1,721,031 research outputs found
Developing Enjoyable Second Language Learning Software Tools
No full textThis chapter attempts to examine computer game theories—ludology and narratology—that explain computer games as play activities and storytelling media. Founded on this theoretical explanation, a game model that incorporates gameplay and narratives is presented. From the model, two aspects of learning in the game environment are identified: gameplay-oriented and narrative-oriented. It is believed that playing computer games involves at least one of these types of learning; thus, this game’s nature can be used in designing engaging educational software. In addition, based on Malone’s theoretical framework on motivational heuristics, there are two methods of applying computer games in language learning: extrinsic and intrinsic, depending on the integration of game designs and learning materials. Then, two cases of language-learning games are scrutinized, using the game model, in order to demonstrate the use of computer games in language learning.</jats:p
Social computing and virtual communities
No full textΗ βιβλιοθήκη διαθέτει αντίτυπο του βιβλίου σε έντυπη μορφή με ταξινομικό αριθμό: QA76.9.C66S63 2010The advance of computer technology, particularly the development of the Internet has impacted virtually every aspect of society. Unsurprisingly research and development in the area of social computing, as well as virtual communities, has emerged and is increasingly gaining importance. This book brings together contributions from international experts from various fields and strives to explore the social use of computers. Social Computing and Virtual Communities not only improves productivity and learning outcomes via collaborative work and learning, but also augment human relationships, by providing various means of communication that nullify the geographical barriers existing among us. In addition, it transforms the platform of digital entertainment, infusing a social dimension into the already popular internet use. We also witness the formation of persistent and long term communities in the virtual setting, where people congregate to socialise, make friends, give support, etc. Virtual communities continue to grow in term of their size, the nature of use, and the technological aspects, such as the emergence of 3D virtual environments.
Due to the escalating use of computers to mediate various social aspects of human activity, some conceptual frameworks have been developed to understand computer-mediated social activities. It is commonly agreed that researching, designing and evaluating virtual communities requires a multi-disciplinary approach that goes beyond methods used for designing and evaluating other interactive systems. Furthermore, it is also crucial to research these issues through naturalistic approaches, in which users’ activity is investigated within its context. Therefore, this book aims at presenting the topic of social computing and virtual communities, from the user’s perspective in various domains of use, through a multi-disciplinary lens.
One of the most important characteristics of the interent is the opportunities it offers for human-human communication through computer networks. As Metcalfe (1992) points out, communication is the internet’s most important asset. E-mail is just one of the many modes of communication that can occur through the use of computers. Jones (1995) points out that through communication services, like the Internet, Usenet and bulletin boards, online communication has for many people supplanted the postal service, telephone and even the fax machine. All these applications where the computer is used to mediate communication are called Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC).
Studies of CMC view this process from different interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives (social, cognitive/psychological, linguistic, cultural, technical, political) and often draw from fields such diverse as human communication, rhetoric and composition, media studies, human-computer interaction, journalism, telecommunications, computer science, technical communication and information studies.
Online communities emerge through the use of CMC applications. The term online community is multidisciplinary in nature, means different things to different people, and is slippery to define (Preece, 2000). Rheingold’s definition of CMC is:
“[online] communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (Rheingold, 1993, pp.5).
Online communities are also often referred to as cyber societies, cyber communities, web groups, virtual communities, web communities, virtual social networks and e-communities among several others.
The cyberspace is the new frontier in social relationships, and people are using the internet to make friends, colleagues, lovers, as well as enemies (Suler, 2004). As Korzeny pointed out, even as early as 1978, online communities are formed around interests and not physical proximity (Korzeny, 1978). In general, what brings people together in an online community is common interests such as hobbies, ethnicity, education, beliefs. As Wallace (1999) points out, meeting in online communities eliminates prejudging based on someone’s appearance, and thus people with similar attitudes and ideas are attracted to each other.
These issues are addressed in this book through a collection of chapters contributed by the leading experts in these areas. The book is divided into three sections: A: theories and methods; B: Application areas; C: Types of online social environments
Developing virtual environments for older users: Case studies of virtual environments iteratively developed for older users and people with dementia
No full textUser-centered Design and Evaluation of Virtual Worlds
Get PDFVirtual worlds are objects of much research. Such research is needed for future wider application within education, science field or market domain. For instance, Hype cycle presents that virtual worlds are coming in productive phase in 5-10 years. Virtual world as we know today are not user friendly or effective as a seriously used communication tool. Of course, there is a lot of progress in this area. Let me consider Facebook plug-in for instance, which brings much easier login process compared to Second Life or Open Simulator installed client. Second thing could be release of SL Viewer 2.0. However, studies show that there are a lot of users demotivated or disappointed from the virtual world`s environment and after their first visit they never come back. That has to change.
Paper focuses at the problem from Information science point of view. Specifically, the author takes user-centered design as a core approach, which is needed to improve software usability. Usability as a broader term for experienced usability, apparent usability, user friendliness, quality of user interface, etc. must be measured and evaluated. The target of the paper is to present methodology of testing and evaluating virtual world environments. Paper summarizes core steps within user-center design, which is user task analysis, expert guidelines-based evaluation, formative user-centered evaluation, summative comparative evaluation. More closely, user task analysis contains pre-research, which is needed for understanding of users` needs, their work culture and their work goals, which they perform daily. There are work scenarios developed within expert guidelines-based evaluation and then users go through them within formative user-centered evaluation. After redesign of environment users go through two or more variations of developed user interfaces and analyze which one is better.
There is going to be a short overview of the virtual region VIAKISK within Open Simulator presented as well
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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