Technology-enhanced learning: a new digital divide?

Abstrac

Personalization by Partial Evaluation.

The central contribution of this paper is to model personalization by the programmatic notion of partial evaluation.Partial evaluation is a technique used to automatically specialize programs, given incomplete information about their input.The methodology presented here models a collection of information resources as a program (which abstracts the underlying schema of organization and flow of information),partially evaluates the program with respect to user input,and recreates a personalized site from the specialized program.This enables a customizable methodology called PIPE that supports the automatic specialization of resources,without enumerating the interaction sequences beforehand .Issues relating to the scalability of PIPE,information integration,sessioniz-ling scenarios,and case studies are presented

Science of Digital Libraries(SciDL)

Our purpose is to ensure that people and institutions better manage information through digital libraries (DLs). Thus we address a fundamental human and social need, which is particularly urgent in the modern Information (and Knowledge) Age. Our goal is to significantly advance both the theory and state-of-theart of DLs (and other advanced information systems) - thoroughly validating our approach using highly visible testbeds. Our research objective is to leverage our formal, theory-based approach to the problems of defining, understanding, modeling, building, personalizing, and evaluating DLs. We will construct models and tools based on that theory so organizations and individuals can easily create and maintain fully functional DLs, whose components can interoperate with corresponding components of related DLs. This research should be highly meritorious intellectually. We bring together a team of senior researchers with expertise in information retrieval, human-computer interaction, scenario-based design, personalization, and componentized system development and expect to make important contributions in each of those areas. Of crucial import, however, is that we will integrate our prior research and experience to achieve breakthrough advances in the field of DLs, regarding theory, methodology, systems, and evaluation. We will extend the 5S theory, which has identified five key dimensions or onstructs underlying effective DLs: Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies. We will use that theory to describe and develop metamodels, models, and systems, which can be tailored to disciplines and/or groups, as well as personalized. We will disseminate our findings as well as provide toolkits as open source software, encouraging wide use. We will validate our work using testbeds, ensuring broad impact. We will put powerful tools into the hands of digital librarians so they may easily plan and configure tailored systems, to support an extensible set of services, including publishing, discovery, searching, browsing, recommending, and access control, handling diverse types of collections, and varied genres and classes of digital objects. With these tools, end-users will for be able to design personal DLs. Testbeds are crucial to validate scientific theories and will be thoroughly integrated into SciDL research and evaluation. We will focus on two application domains, which together should allow comprehensive validation and increase the significance of SciDL's impact on scholarly communities. One is education (through CITIDEL); the other is libraries (through DLA and OCKHAM). CITIDEL deals with content from publishers (e.g, ACM Digital Library), corporate research efforts e.g., CiteSeer), volunteer initiatives (e.g., DBLP, based on the database and logic rogramming literature), CS departments (e.g., NCSTRL, mostly technical reports), educational initiatives (e.g., Computer Science Teaching Center), and universities (e.g., theses and dissertations). DLA is a unit of the Virginia Tech library that virtually publishes scholarly communication such as faculty-edited journals and rare and unique resources including image collections and finding aids from Special Collections. The OCKHAM initiative, calling for simplicity in the library world, emphasizes a three-part solution: lightweightprotocols, component-based development, and open reference models. It provides a framework to research the deployment of the SciDL approach in libraries. Thus our choice of testbeds also will nsure that our research will have additional benefit to and impact on the fields of computing and library and information science, supporting transformations in how we learn and deal with information

Efficient Decision Support Systems

This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers

CPA’s Guide to Technology in a PFP Practice

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/2697/thumbnail.jp

COSPO/CENDI Industry Day Conference

The conference's objective was to provide a forum where government information managers and industry information technology experts could have an open exchange and discuss their respective needs and compare them to the available, or soon to be available, solutions. Technical summaries and points of contact are provided for the following sessions: secure products, protocols, and encryption; information providers; electronic document management and publishing; information indexing, discovery, and retrieval (IIDR); automated language translators; IIDR - natural language capabilities; IIDR - advanced technologies; IIDR - distributed heterogeneous and large database support; and communications - speed, bandwidth, and wireless

Prospects in Agricultural Engineering in the Information Age - Technological Development for the Producer and the Consumer

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is an Invited article from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 1 (1999): N. Sigrimis, Y. Hashimoto, A. Munack and J. De Baerdemaker. Prospects in Agricultural Engineering in the Information Age - Technological Development for the Producer and the Consumer

