The Effect of Social Proof on Tag Selection in Social Bookmarking Applications

The growing popularity of social bookmaking applications like flickr and del.icio.us present new challenges to system designers because the effects of social psychological factors on users' tag choices have not been examined. The social psychological principle of social proof is particularly applicable to social bookmarking because it predicts that the tags applied by users will be more similar to each other if they are provided with a list of suggested tags. This study examines the effect of social proof on tag selection by comparing the degree of similarity between tags provided by a sample group and a collection of suggested tags provided to the treatment group. The results indicate that social proof can have an effect on users' tag selection. The conclusion briefly examines the beneficial effect of social proof on the quality of social bookmarking applications and other collaborative tagging applications

Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Conceptual Change with Respect to The Theory of Evolution By Secondary Biology Students

This pilot study evaluated the validity of a new quantitative, closed-response instrument for assessing student conceptual change regarding the theory of evolution. The instrument has two distinguishing design features. First, it is designed not only to gauge student mastery of the scientific model of evolution, but also to elicit a trio of deeply intuitive tendencies that are known to compromise many students’ understanding: the projection of intentional agency, teleological directionality, and immutable essences onto biological phenomena. Second, in addition to a section of conventional multiple choice questions, the instrument contains a series of items where students may simultaneously endorse both scientifically normative propositions and intuitively appealing yet unscientific propositions, without having to choose between them. These features allow for the hypothesized possibility that the three intuitions are partly innate, themselves products of cognitive evolution in our hominin ancestors, and thus may continue to inform students’ thinking even after instruction and conceptual change. The test was piloted with 340 high school students from diverse schools and communities. Confirmatory factor analysis and other statistical methods provided evidence that the instrument already has strong potential for validly distinguishing students who hold a correct scientific understanding from those who do not, but that revision and retesting are needed to render it valid for gauging students’ adherence to intuitive misconceptions. Ultimately the instrument holds promise as a tool for classroom intervention studies by conceptual change researchers, for diagnostic testing and data gathering by instructional leaders, and for provoking classroom dialogue and debate by science teachers

The forest for the trees: how a local arboretum shapes rhetoric and discourse surrounding environmentalism.

Environmental communication has been situated as a crisis discipline; however, scholars have recently explored how to shift to include care within the discipline. To be sure, this does not mean the crisis element should be abandoned, but, instead coupled with care so that environmental messages are positive and forward looking. This project contributes to this shift by looking at how green spaces are constructed to deliver messages of environmental care. More specifically, I analyze how Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, located about 30 miles South of Louisville, KY, has been constructed and works to promote environmental care in a variety of ways. To do this, I immersed myself as a participatory observer and, over the course of three years, attended eight education classes and two research hikes, talked with Bernheim employees, and, overall, spent around 100 hours at the arboretum. My findings show how various ways of delivering environmental messages (e.g., education classes, hikes, art) work to promote specific aspects of environmental care such as reverence, nurturance, restoration, and inspiration. This project points to one way that environmental communication scholarship can further the discipline’s understanding of how to promote care

Digital Research Cycles: How Attitudes Toward Content, Culture And Technology Affect Web Development.

