Reducing Hardships: Student Motivations, Educational Workflows, and Technology Choices in Academic Settings

Objective – This study examines The University of Manitoba student attitudes toward technology’s role in University study spaces and in their own educational workflows. Methods - A series of semi-structured group interviews were conducted with current undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Manitoba. Three group interviews were conducted with questions about individual technology and space use while studying in the library, and three group interviews were conducted with questions about group collaboration using technologies and tools in group study spaces. Transcripts were coded iteratively and separately by the researchers, analyzed for interrater reliability, categorized, and reviewed using axial coding to identify major themes. Through continued examination of these themes, a single theory emerged. Results - The participants expressed a strong need for independence and feelings of control over their workflows, technological tools, and environments. They discussed how interpersonal concerns and anxieties motivated their workflow choices and acknowledged the (often conflicting) motivational forces of personal necessity and personal preference. When examining the motivations behind the selection of technologies and work practices, it became clear that the respondents make technology and workflow decisions in an attempt to minimize their experience of perceived hardships. These perceived hardships could be social, emotional, educational, environmental, or temporal in nature, and the weight of any one hardship on decision making varied according to the individual. Conclusions - Libraries should be aware of this foundational user motivation and make choices accordingly - identifying and minimizing hardships whenever possible, unless they are necessary to achieve learning or service-specific goals. Additional research is required to help articulate the nuances experienced by particular student demographics. Librarians and future researchers should also consider investigating the potential disconnect between librarian and user attitudes toward technology, the prioritization of user-centered decision-making, and whether or not systematically disadvantaged social groups have different attitudes toward technology and its place in library spaces and academic work.https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/545

The UJI Aerial Librarian Robot: A Quadcopter for Visual Library Inventory and Book Localisation

Over time, the field of robotics has provided solutions to automate routine tasks in different scenarios. In particular, libraries are awakening great interest in automated tasks since they are semi-structured environments where machines coexist with humans and several repetitive operations could be automatically performed. In addition, multirotor aerial vehicles have become very popular in many applications over the past decade, however autonomous flight in confined spaces still presents a number of challenges and the use of small drones has not been reported as an automated inventory device within libraries. This paper presents the UJI aerial librarian robot that leverages computer vision techniques to autonomously self-localize and navigate in a library for automated inventory and book localization. A control strategy to navigate along the library bookcases is presented by using visual markers for self-localization during a visual inspection of bookshelves. An image-based book recognition technique is described that combines computer vision techniques to detect the tags on the book spines, followed by an optical character recognizer (OCR) to convert the book code on the tags into text. These data can be used for library inventory. Misplaced books can be automatically detected, and a particular book can be located within the library. Our quadrotor robot was tested in a real library with promising results. The problems encountered and limitation of the system are discussed, along with its relation to similar applications, such as automated inventory in warehouses.Support for the research conducted at UJI Robotic Intelligence Laboratory is provided in part by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (DPI2015-69041-R), by Universitat Jaume I (UJI-B2018-74), and by Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2020/034, GV/2020/051)

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 2 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division 9 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 12 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 14 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 16 Advertisements IEEE

The UJI librarian robot

This paper describes the UJI Librarian Robot, a mobile manipulator that is able to autonomously locate a book in an ordinary library, and grasp it from a bookshelf, by using eye-in-hand stereo vision and force sensing. The robot is only provided with the book code, a library map and some knowledge about its logical structure and takes advantage of the spatio-temporal constraints and regularities of the environment by applying disparate techniques such as stereo vision, visual tracking, probabilistic matching, motion estimation, multisensor-based grasping, visual servoing and hybrid control, in such a way that it exhibits a robust and dependable performance. The system has been tested, and experimental results show how it is able to robustly locate and grasp a book in a reasonable time without human intervention

Survey of Visual and Force/Tactile Control of Robots for Physical Interaction in Spain

Sensors provide robotic systems with the information required to perceive the changes that happen in unstructured environments and modify their actions accordingly. The robotic controllers which process and analyze this sensory information are usually based on three types of sensors (visual, force/torque and tactile) which identify the most widespread robotic control strategies: visual servoing control, force control and tactile control. This paper presents a detailed review on the sensor architectures, algorithmic techniques and applications which have been developed by Spanish researchers in order to implement these mono-sensor and multi-sensor controllers which combine several sensors

STEAM Education in Ontario, Canada: A Case Study on the Curriculum and Instructional Models of Four K-8 STEAM Programs

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning and project-based learning are important educational initiatives in North America. However, it is important to consider whether current STEM educational practices are sufficient to prepare students for the world they are to live and work in. This prompts discussions about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) which is shifting educational paradigms towards art integration in STEM subjects. This study investigates the STEAM education reform movement in Canada to better understand the STEAM curriculum and instructional programs offered by non-profit organizations and publicly funded schools. This research study addresses the following major questions: 1) what curriculum and instruction models of STEAM education are implemented in non-profit and in-school contexts in Ontario, Canada? 2) What do students learn through different models of STEAM education? 3) What types of assessment of student learning is happening in STEAM education? 4) How do classroom teachers view such models of STEAM education in meeting their curriculum and instruction goals? To explore these questions, I took a small sample of four different STEAM programs in Ontario, Canada. I conducted interviews, observations, content analysis of curriculum documents and a focus group interview. At the four research sites, the main pedagogies used are design-based and inquiry-based models which focused on the students’ interests and encourages students to construct their own knowledge. Students learn character-building skills that empower them to solve real-world problems, develop perseverance and grit, engage in their community and develop a global perspective. The instructors/teachers describe the STEAM tasks at each site as rich and authentic experiences. The findings also suggest that sharing the learning in the STEAM program with the community extends the learning experiences to a wider community and contributes to the collective knowledge about how students learn. This study can inform teaching practices for teachers who seek to engage and motivate students by integrating the arts in STEM subjects. This study also promises to deepen the field’s understanding of STEAM education in Canada and to provide new insights into the practicality, affordances, and tensions of designing and implementing a STEAM program

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 1 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 9 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 11 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 12 Advertisements IEEE