The Rise and Fall of Seven Arts Magazine

We have dedicated this presentation to the short, but prolific and rich lifespan of a little magazine that called for pacifism during World War I. The epistolary relationship between poet Amy Lowell and The Seven Arts founder James Oppenheim provides a firsthand account of how the war impacted the literary world and why Oppenheim’s April 1917 magazine issue led to its swift downfall

Supporting critical design dialog

Ph.D.Mark J. Guzdia

Emerging Trends in the WWW User Population

Vast amounts of attention and resources have recently been devoted towards the World Wide Web (WWW) [Berners-Lee 94], but relatively little research has been conducted that examines Web usage and societal implications. With the goals of understanding the Web user population and promoting the Web as a viable surveying medium, GVU's WWW User Surveys were initially conducted during January 1994. Subsequent surveys were administered approximately every six months thereafter. The surveys employ non-random sampling techniques, which limit the ability of the results to generalize to the entire Web population. Each survey is conducted using the limited interactivity of the Web, where users point and click on responses within their Web browsers and submit results to a centralized server for processing. Each survey is conducted for a one month period. This paper examines the emerging trends of the WWW user population

Using Animations to Learn about Algorithms: An Ethnographic Case Study

A number of studies have found that using animation for explaining dynamic systems had less beneficial effects on learning than hoped. Those results come as a surprise to many instructors and students in computer science where animation is becoming an increasingly popular tool for teaching algorithms. This study takes an ethnomethodological approach, observing students using animations and other media to learn about an algorithm. We do not answer the question, "Do animations aid learning?" nor the question "How do they aid learning?" Rather, we gain some insight into how animations can fit into successful learning strategies. Finally, we present several key observations that we hope educators and researchers can use to inform their own work with algorithm animation

Federal Trade Commission Public Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy : Supplemental Comments for Project Number: P954807 Document Number: 18

The following document contains supplemental comments made to the Federal Trade Commision Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy held June 10 - June 13, 1997. The supplemental filing contains results from GVU's Seventh WWW User Survey

Federal Trade Commission Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy: Consumer Privacy 1997 - request to participate, P954807

The following document contains the initial comments made to the Federal Trade Commision Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy held June 10 - June 13, 1997. The initial filing contains results from GVU's Sixth WWW User Survey

Results from the Third WWW User Survey

The tremendous success of the World Wide Web has led to an ever-increasing user base. Intuitively, one would expect this base to change over time as more people from different segments of the population become Web users and advocates. What exactly have these changes been? How do the original Web users differ from the new users from major online service providers like Prodigy? What trends exist and what picture do they paint for the future of the Web user population? This paper, drawing on results from three User Surveys spanning over a year and a half, attempts to answer these and other questions about who is using the Web and why. Additionally, a review of the methodology, questionnaires, and new architectural enhancements is presented. Although the surveys lack the scientific rigor of controlled and accepted methods of surveying, we discuss analyses that help us understand the limitations and process of this new type of surveying. Finally, new quantitative analysis techniques are presented based upon post-hoc log file analysis, yielding guidelines for Web-based survey design

Surveying the Territory: GVU's Five WWW User Surveys

Five years is not very long on most historical scales, but for the World Wide Web (WWW) it constitutes a lifetime. A question almost as old as the web itself is, "Who is using it, and for what?" One way to answer this question is to use paper surveys, telephone surveys, or diaries which are some of the the same methods used to measure the audiences of other one-way media such as television and radio. However, something interesting happened in early 1994: the implementation of HTML Forms turned the web into a two-way medium which made it possible to contact the audience directly. To test the viability of the web as a survey medium and collect preliminary data on the web population, the first GVU WWW User Survey was conducted in January 1994. Subsequent surveys have been conducted approximately every six months. The collection of responses from over 55,000 Web users over five surveys has given us a unique perspective on the advances in surveying technology and methodology and changes in the web population itself. In the following sections, we discuss what we have learned in each of these areas

Rethinking the Evaluation of Algorithm Animations as Learning Aids: An Observational Study

A number of prior studies have found that using animation to help teach algorithms had less beneficial effects on learning than hoped. Those results surprise many computer science instructors whose intuition leads them to believe that algorithm animations should assist instruction. This article reports on a study in which animation is utilized in more of a "homework" learning scenario rather than a "final exam" scenario. Our focus is on understanding how learners will utilize animation and other instructional materials in trying to understand a new algorithm, and on gaining insight into how animations can fit into successful learning strategies. The study indicates that students use sophisticated combinations of instructional materials in learning scenarios. In particular, the presence of algorithm animations seems to make a challenging algorithm more accessible and less intimidating, thus leading to enhanced student interaction with the materials and facilitating learning

PML: Representing Procedural Domains for Multimedia Presentations

A central issue in the development of multimedia systems is the presentation of the information to the user of the system and how to best represent that information to the designer of the system. Typically, the designers create a system in which content and presentation are inseparably linked; specific presentations and navigational aids are chosen for each piece of content and hard-coded into the system. We argue that the representation of content should be decoupled from the design of the presentation and navigational structure, both to facilitate modular system design and to permit the construction of dynamic multimedia systems that can determine appropriate presentations in a given situation on the fly. We propose a new markup language called PML (Procedural Markup Language) which allows the content to be represented in a flexible manner by specifying the knowledge structures, the underlying physical media, and the relationships between them using cognitive media roles. The PML description can then be translated into different presentations depending on such factors as the context, goals, presentation preferences, and expertise of the user