New concepts integration on e-learning platforms

The learning experience has evolved into the virtual world of the Internet, where learners have the possibility to shift from face-to-face learning environments to virtual learning environments supported by technologies. This concept, called e-learning, emerged in the early 1960s where a group of researchers from the Stanford University, USA began experimenting different ways to publish and assign learning content using a computer. These experiments were the beginning that led to the creation of countless learning platforms, initially constructed in standalone environments and later ported to the Internet as Webbased learning platforms. As initial objectives, these learning platforms include a collection of features to support instructors and learners in the learning process. However, some of these platforms continued to be based on an old instructor-centered learning model and created a collection of outdated technologies that, given the current need to a learner-center learning model and the existence of Web 2.0 technologies, become inadequate. As a solution to address and overcome these challenges, a friendly user interface and a correct root incorporation of Web 2.0 services a platform designed to focus the learning experience and environment personalization into the learner is needed to propose. In an operating system (OS) context the graphic user interface (GUI) is guided by a collection of approaches that details how human beings should interact with computers. These are the key ideas to customize, install, and organize virtual desktops. The combination of desktop concepts into a learning platform can be an asset to reduce the learning curve necessary to know how to use the system and also to create a group of flexible learning services. However, due to limitations in hypertext transfer protocol-hypertext markup language (HTTP-HTML) traditional solutions, to shift traditional technologies to a collection of rich Internet application (RIA) technologies and personal learning environments (PLEs) concepts is needed, in order to construct a desktop-like learning platform. RIA technologies will allow the design of powerful Web solutions containing many of the characteristics of desktop-like applications. Additionally, personal learning environments (PLEs) will help learners to manage learning contents. In this dissertation the personal learning environment box (PLEBOX) is presented. The PLEBOX platform is a customizable, desktop-like platform similar to the available operating systems, based on personal learning environments concepts and rich Internet applications technologies that provide a better learning environment for users. PLEBOX developers have a set of tools that allow the creation of learning and management modules that can be installed on the platform. These tools are management learning components and interfaces built as APIs, services, and objects of the software development kit (SDK). A group of prototype modules were build for evaluation of learning and management services, APIs, and SDKs. Furthermore, three case studies were created in order to evaluate and demonstrate the learning service usage in external environments. The PLEBOX deployment and corresponding features confirms that this platform can be seen as a very promising e-learning platform. Exhaustive experiments were driven with success and it is ready for use.A experiência de aprendizagem baseada em tecnologias evoluiu para o mundo virtual da Internet, onde os alunos têm a possibilidade de mudar uma aprendizagem presencial em sala de aula para uma aprendizagem baseada em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem suportados por tecnologias. O conceito de e-learning surgiu nos anos sessenta (1960) quando um grupo de investigadores da Universidade de Standford, nos Estados Unidos, começaram a experimentar diferentes formas de publicar e atribuir conteúdos de aprendizagem através do computador. Estas experiências marcaram o começo que levou à criação de inúmeras plataformas de aprendizagem, inicialmente construídas em ambientes isolados e depois migradas para a Internet como plataformas de aprendizagem baseadas na Web. Como objectivos inicias, estas plataformas de aprendizagem incluem um conjunto de recursos para apoiar professores e alunos no processo de aprendizagem. No entanto, algumas destas plataformas continuam a ser baseadas em velhos modelos de aprendizagem centrados no professor, criadas com base em tecnologias ultrapassadas que, dadas as necessidades actuais de um modelo de aprendizagem centrado no aluno e da existência de tecnologias baseadas na Web 2.0, se tornaram inadequadas. Como abordagem para enfrentar e superar estes desafios propõem-se uma plataforma focada na personalização do ambiente de aprendizagem do aluno, composta por uma interface amigável e uma correcta incorporação de raiz de serviços da Web 2.0. No contexto dos sistemas operativos (SOs) o graphic user interface (GUI) é desenhado tendo em conta um conjunto de abordagens que detalha como as pessoas devem interagir com os computadores. Estas são as ideias chave para personalizar, instalar e organizar áreas de trabalho virtuais. A combinação do conceito desktop com uma plataforma de aprendizagem pode ser um trunfo para reduzir a curva de aprendizagem necessária para saber como utilizar o sistema e também para criar um grupo de serviços flexíveis de aprendizagem. No entanto, devido as limitações em soluções tradicionais hypertext transfer protocol - hypertext markup language (HTTP - HTML), é necessário migrar estas tecnologias para um grupo de tecnologias rich Internet application (RIA) e conceitos presentes em ambientes personalizados de aprendizagem (personal learning environment - PLE) para construir uma plataforma baseada em ambientes de trabalho virtuais de aprendizagem. As tecnologias RIA irão permitir a criação de soluções Web poderosas que contêm muitas das características disponíveis em aplicações desktop. Adicionalmente, o conceitos de PLE irá ajudar os alunos a gerir os seus próprios conteúdos de aprendizagem. Nesta dissertação, com base nas características apresentadas anteriormente, é apresentada a personal learning environment box (PLEBOX). A plataforma PLEBOX é uma solução de aprendizagem parametrizável com um ambiente de trabalho semelhante aos sistemas operativos actuais, baseando-se em personal learning environments e tecnologias RIA que fornecem um melhor ambiente de aprendizagem para os seus utilizadores. Os programadores da PLEBOX têm ao seu dispor um conjunto de ferramentas que permitem a criação de módulos de aprendizagem e administração que podem ser instalados na plataforma. Estas ferramentas são componentes de aprendizagem e interfaces construídos como APIs, serviços e objectos do software development kit (SDK). Foi construído um conjunto de módulos com o objectivo de avaliar e demonstrar os serviços de aprendizagem, os serviços de gestão, APIs e SDKs. Para além disso, foram criados três casos de estudo para avaliar e demonstrar a utilização dos serviços de aprendizagem em ambientes externos. O desenvolvimento efectuado até ao momento na PLEBOX e respectivos recursos confirma que esta plataforma pode ser vista com uma promissora plataforma de aprendizagem (e-learning), totalmente modular e adaptativa. Realizaram-se experiências exaustivas para testar a plataforma e estas foram realizadas com sucesso num ambiente real, estando assim a plataforma pronta para exploração real