Discovering Knowledge through Highly Interactive Information Based Systems

[EN] The new Internet era has increased a production of digital data. The mankind had an easy way to the knowledge access never before, but at the same time the rapidly increasing rate of new data, the ease of duplication and transmission of these data across the Net, the new available channels for information dissemination, the large amounts of historical data, questionable quality of the existing data and so on are issues for information overload that causes more difficult to make decision using the right data. Soft-computing techniques for decision support systems and business intelligent systems present pretty interesting and necessary solutions for data management and supporting decision-making processes, but the last step at the decision chain is usually supported by a human agent that has to process the system outcomes in form of reports or visualizations. These kinds of information representations are not enough to make decisions because of behind them could be hidden information patterns that are not obvious for automatic data processing and humans must interact with these data representation in order to discover knowledge. According to this, the current special issue is devoted to present nine experiences that combine visualization and visual analytics techniques, data mining methods, intelligent recommendation agents, user centered evaluation and usability patterns, etc. in interactive systems as a key issue for knowledge discovering in advanced and emerging information systems.[ES] La nueva era de Internet ha aumentado la producción de datos digitales. Nunca nates la humanidad ha tenido una manera más fácil el acceso a los conocimientos, pero al mismo tiempo el rápido aumento de la tasa de nuevos datos, la facilidad de duplicación y transmisión de estos datos a través de la red, los nuevos canales disponibles para la difusión de información, las grandes cantidades de los datos históricos, cuestionable calidad de los datos existentes y así sucesivamente, son temas de la sobrecarga de información que hace más difícil tomar decisiones con la información correcta. Técnicas de Soft-computing para los sistemas de apoyo a las decisiones y sistemas inteligentes de negocios presentan soluciones muy interesantes y necesarias para la gestión de datos y procesos de apoyo a la toma de decisiones, pero el último paso en la cadena de decisiones suele ser apoyados por un agente humano que tiene que procesar los resultados del sistema de en forma de informes o visualizaciones. Este tipo de representaciones de información no son suficientes para tomar decisiones debido detrás de ellos podrían ser patrones de información ocultos que no son obvios para el procesamiento automático de datos y los seres humanos deben interactuar con estos representación de datos con el fin de descubrir el conocimiento. De acuerdo con esto, el presente número especial está dedicado a nueve experiencias actuales que combinan técnicas de visualización y de análisis visual, métodos de minería de datos, agentes de recomendación inteligentes y evaluación centrada en el usuario y patrones de usabilidad, etc. En sistemas interactivos como un tema clave para el descubrimiento de conocimiento en los sistemas de información avanzados y emergentes

