters. Sometimes the users of the simulation models are the target learners. They learn by interacting with a simulation. Sometimes, the learners are not aware that they interact with a simulation.
The Quality of Service Issue in Virtual Environments
Authors: Morillo Pedro , Orduña Juan Manuel , Fernandez Marcos
Published: May 2011

Networked virtual environments (NVEs) have become a major trend in distributed computing, mainly due to the enormous popularity of multi-player online games in the entertainment industry. Nowadays, NVE systems are considered as the supporting technology for many networked and virtual organizations (NVO) (Singhal & Zyda, 1999), especially to those classified within the field of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), where networked computer can be seen as a standard to provide the technological means to support the team design (Ott & Nastansky, 1997). These highly interactive systems simulate a virtual world where multiple users share the same scenario. The system renders the images of the virtual world that each user would see if he was located at that point in the virtual environment. Each user is represented in the shared virtual environment by an entity called avatar, whose state is controlled by the user through the client computer. Hundreds and even thousands of client computers can be simultaneously connected to the NVE system through different networks, and even through the Internet. NVE systems are currently used in many different applications (Singhal & Zyda, 1999) such as civil and military distributed training (Miller & Thorpe, 1995), collaborative design (Salles, Galli, Almeida et al., 1997) and e-learning (Bouras, Fotakis, & Philopoulos, 1998). Nevertheless, the most extended example of NVE systems are commercial multi-player online game (MOG) environments. These systems use the same simulation techniques that NVE systems do, and they are predicted to make up over 25 percent of local area network (LAN) traffic by 2010 (McCreary & Claffy, 2000).
Video Games Revisited
Authors: Greenfield Patricia M.
Published: May 2011

When Greenfield wrote her chapter on video games in her 1994 landmark book Mind and Media, video games were played primarily in arcades, and popular opinion held that they were at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous technology sure to lead to increased aggression. As a cognitive psychologist and media scholar, she was interested in what was really going on in these games and brought the theoretical rigor and research tools of her discipline to bear on games and their cognitive effects on game players. Part anthropologist and part stranger in a strange land, she studied games and game players and played games herself. Her conclusions at the time were both surprising and prescient; research failed to support the common sense connection of games and violent behavior, and games in fact appeared to have cognitive benefits unseen by those who did not play them. Her conclusions both provided a glimpse of then-current research and laid the foundation for a rigorous empirical study of games and cognition. What is shocking upon rereading this chapter today is how relevant it remains and how many of the research possibilities remain largely unexplored. Her chapter is reprinted here along with her current analysis and thoughts about her original ideas, 25 years later. Its placement as the first chapter in a book dedicated to cognitive perspectives on games is appropriate, both as a reminder of where we come from and how far we have yet to go.
Combining Instructional Design and Game Design
Authors: Byers Celina
Published: May 2011

The desired outcome of instructional game design is to combine the powerful attraction of games and the proven effectiveness of instructional system design (ISD). This combination would have the capacity to focus player concentration on game play and learning the planned content in order to successfully complete the game. Conjoining game design elements (e.g., rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and feedback, conflict and challenge, interaction, representation or story) with ISD elements (e.g., analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) may be the means of reaching the desired outcome. Applying recent findings (e.g., working memory capacity, mental models, memory consolidation) from cognitive psychology may provide further assistance.
Effective Knowledge Development in Game-Based Learning Environments
Authors: Adcock Amy B. , Watson Ginger S. , Morrison Gary R. , Belfore Lee A.
Published: May 2011

Serious games are, at their core, exploratory learning environments designed around the pedagogy and constraints associated with specific knowledge domains. This focus on instructional content is what separates games designed for entertainment from games designed to educate. As instructional designers and educators, the authors want serious game play to provide learners with a deep understanding of the domain, allowing them to use their knowledge in practice to think through multifaceted problems quickly and efficiently. Attention to the design of serious game affordances is essential to facilitating the development of domain knowledge during game play. As such, the authors contend that serious game designers should take advantage of existing prescriptions found in research on knowledge development in exploratory learning environments and tests of adaptive instructional designs in these environments. It is with this intention that the authors use evidence from research in cognitive processes and simulation design to propose design heuristics for serious game affordances to optimize knowledge development in games.
Games, Claims, Genres, and Learning
Authors: Foster Aroutis N. , Mishra Punya
Published: May 2011

