bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effective Implementation of Learner Response Systems
Authors: Bannister Diana , Hutchinson Andrew , Sargeant Helen
Published: May 2010

This chapter is based upon research from the REVEAL Project - a REVIEW of Electronic Voting and an Evaluation of Uses within Assessment and Learning. The REVEAL Project was a two-year development and research project across the UK funded by the Bowland Charitable Trust, (UK) that focused upon understanding the effective use of one of Promethean’s Learner Response Systems (LRS) called Activote, across seventy primary and secondary schools within eleven local authorities. Led by the Learning Technologies Team, Midlands Leadership Centre, University of Wolverhampton, the project aimed to define and disseminate best practice in the use of Learner Response Systems, highlighting key uses and creative ways of working. This chapter summarizes the key themes and findings that have emerged from the project, providing an overview for teachers and practitioners including a suggested model of implementation for the Learner Response Systems. The work from this project would be beneficial to developments on classroom interaction and collaboration as well as teacher training and related continuing professional development for the effective use of interactive technologies within learning and teaching.
Cognitive Load and Empathy in Serious Games
Authors: Huang Wen-Hao  David , Tettegah Sharon
Published: May 2010

The design of serious games does not always address players’ empathy in relation to their cognitive capacity within a demanding game environment. Consequently players with inherent limitations, such as limited working memory, might feel emotionally drained when the level of empathy required by a game hinders their ability to cognitively attain the desired learning outcome. Because of the increasing attention being given to serious games that aim to develop players’ empathy along with their cognitive competencies, such as Darfur is Dying (Ruiz et al., 2006), there is a need to investigate the empirical relationship between players’ cognitive load and empathy development capacity during serious game play. Therefore this chapter examines cognitive load theory and empirical work on empathy development to propose a conceptual framework to inform the research and design of serious games that have empathy as part of the learning outcomes. Future research should focus on implementation and empirical validation of the proposed framework.
Effective Knowledge Development in Game-Based Learning Environments
Authors: Adcock Amy B. , Watson Ginger S. , Morrison Gary R. , Belfore Lee A.
Published: May 2010

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.
Persuasive Play
Authors: Malliet Steven , Martens Hans
Published: May 2010

Little research has examined the underlying psychological mechanisms of persuasive play. The purpose of the current study is to examine the explanatory potential of information processing approaches in a game-based learning context. Starting from the elaboration likelihood model, the authors theoretically develop a three-step model to explain how individual player characteristics (e.g., game preference) influence cognitive learning and attitude change through mediating variables like player motivations (e.g., personal involvement) and player evaluations (e.g., perceived realism). This model is empirically tested through a secondary analysis of survey data collected from Flemish adolescents (N = 538) in the 5th and 6th grade of secondary education. On the whole, the authors’ results emphasize the importance of information processing variables as predictors of cognitive and attitudinal learning outcomes.
Citizen Science
Authors: Gaydos Matt , Squire Kurt
Published: May 2010

In order to adapt to the educational demands of an increasingly digitized and globalized society, reformers have pointed toward games and their communities as potential models for what 21st-century educational systems might look like. As educational game research develops as a field, the need for design frameworks that leverage contemporary perspectives on education, learning, and established commercial game design techniques grows. In this chapter, the authors briefly describe current educational demands that highlight a shift away from content-focused curriculum and outline the design process used to make the game Citizen Science, a game to teach civic science literacy. By providing insight into the process of design, the authors hope to illuminate the relationship between theory and its enactment.
Essentials for Developing a Prosperous Knowledge City
Authors: Reffat Rabee M.
Published: May 2010

The essentials and challenges of the 21st century’s economy include knowledge and innovation. Both are the key in order for a city to calmly race forward and safely ride out in the ever changing global economy. Knowledge and innovation could be viewed as the true hard currency of the future and corner stones in developing a prosperous knowledge city. This chapter introduces a model for developing a prosperous knowledge city through knowledge and innovation. The model consists of five components that are most important for cities pursuing towards prosperous Knowledge Cities including: developing creative environments, knowledge creation, skills, collaboration/partnership, and leadership. The chapter focuses on articulating the primary components of the proposed model and identifying how they will contribute to achieving prosperous Knowledge Cities and innovative knowledge regions.
Singapore
Authors: Wong Caroline
Published: May 2010

