WEHST: Wearable Engine for Human-Mediated Telepresence

This dissertation reports on the industrial design of a wearable computational device created to enable better emergency medical intervention for situations where electronic remote assistance is necessary. The design created for this doctoral project, which assists practices by paramedics with mandates for search-and-rescue (SAR) in hazardous environments, contributes to the field of human-mediated teleparamedicine (HMTPM). Ethnographic and industrial design aspects of this research considered the intricate relationships at play in search-and-rescue operations, which lead to the design of the system created for this project known as WEHST: Wearable Engine for Human-Mediated Telepresence. Three case studies of different teams were carried out, each focusing on making improvements to the practices of teams of paramedics and search-and-rescue technicians who use combinations of ambulance, airplane, and helicopter transport in specific chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) scenarios. The three paramedicine groups included are the Canadian Air Force 442 Rescue Squadron, Nelson Search and Rescue, and the British Columbia Ambulance Service Infant Transport Team. Data was gathered over a seven-year period through a variety of methods including observation, interviews, examination of documents, and industrial design. The data collected included physiological, social, technical, and ecological information about the rescuers. Actor-network theory guided the research design, data analysis, and design synthesis. All of this leads to the creation of the WEHST system. As identified, the WEHST design created in this dissertation project addresses the difficulty case-study participants found in using their radios in hazardous settings. As the research identified, a means of controlling these radios without depending on hands, voice, or speech would greatly improve communication, as would wearing sensors and other computing resources better linking operators, radios, and environments. WEHST responds to this need. WEHST is an instance of industrial design for a wearable “engine” for human-situated telepresence that includes eight interoperable families of wearable electronic modules and accompanying textiles. These make up a platform technology for modular, scalable and adaptable toolsets for field practice, pedagogy, or research. This document details the considerations that went into the creation of the WEHST design

Digital Theatre: A "Live" and Mediated Art Form Expanding Perceptions of Body, Place, and Community

This work discusses Digital Theatre, a type of performance which utilizes both "live" actors and co-present audiences along with digital media to create a hybrid art form revitalizing theatre for contemporary audiences. This work surveys a wide range of digital performances (with "live" and digital elements, limited interactivity/participation and spoken words) and identifies the group collectively as Digital Theatre, an art form with the flexibility and reach of digital data and the sense of community found in "live" theatre. I offer performance examples from Mark Reaney, David Saltz, Troika Ranch, Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, Flying Karamazov Brothers, Talking Birds, Yacov Sharir, Studio Z, George Coates Performance Group, and ArtGrid. (The technologies utilized in performances include: video-conferencing, media projection, MIDI control, motion capture, VR animation, and AI). Rather than looking at these productions as isolated events, I identify them as a movement and link the use of digital techniques to continuing theatrical tradition of utilizing new technologies on the stage. The work ties many of the aesthetic choices explored in theatrical past by the likes of Piscator, Svoboda, Craig, and in Bauhaus and Futurist movements. While it retains the essential qualities of public human connection and imaginative thought central to theatre, Digital Theatre can cause theatrical roles to merge as it extends the performer's body, expands our concept of place, and creates new models of global community

Instructional Message Design: Theory, Research, and Practice (Volume 2)

Message design is all around us, from the presentations we see in meetings and classes, to the instructions that come with our latest tech gadgets, to multi-million-dollar training simulations. In short, instructional message design is the real-world application of instructional and learning theories to design the tools and technologies used to communicate and effectively convey information. This field of study pulls from many applied sciences including cognitive psychology, industrial design, graphic design, instructional design, information technology, and human performance technology to name just a few. In this book we visit several foundational theories that guide our research, look at different real-world applications, and begin to discuss directions for future best practice. For instance, cognitive load and multimedia learning theories provide best practice, virtual reality and simulations are only a few of the multitude of applications. Special needs learners and designing for online, e-learning, and web conferencing are only some of many applied areas where effective message design can improve outcomes. Studying effective instructional message design tools and techniques has and will continue to be a critical aspect of the overall instructional design process. Hopefully, this book will serve as an introduction to these topics and inspire your curiosity to explore further!https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/distancelearning_books/1003/thumbnail.jp

Instructional Message Design: Theory, Research, and Practice (Volume 2)

