Where is the Bot in our Team? Toward a Taxonomy of Design Option Combinations for Conversational Agents in Collaborative Work

With rapid progress in machine learning, language technologies and artificial intelligence, conversational agents (CAs) gain rising attention in research and practice as potential non-human teammates, facilitators or experts in collaborative work. However, designers of CAs in collaboration still struggle with a lack of comprehensive understanding of the vast variety of design options in the dynamic field. We address this gap with a taxonomy to help researchers and designers understand the design space and the interrelations of different design options and recognize useful design option combinations for their CAs. We present the iterative development of a taxonomy for the design of CAs grounded in state of the art literature and validated with domain experts. We identify recurring design option combinations and white spots from the classified objects that will inform further research and development efforts

Context-aware Knowledge-based Systems: A Literature Review

Context awareness systems, a subcategory of intelligent systems, are concerned with suggesting relevant products/services to users' situations as smart services. One key element for improving smart services’ quality is to organize and manipulate contextual data in an appropriate manner to facilitate knowledge generation from these data. In this light, a knowledge-based approach, can be used as a key component in context-aware systems. Context awareness and knowledge-based systems, in fact, have been gaining prominence in their respective domains for decades. However, few studies have focused on how to reconcile the two fields to maximize the benefits of each field. For this reason, the objective of this paper is to present a literature review of how context-aware systems, with a focus on the knowledge-based approach, have recently been conceptualized to promote further research in this area. In the end, the implications and current challenges of the study will be discussed

Complexity in Second Language Study Emotions

This book offers a socially situated view of the emergence of emotionality for additional language (L2) learners in classroom interaction in Japan. Grounded in a complexity perspective, the author argues that emotions need to be studied as they are dynamically experienced and understood in all of their multidimensional colors by individuals (in interaction). Via practitioner research, Sampson applies a small-lens focus, interweaving experiential and discursive data, offering possibilities for exploring, interpreting and representing the lived experience of L2 study emotions in a more holistic yet detailed, social yet individual fashion. Amidst the currently expanding interest in L2 study emotions, the book presents a strong case for the benefits of locating interpretations of the emergence of L2 study emotions back into situated, dynamic, social context. Sampson’s work will be of interest to students and researchers in second language acquisition and L2 learning psychology

Exploring teachers’ professional development with Twitter: A sociomaterial analysis

“BEST. PD. EVER!” Some teachers make bold claims for the way that Twitter supports their professional development, yet research into this area is rather limited. This study sought to gain a better understanding of the practices involved and the part that Twitter plays. It uses a sociomaterial sensibility informed by actor-network theory (ANT) to unravel the complex webs of relations which form, break apart and reform when knowledge practices are enacted in the mediated arena of Twitter. To explore this rich but messy environment, I evoke the spirit of the Parisian flâneur to develop an ethnographic approach I refer to as ‘flânography.’ Characterised by purposeful wandering, the approach coupled participant observation and interviews, with emerging methods involving a bot and a 'walkie-talkie' app. Adopting the sensibility of the flâneur consistently through data collection, analysis and presentation resulted in traversals which render pathways of experience. This led to me presenting the findings in three ‘Gatherings’ (Law, 2004a), each taking a tweet or other data snippet as a point of departure. Through the Gatherings I present the activities of both human and nonhuman participants, establish how they came together (or didn’t) and gain a better appreciation of the outcomes of those interrelationships. In reading across the Gatherings, two interlocking dimensions emerged through which teachers' learning practices on Twitter might be conceptualised. ‘Compound learning’ describes how practices can be understood through three meanings of compound: framed chemically (through formation of bonds and associations), financially (like interest which grows cumulatively) and as a mixture (an assortment of actors engaged in activities). The second dimension describes how compound learning can be enacted across three ‘scales:’ acts, activities and practices. By extending previous research, this thesis contributes a richer and deeper understanding of what ‘Twitter Professional Development’ involves, thereby helping to legitimise it within broader professional development discourse. Adding to the current literature on teachers’ professional learning, this thesis reveals how significant personal-isation is in two senses: that teachers can exercise choice in what, when and how they learn; and secondly, the importance of being able to forge socio-professional connections with fellow educators in different ways. The flânographic approach and the new methods which arose within it offer wider contributions for studies exploring activities which range across online and offline spaces, and through time

A multivariant secure framework for smart mobile health application

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Wiley in Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, available online: https://doi.org/10.1002/ett.3684 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Wireless sensor network enables remote connectivity of technological devices such as smart mobile with the internet. Due to its low cost as well as easy availability of data sharing and accessing devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) has grown exponentially during the past few years. The availability of these devices plays a remarkable role in the new era of mHealth. In mHealth, the sensors generate enormous amounts of data and the context-aware computing has proven to collect and manage the data. The context aware computing is a new domain to be aware of context of involved devices. The context-aware computing is playing a very significant part in the development of smart mobile health applications to monitor the health of patients more efficiently. Security is one of the key challenges in IoT-based mHealth application development. The wireless nature of IoT devices motivates attackers to attack on application; these vulnerable attacks can be denial of service attack, sinkhole attack, and select forwarding attack. These attacks lead intruders to disrupt the application's functionality, data packet drops to malicious end and changes the route of data and forwards the data packet to other location. There is a need to timely detect and prevent these threats in mobile health applications. Existing work includes many security frameworks to secure the mobile health applications but all have some drawbacks. This paper presents existing frameworks, the impact of threats on applications, on information, and different security levels. From this line of research, we propose a security framework with two algorithms, ie, (i) patient priority autonomous call and (ii) location distance based switch, for mobile health applications and make a comparative analysis of the proposed framework with the existing ones.Published onlin

Towards structured neural spoken dialogue modelling.

