Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Large space structures and systems in the space station era: A bibliography with indexes

Bibliographies and abstracts are listed for 1219 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between July 1, 1990 and December 31, 1990. The purpose is to provide helpful information to the researcher, manager, and designer in technology development and mission design according to system, interactive analysis and design, structural and thermal analysis and design, structural concepts and control systems, electronics, advanced materials, assembly concepts, propulsion, and solar power satellite systems

Invention Pedagogy – The Finnish Approach to Maker Education

This collection, edited and written by the leading scholars and experts of innovation and maker education in Finland, introduces invention pedagogy, a research-based Finnish approach for teaching and learning through multidisciplinary, creative design and making processes in formal school settings. The book outlines the background of, and need for, invention pedagogy, providing various perspectives for designing and orchestrating the invention process while discusses what can be learnt and how learning happens through inventing. In addition, the book introduces the transformative, school-level innovator agency needed for developing whole schools as innovative communities. Featuring informative case study examples, the volume explores the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications for the research and practice of invention pedagogy in order to further the field and bring new perspectives, providing a new vision for schools for decades to come. Intermixing the results of cutting-edge research and best practice within STEAM-education and invention pedagogy, this book will be essential reading for researchers, students, and scholars of design and technology education, STEM education, teacher education, and learning sciences more broadly

Supporting orchestration of blended CSCL scenarios in distributed learning environments

El diseño y gestión en tiempo real de escenarios de aprendizaje colaborativo soportado por ordenador (en inglés, CSCL) es una tarea compleja y difícilmente realizable por profesores no expertos, que en los últimos años ha dado en denominarse "orquestación". La presente tesis doctoral profundiza en este concepto de orquestación, y de hecho la primera contribución de la tesis es un marco conceptual para caracterizar la orquestación, destinada a su uso por científicos en el campo del CSCL, validado mediante dos paneles de científicos del CSCL. La tesis también propone los "patrones atómicos" como herramientas conceptuales para que profesores no expertos realicen dicha orquestación, y que se han validado mediante cuatro talleres con profesores de educación primaria y superior. Finalmente, se propone GLUE!-PS, una infraestructura tecnológica para el despliegue y gestión en tiempo real de escenarios CSCL, validada a través de talleres y experiencias auténticas con profesorado universitario.Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática2012-11-2

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 324)

This bibliography lists 200 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during May, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance