Theoretical perspective in social analyses of computerization : an addendum

Since I wrote "Social Analysis of Computing" in 1979, more than 200 scholarly books and articles and several literature surveys have been published about the social dimensions of computerization. In addition, there have been interesting empirical and theoretical studies published in Danish, French, German, Italian, and Norwegian, among other languages. This addendum serves as a brief guide to some of this newer literature

Using Applied Behavior Analysis in Software to help Tutor Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

There are currently many tutoring software systems which have been designed for neurotypical children. These systems cover academic topics such as reading and math, and are made available through various technological mediums. The majority of these systems were not designed for use by children with special needs, in particular those who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Since the 1970's, studies have been conducted on the use of Applied Behavior Analysis to help autistic children learn [1]. This teaching methodology is proven to be very effective, with many patients having their diagnosis of autism dropped after a few years of treatment. With the advent of ubiquitous technologies such as mobile devices, it has become apparent that these devices could also be used to help tutor autistic children on academic subjects such as reading and math. Though the delivery of tutoring material must be made using Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, given that ABA therapy is currently the only form of treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder endorsed by the US Surgeon General [2], which further makes the case for incorporating it into an academics tutoring system tailored for autistic children. In this paper, we present a mobile software system which can be utilized to tutor children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the subjects of reading and math. The software makes use of Applied Behavior Analysis techniques such as a Token Economy system, visual and audible reinforcers, and generalization. Furthermore, we explore how combining Applied Behavior Analysis and technology, could help extend the reach of tutoring systems to these children.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Implementation of best practices in online learning: A review and future directions

Best practices for helping students learn and retain information have been well established by research in cognitive science (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014; Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013). Specifically, repeated testing has been shown in numerous instances to enhance recall. In particular, we know that students retain information best when it has been recalled versus re-studied (Butler, 2010) and rehearsed with delayed (spaced) versus massed presentation (Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2006), and when the items to be studied and later tested are similarly framed (McDaniel, Wildman, & Anderson, 2012). Although these effects were initially demonstrated in laboratory settings, a number of researchers have shown that they generalize to classroom environments (e.g. Vlach & Sandhofer, 2012) and some have demonstrated their utility in fully online courses as well (McDaniel et al., 2012). However, in multiple studies we have found that implementing some of these best practices using publisher-provided textbook technology supplements (TTS) does not meaningfully improve recall (Bell, Simone & Whitfield, 2015; 2016), at least when these supplements are used “out-of-the-box” in face-to-face courses. We conclude when using TTS in an online environment there is a mismatch between student and faculty goals, in that students are motivated by short-term goals of getting high score of a quiz even if the behaviors used to achieve that score do not enhance long-term recall or generalization of the learned material, which typically are the goals of faculty. We argue that TTS can be reconfigured to reinforce meaningful engagement with the material for all students, regardless of learning history or other individual differences of students (e.g., Gluckman, Vlach & Sandhofer, 2014). Actually, in order to continue to require the purchase of these TTS by students, we should determine whether their use is beneficial to all types of students. A related empirical question is whether recall of factual information in an online environment is correlated with the later ability to use that information in a novel situation (generalizability). Whereas some researchers have found that factual information learned via repeated testing does help students to draw inferences about the implications of those facts in later testing (Butler, 2010), others have failed to find a correlation between testing effects and generalizability of the learned material (Gluckman et al., 2014). The literature on this question is still somewhat small, however, (see Carpenter, 2012, for a brief review) and this is particularly true of investigations involving online learning. In this paper we review the existing literature of the spacing benefit and online learning. We end with a proposal for the need of new research specific to the online environment that manipulates delayed repeated testing and examines whether successful retention of factual information promotes long-term application of that material

Validating adequacy and suitability of business-IT alignment criteria in an inter-enterprise maturity model

Aligning requirements of a business with its information technology is currently a major issue in enterprise computing. Existing literature indicates important criteria to judge the level of alignment between business and IT within a single enterprise. However, identifying such criteria in an inter-enterprise setting – or re-thinking the existing ones – is hardly addressed at all. Business-IT alignment in such settings poses new challenges, as in inter-enterprise collaborations, alignment is driven by economic processes instead of centralized decision-making processes. In our research, we develop a maturity model for business-IT alignment in inter-enterprise settings that takes this difference into account. In this paper, we report on a multi-method approach we devised to confront the validation of the business-IT alignment criteria that we included in the maturity model. As independent feedback is critical for our validation, we used a focus group session and a case study as instruments to take the first step in validating the business-IT alignment criteria. We present how we applied our approach, what we learnt, and what the implications were for our model

Looking for fraud in digital footprints: sensemaking with chronologies in a large corporate investigation

During extended sensemaking tasks people typically create external representations that integrate information and support their thinking. Understanding the variety, role and use of these is important for understanding sensemaking and how to support it effectively. We report a case-study of a large, document-based fraud investigation undertaken by a law firm. We focus on the construction and use of integrated representations in the form of chronologies. We show how these supported conjecture recording, focussing on time-periods, identifying gaps, identifying connections and reviewing interpretations. We use our findings to highlight limitations of a previous analysis of representations in sensemaking which regards this as schema definition and population. The findings also argue for search tools designed to identify date references in documents, for the support of ad-hoc event selections, and the support of linking between integrating representations and source documents