MOOCs as contemporary forms of books: new educational services between control and conversation

This text is devoted to an analysis of the Moocs, taking the viewpoint of the participants in these distance courses. Drawing on the emergence of new practices of training consumption, it tries to make the link between different perspectives of research: those coming from distance education, those relating to the analysis of educational resources, from textbooks. Taking into account the evolutions of books, especially with digital and Internet, it shows that considering Moocs as contemporary forms of educational (or cultural) books leads to change certain research issues and, more simply, the analyses devoted to them. Finally, it discusses two central processes in education, conversation and control, and shows how their articulation is reflected in the Moocs and how they are designed and used.Este texto volta-se a uma análise dos Moocs, considerando o ponto de vista dos parti- cipantes em cursos a distância. Com base no surgimento de novas práticas de forma- ção, busca-se estabelecer o vínculo entre diferentes perspectivas de pesquisa: as que procedem da educação a distância e as relacionadas à análise de recursos educacio- nais, a partir de livros didáticos. Tendo em conta a evolução dos livros, especialmente com o suporte digital e a internet, mostra-se que considerar Moocs como formas con- temporâneas de livros educacionais (ou culturais) leva a mudar certos problemas de pesquisa, bem como as análises a eles relacionadas. Finalmente, discutem-se dois processos centrais na educação, a conversa e o controle, mostrando como sua articu- lação se reflete nos Moocs, na forma como eles são projetados e usados

Chatbot Interaction with Artificial Intelligence:human data augmentation with T5 and language transformer ensemble for text classification

In this work we present the Chatbot Interaction with Artificial Intelligence (CI-AI) framework as an approach to the training of a transformer based chatbot-like architecture for task classification with a focus on natural human interaction with a machine as opposed to interfaces, code, or formal commands. The intelligent system augments human-sourced data via artificial paraphrasing in order to generate a large set of training data for further classical, attention, and language transformation-based learning approaches for Natural Language Processing (NLP). Human beings are asked to paraphrase commands and questions for task identification for further execution of algorithms as skills. The commands and questions are split into training and validation sets. A total of 483 responses were recorded. Secondly, the training set is paraphrased by the T5 model in order to augment it with further data. Seven state-of-the-art transformer-based text classification algorithms (BERT, DistilBERT, RoBERTa, DistilRoBERTa, XLM, XLM-RoBERTa, and XLNet) are benchmarked for both sets after fine-tuning on the training data for two epochs. We find that all models are improved when training data is augmented by the T5 model, with an average increase of classification accuracy by 4.01%. The best result was the RoBERTa model trained on T5 augmented data which achieved 98.96% classification accuracy. Finally, we found that an ensemble of the five best-performing transformer models via Logistic Regression of output label predictions led to an accuracy of 99.59% on the dataset of human responses. A highly-performing model allows the intelligent system to interpret human commands at the social-interaction level through a chatbot-like interface (e.g. “Robot, can we have a conversation?”) and allows for better accessibility to AI by non-technical users

Territorial Violence and Design, 1950-2010: A Human-Computer Study of Personal Space and Chatbot Interaction

Personal space is a human’s imaginary system of precaution and an important concept for exploring territoriality, but between humans and technology because machinic agencies transfer, relocate, enact and reenact territorially. Literatures of territoriality, violence and affect are uniquely brought together, with chatbots as the research object to argue that their ongoing development as artificial agents, and the ambiguity of violence they can engender, have broader ramifications for a socio-technical research programme. These literatures help to understand the interrelation of virtual and actual spatiality relevant to research involving chatrooms and internet forums, automated systems and processes, as well as human and machine agencies; because all of these spaces, methods and agencies involve the personal sphere. The thesis is an ethical tale of cruel techno-science that is performed through conceptualisations from the creative arts, constituting a PhD by practice. This thesis chronicles four chatbots, taking into account interventions made in fine art, design, fiction and film that are omitted from a history of agent technology. The thesis re-interprets Edward Hall’s work on proxemics, personal space and territoriality, using techniques of the bricoleur and rudiments (an undeveloped and speculative method of practice), to understand chatbot techniques such as the pick-up, their entrapment logics, their repetitions of hateful speech, their nonsense talk (including how they disorientate spatial metaphors), as well as how developers switch on and off their learning functionality. Semi-structured interviews and online forum postings with chatbot developers were used to expand and reflect on the rudimentary method. To urge that this project is timely is itself a statement of anxiety. Chatbots can manipulate, exceed, and exhaust a human understanding of both space and time. Violence between humans and machines in online and offline spaces is explored as an interweaving of agency and spatiality. A series of rudiments were used to probe empirical experiments such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Tucker, 1950). The spatial metaphors of confinement as a parable of entrapment, are revealed within that logic and that of chatbots. The ‘Obedience to Authority’ experiments (Milgram, 1961) were used to reflect on the roles played by machines which are then reflected into a discussion of chatbots and the experiments done in and around them. The agency of the experimenter was revealed in the machine as evidenced with chatbots which has ethical ramifications. The argument of personal space is widened to include the ways machinic territoriality and its violence impacts on our ways of living together both in the private spheres of our computers and homes, as well as in state-regulated conditions (Directive-3, 2003). The misanthropic aspects of chatbot design are reflected through the methodology of designing out of fear. I argue that personal spaces create misanthropic design imperatives, methods and ways of living. Furthermore, the technological agencies of personal spaces have a confining impact on the transient spaces of the non-places in a wider discussion of the lift, chatroom and car. The violent origins of the chatbot are linked to various imaginings of impending disaster through visualisations, supported by case studies in fiction to look at the resonance of how anxiety transformed into terror when considering the affects of violence

