Character Recognition

Character recognition is one of the pattern recognition technologies that are most widely used in practical applications. This book presents recent advances that are relevant to character recognition, from technical topics such as image processing, feature extraction or classification, to new applications including human-computer interfaces. The goal of this book is to provide a reference source for academic research and for professionals working in the character recognition field

Advances in Character Recognition

This book presents advances in character recognition, and it consists of 12 chapters that cover wide range of topics on different aspects of character recognition. Hopefully, this book will serve as a reference source for academic research, for professionals working in the character recognition field and for all interested in the subject

Graphonomics and your Brain on Art, Creativity and Innovation : Proceedings of the 19th International Graphonomics Conference (IGS 2019 – Your Brain on Art)

[Italiano]: “Grafonomia e cervello su arte, creatività e innovazione”. Un forum internazionale per discutere sui recenti progressi nell'interazione tra arti creative, neuroscienze, ingegneria, comunicazione, tecnologia, industria, istruzione, design, applicazioni forensi e mediche. I contributi hanno esaminato lo stato dell'arte, identificando sfide e opportunità, e hanno delineato le possibili linee di sviluppo di questo settore di ricerca. I temi affrontati includono: strategie integrate per la comprensione dei sistemi neurali, affettivi e cognitivi in ambienti realistici e complessi; individualità e differenziazione dal punto di vista neurale e comportamentale; neuroaesthetics (uso delle neuroscienze per spiegare e comprendere le esperienze estetiche a livello neurologico); creatività e innovazione; neuro-ingegneria e arte ispirata dal cervello, creatività e uso di dispositivi di mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) indossabili; terapia basata su arte creativa; apprendimento informale; formazione; applicazioni forensi. / [English]: “Graphonomics and your brain on art, creativity and innovation”. A single track, international forum for discussion on recent advances at the intersection of the creative arts, neuroscience, engineering, media, technology, industry, education, design, forensics, and medicine. The contributions reviewed the state of the art, identified challenges and opportunities and created a roadmap for the field of graphonomics and your brain on art. The topics addressed include: integrative strategies for understanding neural, affective and cognitive systems in realistic, complex environments; neural and behavioral individuality and variation; neuroaesthetics (the use of neuroscience to explain and understand the aesthetic experiences at the neurological level); creativity and innovation; neuroengineering and brain-inspired art, creative concepts and wearable mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) designs; creative art therapy; informal learning; education; forensics

Handwriting versus keyboarding in first grade: Which modality best supports written composition performance and learning?

