Symbolic Activities in Virtual Spaces

This paper presents an approach to combine concepts ofsymbolic acting and virtual storytelling with the support ofcooperative processes. We will motivate why symboliclanguages are relevant in the social context of awarenessapplications. We will describe different symbolicpresentations and illustrate their application in three differentprototypes

Groupware design : principles, prototypes, and systems

Computers are valuable tools for a wide range of work tasks. A substantial limitation on their value, however, is the predominant focus on enhancing the work of individuals. This fails to account for the issues of collaboration that affect almost all work. Research into computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) aims to eliminate this deficiency, but the promise of computer systems for group work has not been met. This thesis presents four design principles that promote the development of successful groupware. The principles identify the particular problems encountered by groupware, and provide guidelines and strategies to avoid, overcome, or minimise their impact. Derived from several sources, the major influence on the principles development is an investigation into the relationship between factors affecting groupware failure. They are stimulated by observations of groupware use, and by design insights arising from the development of two groupware applications and their prototypes: Mona and TELEFREEK. Mona provides conversation-based email management. Several groupware applications allow similar functionality, but the design principles result in Mona using different mechanisms to achieve its user-support. TELEFREEK provides a platform for accessing computer-supported communication and collaboration facilities. It attends to the problems of initiating interaction, and supports an adaptable and extendible set of "social awareness" assistants. TELEFREEK offers a broader range of facilities than other groupware, and avoids the use of prohibitively high-bandwidth communication networks. TELEFREEK demonstrates that much can be achieved through current and widely accessible technology. Together, Mona and TELEFREEK forcefully demonstrate the use of the design principles, and substantiate the claim of their utility

Developing Multiliteracies Through Digital Storytelling. A Case Study of Learners of Italian as a Foreign Language

Multiliteracy approaches are based on enhancing students’ agency and participation, which can be fostered by integrating digital storytelling into linguistic activities. However, literature lacks practical examples of how students can develop multiliteracies in learning Italian as a foreign language with digital storytelling. This article attempts to fill this gap by presenting the results of task-based language learning activities conducted on students of Italian as a foreign language with the digital storytelling platforms Wakelet and izi.Travel. Evidence will show how multiliteracies manifested in agency, creativity and social engagement

The load shedding advisor: An example of a crisis-response expert system

A Prolog-based prototype expert system is described that was implemented by the Network Operations Branch of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The purpose of the prototype was to test whether a small, inexpensive computer system could be used to host a load shedding advisor, a system which would monitor major physical environment parameters in a computer facility, then recommend appropriate operator reponses whenever a serious condition was detected. The resulting prototype performed significantly to efficiency gains achieved by replacing a purely rule-based design methodology with a hybrid approach that combined procedural, entity-relationship, and rule-based methods

Game-inspired Pedagogical Conversational Agents: A Systematic Literature Review

Pedagogical conversational agents (PCAs) are an innovative way to help learners improve their academic performance via intelligent dialog systems. However, PCAs have not yet reached their full potential. They often fail because users perceive conversations with them as not engaging. Enriching them with game-based approaches could contribute to mitigating this issue. One could enrich a PCA with game-based approaches by gamifying it to foster positive effects, such as fun and motivation, or by integrating it into a game-based learning (GBL) environment to promote effects such as social presence and enable individual learning support. We summarize PCAs that are combined with game-based approaches under the novel term “game-inspired PCAs”. We conducted a systematic literature review on this topic, as previous literature reviews on PCAs either have not combined the topics of PCAs and GBL or have done so to a limited extent only. We analyzed the literature regarding the existing design knowledge base, the game elements used, the thematic areas and target groups, the PCA roles and types, the extent of artificial intelligence (AI) usage, and opportunities for adaptation. We reduced the initial 3,034 records to 50 fully coded papers, from which we derived a morphological box and revealed current research streams and future research recommendations. Overall, our results show that the topic offers promising application potential but that scholars and practitioners have not yet considered it holistically. For instance, we found that researchers have rarely provided prescriptive design knowledge, have not sufficiently combined game elements, and have seldom used AI algorithms as well as intelligent possibilities of user adaptation in PCA development. Furthermore, researchers have scarcely considered certain target groups, thematic areas, and PCA roles. Consequently, our paper contributes to research and practice by addressing research gaps and structuring the existing knowledge base

NLP-based personal learning assistant for school education

Computer-based knowledge and computation systems are becoming major sources of leverage for multiple industry segments. Hence, educational systems and learning processes across the world are on the cusp of a major digital transformation. This paper seeks to explore the concept of an artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) based intelligent tutoring system (ITS) in the context of computer education in primary and secondary schools. One of the components of an ITS is a learning assistant, which can enable students to seek assistance as and when they need, wherever they are. As part of this research, a pilot prototype chatbot was developed, to serve as a learning assistant for the subject Scratch (Scratch is a graphical utility used to teach school children the concepts of programming). By the use of an open source natural language understanding (NLU) or NLP library, and a slackbased UI, student queries were input to the chatbot, to get the sought explanation as the answer. Through a two-stage testing process, the chatbot’s NLP extraction and information retrieval performance were evaluated. The testing results showed that the ontology modelling for such a learning assistant was done relatively accurately, and shows its potential to be pursued as a cloud-based solution in future

The history of chatbots: the journey from psychological experiment to educational object

Chatbots represent a strong and distinctive theme in the current literature on technology in education. What is lacking, however, is an analysis of them in terms of historical development or deeper historical-discursive classification. This paper focuses on the history of chatbots and places it in the context of a critical reflection on studies focusing on chatbots as educational objects between 2006-2021. It offers an analysis of each study and places them in the context of the development of the field as a whole. The study identifies three vital discourses that can be identified in the development of chatbots from a historical perspective - Turing-oriented, Searle-oriented and educational interaction-oriented

From conditioning to learning communities: Implications of fifty years of research in e‐learning interaction design

This paper will consider e‐learning in terms of the underlying learning processes and interactions that are stimulated, supported or favoured by new media and the contexts or communities in which it is used. We will review and critique a selection of research and development from the past fifty years that has linked pedagogical and learning theory to the design of innovative e‐learning systems and activities, and discuss their implications. It will include approaches that are, essentially, behaviourist (Skinner and Gagné), cognitivist (Pask, Piaget and Papert), situated (Lave, Wenger and Seely‐Brown), socio‐constructivist (Vygotsky), socio‐cultural (Nardi and Engestrom) and community‐based (Wenger and Preece). Emerging from this review is the argument that effective e‐learning usually requires, or involves, high‐quality educational discourse, that leads to, at the least, improved knowledge, and at the best, conceptual development and improved understanding. To achieve this I argue that we need to adopt a more holistic approach to design that synthesizes features of the included approaches, leading to a framework that emphasizes the relationships between cognitive changes, dialogue processes and the communities, or contexts for e‐learning