Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall (Suria KLCC)

As Internet-related technology advances rapidly, the number of system presenting information using VR techniques are also increasing to promote better understanding of information. The use of static directory nowadays is still very much lacking and not encouraging as an information provider. This is due its inability provide user adequate quality information in an interesting and interactive manner. The objective ofthis system is to help shopping mall visitors to know the direction of where they are and where they are going by using simple, intuitive, observable and interactive directory system. With the combination of VR technology and Interactive Directory, an Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall that provided with adequate information been developed. To form the basis of the system development, a pre-survey questionnaire was conducted to find out customers opinion on static directories. The result of the survey showed that 70% or 35 out of 50 respondents know and understand the VR technology.The results of the analysis provide motivations for the development of the interactive virtual directory system The development of the system is based on the approach proposed by Kulwinder Kaur's design framework which will analyze the requirement and project scope, task and domain of the project, the designation of the environment, designation of user support and navigational tools and also evaluation by determine the prototype and iterative process. The results of an evaluation on the system shows that by having experience on both static and virtual map help user precisely understand the system. However if the mouse click application could be replaced with the touch screen application, it help user to navigate easily. In conclusion, a directory with additional functionalities could be an informative and more usable director

Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall (Suria KLCC)

As Internet-related technology advances rapidly, the number of system presenting information using VR techniques are also increasing to promote better understanding of information. The use of static directory nowadays is still very much lacking and not encouraging as an information provider. This is due its inability provide user adequate quality information in an interesting and interactive manner. The objective ofthis system is to help shopping mall visitors to know the direction of where they are and where they are going by using simple, intuitive, observable and interactive directory system. With the combination of VR technology and Interactive Directory, an Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall that provided with adequate information been developed. To form the basis of the system development, a pre-survey questionnaire was conducted to find out customers opinion on static directories. The result of the survey showed that 70% or 35 out of 50 respondents know and understand the VR technology.The results of the analysis provide motivations for the development of the interactive virtual directory system The development of the system is based on the approach proposed by Kulwinder Kaur's design framework which will analyze the requirement and project scope, task and domain of the project, the designation of the environment, designation of user support and navigational tools and also evaluation by determine the prototype and iterative process. The results of an evaluation on the system shows that by having experience on both static and virtual map help user precisely understand the system. However if the mouse click application could be replaced with the touch screen application, it help user to navigate easily. In conclusion, a directory with additional functionalities could be an informative and more usable director

Indicators of Constructivist Principles in Internet-Based Courses

The purpose of this study was to provide greater assurance of quality in Internet-based courses. Current literature supports the assumption that the inclusion of constructivist principles in online courses adds to course quality. Therefore, identifying indicators of constructivist learning theory is important to the development of online courses. A peer-nominated panel of national experts in constructivism and instructional technology participated in a 3-round Delphi web survey. Through the iterative process, panelists assigned a mean rating of importance of 4.0 or higher (on a 5-point Likert scale) to 40 indicators of constructivist principles in online courses. Three implications for course design were identified; (1) one size (of learning model) does not fit all, (2) the six identified categories and their related indicators provide a framework for course development, and (3) indicators of constructivist principles transcend technology

Indicators of Constructivist Principles in Internet-Based Courses

The purpose of this study was to provide greater assurance of quality in Internet-based courses. Current literature supports the assumption that the inclusion of constructivist principles in online courses adds to course quality. Therefore, identifying indicators of constructivist learning theory is important to the development of online courses. A peer-nominated panel of national experts in constructivism and instructional technology participated in a 3-round Delphi web survey. Through the iterative process, panelists assigned a mean rating of importance of 4.0 or higher (on a 5-point Likert scale) to 40 indicators of constructivist principles in online courses. Three implications for course design were identified; (1) one size (of learning model) does not fit all, (2) the six identified categories and their related indicators provide a framework for course development, and (3) indicators of constructivist principles transcend technology

Your window-on-the-world: interactive television, the BBC and the second shift aesthetics of public service broadcasting

The impetus for this project was to consider how the digitalisation of television stood as an important moment to re-evaluate key concepts and debates within television studies. To this end, my focus is on public service broadcasting and television studies' textual tradition. I examine how linear models of the television text are challenged, usurped and at times reinforced by interactive television's emergent non-linear, personalisable forms. In so doing, I am concerned to analyse interactive television's textual structures in relation to the BBC's position as a public service broadcaster in the digital television age. Across these two concerns I aim to historicise the moment of digitalisation, drawing on longer positionings of television's technological and cultural form as a 'window-on-the-world'. An introduction is followed by section 1 of the thesis that includes a review of key literature in the field, focusing particularly on work on the 'text' of television studies. The chapters in section 1 mix this review with an historical argument that understand the current digital television era as one of 'excess', placing television at the boundaries of new and old media concerns that can be usefully understood through the presence of a dialectic between television's position as window-on-the-world and its emergent position as 'portal'. Section 1 demonstrates how this dialectic is called up by the prominence of discourses of 'choice' in new media practices and textualities and, more importantly, the debates about public service broadcasting's role in the digital age. As I go on to show in section 2, this dialectic evidences a tension between the 'imaginative journeys' television's window offers and the way in which these are then 'rationalised'. The second half of the thesis maps out emergent textual forms of interactive television by analysing the way choice and mobility are structured, providing a series of case studies in non-fiction television genres. Chapter 4 demonstrates the persistence of key discourses subsumed within the window-on-the-world metaphor in the formation and 'everydaying' of interactive television, elucidating key institutional and gendered tensions in the way these discourses are mobilised in the digital age. In turn, Chapter 5 connects the kinds of mobility promised by interactive television's window to longer historical practices of public institutions regulating spectator movement. Chapter 6 examines how television's window has been explicitly remediated by interactive television, placing it within the 'database' ontologies of computing. Finally Chapter 7 demonstrates the way in which television's window increasingly comes to function as a portal through which to access digital media spaces, such as the Internet. Across the chapters I am concerned to connect the textual and discursive form of each case study to the academic debates and public service concerns of the various applications' generic identity. Although I am interested in the challenges television's digitalisation poses to both public service broadcasting and traditional television studies approaches to the text, a more important motivation has been to re-affirm the role of both in the digital television landscape. Thus through close textual analysis that connects aesthetics with production and regulation, the thesis aims to demonstrate the relevance of television studies and the BBC, as a public service broadcaster, as an 'old media' becomes a 'new' one