We offer a framework for conducting research on games for learning. Building on a survey of the literature on games, we suggest a categorization scheme (physiological and psychological) of the range of claims made for games. Our survey identifies three critical issues in the current scholarship. They are: a lack of authentic, situated research studies; a lack of sensitivity to the pedagogical affordances of different game genres; and a lack of emphasis on the importance of acquiring disciplinary knowledge (i.e., content). We offer the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework as a way to address these concerns and guide future research in this area. We argue that assessment on learning from games needs to consider the specific claims of games, as they interact with genre and content knowledge. Finally, we introduce an ongoing study that utilizes this approach.
Learning Object Model for Online Laboratories
Authors: Hosseini Habib Mir M. , Ling Keck Voon , Duan Bing
Published: May 2011

Online learning environments provide the students access to the course content at any time and from anywhere. Most of the existing e-Learning systems are designed for content-based subjects that deliver course content such as text, images, video, audio, and simulation to the student through the Internet. In recent years, several online or remote laboratories have been developed to bring the e-Learning concept to the lab-based courses. These systems, mainly web-based, allow students to conduct real laboratory experiment, as opposed to computer simulations, from anywhere and at any time. In this chapter, we introduce a model for providing lab-based lessons as Learning Objects. The Learning Object model has been widely used in content-based e-Learning systems. We then propose a learning management system framework which helps students to remotely access the lab-based learning objects. We will also present some experimental results and implementations.
Enhancing Tertiary Healthcare Education through 3D MUVE-Based Simulations
Authors: Miller Charlynn , Lee Mark J. W. , Rogers Luke , Meredith Grant , Peck Blake
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses specifically on the use of three-dimensional multi-user virtual environments (3D MUVEs) for simulation-based teaching and learning in tertiary-level healthcare education. It draws on a broad range of extant research conducted over the past three decades, synthesizing this with newer developments and examples that have emerged since the advent and proliferation of the “3D Web.” The chapter adopts and advocates a research-informed approach to surveying and examining current initiatives and future directions, backed by relevant literature in the areas of online learning, constructivist learning theory, and simulations. Both opportunities and challenges are discussed, with the aim of making a contribution to the development of best practice in the field.
Online Role-Based Learning Designs for Teaching Complex Decision Making
Authors: McLaughlan Robert , Kirkpatrick Denise
Published: May 2011

Decision-making processes in relation to complex natural resources require recognition and accommodation of diverse and competing perspectives in a decision context that is frequently ill defined and fraught with value judgements. Online environments can be used to develop students’ skills and understanding of these issues. The focus of this chapter is the learning design of an online roleplay-simulation (Mekong e-Sim) which was created to develop learning experiences about these types of issues across multiple institutions with students from the disciplines of engineering and the humanities. The key stages of interaction within the e-Sim are described and linked to student tasks, resources, and supports. The evolution and adaptation of the learning design used in the Mekong e-Sim has been described. Eight key challenges in the design and implementation of online roleplay-simulations have been identified. In this chapter, we have tried to address a gap in the online role-based collaborative learning literature about the design of these activities, linkages between pedagogy and information and communication technology, and how to exploit these linkages for effective learning.
Simulation Environments as Vocational and Training Tools
Authors: Abu-Taieh Evon M. O. , Abutayeh Jeihan M.O.
Published: May 2011