Singapore’s commitment to knowledge-based economy (KBE) development in the past decade has enabled it to make a rapid and successful transition to knowledge-based city. This chapter focuses on how Singapore government has forged an environment that is conducive to innovations, new discoveries and the creation of new knowledge. In the process, Singapore has emerged as one of the top knowledge-based cities in the world through various frameworks used globally. In this period, Singapore strengthened its engagement with the global knowledge economy developing a creative industries development strategy which endorsed the importance of creative industries, aiming to position Singapore as a ‘new Asian creative hub’ (ERC Report, 2002, p.8). The Singapore experience represents one of few examples of how knowledge can become the driving force of economic growth and transformation. It provides valuable insight into how public policies have successfully negotiated the current global network economy to suit economic changes. Although Singapore’s developmental model has created benefits in many ways, it had also negatively constrained its development particularly in the area of knowledge creation and application to entrepreneurship and creativity.
Israel
Authors: Pasher Edna , Shachar Sigal
Published: May 2010

This chapter focuses on knowledge based development in regions, based on Israel’s experience. Israel, a small country in the Middle East, is a very unique case of a knowledge based region. The authors have extensively studied Israel as an innovative region in different contexts. Since 1998 they published three Israel Intellectual Capital Reports for the Israeli Government. During 2007 the authors led a study for the European Commission focused on regional innovation systems. This study has aimed to measure the effectiveness of participation in ICT (Information Communication Technology) EU projects on the EU innovation system at the regional level. Israel was selected as a regional best practice though it is a nation state and not a region since it is as small as a region, and since the authors had good relevant data from the previous IC reports and since Israel is consistently recognized as one of the most innovative countries in the world. The authors discovered that an Intellectual Capital audit is a powerful and useful framework to understand the effectiveness of regional innovation systems, offering the possibility for evidence-based future policies rather than retrospective performance analyses. This chapter demonstrates the case of Israel as a knowledge-based region, as well as critical success factors for regional innovation systems.
Introduction to Data Mining Methodology to Investigate Health Outcomes
Authors: Cerrito Patricia
Published: May 2010

In this case, we provide some basic information concerning the statistical methods used throughout this text. These methods include visualization by kernel density estimation, regression and predictive models, time series, and text analysis. This case is not intended to provide extensive information concerning these techniques; references are provided for the interested reader who wants to follow up on the methodology. Some of the methodology is fairly well known while the predictive modeling and text analysis are relatively recent. One of the primary visualization techniques used is that of kernel density estimation. Since the patient base is relatively heterogeneous, we cannot assume that any health outcome is normally distributed. Kernel density estimation can find the entire population distribution so that we no longer have to rely upon averages and can relate the results more to individuals.
Data Mining and Analysis of Lung Cancer
Authors: Tang Guoxin
Published: May 2010

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the world, with more than 1.3 million deaths worldwide per year. However, because of a lack of effective tools to diagnose lung cancer, more than half of all cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when surgical resection is unlikely to be feasible. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between patient outcomes and conditions of the patients undergoing different treatments for lung cancer and to develop models to estimate the population burden, the cost of cancer, and to help physicians and patients determine appropriate treatment in clinical decision-making. We use a national database, and also claim data to investigate treatments for lung cancer.
Analyzing Problems of Childhood and Adolescence
Authors: Cerrito Patricia , Sreepada Aparna
Published: May 2010

The study presents the analysis of the results of a health survey that focuses on the health risk behaviors and attitudes in adolescents that result in teenage obesity. Predictive models are built and charts are plotted to map variations in childhood physical health with respect to their weight behavior and to compare the impact of each weight control plan. The analysis provides many useful observations and suggestions that can be helpful in developing child health policies. We also investigate another aspect of child health by examining the severity of immediate risk from disease versus the immediate risk from childhood vaccination by comparing mortality rates from the disease to the mortality rates from the vaccination. Results show that for some individuals, the risk from the vaccine can be higher than the risk from the disease. Therefore, individual risk should be taken into consideration rather than uniform risk across the population.
E-Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Chat Environments
Authors: Oehl Michael , Pfister Hans-Rüdiger
Published: May 2010

