Remotely hosted services and 'cloud computing'

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring potential of cloud computing to address educational issue

Advanced Media Control Through Drawing: Using a graphics tablet to control complex audio and video data in a live context

This paper demonstrates the results of the authors’ Wacom tablet MIDI user interface. This application enables users’ drawing actions on a graphics tablet to control audio and video parameters in real-time. The programming affords five degrees (x, y, pressure, x tilt, y tilt) of concurrent control for use in any audio or video software capable of receiving and processing MIDI data. Drawing gesture can therefore form the basis of dynamic control simultaneously in the auditory and visual realms. This creates a play of connections between parameters in both mediums, and illustrates a direct correspondence between drawing action and media transformation that is immediately apparent to viewers. The paper considers the connection between drawing technique and media control both generally and specifically, postulating that dynamic drawing in a live context creates a performance mode not dissimilar to performing on a musical instrument or conducting with a baton. The use of a dynamic and physical real-time media interface re-inserts body actions into live media performance in a compelling manner. Performers can learn to “draw/play” the graphics tablet as a musical and visual “instrument”, creating a new and uniquely idiomatic form of electronic drawing. The paper also discusses how to practically program the application and presents examples of its use as a media manipulation tool

Precision near-infrared radial velocity instrumentation II: Non-Circular Core Fiber Scrambler

We have built and commissioned a prototype agitated non-circular core fiber scrambler for precision spectroscopic radial velocity measurements in the near-infrared H band. We have collected the first on-sky performance and modal noise tests of these novel fibers in the near-infrared at H and K bands using the CSHELL spectrograph at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF). We discuss the design behind our novel reverse injection of a red laser for co-alignment of star-light with the fiber tip via a corner cube and visible camera. We summarize the practical details involved in the construction of the fiber scrambler, and the mechanical agitation of the fiber at the telescope. We present radial velocity measurements of a bright standard star taken with and without the fiber scrambler to quantify the relative improvement in the obtainable blaze function stability, the line spread function stability, and the resulting radial velocity precision. We assess the feasibility of applying this illumination stabilization technique to the next generation of near-infrared spectrographs such as iSHELL on IRTF and an upgraded NIRSPEC at Keck. Our results may also be applied in the visible for smaller core diameter fibers where fiber modal noise is a significant factor, such as behind an adaptive optics system or on a small < 1 meter class telescope such as is being pursued by the MINERVA and LCOGT collaborations.Comment: Proceedings of the SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference "Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VI" held in San Diego, CA, August 25-29, 201

Are digital natives a myth or reality?: Students’ use of technologies for learning

This paper outlines the findings of a study investigating the extent and nature of use of digital technologies by undergraduate students in Social Work and Engineering, in two British universities. The study involved a questionnaire survey of students (n=160) followed by in-depth interviews with students (n=8) and lecturers and support staff (n=8) in both institutions. Firstly, the findings suggest that students use a limited range of technologies for both learning and socialisation. For learning, mainly established ICTs are used- institutional VLE, Google and Wikipedia and mobile phones. Students make limited, recreational use of social technologies such as media sharing tools and social networking sites. Secondly, the findings point to a low level of use of and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies. Thirdly, the study did not find evidence to support the claims regarding students adopting radically different patterns of knowledge creation and sharing suggested by some previous studies. The study shows that students’ attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by the approaches adopted by their lecturers. Far from demanding lecturers change their practice, students appear to conform to fairly traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of technology tools that deliver content. Despite both groups clearly using a rather limited range of technologies for learning, the results point to some age differences, with younger, engineering students making somewhat more active, albeit limited, use of tools than the older ones. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for radical transformations in educational approaches may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change solely in students’ shifting expectations and patterns of learning and technology use

Secondary user relations in emerging mobile computing environments

Mobile technologies are enabling access to information in diverse environ.ments, and are exposing a wider group of individuals to said technology. Therefore, this paper proposes that a wider view of user relations than is usually considered in information systems research is required. Specifically, we examine the potential effects of emerging mobile technologies on end-­‐user relations with a focus on the ‘secondary user’, those who are not intended to interact directly with the technology but are intended consumers of the technology’s output. For illustration, we draw on a study of a U.K. regional Fire and Rescue Service and deconstruct mobile technology use at Fire Service incidents. Our findings provide insights, which suggest that, because of the nature of mobile technologies and their context of use, secondary user relations in such emerging mobile environments are important and need further exploration

Immigrant Youth and Digital Disparty in California

This study addresses three key research questions regarding immigrant youth and the digital divide:What are the patterns of home technology use among native-born and immigrant families and youth?What are the causes and consequences of the digital divide for immigrant families and youth?How does technology at CTCs in California benefit immigrant families and youth