It has been estimated that one third of the world\u27s population does not have access to adequate health care. Some 1.6 billion people live in countries experiencing concentrated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemics. Many countries in Africa--and other low-income countries--are in dire need of help providing adequate health care services to their citizens. They require more hands-on care from Western health workers--and training so more African health workers can eventually care for their own citizens. But these countries also need assistance acquiring and implementing both texts--the body of medical information potentially available to them--and technology--the means by which that information can be conveyed. This dissertation looks at these issues and others from a multi-faceted approach. It combines a survey of the developers of Web sites designed for use by health workers in low-income countries and a proposal for a novel approach to communication theory, which could help improve health communication and other social marketing practices. It also includes an extensive review of literature regarding a number of topics related to these issues. To improve healthcare services in low-income countries, several things should occur. First, more health workers--and others--could visit African countries and other places to provide free, hands-on medical care, as this researcher\u27s group did in Uganda. Such trips are ideal occasions for studying the cultural differences between mzungu (white man) and the Ugandan people. A number of useful medical texts have been written for health workers in low-income countries. Others will be published as new health information becomes available. But on what medium will they be published? Computers? Personal digital assistants? During the past 10 years the Internet became an ideal venue for conveying information. Unfortunately, people in target countries such as Uganda encounter cultural differences when such new technologies are diffused. This dissertation looks at cultural and technological difficulties encountered by people in low-income countries who attempt to diffuse information and communication technologies (ICT). Once a technology has been successfully adopted, someone will look for ways to use it to help others. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet--built by Web developers in Western countries--that are designed for use by health workers in low-income countries. However, these Web developers also experience cultural and technological differences, based on their knowledge of and attitudes toward best practices in their field. This research includes a survey of Web developers which determined their attitudes toward best practices in their field and tested this researcher\u27s hypothesis that there is no significant difference among the developers\u27 attitudes toward the content on their sites, their audience\u27s cultural needs and the various technological needs their audience has. It was found that the Web developers agree with 17 of 18 perceived best practices and that there is a significant difference between Web developers\u27 attitudes toward their audience\u27s technological needs and their attitudes toward quality content and the audience\u27s cultural needs. Creation of the survey herein resulted in this researcher generating a new way of thinking about communication theory--called digital research cycles. The survey was based on a review of literature and is rooted in the belief that any successful communication of a computer-mediated message in the information age is a behavior which is influenced by the senders\u27 and receivers\u27 attitudes and knowledge about textual style, the audience, technology and the subject matter to which the message pertains

Annual Report Of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff from January to December, 2002.

Annual Report Of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff from January to December, 2002

Designing for Shareable Interfaces in the Wild

Despite excitement about the potential of interactive tabletops to support collaborative work, there have been few empirical demonstrations of their effectiveness (Marshall et al., 2011). In particular, while lab-based studies have explored the effects of individual design features, there has been a dearth of studies evaluating the success of systems in the wild. For this technology to be of value, designers and systems builders require a better understanding of how to develop and evaluate tabletop applications to be deployed in real world settings. This dissertation reports on two systems designed through a process that incorporated ethnography-style observations, iterative design and in the wild evaluation. The first study focused on collaborative learning in a medical setting. To address the fact that visitors to a hospital emergency ward were leaving with an incomplete understanding of their diagnosis and treatment, a system was prototyped in a working Emergency Room (ER) with doctors and patients. The system was found to be helpful but adoption issues hampered its impact. The second study focused on a planning application for visitors to a tourist information centre. Issues and opportunities for a successful, contextually-fitted system were addressed and it was found to be effective in supporting group planning activities by novice users, in particular, facilitating users’ first experiences, providing effective signage and offering assistance to guide the user through the application. This dissertation contributes to understanding of multi-user systems through literature review of tabletop systems, collaborative tasks, design frameworks and evaluation of prototypes. Some support was found for the claim that tabletops are a useful technology for collaboration, and several issues were discussed. Contributions to understanding in this field are delivered through design guidelines, heuristics, frameworks, and recommendations, in addition to the two case studies to help guide future tabletop system creators

Assessing New Methods for Psittacine Conservation at the Captive-Wild Interface

This dissertation overviews novel methods related to breed and release of parrots for conservation. Broadly, the document discusses research about the maintenance of captive breeding parrots, and the preparation of their offspring for release into the wild. A conclusion chapter identifies conflicts common to this type of conservation work and discusses ways to create research projects that avoid them. The maintenance chapter focuses on reducing the fear and chronic stress in captivity through the development and use of novel automated, computer tablet-based technology. The release preparation chapter overviews a method of training parrots to fly safely in wild areas that is derived from the parrot free-flight hobby community, using systematic exposure to outdoor environments. The conclusion is a reflection of lessons learned and relevant literature. Appendix material address the systems that protect released birds and validation of automated software. The interdisciplinary nature of this work, bridging captivity, wild, and human dimension