Perceptual fail: Female power, mobile technologies and images of self

Like a biological species, images of self have descended and modified throughout their journey down the ages, interweaving and recharging their viability with the necessary interjections from culture, tools and technology. Part of this journey has seen images of self also become an intrinsic function within the narratives about female power; consider Helen of Troy “a face that launched a thousand ships” (Marlowe, 1604) or Kim Kardashian (KUWTK) who heralded in the mass mediated ‘selfie’ as a social practice. The interweaving process itself sees the image oscillate between naturalized ‘icon’ and idealized ‘symbol’ of what the person looked like and/or aspired to become. These public images can confirm or constitute beauty ideals as well as influence (via imitation) behaviour and mannerisms, and as such the viewers belief in the veracity of the representative image also becomes intrinsically political manipulating the associated narratives and fostering prejudice (Dobson 2015, Korsmeyer 2004, Pollock 2003). The selfie is arguably ‘a sui generis,’ whilst it is a mediated photographic image of self, it contains its own codes of communication and decorum that fostered the formation of numerous new digital communities and influenced new media aesthetics . For example the selfie is both of nature (it is still a time based piece of documentation) and known to be perceptually untrue (filtered, modified and full of artifice). The paper will seek to demonstrate how selfie culture is infused both by considerable levels of perceptual failings that are now central to contemporary celebrity culture and its’ notion of glamour which in turn is intrinsically linked (but not solely defined) by the province of feminine desire for reinvention, transformation or “self-sexualisation” (Hall, West and McIntyre, 2012). The subject, like the Kardashians or selfies, is divisive. In conclusion this paper will explore the paradox of the perceptual failings at play within selfie culture more broadly, like ‘Reality TV’ selfies are infamously fake yet seem to provide Debord’s (1967) illusory cultural opiate whilst fulfilling a cultural longing. Questions then emerge when considering the narrative impact of these trends on engendered power structures and the traditional status of illusion and narrative fiction

Reimagining the Chalk Talk: Animated Handwriting as a Social Cue to Improve Motivation in Multimedia Video Lessons

Animated handwriting in multimedia video lessons, such as those popularized by the Khan Academy, has reimagined the classic teaching technique of writing on a chalkboard while lecturing for online delivery. This digital chalk talk effect mimics classroom lectures where words are written letter by letter on a chalkboard as they are spoken. Low-cost applications, tablets, and document cameras allow instructors at all levels to easily create their own animated handwritten videos. As adoption increases, it is important to understand the effects of this strategy. This study employed a true experimental, between-subjects, posttest design that compared multimedia lessons with different text display formats on outcomes of motivation, mental effort, and learning. Undergraduate student volunteers (n = 234) from a large U.S., West Coast, regional, four-year public university were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: Animated handwritten, animated typewritten, or static typewritten. Each group watched a different version of a five-segment, twelve-minute multimedia lesson about cryptography. Lessons differed only in the visual text display format and contained identical narration and content. Results indicated that multimedia with animated handwritten text produced strong social cues motivating learners. Participants who viewed the animated handwriting reported significantly greater social agency attitudes toward the learning experience than with static typewritten text. They perceived the narrator’s voice as more dynamic with animated handwriting when compared to static, even though the voice was identical. They also reported more attention to the lesson and materials with animated handwriting than either animated typewritten or static typewritten. These motivational gains are accomplished without introducing extraneous cognitive load or negatively impacting learning outcomes. Significant findings from this research demonstrated that animated handwritten text is more than just a signaling strategy. The combination of text being hand-drawn and appearing as if a real person is writing it in real time adds a powerful social cue. Results of this study demonstrate that using animated handwriting in multimedia video lessons is an effective way to increase motivation through social cues that can be accomplished without requiring expansive technical knowledge, expensive equipment or extensive time investments

