Interactive task design: Metachat and the whole learner

In this chapter the focus is on conversations about language between adult learners online, in synchronous and asynchronous postings. Socio-affective and social-semiotic perspectives are used, thus distancing the work somewhat from cognitive ways of looking at tasks. Because adults come to the task with diverse knowledge of both L2 and L1, the expectation is that metalinguistic interaction will enable them to swap expert and novice roles with each other within the constantly changing dynamics of the classroom. This if shown to be the case would advance an educational agenda favouring learner-directedness. Secondly, as metalinguistic conversations develop in directions that the learners feel like following, a greater degree of contingency can arise. This is considered in this paper as motivational for adults, and also as progressive, following van Lier (1996: 180) for whom in a contingent conversation "the agenda is shared by all participants and educational reality may be transformed". However, in seeking to satisfy his condition of contingency, the problem of designing tasks for greater spontaneity proves difficult. Therefore this study provide an ethnographic account of metalinguistic conversations by learners engaged in an online task, Simuligne, designed to address this difficulty. After studying data from the project forums, chat rooms and emails, we introduce a new perspective on the function of these conversations, which holds pointers for task design

Collaborative recommendations with content-based filters for cultural activities via a scalable event distribution platform

Nowadays, most people have limited leisure time and the offer of (cultural) activities to spend this time is enormous. Consequently, picking the most appropriate events becomes increasingly difficult for end-users. This complexity of choice reinforces the necessity of filtering systems that assist users in finding and selecting relevant events. Whereas traditional filtering tools enable e.g. the use of keyword-based or filtered searches, innovative recommender systems draw on user ratings, preferences, and metadata describing the events. Existing collaborative recommendation techniques, developed for suggesting web-shop products or audio-visual content, have difficulties with sparse rating data and can not cope at all with event-specific restrictions like availability, time, and location. Moreover, aggregating, enriching, and distributing these events are additional requisites for an optimal communication channel. In this paper, we propose a highly-scalable event recommendation platform which considers event-specific characteristics. Personal suggestions are generated by an advanced collaborative filtering algorithm, which is more robust on sparse data by extending user profiles with presumable future consumptions. The events, which are described using an RDF/OWL representation of the EventsML-G2 standard, are categorized and enriched via smart indexing and open linked data sets. This metadata model enables additional content-based filters, which consider event-specific characteristics, on the recommendation list. The integration of these different functionalities is realized by a scalable and extendable bus architecture. Finally, focus group conversations were organized with external experts, cultural mediators, and potential end-users to evaluate the event distribution platform and investigate the possible added value of recommendations for cultural participation

Recapture, Transparency, Negation and a Logic for the Catuskoti

The recent literature on Nāgārjuna’s catuṣkoṭi centres around Jay Garfield’s (2009) and Graham Priest’s (2010) interpretation. It is an open discussion to what extent their interpretation is an adequate model of the logic for the catuskoti, and the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā. Priest and Garfield try to make sense of the contradictions within the catuskoti by appeal to a series of lattices – orderings of truth-values, supposed to model the path to enlightenment. They use Anderson & Belnaps's (1975) framework of First Degree Entailment. Cotnoir (2015) has argued that the lattices of Priest and Garfield cannot ground the logic of the catuskoti. The concern is simple: on the one hand, FDE brings with it the failure of classical principles such as modus ponens. On the other hand, we frequently encounter Nāgārjuna using classical principles in other arguments in the MMK. There is a problem of validity. If FDE is Nāgārjuna’s logic of choice, he is facing what is commonly called the classical recapture problem: how to make sense of cases where classical principles like modus pones are valid? One cannot just add principles like modus ponens as assumptions, because in the background paraconsistent logic this does not rule out their negations. In this essay, I shall explore and critically evaluate Cotnoir’s proposal. In detail, I shall reveal that his framework suffers collapse of the kotis. Furthermore, I shall argue that the Collapse Argument has been misguided from the outset. The last chapter suggests a formulation of the catuskoti in classical Boolean Algebra, extended by the notion of an external negation as an illocutionary act. I will focus on purely formal considerations, leaving doctrinal matters to the scholarly discourse – as far as this is possible