Chat-based tools are often used for computer-supported net-based learning and knowledge construction. However, due to its media characteristics, chat-based communication frequently suffers from deficits due to incoherence of contributions, lack of coordination as well as related problems of awareness. These shortcomings of conventional chat-based communication pose severe problems for online knowledge construction and learning. We claim that these restrictions can be overcome and propose that extending the medium ‘chat’ with appropriate educational and conversational strategies embedded in the chat environment can actually improve the learning discourse and thus support collaborative knowledge construction. Relevant approaches and recent research will be reviewed. Conclusions for the design of chat-based CSCL environments will be discussed.
Collaborative Knowledge Construction
Authors: Tscholl Michael , Dowell John
Published: May 2010

In discussions centered on jointly solving a problem or case, significant construction of new knowledge can occur. Several theoretical frameworks have been invoked to explain the productivity of dialogues, but questions about the relative or unique impact on learning of the multiple facets of dialogues remain. We present an analytical approach that studies small-group discussions from the perspective of joint cognitive processing of knowledge and information. We illustrate our approach through a microanalysis of two discussions that were held in a real-world educational setting. We show that knowledge construction can overlap significantly with critical argumentation, but may occur even in its absence. On the basis of these findings we propose a refined definition of co-construction, and a view of the inter-relations between interaction and co-construction. We discuss the implications of our findings for the analysis and evaluation of differences in knowledge co-construction in different environments.
Transactive Memory and Technology in Work Groups and Organizations
Authors: Moreland Richard L. , Swanenburg Kristina L. , Flagg Jeffrey J. , Fetterman Joshua D.
Published: May 2010

Transactive memory is a shared awareness among individuals about who knows what. Many studies show that work groups can develop transactive memory systems, and that groups whose systems are stronger perform better. Although organizations have been studied less often in this regard, the available evidence suggests that they can develop transactive memory systems too, and that stronger systems improve their performance as well. Technology can be a tool for strengthening transactive memory systems in work groups and (especially) organizations. Unfortunately, workers often resist using such technology, which limits its effectiveness. Several explanations for that resistance are considered, but the major problem is that workers simply prefer to locate and share their knowledge using interpersonal rather than technological methods. Instead of attempting to overcome this preference, it might be wiser for organizations to explore ways to strengthen interpersonal methods of sharing knowledge among workers.
Effective Educational Games
Authors: Sauvé Louise
Published: May 2010

This chapter argues that although educational games have not always been taken seriously, they are forms of play that offer strong interactive communication support and should be a component of 21st century education. It reports on a systematic review of studies highlighting the game elements that support motivation and learning: repetition, learning content segmentation, feedback, challenge and competition, active participation in learning, teamwork, and interaction, and illustrates these mechanisms with examples.
Gender and Digital Gameplay
Authors: Jenson Jennifer , de Castell Suzanne
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we take a fresh look at gender and digital gameplay. Rather than repeat the stereotypes of who plays what, how, and why, we show how our own preconceptions about gender keep surprises at bay, reinforcing, instead, oft-cited ideologies. As researchers, we are entitled to be surprised by our findings. Serious interpretive work, in conjunction with alternative methodologies, promise very different findings from the expected, and accepted, assumptions about women and girls and their involvement in gameplay.
The Efficacy of Games and Simulations for Learning
Authors: Sauvé Louise , Renaud Lise , Kaufman David
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents a synthesis of the literature (1998-2008) on the efficacy of games and simulations for learning. Based on definitions and sets of essential attributes for games and for simulations, the authors examine the contributions of each to knowledge structuring and the development of problem solving skills. Noting that games and simulations have positive learning outcomes in various situations, the authors present variables to measure the knowledge and skills developed by learners who use games and simulations. This work is intended to contribute to the development of an analytical framework for future studies on the efficacy of games and simulations for learning.
Games for Children with Long-Term Health Problems
Authors: Watters Carolyn , Oore Sageev , Kharrazi Hadi
Published: May 2010

Games are designed to generate a high level of motivation and engagement in their players. Game players often display intensity in their interaction with and devotion (compulsion) to a game and play the game over and over. In this chapter, the authors present a framework of motivational constructs found in games that are applicable to the design of interactive health software. The framework includes four dimensions of constructs: control, competency, context, and engagement. The authors developed a platform supporting a variety of games that include these constructs, and through two focus groups we examined the impact of these interactions with children with long-term health disorders. The goal is to determine if games developed with health-related goals provide an opportunity to engage children over time with some responsibility for their own condition; that is, can we build games that function like personalized coaches?
Initial Analysis for Creating a Generic Online Educational Game Shell
Authors: Sauvé Louise , Renaud Lise , Gauvin Mathieu
Published: May 2010