Message design is all around us, from the presentations we see in meetings and classes, to the instructions that come with our latest tech gadgets, to multi-million-dollar training simulations. In short, instructional message design is the real-world application of instructional and learning theories to design the tools and technologies used to communicate and effectively convey information. This field of study pulls from many applied sciences including cognitive psychology, industrial design, graphic design, instructional design, information technology, and human performance technology to name just a few. In this book we will visit several foundational theories that guide our research, look at different real-world applications, and begin to discuss directions for future best practice. For instance, cognitive load and multimedia learning theories provide best practice, virtual reality and simulations are only a few of the multitude of applications. Special needs learners and designing for online, e-learning, and web conferencing are only some of many applied areas where effective message design can improve outcomes. Studying effective instructional message design tools and techniques has and will continue to be a critical aspect of the overall instructional design process. Hopefully, this book will serve as an introduction to these topics and inspire your curiosity to explore further

Cultural Dynamics in a Globalized World

The book contains essays on current issues in arts and humanities in which peoples and cultures compete as well as collaborate in globalizing the world while maintaining their uniqueness as viewed from cross- and inter-disciplinary perspectives. The book covers areas such as literature, cultural studies, archaeology, philosophy, history, language studies, information and literacy studies, and area studies. Asia and the Pacific are the particular regions that the conference focuses on as they have become new centers of knowledge production in arts and humanities and, in the future, seem to be able to grow significantly as a major contributor of culture, science and arts to the globalized world. The book will help shed light on what arts and humanities scholars in Asia and the Pacific have done in terms of research and knowledge development, as well as the new frontiers of research that have been explored and opening up, which can connect the two regions with the rest of the globe

Law professors’ existential online lifeworlds: an hermeneutic phenomenological study

Doctor of PhilosophyCurriculum and InstructionThomas VontzThis phenomenological study hermeneutically explores law professors’ felt experiences within online existential lifeworld spheres. Prose, poetry, color images, and virtual journeying provide descriptive and interpretive text suggesting expansion of Gadamer’s fusion of horizonal understanding. Law professors who teach asynchronously online selected five color images from pixabay.com corresponding with the five universal existential themes: body, space, time, relationships and material things/technology (van Manen, 2014) as catalysts to conversationally explore what it feels like to transition from classroom to online instruction. Multiple phenomenological, artistic, and scientific theories prismatically amplify and explain the study’s design: Gadamer’s hermeneutical circle of understanding (1960/2006), Termes six-point spherical perspective (2016), Einstein’s closed yet unbounded universe (Egdall, 2014), and Seamon’s concept of “at homeness” (2012). Dialogical understanding of Self and Other(s) through Gadamer’s call for festival and serious play (1960/2006) is activated: The reader is invited to interact with the study text through visual and auditory web experiences. Researcher’s hermeneutic and existential retelling of the professors’ conversations begins to unfold metaphorically around a table within a virtual forest. When researcher’s previously bracketed-away prejudice for incorporating synchronous modalities into online learning erupts, professors’ longing felt for classroom home actualizes and ultimately emerges as a sixth existential dimension proposed by the researcher. A culminating journey through virtual desert in search of online home continues the retelling and metaphorically incorporates all six existential themes. Dramatic changes in researcher’s lifeworld view, ways of knowing and being, self view, self action and pedagogical development as a result of conducting the study are summarized. Future research is implicated including exploration of professors’ existentially felt experiences while teaching synchronously online and deep-mining professorial empathy toward students. Factors that impinge on all law professors’ transitioning to online instruction contextually anchor the study: 1) Legal pedagogy’s evolution from 18th Century professional skills training through the late 19th Century intrusion of legal doctrine instruction, and 20th Century paralegal skills training; 2) The American Bar Association’s 21st century mandates for graduating students with both legal skills and legal doctrine training; 3) 21st Century pedagogical Immutables (teaching online, teaching legal job skills, teaching legal doctrine, teaching to standardized tests); and 4) 21st Century Protean Challenges (institution and student demand for technology-based instruction, the Global Legal Services Industry’s hierarchical control over legal education and practice, enrollment and tuition crises, multi-cultural limitations, and the pedagogical conundrum of choosing among multiple online design and delivery modalities)