Recapture, Transparency, Negation and a Logic for the Catuṣkoṭi

The recent literature on Nāgārjuna’s catuṣkoṭi centres around Jay Garfield’s (2009) and Graham Priest’s (2010) interpretation. It is an open discussion to what extent their interpretation is an adequate model of the logic for the catuskoti, and the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā. Priest and Garfield try to make sense of the contradictions within the catuskoti by appeal to a series of lattices – orderings of truth-values, supposed to model the path to enlightenment. They use Anderson & Belnaps\u27s (1975) framework of First Degree Entailment. Cotnoir (2015) has argued that the lattices of Priest and Garfield cannot ground the logic of the catuskoti. The concern is simple: on the one hand, FDE brings with it the failure of classical principles such as modus ponens. On the other hand, we frequently encounter Nāgārjuna using classical principles in other arguments in the MMK. There is a problem of validity. If FDE is Nāgārjuna’s logic of choice, he is facing what is commonly called the classical recapture problem: how to make sense of cases where classical principles like modus pones are valid? One cannot just add principles like modus pones as assumptions, because in the background paraconsistent logic this does not rule out their negations. In this essay, I shall explore and critically evaluate Cotnoir’s proposal. In detail, I shall reveal that his framework suffers collapse of the kotis. Taking Cotnoir’s concerns seriously, I shall suggest a formulation of the catuskoti in classical Boolean Algebra, extended by the notion of an external negation as an illocutionary act. I will focus on purely formal considerations, leaving doctrinal matters to the scholarly discourse – as far as this is possible

Towards Improved Visualization and Optimization of Aquaculture Production Process

Aquaculture is one of the largest, and fastest growing industries in Norway. Recently, the industry has experienced significant development in the daily operations acquiring new technologies and systems that capture data and automate the different processes. These emerging technologies enable the generation of enormous amounts of data from sensors in the fish cages, cameras, boats, and feeding control rooms. Additional information relevant to the aquaculture industry is based on e-mails, manual notes, or intrinsic experiences and knowledge exchanges. One of the critical aspects of successful fish farming operation management, which is yet not achieved, is to allow domain experts to gain insight into the interconnection between the broad spectrum of heterogeneous data currently realized. This paper describes a graph-based database approach to storing and retrieving critical information connected to fish farming operations. The overall architecture is presented with detailed illustrations of how data is visualized and interpreted through a user-friendly interface. Accordingly, this work demonstrates how aquaculture users can benefit from the system to identify possible connections in the data and reveal previously undiscovered causalities and correlations that suggest optimal actions. Further, studies and evaluations of the querying system are conducted, evaluating the capability of the proposed design to process complex relationships. This work showcases that the system helps fish farmers and aquaculture users gain knowledge, reveal hidden links in the data, and improve aquaculture operations.publishedVersio

Enabling customers engagement and collaboration for small and medium-sized enterprises in ubiquitous multi-channel ecosystems

Over the last few years, we have encountered an exponential growth in online communication opportunities. Organizations have more and more ways to connect and engage with their current or future customers. The existence of more opportunities in connecting to people can be both an enabler and a burden. Being present at a multitude of different channels requires the effective management of a very large number of adapted contents, formats, and interaction patterns fulfilling the communication and cooperation needs of distributed target groups. In this respect, we integrate existing fragmented communication and monitoring approaches into a full-fledged communication model as a basis for an adequate engagement approach. We describe applications of our approach in both the eTourism and manufacturing domain. In this paper, we introduce an approach that will enable communication, collaboration and value exchange of users through a multitude of online interaction possibilities based on the use of semantic technology. Finally, we also compare our approach with existing solutions with respect to the identified challenges in this subject.European Union (UE) EU FP7 284860 (MSEE

Information behaviour in design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Designers draw on a significant volume and range of information throughout the design process. This could include information on people, materials, markets, processes, etc. However, not all this information is effectively communicated to and used by designers. In order to provide designers with information that is useful, useable and engaging for them, it is important to understand why designers use information, what information they use and when and how they use it. This will be collectively referred to as ‘information behaviour’ in this thesis. There is currently a lack of a holistic understanding of designers’ information behaviour. Through developing a framework for investigation, analysis and reflection on designers’ use and requirements of information, this research aims to provide a better understanding of information behaviour in design, leading to a systematic way to address the key dimensions of information used in a design process. For this purpose, the research focuses on ‘practicing designers’ as key users of information in the real-world practice of design and ‘people information’ as a major type of information used during the design process. An initial framework for addressing key dimensions of information used in the design process is outlined through the analysis and synthesis of relevant literature. The framework is then evaluated and refined through four complementary studies: an interview and questionnaire administered to nine design companies; observation of a design team in a real-world design project; observation of three teams through a design competition; and a survey of designers and design researchers. The outcomes of the studies lead to a refined version of the information framework that includes seven key dimensions and details designers’ behaviour in regard to ‘purpose’, ‘source’, ‘format’, ‘type’, ‘at tributes’, ‘stage’ and ‘intensity’ of people information they use. The research conducted with designers leads to an enhanced understanding of their information behaviour with respect to the seven key dimensions. A new information framework has been created and evaluated; and it is argued that it can be used as a research and education tool to investigate and analyse information used during core stages of a design process. The framework can also assist developers of information tools to make informed decisions on what, how and when to communicate information to designers, ensuring that this information is delivered in a way which has maximum impact on the design process