Portfolio of Creative Work

This portfolio of creative works consists of four projects dealing with the concepts of nostalgia, desire and kitsch in late capitalism. The projects are composed of two films, Rex and I?, and two interactive installations, and Information Superhighway respectively. Rex explores the cultural icon of the dinosaur and its use as a simulacrum in contemporary society. It does this through a soundtrack composed of sound bites from various documentaries from the past contrasted with a video displaying images of the dinosaur from the past and present, accompanied by generative spoken word poetry. I? delves into the history of consumerism and examines the link between identity and emotional well-being in postmodern culture through the genre of cyberpunk. Madonna’s Material Girl is nested between a soundtrack created using gritty synths and accompanied by a video using commercials from the past, commercial-like footage of the present and 3D animation. Listening Machines comments on the use of anthropomorphism and cuteness in product design through an interactive installation where participants engage with anthropomorphised speakers with unique personalities. Information Superhighway investigates the surreal nature of the internet and the disconnect between cyberspace and the physical world. It explores this through an interactive installation which uses a twitter bot that generates random sentences based off databases of recent tweets, the use of sculptural devices such as an interactive cloud and ambient sounds generated from early computer start up noises. These works have been realised through the use of SuperCollider, MaxMSP, Blender, Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro X. In this commentary I will expand on the theory that inspired these projects and explain the realisation of each of them

Information Technologies and Social Media: New Scientific Methods for the Anthropocene

The development of technology during the Anthropocene has affected science and the ways of “doing science”. Nowadays, new technologies help scientists of several disciplines by facilitating knowledge and how to manage it, but also allow for collaborative science, the so-called “Social Science”, where everyone can be a scientist and be involved in providing data and knowledge by using a computer or a smartphone without being a specialist. But is it really that simple? Actually, the daily and integrated use of different digital technologies and sharing platforms, such as social media, requires important reflections. Such reflections can lead to a rethinking of epistemologies and scientific paradigms, both in human geography and social sciences. This volume titled “Information Technologies and Social Media: New Scientific Methods for the Anthropocene” includes 10 chapters exploring some changes related to the way to do science with a multidisciplinary approach. From classroom experiences to the use of Citizen Science, from Artificial Intelligence use to how Social Media can help researchers, the book reflects on the ICT influence during the last few decades, exploring different cases, complementary perspectives and point of views

Data Science and Knowledge Discovery

Data Science (DS) is gaining significant importance in the decision process due to a mix of various areas, including Computer Science, Machine Learning, Math and Statistics, domain/business knowledge, software development, and traditional research. In the business field, DS's application allows using scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data to support the decision process. After collecting the data, it is crucial to discover the knowledge. In this step, Knowledge Discovery (KD) tasks are used to create knowledge from structured and unstructured sources (e.g., text, data, and images). The output needs to be in a readable and interpretable format. It must represent knowledge in a manner that facilitates inferencing. KD is applied in several areas, such as education, health, accounting, energy, and public administration. This book includes fourteen excellent articles which discuss this trending topic and present innovative solutions to show the importance of Data Science and Knowledge Discovery to researchers, managers, industry, society, and other communities. The chapters address several topics like Data mining, Deep Learning, Data Visualization and Analytics, Semantic data, Geospatial and Spatio-Temporal Data, Data Augmentation and Text Mining

PROTOTYPING RELATIONAL THINGS THAT TALK: A DISCURSIVE DESIGN STRATEGY FOR CONVERSATIONAL AI SYSTEMS

This practice-based research inquiry explores the implications of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, ‘relational things that talk’, on the way people experience the world. It responds directly to the pervasive lack of ethical design frameworks for commercial AI systems, compounded by limited transparency, ubiquitous authority, embedded bias and the absence of diversity in the development process. The effect produced by relational things that talk upon the feelings, thoughts or intentions of the user is here defined as the ‘perlocutionary effect’ of conversational AI systems. This effect is constituted by these systems’ ‘relationality‘ and ‘persuasiveness’, propagated by the system’s embedded bias and ‘hybrid intentions’, relative to a user’s susceptibility. The proposition of the perlocutionary effect frames the central practice of this thesis and the contribution to new knowledge which manifests as four discursive prototypes developed through a participatory method. Each prototype demonstrates the factors that constitute and propagate the perlocutionary effect. These prototypes also function as instruments which actively engage participants in a counter-narrative as a form of activism. ‘This Is Where We Are’ (TIWWA), explores the persuasiveness and relationality of relational things powered through AI behavioural algorithms and directed by pools of user data. ‘Emoti-OS’, iterates the findings from TIWWA and analyses the construction of relationality through simulated affect, personality and collective (artificial) emotional intelligence. ‘Women Reclaiming AI’ (WRAI), demonstrates stereotyping and bias in commercial conversational AI developments. The last prototype, ‘The Infinite Guide’, synthesises and tests the findings from the three previous prototypes to substantiate the overall perlocutionary effect of conversational AI system. In so doing, this inquiry proposes the appropriation of relational things that talk as a discursive design strategy, extended with a participatory method, for new forms of cultural expression and social action, which activate people to demand more ethical AI systems