An overview of digital media in Latin America

An overview of digital media in Latin American is a focus and a contribution to emerging debate, international exchanges and the building of global scientific communication as a contribution to development. Contents Editorial introduction; Carlos Arcila Calderón, Mabel Calderín & Cosette Castro Chapter 1: Globalization of the information society; Jorge Hidalgo Chapter 2: Digital and interactive content production as a strategy for development – a brief study on the Latin American experience in digital free-to-air television; Cosette Castro Chapter 3: e-Research: the new paradigm of science in Latin America; Carlos Arcila Calderón, Mabel Calderín, Luis Núñez & Ysabel Briceño Chapter 4: Mobilizing the consumer as a partner in social networks: reflections on the commodification of subjectivities; Gisela Castro Chapter 5: The mediatization of reception by Brazilian online collaborative journalism: rules and protocols to control reader's participation; Paulo César Castro Chapter 6: A contract in transition: online press and its audience; Natalia Raimondo Anselmino Chapter 7: Interactivity in education: social and complex network analysis; Ana María Casnati Guberna, Claudia Ribeiro Santos Lopes, Dante Galeffi & Hernane Borges de Barros Pereira Chapter 8: Media transformations for journalistic practices in regional print media due to new technologies and the implications that shape the agendas of journalists and media companies; Henry Rubiano Daz

Implementation of computer visualisation in UK planning

PhD ThesisWithin the processes of public consultation and development management, planners are required to consider spatial information, appreciate spatial transformations and future scenarios. In the past, conventional media such as maps, plans, illustrations, sections, and physical models have been used. Those traditional visualisations are at a high degree of abstraction, sometimes difficult to understand for lay people and inflexible in terms of the range of scenarios which can be considered. Yet due to technical advances and falling costs, the potential for computer based visualisation has much improved and has been increasingly adopted within the planning process. Despite the growth in this field, insufficient consideration has been given to the possible weakness of computerised visualisations. Reflecting this lack of research, this study critically evaluates the use and potential of computerised visualisation within this process. The research is divided into two components: case study analysis and reflections of the author following his involvement within the design and use of visualisations in a series of planning applications; and in-depth interviews with experienced practitioners in the field. Based on a critical review of existing literature, this research explores in particular the issues of credibility, realism and costs of production. The research findings illustrate the importance of the credibility of visualisations, a topic given insufficient consideration within the academic literature. Whereas the realism of visualisations has been the focus of much previous research, the results of the case studies and interviews with practitioners undertaken in this research suggest a ‘photo’ realistic level of details may not be required as long as the observer considers the visualisations to be a credible reflection of the underlying reality. Although visualisations will always be a simplification of reality and their level of realism is subjective, there is still potential for developing guidelines or protocols for image production based on commonly agreed standards. In the absence of such guidelines there is a danger that scepticism in the credibility of computer visualisations will prevent the approach being used to its full potential. These findings suggest there needs to be a balance between scientific protocols and artistic licence in the production of computer visualisation. In order to be sufficiently credible for use in decision making within the planning processes, the production of computer visualisation needs to follow a clear methodology and scientific protocols set out in good practice guidance published by professional bodies and governmental organisations.Newcastle upon Tyne for awarding me an International Scholarship and Alumni Bursar

The Widening Information Gap between High and Low Education Groups: Knowledge Acquisition from Online vs. Print News

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Mass Communications/Telecommunications, 2008The primary purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the potentially widening gap in information acquisition across different educational groups, related to traditional print versus online news formats. Newspaper readership is declining and simultaneously the number of online news users is growing. In democratic societies the ability of new media formats to deliver cognitively accessible information to all citizens is indeed a pressing issue. This dissertation adopted the strengths of both survey and experimental traditions of knowledge gap research. Specifically, this study follows in the survey research tradition by emphasizing social structural aspects of the knowledge gap phenomenon. At the same time, this research used controlled experimental procedures and an assortment of memory measures to rigorously investigate the formation of knowledge gaps. The experimental procedure also allowed for focus on a much neglected dimension of knowledge gain, namely news exposure preferences (public affairs vs. entertainment) of citizens. To this effect, news exposure was examined using a behavioral measure, which is more rigorous than the heavily relied on self-report measure. The findings show strong support of the existence of knowledge gaps. First, participants in the higher education group (some postgraduate education) outperformed the lower education group (no more than a high school education) in terms of information gain, particularly for public affairs information, despite the similar news exposure pattern across the two education groups. The strong education effect on public affairs knowledge acquisition is therefore robust beyond the influence of news exposure levels. Second, newspaper readers exposed themselves to more public affairs news than online news users and therefore acquired more public affairs information than online news users. Third--and most important and alarming--comprehending public affairs news stories varied most prominently between the high and the low education groups in the online news condition. As such, the findings of this dissertation produced evidence that supports the main thesis of a widening information gap between high and low education groups, driven more so by new media than traditional print media use. In conclusion, emerging media are likely to exacerbate the existing information gaps among citizens with different socio-structural backgrounds