195 p.In this thesis, we try to alleviate some of the weaknesses of the current approaches to dialogue modelling,one of the most challenging areas of Artificial Intelligence. We target three different types of dialogues(open-domain, task-oriented and coaching sessions), and use mainly machine learning algorithms to traindialogue models. One challenge of open-domain chatbots is their lack of response variety, which can betackled using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). We present two methodological contributions inthis regard. On the one hand, we develop a method to circumvent the non-differentiability of textprocessingGANs. On the other hand, we extend the conventional task of discriminators, which oftenoperate at a single response level, to the batch level. Meanwhile, two crucial aspects of task-orientedsystems are their understanding capabilities because they need to correctly interpret what the user islooking for and their constraints), and the dialogue strategy. We propose a simple yet powerful way toimprove spoken understanding and adapt the dialogue strategy by explicitly processing the user's speechsignal through audio-processing transformer neural networks. Finally, coaching dialogues shareproperties of open-domain and task-oriented dialogues. They are somehow task-oriented but, there is norush to complete the task, and it is more important to calmly converse to make the users aware of theirown problems. In this context, we describe our collaboration in the EMPATHIC project, where a VirtualCoach capable of carrying out coaching dialogues about nutrition was built, using a modular SpokenDialogue System. Second, we model such dialogues with an end-to-end system based on TransferLearning

Listening and Normative Entanglement: A Pragmatic Foundation for Conversational Ethics

People care very much about being listened to. In everyday talk, we make moral-sounding judgements of people as listeners: praising a doctor who listens well even if she does not have a ready solution, or blaming a boss who does not listen even if the employee manages to get her situation addressed. In this sense, listening is a normative behaviour: that is, we ought to be good listeners. Whilst several disciplines have addressed the normative importance of interpersonal listening—particularly in sociology, psychology, media and culture studies—analytic philosophy does not have a framework for dealing with listening as a normative interpersonal behaviour. Listening usually gets reduced mere speech-parsing (in philosophy of language), or into a matter of belief and trust in the testimony of credible knowers (in social epistemology). My preliminary task is to analyse why this reductive view is taken for granted in the discipline; to diagnose the problem behind the reduction and propose a more useful alternative approach. The central task of my work is to give an account of listening which captures its distinctively normative quality as an interpersonal way of relating to someone: one listens not because the speaker is an epistemic expert, but because the speaker is a person, worthy of recognition and care. I created a framework which accomplishes this by deploying the conceptual resources of conversation sociology and psycholinguistics, in counterpoint to the standing philosophical work on the ethics and politics of speech and silencing, to create a practical ethics of listening to people

Exploring the Implementation of Online Non-Formal Project-Based Language Learning in the Indonesian Context

Proficiency in English is highly valued in Indonesia. Consequently, the low language attainment amongst learners despite years of compulsory English classes has been a cause for concern. This qualitative study explores the use of multiple Web 2.0 technologies (Facebook, WhatsApp, Google Docs, and LINE) to facilitate non-formal English language teaching and learning in Indonesia. Project-based language learning (PBLL) was chosen as the pedagogy to create meaningful opportunities for target language use and practice beyond the classroom. Taking on a dual role as a teacher and researcher, I carried out two rounds of data collection (four weeks each) which involved a total of 21 undergraduate students from across Indonesia. Participants were asked to collaboratively create the contents for an English learning website targeting elementary-school children. Adopting the role of a facilitator, I provided extensive support, guidance and encouragement. Rich online data were gathered from all of the Web 2.0 tools employed in the study. In addition, data were collected from a research diary, learners’ reflections, and post-study interviews. All data were subsequently analysed using qualitative content analysis within an interpretivist paradigm. The findings show that many learners may not be ready for, or readily engage with, the student-centred learning approach championed by PBLL. This is evidenced by generally low levels of learner participation. Learners reported several obstacles to their engagement during the project: language anxiety; external commitments beyond the project; and technological issues. A minority of participants who persevered, and participated actively, successfully produced their chosen artefact within the study time frame. PBLL afforded four types of language learning opportunities: form-focused instruction, peer review, interaction in the target language, and collaborative dialogue. Learners’ feedback reveals that they viewed their online non-formal PBLL experiences differently: What some learners considered positive aspects of the project, could be considered negative or challenging by others, and vice versa. Despite this, all learners agreed that the project benefited them albeit in different ways. The study makes a valuable contribution to the literature on PBLL, offering new insights regarding its integration into online teaching and learning in a non-formal context. The study is unique as it closely scrutinises both the complexities of implementing online PBLL in non-formal education and navigating various digital technologies in the process of language teaching and learning. The demands for English language learning in Indonesia and similar countries, are vast and consequently the implications of this study are relevant for a number of educational contexts. In recognition of this, strategies are suggested to assist the implementation of non-formal online PBLL in the future