Hidden Pursuits: Evaluating Gaze-selection via Pursuits when the Stimuli's Trajectory is Partially Hidden

The idea behind gaze interaction using Pursuits is to leverage the human's smooth pursuit eye movements performed when following moving targets. However, humans can also anticipate where a moving target would reappear if it temporarily hides from their view. In this work, we investigate how well users can select targets using Pursuits in cases where the target's trajectory is partially invisible (HiddenPursuits): e.g., can users select a moving target that temporarily hides behind another object? Although HiddenPursuits was not studied in the context of interaction before, understanding how well users can perform HiddenPursuits presents numerous opportunities, particularly for small interfaces where a target's trajectory can cover area outside of the screen. We found that users can still select targets quickly via Pursuits even if their trajectory is up to 50% hidden, and at the expense of longer selection times when the hidden portion is larger. We discuss how gaze-based interfaces can leverage HiddenPursuits for an improved user experience

Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors' written responses

The topic of feedback to students is an under-researched area, and there has been little empirical research published which focuses on student perceptions. This study explores student perceptions of written feedback and examines whether feedback received demonstrated a student-centred approach to learning. A multi-method approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis was used to survey 44 students in the faculties of Business and Art & Design. Student responses show feedback is valued, but believed tutor comments could be more helpful. Survey results indicate that students may need advice on understanding and using feedback before they can engage with it. Content analysis of feedback samples and student responses uncovered four main themes of feedback considered unhelpful to improve learning: comments which were too general or vague, lacked guidance, focused on the negative, or were unrelated to assessment criteria. It is suggested that by focusing on messages conveyed by their writing, providing feedback set in the context of assessment criteria and learning outcomes, and by ensuring that it is timely, tutors could greatly improve the value of feedback

Avoiding Edmund : reading acknowledgment as failure in Stanley Cavell’s King Lear

Critics of King Lear often remark that the play feels like a dramatic failure despite its place at the very top of the Shakespearean canon. Using Stanley Cavell’s famous essay on the play, “The Avoidance of Love,” as a framework for interpreting Lear, I argue that an epistemological and ethical failure lies at the heart of the play: an inability to acknowledge the presence of others. In my reading, Cavell’s essay works emotively rather than argumentatively, by approximating the affective scenario of King Lear. Appropriately, Cavell’s essay falters in the same way that Shakespeare’s play does: it cannot attempt to acknowledge other minds without enacting the failure of that very effort. I consider this failure primarily in relation to Edmund, the play’s chief antagonist. Using Cavell’s understanding of what it means to be present before others and before oneself, I show that Edmund’s final words are a brief and poignant instance in which he realizes his true position relative to other minds and his own. I argue that Cavell’s argument fails to properly consider Edmund by its own terms, and in doing so, it enacts its own subject: the impossibility of acknowledging the presence of the other. Moving to Lear’s Fool, I argue that the Fool functions as a voice of political consciousness, comparing his position to Cavell’s own context. The Fool imagines a world where the failure of acknowledgment leaves everyone “darkling.” Ultimately, the play imagines human relationships in essentially pessimistic terms: the attempt to recognize the other results in the erasure of any sense of commonalityEnglis

The electoral effectiveness of constituency campaigning in the 2010 British General Election: The ‘triumph’ of Labour?

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Electoral Studies. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.This article establishes a model of likely campaign effectiveness, before examining the intensity of constituency campaigning at the 2010 general election in Britain and its subsequent impact on electoral outcomes, using both aggregate and individual level data. It shows that constituency campaigning yielded benefits in varying degrees for all three main parties and that Labour’s constituency campaign efforts were effective despite the electoral context, and ultimately affected the overall outcome of the election. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of the circumstances under which campaigns are likely to be more or less effective, and provide further evidence that a carefully managed campaign stands the most chance of delivering tangible electoral payoffs

Requisite variety and intercultural teams: to what extent is Ashby's law useful ?

