Usage of Blogging Software for Laboratory Management to Support Weekly Seminars Using Research Activity Reports

AbstractThis paper reports the design and use of blogging software in laboratory management to support weekly seminars, in which activity reports are an important resource for checking participants’ research activity. The software has three basic functions to support seminars: a report editing, comment, and chat. In order to support knowledge management, we added an evaluation function corresponding to each seminar report and a To-Do-List function to support driven objects as sub-goals. The blogging system was installed in a laboratory seminar, in which a teacher, a doctoral student, and seven students pursuing their master's degree participated over the course of five months. Results show that seminars conducted using the blogging software were evaluated more highly than paper-based seminars. However, only a few participants used the comment function, and the chat function was minimally used

Integrating reflection into a mobile-assisted reading program for learning English as a second language in China

The application of mobile technology in language education is gaining increasing momentum for its potential benefits, and scholars cast attention to issues such as learner motivation, learning effects and learner behaviors in the mobile learning process. Reflection is an essential part in learning as it can record learner behaviors, cultivate self-awareness of knowledge construction, facilitate cognitive growth, and promote academic achievement. Despite of the wide approval of reflection, not much study has been done concerning the application of reflection in mobile language learning process. Therefore, this study aims to investigate students’ perception of a mobile-assisted reading program facilitated with reflective activities as well as their preferences for reflection modes adopted. The participants were 60 students from two classes in a Chinese college. Students read passages on mobile applications and completed a reflection in one mode every two weeks. Four modes (paper journal reflection, e-journal reflection, audio reflection, and collaborative reflection) were adopted in the study. The study lasted approximately nine weeks. At the end of the program, all students were required to complete an anonymous questionnaire concerning their learning perception. In addition, ten students were selected randomly to attend a semi-structured interview. A pretest and a posttest were conducted to observe students’ language gains. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted with the data obtained. Results showed students generally approved of the effect of this mobile-assisted reading and their reading proficiency improved significantly after the program. In addition, most students favored reflective practices as a good way to stimulate interest, deepen understanding and promote reflective and summarizing abilities, but they didn’t consider it a good method to monitor the learning process in the mobile-assisted reading program. As for the preference for reflection mode, most students favored traditional paper reflection and audio reflection, while collaborative reflection and e-journal reflection received the least support. The findings provided implications for educators and app designers. For educators, based on the understanding of students’ age, learning experience, and possible preferences, they may create a good reflective environment with technical and instructional support, and then provide two or three popular modes for students to reflect on whatever they read. For app developers, some preferable reflection modes facilitated with stimulative measures may be offered to cater to more learners to conduct reflective activities

The Effects of Individual Differences in Two Persons on the Distributed and Cooperative KJ Method in an Anonymous Environment

The effects of three kinds of individual differences (a difference in the knowledge domain, a difference in the Big Five personality, and a difference in nationality) on a knowledge collaboration of the distributed and cooperative KJ method were examined with a groupware in an anonymous environment. The collaboration method has three steps: brainstorming, grouping, and writing. Twelve individuals participated in the experiment, eight of whom were Japanese and the other four were Chinese. The experimental results revealed the following: (1) Brainstorming by a pair in the interdisciplinary knowledge domain (humanities and sciences) led to the generation of more ideas than by a pair in the homo knowledge domain. (2) Persons possessing a factor called agreeableness in the Big Five factors of personality kept working until the final step

Analysis of Eye Movements based on the Entropy of the N-gram Model for the Investigation of Japanese Reading Processes

In order to investigate reading processes of Japanese language learners, we have conducted an experiment to record eye movements during Japanese text reading using an eye-tracking system. We showed that Japanese native speakers use “forward and backward jumping of eye movements” frequently [12] [13]. In this paper, we analyzed further the same eye tracking data. Our goal is to examine whether Japanese learners fix their eye movements at boundaries of linguistic units such as words, phrases or clauses when they start or end “backward jumping”. Linguistic boundaries are empirically defined based on the entropy of the N-gram model. Another goal is to examine the relation between the entropy of the N-gram model and the depth of syntactic structures of sentences. Our analysis shows that (1) Japanese learners often fix their eyes around linguistic boundaries, (2) the average of the entropy is the greatest at the fifth depth of syntactic structures.The original publication is available at JAIST Press http://www.jaist.ac.jp/library/jaist-press/index.htmlKICSS 2007 : The Second International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems : PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE, November 5-7, 2007, [Ishikawa High-Tech Conference Center, Nomi, Ishikawa, JAPAN

Application of AI thinking visualization tool in the foreign language reading teaching

AI thinking visualization tool can express the knowledge in the brain in a graphical way. It can form an external manifestation of knowledge directly affecting the human senses, which is of great help for learners to improve their understanding, memory and thinking skills. In this research, we studied the mind mapping training through AI thinking visualization tool in the reading teaching of foreign language courses. The results indicated that via the independent establishment of a foreign language reading material framework based on AI thinking visualization tool, students’ thinking skills and reading ability have been enhanced, learning enthusiasm has been improved, and good teaching results have been achieved