Modeling interactive memex-like applications based on self-modifiable petri nets

This paper introduces an interactive Memex-like application using a self-modifiable Petri Net model – Self-modifiable Color Petri Net (SCPN). The Memex (“memory extender”) device proposed by Vannevar Bush in 1945 focused on the problems of “locating relevant information in the published records and recording how that information is intellectually connected.” The important features of Memex include associative indexing and retrieval. In this paper, the self-modifiable functions of SCPN are used to achieve trail recording and retrieval. A place in SCPN represents a website and an arc indicates the trail direction. Each time when a new website is visited, a place corresponding to this website will be added. After a trail is built, users can use it to retrieve the websites they have visited. Besides, useful user interactions are supported by SCPN to achieve Memex functions. The types of user interactions include: forward, backward, history, search, etc. A simulator has been built to demonstrate that the SCPN model can realize Memex functions. Petri net instances can be designed to model trail record, back, and forward operations using this simulator. Furthermore, a client-server based application system has been built. Using this system, a user can surf online and record his surfing history on the server according to different topics and share them with other users

Organizing information on the next generation web - Design and implementation of a new bookmark structure

The next-generation Web will increase the need for a highly organized and ever evolving method to store references to Web objects. These requirements could be realized by the development of a new bookmark structure. This paper endeavors to identify the key requirements of such a bookmark, specifically in relation to Web documents, and sets out a suggested design through which these needs may be accomplished. A prototype developed offers such features as the sharing of bookmarks between users and groups of users. Bookmarks for Web documents in this prototype allow more specific information to be stored such as: URL, the document type, the document title, keywords, a summary, user annotations, date added, date last visited and date last modified. Individuals may access the service from anywhere on the Internet, as long as they have a Java-enabled Web browser

New learning scenarios for the 21st century related to Education, Culture and Technology

This paper presents a summary of proposals and new learning scenarios for the 21st century related to the theme of “Education, Culture and Technology”. These proposals and scenarios are based on the work conducted in 2014 by a group of experts from Andorra, Catalonia, the United States and the United Kingdom during the International Forum on Education and Technology (FIET) held in Tarragona, Spain. The main aim of this work is to analyze the interconnection between education and culture through the discussion and selection of best practices and to identify the role played by technology in this process. The methodology used in this qualitative research was the focus group, whereby a group of experts analyzed and selected a range of good practices related to the main issue. The results of this process were shared at two plenary sessions with 100 expert reviewers and 500 educators. After considering the challenges faced by education in the 21st century and the best practices selected by the experts, it was agreed that digital technology can promote the dialogue that is needed to create a culture of innovation and enhance new ways of learning, participating, and contributing to local and global culture. At the end of this paper we make several proposals and recommendations for constructing learning environments that integrate education, culture and technology for a transformative experience

Iowa Aviation Bulletin, Summer 2002

Quarterly newsletter published by the Iowa Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation that contains information of interest to aviation-related persons and organizations

Digital competencies to support the learning process: what skills for teachers

Current research states a new educational approach that includes technologies by analyzing the structure, limits and potential. According to the constructivist theory of Papert, it intends to illustrate how it is possible, starting with nursery school, to crteate special "learning environments" in which a digital matrix can promote attitudes ofdiscovery, group dynamics and forms of inclusive teaching in addition to basic language skills,logical-mathematical, topological and manipulative, thus creating the basis for future learning.Keym terms: multimedia elements constructivism, learning, technology, robotics,LOGO programming, roame

Mobile Technologies and Boundaryless Spaces: Slavish Lifestyles, Seductive Meanderings, or Creative Empowerment?

According to the instrumental theory of technology, mobile technologies - what McLuhan\u27s refers to as electronic prostheses - promise opportunities for greater freedom, creativity, leisure, and productivity by enhancing organic bodily functions. Correspondingly, as (Cavallaro, 2000) would argue, objects such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable physiotherapy units, laptops, and portable stereos - to name just a few - seem to impart a sense of solidity to consumers\u27 lives. Just like prostheses, they are inserted into our everyday lives, helping our inadequate bodies along in fulfilling practical tasks. Phenomenologically, these kinds of mobile technologies supposedly support the subject\u27s sense of ontological completeness and security. On the other hand the substantial theory of technology draws together less optimistic commentators. Among a host of other things, they stress the panoptic nature of new information and communication technologies (Clarke, 1994; Marx, 1999; Poster, 1995; Webster, 1995). The emphasis in these accounts is on the potential for surveillance and monitoring that these technologies place in the hands of the powerful. Mobile technologies according to this view is but the latest incarnation of capitalist (the Marxist view) or state (the libertarian view) power and control fantasies. Far from empowered and freed, the subject becomes captured and enslaved by these mobile communication devices. Phenomenologically, the networked worker and consumer subject is the disciplined and docile slave of the information matrix

Constructing the Learning Environment in Classroom Convivial Computer Tools for Higher Education

New education technologies are coming on stream, enabling connectivity among teachers, facilitators and students. Students have to learn how to access Managed Learning Environments each time they move to different course websites. These barriers can hinder the real understanding of the subject matter for a course. This research calls for a rethink of pedagogical process towards blending together commonly used emerging social software and legacy educational tools rather than developing new tools for the classroom. Indeed, a learning tool should fit well to the learning model and philosophy of that course. Three case studies were conducted through different courses in the Digital Media master program and Informatik program at the University of Bremen, Germany. Students worked in small groups to design digital media and learning portal that should make learning more interesting and meaningful for them. At the end, this research proposes the concept of Constructing the Learning Environment in classroom and Convivial Computer Tools for higher education, where students and teachers, via dialogues in the class, can negotiate to deploy a set of selected tools and functions to match their learning needs. It is also to show that a tool with too many functions can cause confusion, rather than enhance effectiveness. To empower collaborative, interactive and personal learning, this work proposes the blended learning and classroom procedures for a convivial selection of educational tools. At the end, our innovative attempt is to bring constructionist learning into the higher education context

Modeling and Testing a Family of Surgical Robots: An Experience Report

Safety-critical applications often use dependability cases to validate that specified properties are invariant, or to demonstrate a counter example showing how that property might be violated. However, most dependability cases are written with a single product in mind. At the same time, software product lines (families of related software products) have been studied with the goal of modeling variability and commonality, and building family based techniques for both analysis and testing. However, there has been little work on building an end to end dependability case for a software product line (where a property is modeled, a counter example is found and then validated as a true positive via testing), and none that we know of in an emerging safety-critical domain, that of robotic surgery. In this paper, we study a family of surgical robots, that combine hardware and software, and are highly configurable, representing over 1300 unique robots. At the same time, they are considered safety-critical and should have associated dependability cases. We perform a case study to understand how we can bring together lightweight formal analysis, feature modeling, and testing to provide an end to end pipeline to find potential violations of important safety properties. In the process, we learned that there are some interesting and open challenges for the research community, which if solved will lead towards more dependable safety-critical cyber-physical systems

Technological roadmap on AI planning and scheduling

At the beginning of the new century, Information Technologies had become basic and indispensable constituents of the production and preparation processes for all kinds of goods and services and with that are largely influencing both the working and private life of nearly every citizen. This development will continue and even further grow with the continually increasing use of the Internet in production, business, science, education, and everyday societal and private undertaking. Recent years have shown, however, that a dramatic enhancement of software capabilities is required, when aiming to continuously provide advanced and competitive products and services in all these fast developing sectors. It includes the development of intelligent systems – systems that are more autonomous, flexible, and robust than today’s conventional software. Intelligent Planning and Scheduling is a key enabling technology for intelligent systems. It has been developed and matured over the last three decades and has successfully been employed for a variety of applications in commerce, industry, education, medicine, public transport, defense, and government. This document reviews the state-of-the-art in key application and technical areas of Intelligent Planning and Scheduling. It identifies the most important research, development, and technology transfer efforts required in the coming 3 to 10 years and shows the way forward to meet these challenges in the short-, medium- and longer-term future. The roadmap has been developed under the regime of PLANET – the European Network of Excellence in AI Planning. This network, established by the European Commission in 1998, is the co-ordinating framework for research, development, and technology transfer in the field of Intelligent Planning and Scheduling in Europe. A large number of people have contributed to this document including the members of PLANET non- European international experts, and a number of independent expert peer reviewers. All of them are acknowledged in a separate section of this document. Intelligent Planning and Scheduling is a far-reaching technology. Accepting the challenges and progressing along the directions pointed out in this roadmap will enable a new generation of intelligent application systems in a wide variety of industrial, commercial, public, and private sectors