As the first of five chapters describing the development process for a generic educational game shell, this chapter discusses how the authors analyzed 40 computerized educational games to determine the main characteristics built into digital educational games. The analysis allowed comparison of game attributes with the pedagogic and technical needs of target populations (i.e., primary and secondary school teachers and students) and their learning contexts.
An Adventure in Usability
Authors: Blasko-Drabik Holly , Smoker Tim , Murphy Carrie E.
Published: May 2010

Usability testing can be used as an effective tool throughout the design and development of a serious game. User responses to the usability measures can help designers meet the challenges of creating a game that is educational, playable, and entertaining. However, there are a multitude of measures to choose from, some empirically created and tested and some created by developers to test a single game. This chapter will provide a broad overview of usability, two major methods of conducting usability testing and how usability can be applied to testing, and more importantly, improving games. Two possible usability measures are discussed from a game evaluation standpoint and compared highlighting on which aspects of usability heuristics they focus.
Application of behavioral theory in computer game design for health behavior change
Authors: Shegog Ross
Published: May 2010

Serious games are gaining profile as a novel strategy to impact health behavior change in the service of national health objectives. Research has indicated that many evidence-based programs are effective because they are grounded in behavioral and motivational theories and models such as the PRECEDE model, the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Transtheoretical Model, Attribution Theory, and the ARCS model. Such theories assist in understanding health behavior problems, developing salient interventions, and evaluating their effectiveness. It follows, therefore, that serious games can be made optimally effective in changing health behavior if they are also informed by these theories. A successful intervention development framework (Intervention Mapping) provides a means to enable game developers to use theory to inform the design of effective games for health. This chapter describes useful theories and models for health game design, introduces the intervention mapping process, and describes a case study of a theory- and empirically-based serious health game intervention that has used these approaches and has been rigorously evaluated.
Dynamic Discovery of Fuzzy Functional Dependencies Using Partitions
Authors: Wang Shyue-Liang , Shen Ju-Wen , Hong Tuzng-Pei
Published: May 2010

Discovery of functional dependencies (FDs) from relational databases has been identified as an important database analysis technique. Various mining techniques have been proposed in recent years to deal with crisp and static data. However, few have emphasized on fuzzy data and also considered the dynamic nature that data may change all the time. In this work, the authors propose a partition-based incremental data mining algorithm to discover fuzzy functional dependencies from similarity-based fuzzy relational databases when new sets of tuples are added. Based on the concept of tuple partitions and the monotonicity of fuzzy functional dependencies, we avoid re-scanning of the database and thereby reduce computation time. An example demonstrating the proposed algorithm is given. Computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is analyzed. Comparison with pair-wise comparison-based incremental mining algorithm (Wang, Shen & Hong, 2000) is presented. It is shown that with certain space requirement, partition-based approach is more time efficient than pair-wise approach in the discovery of fuzzy functional dependencies dynamically.
An Intelligent Data Mining System Through Integration Of Electromagnetism-Like Mechanism And Fuzzy Neural Network
Authors: Wu Peitsang , Hung Yung-Yao
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, a meta-heuristic algorithm (Electromagnetism-like Mechanism, EM) for global optimization is introduced. The Electromagnetism-like mechanism simulates the electromagnetism theory of physics by considering each sample point to be an electrical charge. The EM algorithm utilizes an attraction-repulsion mechanism to move the sample points towards the optimum. The electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) can be used as a stand-alone approach or as an accompanying algorithm for other methods. Besides, the electromagnetism-like mechanism is not easily trapped into local optimum. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is using the electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) to develop an electromagnetism-like mechanism based fuzzy neural network (EMFNN), and employ the EMFNN to train fuzzy if-then rules.
Network Based Fusion of Global and Local Information in Time Series Prediction with the Use of Soft-Computing Techniques
Authors: Su Shun-Feng , Li Sou-Horng
Published: May 2010