Requisite variety and intercultural teams: To what extent is Ashby's law useful? The “Law of Requisite Variety” (LRV) is frequently evoked to explain the design, functioning and performance of intercultural teams. But to what extent does the law really enhance understanding in this particular field? The authors consider that LRV has rarely been questioned in-depth in management studies. The paper briefly details LRV in the cybernetics context before “translating” it to social systems, organizations and intercultural teams. Using a qualitative case-study method, the case of an intercultural team is analysed and questioned from the perspective of LRV. The results show that LRV superficially fits the composition of this team, but is unable to explain the human and social dynamics that evolve during the work process.law of requisite variety; requisite variety; intercultural teams ; complexity ; diversity; systems; case study

THE EFFECT OF USING CONTEXT CLUES IN ENHANCING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY BUILDING THROUGH A READING TEXT AT SMPN 52 MAKASSAR

The objective to find out the effect of using context clues in  in enhancing students vocabulary building through reading text at SMPN 52 Makassar.The writer used instrument; it is a reading and vocabulary test that given (pre-test and post-test). The pre-test was used to find out data about the recognition and understanding of students’ vocabulary before implementing the context clues strategy and the post-test was carried out to find out data about the introduction and understanding of students' vocabulary after implementing the context clues strategy. The method used in this study is a pre-experiment using one class. The population in this study were all students of class VIII-DSMPN 52 Makassar, totally 28 students, so the writer took a purposive sampling technique. In addition, to analyse the data, writer used SPSS 21. The results showed that the increase in students' vocabulary recognition increased on all indicators of word recognition, such as identifying clues in multiple choice (69.23% progress) and finding word meanings (43.02% progress). The results of this study finally showed that the students' vocabulary understanding was 53.00 for their pre-test and 81.64 for their post-test. This fact shows that the students’ score in the post-test is higher than the pre-test score. It can be concluded that vocabulary learning with the context clues strategy was effective in improving vocabulary VIII-D SMPN 52 Makassar

Let\u27s Talk Physics: Utilizing Language to Improve Understanding

Einstein once stated that If you can\u27t explain it simply, you don\u27t understand it well enough. This idea can be useful in the context of a physics classroom where students often struggle with conceptual and mathematical understanding. The purpose of this study is to analyze strategies to improve student comprehension using language based instruction and assessment techniques. This research was conducted in a public high school physics classroom consisting primarily of junior and senior level students. Students were provided with instruction that focused on discussion and conceptual understanding before any introduction to formulae. Furthermore, students were also asked to construct their own definitions of concepts during class and on assignments. Data showed that students who developed a linguistic explanation of concepts demonstrated a higher level of understanding. This result was also reflected in students\u27 homework, assessment, and participation in general discussion of physics concepts

Staves & Stones: The Truth of Runic Tradition

The research problem and task for this thesis was in the analysis of the Old Norse Futhark, or written runic language and how it has been represented through history. In order to educate the reader with a greater understanding and put the runes in context, the runes are analyzed thoroughly before being compared and contrasted to other runic systems that have been represented in modern media. The objective being to identify these similarities and differences in each language and maintain a consistent criteria to measure each language, via original use, design and form, and in-mythos development. Using this criteria and context, further conclusions and familiarity are gained and perhaps new hypotheses drawn about the Futhark and how it acts both as a written system, and a vehicle for human imagination. Additional conclusions include runes as memory and artifacts of cultural significance

Dictionary Use as Word Solving Strategy (WSS)

L2 learners may try to pick up the unknown word’s meaning from a dictionary. Many different factors, such as how important the meaning of the word is in the passage, the number of unknown words, and the reason the students are working on it, etc., affect the frequency of the student’s use of the dictionary for help. However, trying to guess the meaning of the unknown word from the context before consulting a dictionary is more beneficial since this may help the learners to pick the correct meaning relevant to the text. Using a dictionary should be limited to those unguessable words whose meanings can hinder the learner’s understanding