This paper investigates over 50 simulation packages and simulators used in vocational and course training in many fields. Accordingly, the 50 simulation packages were categorized in the following fields: Pilot Training, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Environment and ecological systems, Cosmology and astrophysics, Medicine and Surgery training, Cosmetic surgery, Engineering – Civil engineering, architecture, interior design, Computer and communication networks, Stock Market Analysis, Financial Models and Marketing, Military Training and Virtual Reality. The incentive for using simulation environments as vocational and training tools is to save live, money and effort.
Autonomous Specialization in a Multi-Robot System using Evolving Neural Networks
Authors: Goka Masanori , Ohkura Kazuhiro
Published: May 2011

Artificial evolution has been considered as a promising approach for coordinating the controller of an autonomous mobile robot. However, it is not yet established whether artificial evolution is also effective in generating collective behaviour in a multi-robot system (MRS). In this study, two types of evolving artificial neural networks are utilized in an MRS. The first is the evolving continuous time recurrent neural network, which is used in the most conventional method, and the second is the topology and weight evolving artificial neural networks, which is used in the noble method. Several computer simulations are conducted in order to examine how the artificial evolution can be used to coordinate the collective behaviour in an MRS.
Creative Remixing and Digital Learning
Authors: Hobbs Renee , Rowe Jonelle
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores how media literacy education may continue to be responsive and relevant to the continually changing nature of popular culture through the development of innovative online multimedia educational programs. Because pre-adolescent and adolescent girls are actively involved in the consumption of popular music, competitive performance television programs like American Idol as well as online social networks, it is important to examine the constructed nature of these new types of messages and experiences. My Pop Studio (www.mypopstudio.com), a creative play experience for girls ages 9 to 14, was developed by the authors to address the need for media literacy skills among this group. We present a model for assessing the impact of the program on learning that incorporates the dimensions of pleasure, a sense of mastery, participation in an online community, media literacy skills, and other outcomes. Online games that use creative remixing techniques may promote metacognition, reflection, and critical analysis skills. Girls need opportunities to strengthen critical thinking skills about mass media and popular culture and the use of online learning environments may support the development of adolescents’ media literacy skills.
Networked Virtual Environments
Authors: Bouras Christos J , Giannaka Eri , Tsiatsos Thrasyvoulos
Published: May 2011

The inherent need of humans to communicate acted as the moving force for the formation, expansion and wide adoption of the Internet. The need for communication and collaboration from distance resulted in the evolution of the primitive services originally offered (i.e., e-mail) to advanced applications, which offer a high sense of realism to the user, forming a reality, the so-called virtual reality. Even though virtual environments were first introduced as stand alone applications, which could run on a single computer, the promising functionalities of this new form of representation and interaction as well as the familiarity of the users with it drew increased research interest. This fact resulted in virtual reality to be viewed as the solution for achieving communication and collaboration between scattered users, in various areas of interest, such as entertainment, learning, training, etc. This led to the creation of Networked Virtual Environments (NVEs). In particular, NVEs were first introduced in the 1980’s and the first areas that exploited the newborn technology were military and entertainment applications. In particular, the U.S Department of Defense played an important role to the direction of applications, protocols and architectures for this promising technology. In the 1990’s, where academic networks became a reality, NVEs drew increased academic research interest and a variety of applications and platforms were developed. In particular, the academic community has reinvented, extended, and documented what the Department of Defense has done. The evolution and the results extracted by research on this field were widely adopted from multiple areas of interest, with main representative the entertainment area. Since 2000, where virtual reality technology, processing power of computers and the network were significantly improved, a wide variety of systems, protocols and applications were developed. In particular, the familiarization the end users with the Internet and the promising advantages and opportunities of Virtual Reality contributed to currently view NVEs as an effective tool for supporting communication and collaboration of scattered users. Currently, the application areas of NVEs have been widely expanded and their use can be found at military and industrial team training, collaborative design and engineering, multiplayer games (Zyda, 2005), mobile entertainment, virtual shopping malls, online tradeshows and conferences, remote customer support, distance learning and training, science, arts, industry, etc. Summarizing, NVEs nowadays tend to consist a powerful tool for communication and collaboration, with applications ranging from entertainment and teleshopping to engineering and medicine. To this direction, in the recent years important active research on this topic in both academic and industrial research is taking place.