Narrativas digitais na expressão do Eu do aluno do ensino superior

Doutoramento em Multimédia em EducaçãoIdentity achievement is related to personality, as well as cognitive and interpersonal development. In tandem with the deep structural changes that have taken place in society, education must also shift towards a teaching approach focused on learning and the overall development of the student. The integration of technology may be the drive to foster the needed changes. We draw on the literature of multiple subject areas as basis for our work, namely: identity construction and self-representation, within a psychological and social standpoint; Higher Education (HE) in Portugal after Bologna, college student development and other intrinsic relationships, namely the role of emotions and interpersonal relationships in the learning process; the technological evolution of storytelling towards Digital Storytelling (DS) – the Californian model – and its connections to identity and education. Ultimately we propose DS as the aggregator capable of humanizing HE while developing essential skills and competences. Grounded on an interpretative/constructivist paradigm, we implemented a qualitative case study to explore DS in HE. In three attempts to collect student data, we gathered detailed observation notes from two Story Circles; twelve student written reflections; fourteen Digital Stories and detailed observation notes from one Story Show. We carried out three focus groups with teachers where we discussed their perceptions of each student prior to and after watching the Digital Stories, in addition to their opinion on DS in HE as a teaching and learning method and its influence on interpersonal relationships. We sought understandings of the integration of DS to analyze student selfperception and self-representation in HE contexts and intersected our findings with teachers’ perceptions of their students. We compared teachers’ and students’ perspectives, through the analysis of data collected throughout the DS process – Story Circle, Story Creation and Story Show – and triangulated that information with the students’ personal reflections and teacher perceptions. Finally we questioned if and how DS may influence teachers’ perceptions of students. We found participants to be the ultimate gatekeepers in our study. Very few students and teachers voluntarily came forth to take part in the study, confirming the challenge remains in getting participants to see the value and understand the academic rigor of DS. Despite this reluctance, DS proved to be an asset for teachers and students directly and indirectly involved in the study. DS challenges HE contexts, namely teacher established perception of students; student’s own expectations regarding learning in HE; the emotional realm, the private vs. public dichotomy and the shift in educational roles.A identidade está relacionada com a personalidade assim como com desenvolvimento cognitivo e interpessoal. Com as profundas mudanças estruturais que ocorrem na sociedade, a educação vê-se confrontada com um novo paradigma, onde se prima por uma abordagem centrada na aprendizagem e no desenvolvimento global do aluno. A integração da tecnologia pode ser impulsionadora das mudanças necessárias. Baseamos a nossa investigação na literatura de várias áreas de estudo, a saber: a construção da identidade e auto-representação, numa perspetiva psicológica e social; o Ensino Superior (ES) em Portugal e as mudanças advindas do Processo de Bolonha; o desenvolvimento do aluno universitário e outras relações intrínsecas, nomeadamente, o papel das emoções e relações interpessoais no processo de aprendizagem; e a evolução tecnológica que permitiu a evolução storytelling para Digital Storytelling (DS) – o modelo Californiano – e as ligações com a identidade e educação. Em última análise, propomos o DS como elemento agregador, capaz de humanizar o ES aquando do desenvolvimento de aptidões e competências dos alunos. Partindo de um paradigma interpretativo/construtivista, implementámos um estudo de caso qualitativo para explorar o DS no ES. Nas três tentativas de recolher dados junto dos alunos, reunimos notas de campo, doze reflexões escritas pelos alunos, e catorze histórias digitais. Realizámos três grupos de discussão (focus groups) com professores, com os quais discutimos as suas percepções em relação a cada aluno antes e depois de verem as histórias digitais. Discutimos ainda o DS no ES, como um método de ensino e aprendizagem e a sua influência nas relações interpessoais. Procurámos compreender a integração do DS para analisar as auto-percepções e autorepresentação dos estudantes no ES e cruzámos os resultados com as percepções dos professores. Concluímos que os participantes são as peças chave do estudo. Poucos alunos e professores participaram voluntariamente, confirmando que o desafio persiste, que há percepções erradas no que concerne o valor e o rigor académico no processo de DS. Apesar desta relutância, o DS provou ser uma mais-valia para professores e alunos, directa e indirectamente envolvidos no estudo. DS desafia os contextos de ES: a percepção que o professor tem do aluno; as próprias expectativas do aluno em relação à aprendizagem no ES; o papel da emoção, a dicotomia privado versus público e a mudança nos papéis exigidos quer a professores, quer a alunos

Discovering Knowledge Through Visual Analysis

This paper describes our vision for the near future in digital content analysis as it relates to the creation, verification, and presentation of knowledge. We focus on how visualization enables humans to make discoveries and gain knowledge. Visualization, in this context, is not just the picture representing the data but also a two-way interaction between humans and their information resources for the purposes of knowledge discovery, verification, and the sharing of knowledge with others. We present visual interaction and analysis examples to demonstrate how one current visualization tool analyzes large, diverse collections of text. This is followed by lessons learned and the presentation of a core concept for a new human information discourse

Discovering Knowledge Through Visual Analysis

This paper describes our vision for the near future in digital content analysis as it relates to the creation, verification, and presentation of knowledge. We focus on how visualization enables humans to make discoveries and gain knowledge. Visualization, in this context, is not just the picture representing the data but also a two-way interaction between humans and their information resources for the purposes of knowledge discovery, verification, and the sharing of knowledge with others. We present visual interaction and analysis examples to demonstrate how one current visualization tool analyzes large, diverse collections of text. This is followed by lessons learned and the presentation of a core concept for a new human information discourse