Matriz para mapeamento do potencial educativo de programas audiovisuais na aprendizagem do inglês

This thesis describes the process of developing and testing a prototype of a mobile application aimed at English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, as well as English for Specific Purposes / Business English learners. It is a prototype of an online collaborative platform that allows the sharing and mapping of audiovisual content. This mapping also allows for the search of content on the same platform, to use in-class or in informal contexts. In this work the following steps are depicted: i. the identification of the variables included in the Matrix, which supports mapping and searching tasks, ii. how this Matrix was incorporated into a Google Form, to be tested by an expert panel, iii. the selection of the tools used to build the high-fidelity prototype, and iv. how this prototype was tested and evaluated by a sample of target users. In terms of methodology, this project is a development-research work, in which four different phases were outlined: i. the construction of the Matrix – through an exploratory study of the literature, as well as language learning platforms and software; ii. the validation of the Matrix by an experts’ panel; iii. the incorporation of the Matrix into a prototype – using prototyping freeware online tools; iv. the experimental use of the prototype by target users. With the data gathered in the latter, the potential of implementing such a platform was evaluated. The results of the prototype trial show that, on a behavioral level, this type of platform has the potential to change the habits of searching for audiovisual content by both user groups; regarding the tasks, they are intuitive and simple to perform; on a conceptual level, the platform was validated as tool to support the teaching and learning process; the functions of social interaction tools were also validated. However, the planned gamification functions still need some review. A platform of this nature can be a useful instrument to other TESOL branches (such as General English). It can generate the development of mechanisms of artificial intelligence for automatic mapping of audiovisual content and the underlying rationale can be transferred to other foreign languages.A presente tese descreve o processo de desenvolvimento e teste de um protótipo de uma aplicação móvel direcionada a professores de Inglês Língua Estrangeira e aprendentes de English for Specific Purposes / Business English. Trata-se de um protótipo de uma plataforma colaborativa online que permite a partilha e mapeamento de conteúdo audiovisual. Este mapeamento também permite a pesquisa de conteúdo na mesma plataforma, para utilização em sala de aula ou para consumo em contextos informais. Neste trabalho, descreve-se: i. como foram isoladas as vareáveis para construir a matriz que sustenta as tarefas de mapeamento e pesquisa, ii. como essa Matriz foi incorporada num Google Form para ser testada por um painel de peritos, iii. como foi construído o protótipo de alta-fidelidade, e iv. como esse protótipo foi testado e avaliado por uma amostra de utilizadores-alvo. A metodologia aplicada neste projeto foi Development-Research e foram delineadas quatro fases distintas: 1. Construção da Matriz – através de um estudo exploratório da literatura e de plataformas e software de aprendizagem de línguas; 2. Validação da matriz por parte de um painel de peritos; 3. Incorporação da matriz num protótipo – utilizando ferramentas de prototipagem disponíveis gratuitamente online; 4. Uso experimental do protótipo por utilizadores-alvo. Com os dados recolhidos na fase 4 foi possível avaliar o potencial de implementação desta plataforma. Os resultados do teste do protótipo mostram que, ao nível comportamental, este tipo de plataforma tem potencial para mudar os hábitos de pesquisa de conteúdo audiovisual por parte de ambos os grupos de utilizadores; ao nível das tarefas, estas são intuitivas e de simples execução; ao nível conceptual, a plataforma foi validada enquanto instrumento de auxílio ao processo de ensino e de aprendizagem e as funções de interação social foram igualmente validadas. Ainda assim, concluiu-se que as funções de gamificação pensadas necessitam de uma revisão. Em síntese, uma plataforma desta natureza parece ser um instrumento de utilidade a outros ramos do ensino do inglês (como o General English), que pode gerar o desenvolvimento de mecanismos de inteligência artificial para mapeamento automático de conteúdo audiovisual, e o racional subjacente pode ser transferido para outras línguas estrangeiras.Programa Doutoral em Multimédia em Educaçã

Model-driven Personalisation of Human-Computer Interaction across Ubiquitous Computing Applications