Forecasting data from a time series is to make predictions for the future from available data. Thus, such a problem can be viewed as a traditional data mining problem because it is to extract rules for prediction from available data. There are two kinds of forecasting approaches. Most traditional forecasting approaches are based on all available data including the nearest data and far away data with respect to the time. These approaches are referred to as the global prediction scheme in our study. On the other hand, there also exist some prediction approaches that only construct their prediction model based on the most recent data. Such approaches are referred to as the local prediction schemes. Those local prediction approaches seem to have good prediction ability in some cases but due to their local characteristics, they usually fail in general for long term prediction. In this chapter, the authors shall detail those ideas and use several commonly used models, especially those model free estimators, such as neural networks, fuzzy systems, grey systems, etc., to explain their effects. Another issues discussed in the chapter is about multi-step predictions. From the author’s study, it can be found that those often-used global prediction schemes can have fair performance in both one-step-ahead predictions and multi-step predictions. On the other hand, good local prediction schemes can have better performance in the one-step-ahead prediction when compared to those global prediction schemes, but usually have awful performance for multi-step predictions. In this chapter, the authors shall introduce several approaches of combining local and global prediction results to improve the prediction performance.
Computational Intelligence Clustering for Dynamic Video Watermarking
Authors: Lin Daw-Tung , Liao Guan-Jhih
Published: May 2010

Multimedia products today broadcast over networks and are typically compressed and transmitted from host to client. Adding watermarks to the compressed domain ensures content integrity, protects copyright, and can be detected without quality degradation. Hence, watermarking video data in the compressed domain is important. This work develops a novel video watermarking system with the aid of computational intelligence, in which motion vectors define watermark locations. The number of watermark bits varies dynamically among frames. The current study employs several intelligent computing methods including K-means clustering, Fuzzy C-means clustering, Swarm intelligent clustering and Swarm intelligence based Fuzzy C-means (SI-FCM) clustering to determine the motion vectors and watermark positions. This study also discusses and compares the advantages and disadvantages among various approaches. The proposed scheme has three merits. First, the proposed watermarking strategy does not involve manually setting watermark bit locations. Second, the number of embedded motion vector clusters differs according to the motion characteristics of each frame. Third, the proposed special exclusive-OR operation closely relates the watermark bit to the video context, preventing attackers from discovering the real watermark length of each frame. Therefore, the proposed approach is highly secure. The proposed watermark-extracting scheme immediately detects forgery through changes in motion vectors. Experimental results reveal that the watermarked video retains satisfactory quality with very low degradation.
Learning Verifiable Ensembles for Classification Problems with High Safety Requirements
Authors: Nusser Sebastian , Otte Clemens , Hauptmann Werner , Kruse Rudolf
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes a machine learning approach for classification problems in safety-related domains. The proposed method is based on ensembles of low-dimensional submodels. The usage of low-dimensional submodels enables the domain experts to understand the mechanisms of the learned solution. Due to the limited dimensionality of the submodels each individual model can be visualized and can thus be interpreted and validated according to the domain knowledge. The ensemble of all submodels overcomes the limited predictive performance of each single submodel while the overall solution remains interpretable and verifiable. By different examples from real-world applications the authors will show that their classification approach is applicable to a wide range of classification problems in the field of safety-related applications - ranging from decision support systems over plant monitoring and diagnosis systems to control tasks with very high safety requirements.
Client/Server Standardization "Uniform Case"
Authors: van Wessel Robert
Published: May 2010

It is often said that the use of standards in IT saves money. An example is given by Nash (2001) which shows that annual end-user support at a company using a standardized IT environment costs $5400 per workstation, compared with $7400 at a company that uses a mix of technologies. As part of in depth case study research, this type of observations will be further substantiated. Multiple case studies will be carried out, enabling both literal and theoretical replications. The first one is about product standardization of both back-end and front-end of a desktop environment. As described in Chapter 2, Ross (2003) argued that in the ‘standardized technology architecture stage’, with lead-times that range from 2 to 6 years, IT resources are put in a shared infrastructure allowing cost savings by e.g. significant reduction in the number of vendor packages that offer similar functionalities. This also increases IT maintainability, reliability and security.
A Picture and a Thousand Words
Authors: Farrell Robert , Danis Catalina , Erickson Thomas , Ellis Jason , Christensen Jim , Bailey Mark , Kellogg Wendy A.
Published: May 2010

