Can Common Sense uncover cultural differences in computer applications?

Cultural differences play a very important role in matching computer interfaces to the expectations of users from different national and cultural backgrounds. But to date, there has been little systematic research as to the extent of such differences, and how to produce software that automatically takes into account these differences. We are studying these issues using a unique resource: Common Sense knowledge bases in different languages. Our research points out that this kind of knowledge can help computer systems to consider cultural differences. We describe our experiences with knowledge bases containing thousands of sentences describing people and everyday activities, collected from volunteer Web contributors in three different cultures: Brazil, Mexico and the USA, and software which automatically searches for cultural differences amongst the three cultures, alerting the user to potential differences.IFIP International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Theory and Practice - Knowledge and Information ManagementRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Uso de conhecimento de senso comum na educação para geração de analogias e similaridades

The use of analogies is a cognitive strategy frequently adopted by learners when they want to understand some new concept. In that case, the analogy connects the new concept with the previous knowledge, attaching it in the learner cognitive structure. Some studies points out the use of analogies and previous knowledge of learners increases the learning material quality, stimulating the learners to use their cognitive strategies. Nevertheless, there are no studies about a way to enable both the use of analogies and learners previous knowledge to facilitate continued learning, mainly taking into account computational support for e-leaning. In this work it is presented a prototype of an on-line assistant to support a training course about workspace safety issues. The application uses a common sense reasoning engine and the Brazilian Open Mind common sense knowledge base, to make inferences about concepts that might be unfamiliar to the students. It is explored the use of analogies to explain topics, enhancing learning by using context capture to help students associate related topics. It is believed that common sense can be used to take into account cultural considerations while helping learners to build analogies. It is also explored the suggestion of analogies, which were build using commonsense knowledge, to the teachers during the project of instructional material design. Preliminary results with students using the assistant point that they considered analogies useful in the learning process, that the system is helpful in understanding new concepts, and that it helps connect the information searched for with common sense knowledge.Financiadora de Estudos e ProjetosO uso de analogias é uma estratégia cognitiva freqüentemente utilizada pelos alunos quando eles querem aprender algum novo conceito. Neste caso, a analogia relaciona o novo conhecimento ao conhecimento prévio do aluno, fixando-o em sua estrutura cognitiva. Pesquisas mostram que a utilização de analogias e a consideração do conhecimento prévio do aluno no material instrucional aumentam a qualidade do material gerado, estimulando os alunos a utilizarem suas estratégias cognitivas. Porém, não se encontra na literatura como a utilização de analogias com o uso do conhecimento prévio do aluno pode ser viabilizada para facilitar a educação continuada, principalmente considerando o apoio computacional para o elearning. Assim, neste trabalho é apresentado um protótipo de um assistente on-line para suporte ao treinamento sobre segurança no trabalho. O protótipo usa a base de conhecimento de senso comum, e os recursos computacionais do projeto Open Mind Common Sense no Brasil juntamente com uma base do conhecimento sobre segurança no trabalho, para explicar termos que podem ser não familiares para os alunos. É explorado o uso de analogias para explicar os tópicos, e um método de captura de contexto são utilizados para ajudar o estudante a associar os tópicos relacionados. Acredita-se que o senso comum pode considerar aspectos culturais durante a criação de analogias e ajudando assim os estudantes. Explora-se, também, a sugestão de analogias criadas com o conhecimento de senso comum para o professor durante o desenvolvimento do material instrucional. Os resultados obtidos em um experimento realizado com estudantes apontam que eles consideraram as analogias úteis no processo de aprendizagem e que o sistema é útil no entendimento de novos conceitos, ajudando a conectar o novo conhecimento ao conhecimento de senso comum

Can common sense uncover cultural differences in computer applications

Abstract. Cultural differences play a very important role in matching computer interfaces to the expectations of users from different national and cultural backgrounds. But to date, there has been little systematic research as to the extent of such differences, and how to produce software that automatically takes into account these differences. We are studying these issues using a unique resource: Common Sense knowledge bases in different languages. Our research points out that this kind of knowledge can help computer systems to consider cultural differences. We describe our experiences with knowledge bases containing thousands of sentences describing people and everyday activities, collected from volunteer Web contributors in three different cultures: Brazil, Mexico and the USA, and software which automatically searches for cultural differences amongst the three cultures, alerting the user to potential differences. 1

How Can Common Sense Support Instructors with Distance Education?

Abstract. This paper shows how a common sense knowledge base, collected from volunteers over the web, can be used by teachers to plan Learning Actions for preparing students to interact with the community where the common sense statements came from. Consequently, this knowledge base can help teachers to deal with some challenges they face when they adopt a DL approach