Personalisation is essential to Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), which focuses on a human-centred paradigm aiming to provide interaction with adaptive content, services, and interfaces towards each one of its users, according to the context of the applications’ scenarios. However, the provision of that appropriated personalised interaction is a true challenge due to different reasons, such as the user interests, heterogeneous environments and devices, dynamic user behaviour and data capture. This dissertation focuses on a model-driven personalisation solution that has the main goal of facili-tating the implementation of a personalised human-computer interaction across different Ubicomp scenarios and applications. The research reported here investigates how a generic and interoperable model for personalisation can be used, shared and processed by different applications, among diverse devices, and across different scenarios, studying how it can enrich human-computer interaction. The research started by the definition of a consistent user model with the integration of context to end in a pervasive model for the definition of personalisations across different applications. Besides the model proposal, the other key contributions within the solution are the modelling frame-work, which encapsulates the model and integrates the user profiling module, and a cloud-based platform to pervasively support developers in the implementation of personalisation across different applications and scenarios. This platform provides tools to put end users in control of their data and to support developers through web services based operations implemented on top of a personalisa-tion API, which can also be used independently of the platform for testing purposes, for instance. Several Ubicomp applications prototypes were designed and used to evaluate, at different phases, both the solution as a whole and each one of its components. Some were specially created with the goal of evaluating specific research questions of this work. Others were being developed with a pur-pose other than for personalisation evaluation, but they ended up as personalised prototypes to better address their initial goals. The process of applying the personalisation model to the design of the latter should also work as a proof of concept on the developer side. On the one hand, developers have been probed with the implementation of personalised applications using the proposed solution, or a part of it, to assess how it works and can help them. The usage of our solution by developers was also important to assess how the model and the platform respond to the developers’ needs. On the other hand, some prototypes that implement our model-driven per-sonalisation solution have been selected for end user evaluation. Usually, user testing was conducted at two different stages of the development, using: (1) a non-personalised version; (2) the final per-sonalised version. This procedure allowed us to assess if personalisation improved the human-com-puter interaction. The first stage was also important to know who were the end users and gather interaction data to come up with personalisation proposals for each prototype. Globally, the results of both developers and end users tests were very positive. Finally, this dissertation proposes further work, which is already ongoing, related to the study of a methodology to the implementation and evaluation of personalised applications, supported by the development of three mobile health applications for rehabilitation

A Survey of Surveillance: Reworking the Male Gaze and the Surveillance Gaze Through Art and Technology

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Deliverable D9.1.1 Annual Project Scientific Report

This document comprises the publishable excerpts of the first periodic scientific report of LinkedTV. It includes a short summary, a progress report as well as a management report for the first reporting period

Understanding the voluntary moderation practices in live streaming communities

Harmful content, such as hate speech, online abuses, harassment, and cyberbullying, proliferates across various online communities. Live streaming as a novel online community provides ways for thousands of users (viewers) to entertain and engage with a broadcaster (streamer) in real-time in the chatroom. While the streamer has the camera on and the screen shared, tens of thousands of viewers are watching and messaging in real-time, resulting in concerns about harassment and cyberbullying. To regulate harmful content—toxic messages in the chatroom, streamers rely on a combination of automated tools and volunteer human moderators (mods) to block users or remove content, which is termed content moderation. Live streaming as a mixed media contains some unique attributes such as synchronicity and authenticity, making real-time content moderation challenging. Given the high interactivity and ephemerality of live text-based communication in the chatroom, mods have to make decisions with time constraints and little instruction, suffering cognitive overload and emotional toll. While much previous work has focused on moderation in asynchronous online communities and social media platforms, very little is known about human moderation in synchronous online communities with live interaction among users in a timely manner. It is necessary to understand mods’ moderation practices in live streaming communities, considering their roles to support community growth. This dissertation centers on volunteer mods in live streaming communities to explore their moderation practices and relationships with streamers and viewers. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation mainly focuses on three aspects: the strategies and tools used by moderators, the mental model and decision-making process applied toward violators, and the conflict management present in the moderation team. This dissertation uses various socio-technical theories to explain mods’ individual and collaborative practices and suggests several design interventions to facilitate the moderation process in live streaming communities

