title: Understanding how an audio-visual introduction engaged GATE students in technology activity

authors: Smith, Thomas William

subjects: GATE

abstract: As a technology education provider working in a technology education centre contracted to fourteen client schools, my aim is to provide experiences of quality learning for all students visiting the centre. One of the challenges to fulfilling this aim is the limited time available to work with visiting students and the accompanying need to engage students as quickly as possible in the learning activities 
  
This study is an investigation into how the use of an audio-visual introduction to technology class activities might meet this challenge when used in a series of three technology classes with gifted and talented (GATE) students.

A qualitative, interpretive methodology was employed to gain insights into the effectiveness of this type of introduction in quickly motivating and engaging students in technological challenges in the study. Data gathering methods included classroom observations, video recording of class sessions, interviews with students and teacher, and analysis of student work.

The study's findings indicate that carefully selected audio-visual material can provide an effective introduction to technology activities that quickly engage and motivate students to work together to find solutions to technological problems. The audio-visual introductions provided a shared experience and focus for students from different classes and schools to come together and work collaboratively towards a negotiated solution.

text: Understanding how an audio-visual introduction engaged GATE students in technology activity As a technology education provider working in a technology education centre contracted to fourteen client schools, my aim is to provide experiences of quality learning for all students visiting the centre. One of the challenges to fulfilling this aim is the limited time available to work with visiting students and the accompanying need to engage students as quickly as possible in the learning activities 
  
This study is an investigation into how the use of an audio-visual introduction to technology class activities might meet this challenge when used in a series of three technology classes with gifted and talented (GATE) students.

A qualitative, interpretive methodology was employed to gain insights into the effectiveness of this type of introduction in quickly motivating and engaging students in technological challenges in the study. Data gathering methods included classroom observations, video recording of class sessions, interviews with students and teacher, and analysis of student work.

The study's findings indicate that carefully selected audio-visual material can provide an effective introduction to technology activities that quickly engage and motivate students to work together to find solutions to technological problems. The audio-visual introductions provided a shared experience and focus for students from different classes and schools to come together and work collaboratively towards a negotiated solution.

year: 2010

title: Shape predicates allow unbounded verification of linearizability using canonical abstraction

authors: Friggens, David

subjects: canonical abstraction

abstract: Canonical abstraction is a static analysis technique that represents states as 3-valued logical structures, and is able to construct finite representations of systems with infinite statespaces for verification. The granularity of the abstraction can be altered by the definition of instrumentation predicates, which derive their meaning from other predicates. We introduce shape predicates for preserving certain structures of the state during abstraction. We show that shape predicates allow linearizability to be verified for concurrent data structures using canonical abstraction alone, and use the approach to verify a stack and two queue algorithms. This contrasts with previous efforts to verify linearizability with canonical abstraction, which have had to employ other techniques as well.

text: Shape predicates allow unbounded verification of linearizability using canonical abstraction Canonical abstraction is a static analysis technique that represents states as 3-valued logical structures, and is able to construct finite representations of systems with infinite statespaces for verification. The granularity of the abstraction can be altered by the definition of instrumentation predicates, which derive their meaning from other predicates. We introduce shape predicates for preserving certain structures of the state during abstraction. We show that shape predicates allow linearizability to be verified for concurrent data structures using canonical abstraction alone, and use the approach to verify a stack and two queue algorithms. This contrasts with previous efforts to verify linearizability with canonical abstraction, which have had to employ other techniques as well.

year: 2014

title: PIWeCS: enhancing human/machine agency in an interactive composition system

authors: Whalley, Ian

abstract: This paper focuses on the infrastructure and aesthetic approach used in PIWeCS: a Public Space Interactive Web-based Composition System. The concern was to increase the sense of dialogue between human and machine agency in an interactive work by adapting Paine's (2002) notion of a conversational model of interaction as a ‘complex system’. The machine implementation of PIWeCS is achieved through integrating intelligent agent programming with MAX/MSP. Human input is through a web infrastructure. The conversation is initiated and continued by participants through arrangements and composition based on short performed samples of traditional New Zealand Maori instruments. The system allows the extension of a composition through the electroacoustic manipulation of the source material.

text: PIWeCS: enhancing human/machine agency in an interactive composition system This paper focuses on the infrastructure and aesthetic approach used in PIWeCS: a Public Space Interactive Web-based Composition System. The concern was to increase the sense of dialogue between human and machine agency in an interactive work by adapting Paine's (2002) notion of a conversational model of interaction as a ‘complex system’. The machine implementation of PIWeCS is achieved through integrating intelligent agent programming with MAX/MSP. Human input is through a web infrastructure. The conversation is initiated and continued by participants through arrangements and composition based on short performed samples of traditional New Zealand Maori instruments. The system allows the extension of a composition through the electroacoustic manipulation of the source material.

year: 2004