PhD thesis in Reading researchAn important background for the present thesis is the increasing digitalisation in school, and more specifically, the Norwegian first-grade reality, where a growing number of schools provide students with personal digital devices to be used in initial writing instruction. The research that compares effects of handwriting and keyboarding on children’s early writing is, however, scarce, findings are inconsistent, and many of the studies suffer from methodological problems, for example, inadequate control of children’s prewriting experience (Wollscheid et al., 2016). The aim of the present thesis was therefore to investigate whether modality – handwriting on paper or keyboarding on digital tablet with text-to-speech functionality – affects first grader’s written composition performance and written composition learning, and whether these effects depend on children’s literacy skills (grapheme-phoneme mapping, first sound segmentation, blending, word reading, spelling and vocabulary) measured at school start. This was examined in a sample of Norwegian first graders from 18 schools, where five schools taught children to write by hand, five schools taught children to write by digital tablet postponing handwriting, and eight schools taught children to write both by hand and using a digital tablet. Children’s compositions were analysed for length and quality by formally assessing a set of text features related to both transcription (spacing, spelling and punctuation) and narrative sophistication (vocabulary, syntax and narrative structures). The text quality measures were specifically developed for assessing narratives by beginning writers which typically are short and simple. The statistical modelling was done using Bayesian methods, which allow for demonstrating evidence in both the presence and absence of effects. This thesis includes four articles. Article 1 is a philosophical discussion of how texts by beginning writers can be analysed from a quantitative viewpoint. The three remaining articles contribute to the thesis by empirically investigating the effects of modality on first graders’ written composition performance and written composition learning. Article 2 shows that first graders who are taught writing in both modalities from the start of school are likely to produce compositions of similar length and quality in both modalities. This article also shows that the lack of a modality effect on written composition performance does not depend on children’s literacy skills. For example, students with weaker literacy skills did not produce stories of higher quality in one or another modality. Article 3 demonstrates that first-grade students receiving instruction based on handwriting or digital tablets with otherwise minimal change to instruction, overall learn to compose text at the same rate throughout the first year of formal writing instruction. The students showed similar development in text length, syntactic complexity and accuracy, and narrative structures, regardless of learning to write by hand or with a digital tablet. Students writing with a digital tablet showed better performance in transcription accuracy (spelling, spacing and terminator accuracy), but showed little or no development of these text features through the first grade. Students writing by hand started at a lower performance level for transcription accuracy but showed improvement throughout the year. This difference in performance can probably be attributed to the text-to-speech functionality offered by the digital tablets. Article 4 shows that there were no interaction effects between modality and students’ literacy skills on learning to compose text. This means that there were, for example, no advantages related to learning to compose text with a digital tablet, or by hand, for students with weaker literacy skills. The conclusion of the thesis is that, in a context similar to the one studied here, modality does not substantially affect first-grade students’ written composition performance or written composition learning. Thus, it seems that instruction based on handwriting and instruction based on digital tablets can provide children with similar opportunities to develop their written composition skills in their first year of school. Before clear recommendations about the choice of modality for initial writing instruction can be made, future research should investigate the potential transition effects of going from learning to write in one modality to the other.En viktig bakgrunn for denne avhandlingen er den økende digitaliseringen i skolen, og mer spesifikt den norske første-klasse-virkeligheten, der et økende antall skoler utstyrer elevene med personlige digitale enheter til bruk i skriveopplæringen. Forskningen som sammenligner effektene av håndskrift og tastaturskriving på barns tidlige skriving er imidlertid knapp, funn er inkonsistente og mange av studiene lider av metodologiske svakheter, for eksempel utilstrekkelig kontroll av deltakernes tidligere skriveerfaring (Wollscheid et al., 2016). Målet med denne avhandlingen var derfor å undersøke om modalitet – håndskrift på papir eller tastaturskriving på nettbrett med tekst-til-tale funksjonalitet – påvirker førsteklassingers prestasjon i og læring av tekstkomposisjon, og om disse modalitetseffektene avhenger av barnas literacyferdigheter (grafem-fonem-kunnskap, framlydsanalyse, fonologisk syntese, ordlesing, staving og vokabular) målt ved skolestart. Dette ble undersøkt i et utvalg av norske førsteklassinger fra 18 skoler, hvorav fem skoler lærte barna å skrive for hånd, fem skoler utsatte håndskriftsopplæringen og lærte elevene å skrive på digitalt nettbrett, og åtte skoler lærte barna å skrive både for hånd og på digitalt nettbrett. Elevenes tekster ble analysert for lengde og kvalitet gjennom formell vurdering av et sett av teksttrekk knyttet både til transkripsjon (staving, mellomromsbruk og tegnsetting) og narrativ kompleksitet (vokabular, syntaks og narrative strukturer). Tekstkvalitetsmålene ble utviklet spesielt for å vurdere begynnerskriveres fortellinger, som typisk er korte og enkle. Den statistiske analysen ble gjort gjennom Bayesianske metoder, som kan bevise både tilstedeværelse og fravær av effekter. Avhandlingen inkluderer fire artikler. Artikkel 1 er en vitenskapsteoretisk diskusjon av hvordan tekster av begynnerskrivere kan analyseres fra et kvantitativt perspektiv. De tre resterende artiklene bidrar til avhandlingen gjennom å empirisk undersøke modalitetseffekter på førsteklassingers prestasjon i og læring av tekstkomposisjon. Artikkel 2 gir evidens for at førsteklassinger, som fra starten av første klasse lærer å skrive i begge modaliteter, etter all sannsynlighet produserer fortellinger av lik lengde og kvalitet i begge modaliteter. Denne artikkelen viser også at mangelen på en modalitetseffekt på prestasjon i tekstkomposisjon ikke avhenger av elevenes literacyferdigheter. For eksempel skrev ikke elever med svakere literacyferdigheter fortellinger av høyere kvalitet i en av modalitetene. Artikkel 3 viser at førsteklasseelever som får undervisning basert på enten håndskrift eller digitalt nettbrett, med ellers minimal forandring i undervisningen, i hovedsak lærer å komponere tekster i samme takt gjennom det første året med skriveopplæring. Elevene viste lik utvikling av tekstlengde, syntaktisk kompleksitet og nøyaktighet og narrative strukturer, uavhengig av om de lærte å skrive for hånd eller på digitalt nettbrett. Elever som skrev på nettbrett, presterte bedre på transkripsjonsnøyaktighet (stave-, mellomroms- og tegnsettingsnøyaktighet), men viste liten eller ingen utvikling av disse teksttrekkene gjennom førsteklasse. Elever som skrev for hånd, startet på et lavere nivå i transkripsjonsnøyaktighet, men viste utvikling gjennom året. Denne forskjellen i prestasjon kan sannsynligvis tilskrives tekst-til-tale funksjonaliteten på de digitale nettbrettene. Artikkel 4 viser at det ikke var noen interaksjonseffekter mellom modalitet og elevenes literacyferdigheter på læring av tekstkomposisjon. Det vil si at det var, for eksempel, ingen fordeler knyttet til å lære å komponere tekst på digitalt nettbrett, eller for hånd, for elever med svakere literacyferdigheter. Konklusjonen i avhandlingen er at, i en kontekst lik den som er studert her, påvirker ikke modalitet førsteklassingers prestasjon i tekstkomposisjon eller læring av tekstkomposisjon i vesentlig grad. Det ser altså ut som at skriveopplæring basert på håndskrift og skriveopplæring basert på nettbrett kan gi elever like muligheter for å utvikle ferdigheter i tekstkomposisjon det første året på skolen. Før klare anbefalinger om bruk av modalitet i begynneropplæring kan gis, bør framtidig forskning undersøke mulige overgangseffekter i å gå fra å lære å skrive i en modalitet til den andre modaliteten