Mobile communication is a key enabler for economic, social and political change in developing regions of the world. Today’s internet-enabled multimedia and touch-screen mobile smartphones could become the future platform for delivering information and communication technology (ICT) to these regions. We describe Picture Talk, a smartphone application framework designed to facilitate local information sharing in regions with sparse Internet connectivity, low literacy rates and having users with little prior experience with information technology. We argue that engaging citizens in developing regions in information creation and information sharing leverages peoples’ existing social networks to facilitate transmission of critical information, exchange of ideas, and distributed problem solving. All of which can promote economic development.
A J2ME Mobile Application for Normal and Abnormal ECG Rhythm Analysis
Authors: Fang Qiang , Huang Xiaoyun , Lee Shuenn-Yuh
Published: May 2010

Cardiovascular disease has become the world’s number one killer. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease has caused many unnecessary premature deaths and imposed substantial burden to healthcare systems. Many continuous heart monitoring systems have been proposed with the aim to issue early stage warning for a possible forthcoming heart attack by utilising advanced information and communication technologies. Nevertheless, there is still a significant gap between the usability and reliability of those systems and the requirements from medical practitioners. This chapter presents our recent development of a mobile phone based ECG real-time intelligent analysis system. By fully employing the computational power of a mobile phone, the system provides local intelligence for ECG R wave detection, PQRS signature identification and segmentation, and arrhythmia classification. Because those processing can be performed on realtime, an early status warning can be issued promptly to initiate further rescue procedures. As an application of e-commerce in healthcare, a telecaridiology system like this is of great significance to support chronic cardiovascular disease patients.
Scripting Mobile Devices with AmbientTalk
Authors: Boix Elisa Gonzalez , Scholliers Christophe , Carreton Andoni Lombide , Van Cutsem Tom , Mostinckx Stijn , De Meuter Wolfgang
Published: May 2010

This chapter is about programming mobile handheld devices with a scripting language called AmbientTalk. This language has been designed with the goal of easily prototyping applications that run on mobile devices interacting via a wireless network. Programming such applications traditionally involves interacting with low-level APIs in order to perform basic tasks like service discovery and communicating with remote services. We introduce the AmbientTalk scripting language, its implementation on top of the Java Micro edition platform (J2ME) and finally introduce Urbiflock, a pervasive social application for handheld devices developed entirely in AmbientTalk.
A Comparative Review of Handheld Devices Internet Connectivity Revenue Models to Support Mobile Learning
Authors: Olla Phillip
Published: May 2010

This chapter provides a survey of mobile broadband revenue models deployed by mobile network operators in the UK, USA and Canada. The survey of exiting revenue models highlights the technology adoption trends for handheld devices by consumers and identifies the future impact of these trends on the network operators and content providers with respect to educational content. This article focuses on innovations in consumer propositions that can support the Mobile Learning phenomenon. The study reveals that the various operators aim to differentiate their consumer propositions by branding, technology devices, and flexible pricing structures. From the results of the study it is clear that the current continuous convergence of multimedia applications, information services, digital networks, and devices will likely lead to an increase in adoption of Mobile learning systems in the UK, Canada and the USA especially as the price per bandwidth drops and new innovative connectivity options are deployed such as built in mobile broadband processor in laptops and consumer devices.
The Anatomy of Web 2.0
Authors: Bellucci A. , Malizia A. , Diaz P.
Published: May 2010

In the last 20 years we have assisted to the birth and growth of the World Wide Web. It rapidly changed from a tool conceived for scientists at CERN, into a global information network, populated by billions of users. Currently, we are experiencing another change within the Web paradigm, where the Web is viewed as a read/write tool enhancing users’ collaboration and participation in information creation, consuming and sharing. Web 2.0, intended as a second step in the Web’s evolution, is a complex topic and therefore it is difficult to clearly define it. It concerns viewing the Web as a platform for the development of Rich Internet Applications that go beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0. It lies on the ideas of 1) users’ participation; 2) users production of content and; 3) data remixability, so that Web applications and services can be employed as social tools allowing mass users collaboration and information sharing. The authors describe in this chapter, the main concepts behind the Web 2.0 paradigm, together with the technological aspects and design patterns that demonstrate this new way to use and perceive the Web. In second stance, they highlight future directions and research trends which are leading to the next Web’s evolution phase: the Social Semantic Web.
E-Governance Survey on Municipalities Web Sites
Authors: Rodríguez Rocío Andrea , Giulianelli Daniel Alberto , Vera Pablo Martín , Trigueros Artemisa , Marko Isabel Beatriz
Published: May 2010

