Use of a Timely Topics Web Tool to Enhance Research-Based Extension Program Impact

Developing creative, impactful methods for delivering research-based Extension educational material is often challenging. However, options have increased as technological advancement has made online learning accessible to stakeholders, producers/farmers, and the general public alike. An interactive timely topics web tool (TTW) can enhance interaction with a program home page to aid Extension professionals in effectively disseminating relevant information to users. Use of an equine program TTW broadened the reach of programmatic resources to national and international scales and increased new and repeat contacts with the educational website. Providing opportunities for interactive web-based learning may enhance implementation of recommended practices and reportable outcomes within Extension programs

The development of a Java image processing framework : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Computer Systems Engineering at Massey University

Practical computer-based teaching methods are often used in conjunction with theory-based lecture sessions and textbooks when teaching image processing. In kind, electronic or on-line image processing courses commonly provide both theoretical and interactive components, however these are often disparate in that the software used to provide each component is independent rather than integrated. It is less common to find electronic instructional resources for image processing that integrate theoretical textual and practical interactive content together into one seamless package. An integrated approach has the advantage that the concepts are more easily conveyed and reinforced when taught 'side-by-side' this way. The World Wide Web offers an attractive medium for delivering an integrated instructional resource on image processing. Applets written in Java may be seamlessly integrated into a hypertext environment. These applets can provide practical demonstrations of image processing concepts along side the relevant hypertext-based theoretical content. One of the major barriers to realising this kind of resource is the development effort required to create the necessary applets. This research demonstrates that the provision of a software framework can significantly reduce the burden of developing these applets. Such a framework provides a common code base that can be drawn upon during applet development, thereby avoiding the need to start from scratch each time a new applet is needed. The framework's design is modelled on a dataflow view of image processing, allowing applets to be built in terms of interconnections between operations. This design is intended to provide the developer with an intuitive and easy-to-use application programming interface (API) for developing applets. The framework also provides APIs for the programmer to implement new operations and data types, thereby extending the capabilities of the framework. Further, the framework's design is general enough to allow it to be used for developing general purpose image processing programs, or other programs that lend themselves to development using a dataflow language. This thesis shows that the proposed framework achieves its aims through an example application of the development of an applet that demonstrates a thresholding operation

Developing Legacy System Migration Methods and Tools for Technology Transfer

This paper presents the research results of an ongoing technology transfer project carried out in coopera- tion between the University of Salerno and a small software company. The project is aimed at developing and transferring migration technology to the industrial partner. The partner should be enabled to migrate monolithic multi-user COBOL legacy systems to a multi-tier Web-based architecture. The assessment of the legacy systems of the partner company revealed that these systems had a very low level of decompos- ability with spaghetti-like code and embedded control flow and database accesses within the user interface descriptions. For this reason, it was decided to adopt an incremental migration strategy based on the reengineering of the user interface using Web technology, on the transformation of interactive legacy programs into batch programs, and the wrapping of the legacy programs. A middleware framework links the new Web-based user interface with the Wrapped Legacy System. An Eclipse plug-in, named MELIS (migration environment for legacy information systems), was also developed to support the migration process. Both the migration strategy and the tool have been applied to two essential subsystems of the most business critical legacy system of the partner company

Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences

Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Youth today are often criticized for their lack of civic participation and involvement in political life. Technology has been blamed, amongst many other causes, for fostering social isolation and youth's retreat into a private world disconnected from their communities. However, current research is beginning to indicate that these might be inaccurate perceptions. The Internet has provided new opportunities to create communities that extend beyond geographic boundaries, to engage in civic and volunteering activities across local and national frontiers, to learn about political life, and to experience the challenges of democratic participation. How do we leverage youth's interest in new technologies by developing technology-based educational programs to promote civic engagement? This chapter explores this question by proposing socio-technical design elements to be considered when developing technology-rich experiences. It presents a typology to guide the design of Internet-based interventions, taking into account both the affordances of the technology and the educational approach to the use of the technology. It also presents a pilot experience in a northeastern university that offered a pre-orientation program in which incoming freshman designed a three-dimensional virtual campus of the future and developed new policies and programs to strengthen the relationship between college campus and neighbor communities

Distributed Learning System Design: A New Approach and an Agenda for Future Research

This article presents a theoretical framework designed to guide distributed learning design, with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of distributed learning systems. The authors begin with a review of the extant research on distributed learning design, and themes embedded in this literature are extracted and discussed to identify critical gaps that should be addressed by future work in this area. A conceptual framework that integrates instructional objectives, targeted competencies, instructional design considerations, and technological features is then developed to address the most pressing gaps in current research and practice. The rationale and logic underlying this framework is explicated. The framework is designed to help guide trainers and instructional designers through critical stages of the distributed learning system design process. In addition, it is intended to help researchers identify critical issues that should serve as the focus of future research efforts. Recommendations and future research directions are presented and discussed

ranacapa: An R package and Shiny web app to explore environmental DNA data with exploratory statistics and interactive visualizations.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is becoming a core tool in ecology and conservation biology, and is being used in a growing number of education, biodiversity monitoring, and public outreach programs in which professional research scientists engage community partners in primary research. Results from eDNA analyses can engage and educate natural resource managers, students, community scientists, and naturalists, but without significant training in bioinformatics, it can be difficult for this diverse audience to interact with eDNA results. Here we present the R package ranacapa, at the core of which is a Shiny web app that helps perform exploratory biodiversity analyses and visualizations of eDNA results. The app requires a taxonomy-by-sample matrix and a simple metadata file with descriptive information about each sample. The app enables users to explore the data with interactive figures and presents results from simple community ecology analyses. We demonstrate the value of ranacapa to two groups of community partners engaging with eDNA metabarcoding results

Complete LibTech 2013 Print Program

PDF of the complete print program from the 2013 Library Technology Conferenc