Knowledge Cartography: Software tools and mapping techniques

Knowledge Cartography is the discipline of mapping intellectual landscapes.The focus of this book is on the process by which manually crafting interactive, hypertextual maps clarifies one’s own understanding, as well as communicating it.The authors see mapping software as a set of visual tools for reading and writing in a networked age. In an information ocean, the primary challenge is to find meaningful patterns around which we can weave plausible narratives. Maps of concepts, discussions and arguments make the connections between ideas tangible and disputable. With 17 chapters from the leading researchers and practitioners, the reader will find the current state–of-the-art in the field. Part 1 focuses on educational applications in schools and universities, before Part 2 turns to applications in professional communitie

I'm sorry to say, but your understanding of image processing fundamentals is absolutely wrong

The ongoing discussion whether modern vision systems have to be viewed as visually-enabled cognitive systems or cognitively-enabled vision systems is groundless, because perceptual and cognitive faculties of vision are separate components of human (and consequently, artificial) information processing system modeling.Comment: To be published as chapter 5 in "Frontiers in Brain, Vision and AI", I-TECH Publisher, Viena, 200

Development of an intelligent hypertext manual for the space shuttle hazardous gas detection system

A computer-based Integrated Knowledge System (IKS), the Intelligent Hypertext Manual (IHM), is being developed for the Space Shuttle Hazardous Gas Detection System (HGDS) at the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC). The IHM stores all HGDS related knowledge and presents them in an interactive and intuitive manner. The IHM's purpose is to provide HGDS personnel with the capabilities of: enhancing the interpretation of real time data; recognizing and identifying possible faults in the Space Shuttle sub-system related to hazardous gas detections; locating applicable documentation related to procedures, constraints, and previous fault histories; and assisting in the training of personnel

Artefacts and Errors: Acknowledging Issues of Representation in the Digital: Imaging of Ancient Texts

It is assumed, in palaeography, papyrology and epigraphy, that a certain amount of uncertainty is inherent in the reading of damaged and abraded texts. Yet we have not really grappled with the fact that, nowadays, as many scholars tend to deal with digital images of texts, rather than handling the texts themselves, the procedures for creating digital images of texts can insert further uncertainty into the representation of the text created. Technical distortions can lead to the unintentional introduction of ‘artefacts’ into images, which can have an effect on the resulting representation. If we cannot trust our digital surrogates of texts, can we trust the readings from them? How do scholars acknowledge the quality of digitised images of texts? Furthermore, this leads us to the type of discussions of representation that have been present in Classical texts since Plato: digitisation can be considered as an alternative form of representation, bringing to the modern debate of the use of digital technology in Classics the familiar theories of mimesis (imitation) and ekphrasis (description): the conversion of visual evidence into explicit descriptions of that information, stored in computer files in distinct linguistic terms, with all the difficulties of conversion understood in the ekphratic process. The community has not yet considered what becoming dependent on digital texts means for the field, both in practical and theoretical terms. Issues of quality, copying, representation, and substance should be part of our dialogue when we consult digital surrogates of documentary material, yet we are just constructing understandings of what it means to rely on virtual representations of artefacts. It is necessary to relate our understandings of uncertainty in palaeography and epigraphy to our understanding of the mechanics of visualization employed by digital imaging techniques, if we are to fully understand the impact that these will have

