327,857 research outputs found
UEFI BIOS Accessibility for the Visually Impaired
People with some kind of disability face a high level of difficulty for
everyday tasks because, in many cases, accessibility was not considered
necessary when the task or process was designed. An example of this scenario is
a computer's BIOS configuration screens, which do not consider the specific
needs, such as screen readers, of visually impaired people. This paper proposes
the idea that it is possible to make the pre-operating system environment
accessible to visually impaired people. We report our work-in-progress in
creating a screen reader prototype, accessing audio cards compatible with the
High Definition Audio specification in systems running UEFI compliant firmware.Comment: 6 page
City Magazine Editors and the Evolving Urban Information Environment
The urban information environment in which city magazines operate is changing dramatically, with the decline of local newspapers and the growth of user-generated local content. City magazine editors are re-envisioning their purpose as local information providers. This study provides a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with senior editors at 15 award-winning city magazines. The editorsâ responses speak to the changing role of their publications today; the function of new technologies in informing local communities; and the public service that local journalism organizations offer in a constrained economic situation
Locating experience in time and place: a look at young adult fiction and spiritual intelligence
Spiritual intelligence describes self-awareness and intuition, with the development of creative thinking, compassion, and connectedness with others. Many researchers point to an awakening and development of spiritual intelligence that is enhanced through exploration of existential questions within the genre of young adult fiction. Such literature absorbs the adolescent reader so that they become transported into the narrative, exploring a sense of self and of others This article discusses the ways in which young adult fiction, including comparison of a novel of older context (An Episode of Sparrows) with contemporary dystopian fiction (The Maze Runner), can foster young adultsâ exploration of self-awareness and cultivate the continued development of notions of connectedness, justice and responsibility. It describes current research on the relationship between spiritual intelligence in young adults and the narrative transportation effect of young adult fiction
Reading Videogames as (authorless) Literature
This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio-cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, 2011) was studied within the orthodox framing of the English Literature curriculum at A Level (pre-University) and Undergraduate (degree level). There is a plethora of published research into the kinds of literacy practices evident in videogame play, virtual world engagement and related forms of digital reading and writing (Gee, 2003; Juul, 2005; Merchant, Gillen, Marsh and Davies, 2012; Apperley and Walsh, 2012; Bazalgette and Buckingham, 2012) as well as the implications of such for home / school learning (Dowdall, 2006; Jenkins, 2006; Potter, 2012) and for teachersâ own digital lives (Graham, 2012). Such studies have tended to focus on younger children and this research is also distinct from such work in the field in its exploration of the potential for certain kinds of videogame to be understood as 'digital transformations' of conventional âschooledâ literature. The outcomes of this project raise implications of such a conception for a further implementation of a âreframedâ literacy (Marsh, 2007) within the contemporary curriculum of a traditional and conservative âsubjectâ. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributing to a gamplay blog requiring them to discuss their in-game experience through the âlanguage gameâ of English Literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subjectâs set text âfinal examinationâ. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L.A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles in order to work through a set of study materials provided, designed to reproduce the conventions of the âstudy guideâ for literature education. Interviews were conducted after each phase and the outcomes informed a redrafting of the study materials which are now available online for teachers â this being the âpracticalâ outcome of the research (Berger and McDougall, 2012). In the act of inserting the study of L.A. Noire into the English Literature curriculum as currently framed, this research moves, through a practical âimplementationâ beyond longstanding debates around narratology and ludology (Frasca, 2003; Juul, 2005) in the field of game studies (Leaning, 2012) through a direct connection to new literacy studies and raises epistemological questions about âsubject identityâ, informed by Bernstein (1996) and Bourdieu (1986) and the implications for digital transformations of texts for both ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy (Kendall and McDougall, 2011) and the politics of âexpertiseâ in pedagogic relations (Ranciere, 2009, Bennett, Kendall and McDougall, 2012a)
Pendekatan konstruktif dalam inovasi pengajaran dan pembelajaran Bahasa Melayu di Kolej Vokasional
Pendekatan konstruktif adalah pendekatan pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang
berpusatkan pelajar manakala inovasi pengajaran pula dikaitkan dengan kaedah
pengajaran yang terbaru demi mengukuhkan pemahaman pelajar. Pembelajaran
berasaskan pendekatan konstruktif merupakan elemen yang penting dan perlu
difahami oleh guru-guru bagi memantapkan proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran
sesuai dengan peredaran masa dan menjayakan proses tranformasi pendidikan
negara. Objektif kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti pemahaman guru-guru
bahasa Melayu berkaitan inovasi, mengenal pasti perbezaan yang wujud antara guru
lelaki dan guru perempuan dalam mengamalkan inovasi, pengkaji juga melihat
adakah wujud perbezaan antara guru baru dan guru yang sudah berpengalaman
dalam aspek mengaplikasikan inovasi serta mengenal pasti kekangan-kekangan yang
dialami oleh para guru untuk mengaplikasikan inovasi di sekolah. Seramai 63 orang
guru bahasa Melayu dari lapan buah kolej vokasional telah dipilih sebagai responden
dalam kajian ini. Data dianalisis menggunakan perisian Winsteps 3.69.1.11 dengan
pendekatan Model Pengukuran Rasch. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahawa guru�guru bahasa Melayu memahami kepentingan inovasi dalam pengajaran dan
pembelajaran. Hasil kajian juga menunjukkan guru-guru perempuan lebih banyak
menerapkan unsur inovasi dalam pengajaran berbanding guru lelaki. Walaupun
begitu, aspek pengalaman tidak menunjukkan perbezaan dari segi pengamalan
inovasi sama ada guru baru ataupun guru yang sudah berpengalaman. Pengkaji juga
mengenal pasti beberapa kekangan yang dialami oleh guru-guru untuk mengamalkan
inovasi ini. Sebagai langkah untuk menangani masalah berkenaan, beberapa
cadangan telah dikemukakan oleh pengkaji bagi memastikan guru-guru dapat
merealisasikan proses pengajaran berkesan dengan penerapan inovasi mengikut
model pendekatan konstruktif. Pengkaji berharap, kajian ini dapat dijadikan sebagai
satu panduan kepada pelaksana kurikulum bagi memastikan budaya inovasi sentiasa
menjadi amalan dalam kalangan guru demi mengangkat profesionalisme guru di
Malaysia
Designing the printed book as an interactive environment
Reading a book demands a certain level of interaction from the reader. The cover must be opened and pages turned to navigate the information inside. Conventions have been developed over the life of the book to assist the reader in this navigation and provide orientation. The evolution of electronic reading material has given readers greater opportunities for interacting with their reading material, but many readers still prefer reading from a printed book. This paper investigates how the interactive organizational paradigm of hypertext can be implemented in a printed book to give the reader the opportunity for greater interaction and benefit from some of the advantages that electronic reading environments provide. The investigation in this paper follows an iterative design process in consultation with a panel of four experts. Through four rounds of consultation and refinement two potential solutions were developed for the incorporation of hypertext methods in a printed book
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