The Darkside of Stereotypes: The Effects of Crime in the Media on Racial Identity and Emotions

This study investigated how the image of Black criminality in the media affects the racial identity and emotions of Blacks. It also examined how the image of White criminality affects the racial identity and emotions of Whites as a point of comparison. These effects were studied through the lens of self-categorization theory and inter-group emotions theory. SCT posits that a person*s biases are a result of how relevant their social identity is to their self-concept. IET posits that the emotions a person feels are derived from the social group they belong to. This study analyzed 369 responses from participants who were presented with Twitter news pages that presented all Black crime stories, all White crime stories, or negative (no race) stories. Findings showed that both Blacks and Whites decreased self-categorization with their race after viewing same-race criminality news stories. It also found that emotions were affected by content of the newsfeed. Lastly, the study found significant differences in self-categorization based on level of identification

Designing personalized video-based crossmedia informal learning environments beyond iTV

Tese de doutoramento, Informática (Engenharia Informática), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014Video is a very rich medium, in cognitive and affective terms, to convey information and support learning and entertainment like no other medium, and TV is a privileged way to watch it. However, by being traditionally watched in a more experiential and passive cognitive mode, TV and video are limited in their capacity to fully support learning so important in the lifelong learning era where learning is taking place in a wide variety of contexts and locations that calls for flexible environments. TV and video are limited in their capacity to fully support learning but may induce viewers to engage in more reflective modes, that can be supported to some extent by their adequate design, in interactive contexts and augmented by other media and devices, in diverse situations. The inclusion of iTV that has been gaining increasing attention from researchers, and practitioners, in the last few years, as part of rich and flexible crossmedia environments brings new opportunities in this respect. This situation justifies our research main goal to efficiently and flexibly support users learning informal opportunities created in video-based crossmedia environments, taking into account the different cognitive modes, contexts of use and taking advantage of the diverse devices being used in order to have each device contributing with what it does best. In order to illustrate, explore and validate our research, the eiTV application was conceptualized, prototyped and evaluated. It is capable to create videobased crossmedia informal learning environments, created as additional information to the video being watched, initially via iTV. These environments are accessed from iTV, PC and mobile devices (the most commonly used in crossmedia scenarios), depending on the preferred or most adequate device in each context of use.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, SFRH/PROTEC/67727/2010, projeto UTA-Est/MAI/0010/2009

Anxieties and artificial women: disassembling the pop culture gynoid

2018 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis analyzes the cultural meanings of the feminine-presenting robot, or gynoid, in three popular sci-fi texts: The Stepford Wives (1975), Ex Machina (2013), and Westworld (2017). Centralizing a critical feminist rhetorical approach, this thesis outlines the symbolic meaning of gynoids as representing cultural anxieties about women and technology historically and in each case study. This thesis draws from rhetorical analyses of media, sci-fi studies, and previously articulated meanings of the gynoid in order to discern how each text interacts with the gendered and technological concerns it presents. The author assesses how the text equips—or fails to equip—the public audience with motives for addressing those concerns. Prior to analysis, each chapter synthesizes popular and scholarly criticisms of the film or series and interacts with their temporal contexts. Each chapter unearths a unique interaction with the meanings of gynoid: The Stepford Wives performs necrophilic fetishism to alleviate anxieties about the Women's Liberation Movement; Ex Machina redirects technological anxieties towards the surveilling practices of tech industries, simultaneously punishing exploitive masculine fantasies; Westworld utilizes fantasies and anxieties cyclically in order to maximize its serial potential and appeal to impulses of its viewership, ultimately prescribing a rhetorical placebo. The conclusion synthesizes each chapter topically and ruminates on real-world implications. Overall, this thesis urges critical attention toward the gynoids' role in oppressive hierarchies onscreen and in reality