(Re)playing history and rethinking gender in Neo-Victorian video games

Ao longo das últimas décadas, diversos criadores de videojogos têm demonstrado uma preocupação em criar mundos ficcionais, personagens e enredos mais envolventes, e com os quais os jogadores podem mais facilmente se identificar. Isto é, possivelmente, consequência de desenvolvimentos tecnológicos, bem como de preocupações prementes acerca de inclusão e diversidade na indústria de videojogos, e nos próprios videojogos, preocupações essas que se estenderam para além do mundo académico e passaram a ser também discutidas na esfera pública. Considerando estas preocupações, videojogos cuja ação decorre em determinados períodos históricos são confrontados com duas opções, representar a história fielmente sem recurso a liberdade criativa, ou refletir criticamente e através de uma perspetiva contemporânea nesse período histórico. Na presente dissertação, analisa-se como três videojogos, The Order: 1886 (2015), Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015), and Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey (2019), lidam com estas preocupações, posicionando a sua ação na cidade de Londres durante o período Vitoriano, e criando um elenco de personagens mais diverso. A análise centra-se em diferentes personagens femininas e transgénero destes três videojogos, para explorar o modo como estes videojogos neovitorianos procuram subverter estereótipos e papéis de género, assim como o género enquanto sistema binário, masculino/feminino.Over the last decades, many video game developers have demonstrated a concern to create more compelling and complex fictional worlds, characters, and plots, with which the player can connect with. Arguably, this is both the consequence of technological developments, as well as of pressing concerns about inclusivity and diversity in the video game industry and in video games themselves, which have extended beyond academia and into the public sphere. When approaching these concerns, video games with specific historical setting have two main options, to accurately represent history without any creative freedom, or to critically reflect on it through a contemporaneous perspective. In this dissertation, I look at how three video games, The Order: 1886 (2015), Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015), and Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey (2019), address these concerns through their setting in the city of London of the Victorian era, and by assembling a more diverse cast of characters. I focus my analysis on different female and trans characters from these three video games, to explore how these neo-Victorian video games attempt to subvert gender stereotypes, roles, and the male/female gender binary

Participatory online environmental education at the Open University UK

The role of education in helping our societies put sustainability into practice is crucial. The motivation, awareness and empowerment, necessary for citizens to understand the concept and take part in its operationalisation, ought to emerge from environmental education, since we might encounter some difficulty when trying to teach, or impose these notions in a theoretical way. In developing environmental courses, we therefore ought to progressively replace pedagogical approaches based on (relatively 'authoritarian') transfers of information with more interactive and collaborative learning processes: citizens' participation can start with the creation of communities of learners. This paper describes the construction of two web courses: a first level teaching module on environmental systems and a third level interdisciplinary environmental course, both developed at the Open University, specialised in distance and open learning. The themes of the course include participatory processes in decision-making, the perception and representation of environmental systems, alternative leadership, biodiversity, climate change and integrated water management, environmental action and governance. The concepts focused on include sustainability, complexity, uncertainty, globalisation and 'systemic problem solving'. In both courses, the overall pedagogical process is based on the notion of environmental governance. This means that the web has been chosen as a learning platform, because - it provides various types of up to date information as well as archives, - it allows various types of users to communicate between different countries, and also - it encourages collaborative and interactive learning. This paper describes the experience of the author in creating web environmental courses at the Open University. Components of the courses such as interactive activities are discussed, as well as the pedagogical focus progressively shifted towards more participatory processes of learning

Students as change agents: new ways of engaging with learning and teaching in higher education

This is a set of practitioner resources for those wanting to set up student-based research projects in their institutions

"This brings back a lot of memories": a case study in the analysis of digital video production by young learners

This paper discusses a three and a half minute video written, shot and edited by two eleven year old children in London in the summer of 2003. Key questions which were used to structure the discussion included the following: When the children work in a school setting in a medium which is culturally closer to their experiences of life outside than is usual within the curriculum, how do they choose to represent themselves? Which aspects of their lives and/or media experiences do they employ and in which modes? How are these choices related to the meanings they wish to convey? Which aspects of the form and function of digital video authoring allow the children to move the locus of control of activities closer to themselves? What does a discussion of these issues tell us about possible future directions in researching young learners’ digital video production? Frameworks for analysing the piece were drawn from emerging theories of multimodal literacy, from studies of ICT in Education and from work on media production by young people. Some conclusions were drawn about the position of the work in relation to existing models of curriculum activity in the light of the range of sophisticated and rich representations made by the children in their media text