E-Governance aims to provide high quality of government for citizens. It covers services, information delivery and interactive community / government communication. This goal can be achieved by adopting the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) tools in the government web site´s design and contents. This communication channel allows a redefinition of the traditional role played by each one of the actors of the relation. The government as provider of: services, information, transparency and interactive communication. The citizens acting as active subjects with their government, using services, receiving information, controlling the government´s decisions and returning feedback to them. This feedback includes opinions, complaints and suggestions delivered by the web sites’ interactive tools. This research surveyed if the implementation of ICT tools regarding national and international norms and regulations for web sites development and content, increases the fulfillment of the key concepts of e-governance: e-democracy, e-services, e-transparency and active and passive communication. 30 local government web sites of Argentine were analyzed by checking if they implemented the ICT tools expressed by the seven basic concepts of design and contents: Navigability, Veracity, Friendliness, Functionality, Accessibility, Usability and Information through 152 weighed aspects that fulfill these seven concepts. The analysis of the score obtained by the web sites showed their e-governance development level and what aspects they have to implement to improve e-governance quality.
FriendFreight
Authors: Outram Christine , Calabrese Francesco
Published: May 2010

The relatively new ability to rapidly transfer digital information to people as they move through cities opens up exciting possibilities for services that alleviate some of the issues that dense urban centers face. This chapter examines the potential for one such service – named FriendFreight – to reduce some of the negative effects of goods transportation in cities. FriendFreight operates through exploiting the real-time location information of people and goods and the ability for members of a community to deliver items for others while moving through the city themselves. It aims to lower the number of ‘unnecessary trips’ that people make to obtain some small goods - groceries, books, documents and dry-cleaning - and reduce what we define as travel demand in the city. However, the success of such a service relies not only on accessing real time location information but also on an understanding of how and why people might deliver goods for each other. Thus, this chapter explores two things: how incentives, trust and reciprocity can be built in services that harness digital information; and how the feasibility of a service like FriendFreight can be established given a particular real world context - Copenhagen and bicycles. Through this, the authors show that access to real-time location and movement information can open up innovative ways of tackling problems in cities from the ‘bottom-up’ but that essential to this is the nurturing of trust between users of the service. They also demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in travel demand through using FriendFreight for certain types of goods in the context of Copenhagen.
Attribute Hierarchies to Tally Fish
Authors: Mitrakas Andreas
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents a model that addresses some shortcomings associated with limitations in the way that electronic identities are used in an application environment. This model, Snowflake, allows the exchange of validation data in order to establish trust when identity attributes are used in applications. Snowflake leverages upon groups of validation authorities as electronic intermediaries to facilitate application interoperation. The application area of choice is the electronic reporting of fish catches by a vessel’s master in line with the European Union legal framework. Grouping together the services of multiple validation authorities maximises the utilisation of resources available especially in environments that do not shy out in sharing resources and data such and the electronic fish logbook provides a good platform in this respect.
Social Interaction Process Analysis of Bengalis' on Orkut®
Authors: Das Anupam
Published: May 2010

This study investigates what interlocutors do when they exchange messages on the social network site (SNS) Orkut® and how they do it. In so doing, the study examines the interplay of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) acts, interaction processes, and frequency of message exchange in text-based dyadic interactions of diasporic Bengalis on Orkut®. A total of 48 dyadic interactions were analyzed. The subjects were observed to have produced mostly bona-fide positive socioemotional content, primarily through ‘greet’ and ‘claim’. It was also noticed that dyads who exchange utterances more than global average, produce more task-oriented content than those who exchange utterances less than global average. Task communication is achieved primarily through ‘inquire’ and ‘inform’. ‘Bona-fide positive socioemotional’ content is argued to be providing users’ socio-emotional needs, while ‘task’ communication helps them accumulate social capital. The findings contribute to CMC, pragmatics, and social psychology. It further helps common people understand the benefits of interaction on SNSs.
Membership and Activity in an Online Parenting Community
Authors: Pedersen Sarah , Smithson Janet
Published: May 2010

