The Memory Grid: A Glass Box View of Data Representation

Educational research has found that learning is often enhanced when the concrete is mixed with the abstract. One method of achieving this, in the context of teaching computer programming, is to provide students with a model of the activities that occur within the computer when programs are loaded and program steps are executed. Such a model is sometimes referred to as a glass box--differentiating it from a black box approach, where program activities are treated as being purely abstract in nature. The paper describes a glass box exercise developed by the author that requires students to match abstract data declarations to their concrete representation in primary storage. The exercise is used to help programming students better understand the nature of variables, arrays, and structures. Upon completing the exercise, which has proven to be popular with students in an introductory programming course, the instructor has found students are better able to apply the elegant (but initially mystifying) notations used for pointer, array and structure operations in C/C++. The paper also describes GridGen, a C++ based tool for creating such exercises and for generating online tests that can be delivered in course management environments such as Blackboard. The paper concludes with a discussion of the methodology and results that were used to evaluate the effectiveness of memory grid exercises

Teaching Flowcharting with FlowC

When detailed logic flowcharting fell out of favor as a commercial design tool starting in the mid-1970s, it was discarded by many IS educators. In doing so, however, we may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Many of the disadvantages of flowcharting as a commercial tool - such as the immense size of flowcharts of large programs - are not necessarily serious drawbacks in introductory programming classes. Several researchers have also found benefits from the use of flowcharts as a teaching tool. The challenge is to develop approaches whereby learning to program - not learning to flowchart - is emphasized. FlowC, a Windows-based flowcharting application, is an example of a tool that can be used to minimize the challenges of teaching flowcharting while retaining its benefits in the formative stages of learning to program. In addition to guiding the user through the creation of diagrams, FlowC also allows the user to view the code (or pseudocode) implied by each construct drawn in the flowchart. The user may also generate complete applications that may then be compiled and run in MS Visual Studio .NET. FlowC has been used for three semesters to teach introductory programming (in C) to undergraduate MIS majors. The students have found the program easy to use and have reported that flowcharting has been an important component of their overall learning in the course. In addition, analysis of survey data gathered from students suggests that learning flowcharting early in the course has benefited their learning in subsequent programming assignments

WEB PISTON: CHOOSING A NEW STRATEGY

Web Piston is a successful enterprise that provides its small business and individual clients with automated web design and web hosting services. Owing to the rapidly changing competitive environment, however, the company’s founder, Ricardo Lasa, feels that a change in strategy is necessary. The case describes the competitive environment for web hosting and outlines four alternative strategies: 1) becoming a “freemium” player, 2) becoming a custom web site developer, 3) creating a marketplace to match web clients and developers, and 4) focusing on developing portals for deployment on social networking sites. The principal objective of the case is to provide a rationale for making the decision, or to offer an alternative strategy. A teaching note may be obtained from Dr. T. Grandon Gill ([email protected]). The case is almost entirely undisguised and was specifically intended to focus on building judgment/evaluation skills in the presence of considerable uncertainty

From Salvation to Damnation: A Case Study on the Role of a System Sponsor in Strategic Downfall

The positive impact of champions on systems implementation and adoption is well established. The term systems evangelist describes another common but less understood sponsor role beyond systems adoption. Subtle champion to evangelist role changes may hurt company performance, particularly when an executive fills the role. Through a historical case study using the capability building and entrepreneurial action model, the impact of an executive sponsor with daily IS management responsibility is examined. Beyond the champion phase, consistent with theory, the sponsor operates as a system evangelist, promoting use of a system poorly suited to its changing environment. Firm performance consequently suffers. This initial test of the theory demonstrates that system evangelists not only may, but are likely, to drive continued use of performanceimpeding systems. Strategies to limit negative evangelist impacts while preserving their benefits are presented. Finally, other executive sponsorship cases that appear to unfold similarly are identified for future study

Synthesizing design and informing science rationales for driving a decentralized generative knowledge management agenda

CITATION: Schmitt, U. & Gill, T. G. 2019. Synthesizing design and informing science rationales for driving a decentralized generative knowledge management agenda. Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, 22:1-18, doi:10.28945/4264.The original publication is available at https://www.informingscience.orgAim/Purpose: In a world of rapidly expanding complexity and exponentially increasing data availability, IT-based knowledge management tools will be needed to manage and curate available information. This paper looks at a particular tool architecture that has been previously proposed: The Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS). The specific focus is on how the proposed architecture conforms to design science principles that relate to how it is likely to evolve. Background: We first introduce some recent informing science and design science research frameworks, then examine how the PKMS architecture would conform to these. Methodology: The approach taken is conceptual analysis. Contribution: The analysis provides a clearer understanding of how the proposed PKMS would serve the diverse-client ambiguous-target (DCAT) informing scenario and how it could be expected to evolve. Findings: We demonstrate how the PKMS informing architecture can be characterized as a “social machine” that appears to conform to a number of principles that would facilitate its long-term evolution. Future Research: The example provided by the paper could serve as a model future research seeking to integrate design science and informing science in the study of IT artefacts.https://www.informingscience.org/Publications/4264?Source=%2FJournals%2FInformingSciJ%2FArticles%3FVolume%3D22-2019Publisher's versio

Effects of hydroxycinnamic acid esters on sweetpotato weevil feeding and oviposition and interactions with Bacillus thuringiensis proteins

Sweetpotato weevil (SPW) pest management is challenging because the pest target is sub-terranean, so the application of pesticides is impractical and usually ineffective. Host plant resistance and the genetic transformation of sweetpotatoes to produce entomotoxic Bt proteins offer potential for environmentally benign pest control. Resistance can be conferred by naturally occurring hydroxycinnamic acids which protect against oviposition by adults, but these compounds are restricted to the root surface so do not protect against the cortex bound larvae where the greatest damage occurs. Resistance could be enhanced if combined with expression of Bt proteins in transformed plants but interactions between hydroxycinnamic acids and Bt proteins remain unknown. Here the bioactivity of Cry7Aa1 protein and hydroxycinnamic acid esters was evaluated individually and in combination against SPW larvae and mortality determined. Low and high concentrations of hydroxycinnamic acid esters alone caused significantly higher mortality of both weevil species in all experiments compared to the control. SPW larval mortality was greater when tested as a combination of hydroxycinnamic acid esters and Bt protein but this effect was additive not synergistic. Although we report no evidence of antagonistic interactions the antifeedant effects of the plant compounds conferring host plant resistance could have reduced consumption of the Bt protein in our assays leading to a lower efficacy when combined. Further work is required to determine if the toxic effects of Bt proteins function alongside host plant resistance in sweetpotato under field conditions

Complexity, Cybernetics, and Informing Science: Building a Better Mousetrap

Our decision-making and task environments are driven by three forms of complexity: complexity as we experience it internally (e.g., difficulty, uncertainty, ambiguity), complexity as it relates to our symbolic representation of tasks and plans (e.g., number of paths, program size), and complexity as a description of the decision environment and its behavior (e.g., ruggedness, turbulence). When experiencing high levels of complexity, we respond by constructing informing systems that better connect us together and offer increasingly rapid access to more information sources. In doing so, however, we inadvertently feed a cybernetic loop that leads to ever-expanding complexity (in all three forms). Left unchecked, this loop has the potential to alter both the way we think and the environments we face in ways that we may not desire. Building a better mousetrap requires us to rethink both our approach to education and to designing systems. On the education side, we need to spend less time emphasizing specific content and more on building the student's the ability to react to complexity in ways that do not rely on making the world more complicated. On the design side, systems must increasingly emphasize adaptability as opposed to efficiency