Non-native children speech recognition through transfer learning

This work deals with non-native children's speech and investigates both multi-task and transfer learning approaches to adapt a multi-language Deep Neural Network (DNN) to speakers, specifically children, learning a foreign language. The application scenario is characterized by young students learning English and German and reading sentences in these second-languages, as well as in their mother language. The paper analyzes and discusses techniques for training effective DNN-based acoustic models starting from children native speech and performing adaptation with limited non-native audio material. A multi-lingual model is adopted as baseline, where a common phonetic lexicon, defined in terms of the units of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), is shared across the three languages at hand (Italian, German and English); DNN adaptation methods based on transfer learning are evaluated on significant non-native evaluation sets. Results show that the resulting non-native models allow a significant improvement with respect to a mono-lingual system adapted to speakers of the target language

What Do Preservice Teachers Think about Teaching Media Literacy?: An Exploratory Study Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Despite the numerous benefits of media & information literacy for students in today’s digital society, the lack of teacher preparation in teaching media & information literacy skills suggests that the societal rationale for students becoming media literate and the sustainable preparation of teachers in that area may differ. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore the factors and beliefs underlying preservice teachers’ intention to teach media & information literacy in their future classroom according to the Theory of Planned Behavior. Findings suggest that preservice teachers’ have positive attitudes towards media & information literacy as an essential skill for students, yet do not feel that it is highlighted in their teacher education program, and that they would benefit from learning about media literacy pedagogies from faculty and instructors. We provide recommendations for teacher educators and researchers to improve preservice teacher’s intention to teach media & information literacy in their future classroom

Verizon’s “Certification Process” and Why the FCC Needs To Take a Stand

This Note will give an in-depth review of the legality and policy implications of Verizon’s lengthy certification process. Part I will give a short background of the time leading up to Verizon’s purchase of the C-Block. It will then review the actual rules of the agreement between Verizon and the FCC at the time of the purchase, as well as the pertinent history following the purchase. Part II will analyze whether Verizon’s lengthy certification process violates the C-Block rules or the general spirit of Verizon’s agreement to abide by the rules. Part III will then argue that, even if Verizon’s certification process does not violate the original rules of the agreement, recent developments and various public policy considerations should preclude Verizon from stalling before allowing various devices onto its network. Finally, Part IV will conclude with a proposal on how the FCC should handle this certificationprocess problem going forward

On-line learning of language models with word error probability distributions

We are interested in the problem of learning stochastic language models on-line (without speech transcriptions) for adaptive speech recognition and understanding. In this paper we propose an algorithm to adapt to variations in the language model distributions based on the speech input only and without its true transcription. The on-line probability estimate is defined as a function of the prior and word error distributions. We show the effectiveness of word-lattice based error probability distributions in terms of Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves and word accuracy. We apply the new estimates Padapt(w) to the task of adapting on-line an initial large vocabulary trigram language model and show improvement in word accuracy with respect to the baseline speech recognizer. 1

Verizon’s “Certification Process” and Why the FCC Needs To Take a Stand

This Note will give an in-depth review of the legality and policy implications of Verizon’s lengthy certification process. Part I will give a short background of the time leading up to Verizon’s purchase of the C-Block. It will then review the actual rules of the agreement between Verizon and the FCC at the time of the purchase, as well as the pertinent history following the purchase. Part II will analyze whether Verizon’s lengthy certification process violates the C-Block rules or the general spirit of Verizon’s agreement to abide by the rules. Part III will then argue that, even if Verizon’s certification process does not violate the original rules of the agreement, recent developments and various public policy considerations should preclude Verizon from stalling before allowing various devices onto its network. Finally, Part IV will conclude with a proposal on how the FCC should handle this certificationprocess problem going forward

Developing a panarchy model of landscape conservation and management of alpine-mountain grassland in Northern Italy.

This paper explores methods of applying resilience theory to a case study of natural resource management and the cultural landscape of upland and alpine pasture in northern Italy. We identify that the close interaction between alpine pastures and its managers offers a strong fit with the concept of a social-ecological system that maintains the cultural landscape. We first considered a descriptive approach looking historically at socio-economic development in the study area. We explored whether this can be related to resilience phenomena such as regime shifts, thresholds and/or regime stability through adaptive processes. However, we found it difficult at this overarching level to conceptually combine natural and social capital of alpine pastures and their managers in any quantitative way. We also interpreted our data through considering economic, social and ecological information as acting within separate but interacting domains. This led us to construct conceptual models of adaptive cycles to describe the alpine mountain grassland ecosystem of our study site and to conclude that a panarchy model can offer a powerful metaphor for its ecological dynamics. This has practical implications both for the management of Natura 2000 interest and the maintenance of the cultural landscape in which this Alpine interest occurs. We suggest that Resilience theory through its dynamic approach of interacting scales of adaptive cycles offers useful insights into the resource management (of valued cultural and natural attributes) but that care is needed in distinguishing between descriptive metaphor and predictive model or "real" system.natural resource management, natural and social capital

Walking the Line between Reality and Fiction in Online Spaces: Understanding the Effects of Narrative Transportation

Recent contentions about fake news and misinformation online has shed light on the critical need for media literacy at a global scale. Indeed, digital stories are one of the main forms of communication in the 21st century through blogs, videos-sharing websites, forums, or social networks. However, the line between facts and fiction can often become blurry in these online spaces, and being able to distinguish between reality and fantasy can have important consequences in the lives of young Internet users. Using contemporary examples from news stories, fanfiction, advertising, and radicalization, this article outlines the features, affordances, and real-life implications of digital stories. As a result, we provide recommendations for educators to create awareness and empower students about digital storytelling practices

Noche de saberes silenciosos

Sobre: Vigilia de noche, de Lars Norén. Adaptada y dirigida por Daniel Veronese. Con Pilar Gamboa, Walter Jakob, Luis Machín y Mara Bestelli. En el Teatro Picadero, Pasaje Santos Discépolo 1857 C.A.B.A. Funciones: martes 20.30 hs. Entrada: desde $200 hasta$280