Recent studies have shown that British women, especially mothers of young children, spend a particularly large amount of time online. Many are logging on to parenting websites. This chapter investigates Mumsnet, a large British parenting site, and evaluates how members use and conceptualise the site. A combined method of a questionnaire survey with open and closed-ended questions, and discourse analysis of discussions on the site, was used to explore this. The analysis considers how membership and expertise are displayed and acknowledged in online groups, how people view their involvement with the site, how online and “real life” are segregated or integrated in various ways. The positioning of “lurkers” (those who read but do not post) and of “trolls” (those who post false information or fake identities) is explored within the context of how power is reproduced and challenged in the type of discourse produced in an online discussion forum.
The Dynamics of Language Mixing in Nigerian Digital Communication
Authors: Taiwo Rotimi
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines language mixing in two text-based asynchronous modes – internet forums and text messages. While the latter is limited in space, thereby encouraging the use of stylistic short forms, the former presents the participant with unlimited space for expression. This major difference affects the extent to which language mixing is practiced in the two forms of communication. Language mixing in text messages is constrained mainly by cultural factors - greetings and prayers form the bulk of indigenous language expressions embedded in English, the matrix language. Language play is another factor that motivates people to mix languages in text messages. In internet forums, language mixing manifests as a result of the apparent mutual linguistic influence that English and the Nigerian languages have on each other. Conscious and deliberate language mixing reflects most prominently the need by participants for identity construction in their discourse. Features of Nigerianisms coupled with language mixing gives the communication in both SMS and internet forum the distinct Nigerian flavor.
Online Orthographies
Authors: Themistocleous Christiana
Published: May 2010

The representation in online environments of non-Roman-based script languages has proved problematic. During the initial years of Computer-mediated Communication, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange character set only supported Roman-alphabetic languages. The solution for speakers of languages written in non-Roman scripts was to employ unconventional writing systems, in an effort to represent their native language in online discourse. The first aim of this chapter is to present the different ways that internet users choose to transliterate or even transcribe their native languages online, using Roman characters. With technological development, and consequently the availability of various writing scripts online, internet users now have the option to either use Roman characters or their native script. If the latter is chosen, internet users still seem to deviate from conventional ways of writing, in this case, however, with regards to spelling. The second aim, therefore, is to bring into light recent developments, by looking at the ways that internet users manipulate orthography, to achieve their communicative purposes.
Beliefs in GSM Text Messaging Among Academics in two Nigerian Universities
Authors: Odebunmi Akin , Alo Moses A.
Published: May 2010

The chapter investigates the assumptions that academics in two universities in Southwestern Nigeria (namely, University of Ibadan- a federal government-owned institution- and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso- a state government-owned institution) work with when sending GSM (Global System of Communication) text-messages. The research on this aspect of GSM interaction, which has received little attention from scholars in Computer-mediated Communication (CMC), is approached, in the present paper, by a random sampling of 400 text-messages from the ‘sent’ (out-box) compartment of cell phones of academics in the sampled universities. The analysis of the texts is based on insights from contextual beliefs, collaborative theory and implicature. The findings reveal that senders of text messages exploit two beliefs, namely, language-based beliefs and subject matter-based beliefs, which are constrained by participants’ conception of co-interactants’ relative status in inclusive or exclusive terms, itself a determinant of the degree of the assumptions made. The findings further show that the messages which are based on research and academic activities, themselves covering research and supervision, academic promotion and advancement, general academic matters and academic obligations and assignments, are characterized by a variety of short hands, context-driven indices of assumptions and flouts of quantity and manner maxims. It is concluded that with the high level of assumptions made, aided by various linguistic tools, messages communicated by academics could be exclusive to the in-group members. Finally, future research is invited to compare the beliefs of academics with those of other groups of professionals.
Like a Poke on Facebook Emergent Semantics in Location-Aware Social Network Services
Authors: Kofod-Petersen Anders , Wegener Rebekah
Published: May 2010

Location-aware social network services are set to be the next generation of social networking services. These services typically allow users to send and receive messages and icons. Iconic signs, which look like what they represent, may be said to have a commonly understood meaning attached to them. However, this is fluid, leaving them open to variation in meaning. More precise meanings are free to emerge within specific contexts and within particular social networks. Within this chapter the authors explore the semantics that emerge for three icons used within a location-aware social network service. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), focus is given to the dominant speech function attached to each icon and the resultant meanings that emerge within social networks of the systems users. This study allows the authors to better understand how users interact with each other in smart spaces and utilise location information in social network services. By understanding how icons are used to engage others and how the meanings attached to these icons develop, the authors are better placed to create systems that fit naturally and beneficially into the users’ context.