Teaching Patterns: A Pattern Language for Improving the Quality of Instruction in Higher Education Settings

One method for improving the appeal of instruction is found in Christopher Alexander’s work on architectural design patterns. In this qualitative research study, student comments on teacher/course evaluation forms were analyzed to generate six instructional design patterns. The teacher enthusiasm pattern encourages teachers to show (a) increased scholarship and enthusiasm towards the subject matter, (b) genuine concern and enthusiasm towards the students, and (c) mastery of and enthusiasm towards the act of teaching. The balanced curriculum pattern recommends that teachers (a) determine the appropriate depth or breadth of subject matter and communicate it to the students, (b) create a balanced schedule of activities, assignments, and tests, and (c) provide a variety of subject matter topics, instructional strategies, and media delivery technologies. The clear and appropriate assessments pattern directs teachers to (a) communicate the learning objectives related to each assessment, (b) ensure assessment methods are appropriate measures of the objectives, and (c) use fair criteria in grading and administering the assessments. The authentic connections pattern asks teachers to (a) help students understand the connections between the subject matter content and the world of work, (b) promote interpersonal connections between students through instruction and group work, as well as facilitate teacher-student connections by dealing with students honestly and fairly, and (c) encourage students to look at connections that go beyond workplace application and help students become better people. The flow of time pattern recommends that teachers (a) help students plan out their schedules for various time periods, and (b) synchronize the flow of instructional events with the flow of events occurring in the students’ personal lives. Finally, the negotiation and cooperation pattern encourages teachers to apply the processes of negotiation and cooperation to solve problems related to (a) the students’ lack of a sense of freedom, power, or control, (b) the conflict within the students or within the social order of the class, and (c) the general absence of a self-supporting, self-maintaining, and generating quality in the instruction. These six instructional design patterns may be used by teachers to increase the appeal of instruction in higher education settings