Tim Goddard

I'm not really a Luddite, I'd just prefer you to pay attention (2011)

Good educators have always used the latest media tools in order to enhance their pedagogy. It is only in recent years that these media have begun to undermine the social and humanistic goals of education. If the purpose of education is to develop citizens who will take our world forward into the 21^st century and beyond, what responsibility must educators take for flash mobs, texting while driving, and the Vancouver riots?

In this talk I shall contest some of the assumptions made by those who automatically integrate all new multimedia into their classrooms. In considering the effects of new media on the social fabric of our communities, I will take into account the fact that the isolating power of social media is not an unknown concept. I will argue that educators must take some responsibility for the outcomes of a connected world, and in their teaching must consider the effects of technologically supported isolation on community coherence and social cohesion.

Professor Goddard is Dean of the Faculty of Education and Lead Dean (International), at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Dr. Goddard has worked as a teacher, principal, superintendent of schools, university professor and education consultant. He has extensive international experience, including a six year period where he was the Team Leader of the Leadership component for a CIDA funded initiative to design and deliver an educational reform program in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, where his focus was on the design and delivery of educational leadership training programs to school principals and regional education officers in post-conflict Kosovo.

Dr. Goddard’s primary area of research and teaching is educational leadership and administration, broadly defined, with a focus on the role and impact of cultural and demographic change on structural systems within schools, particularly those serving minority and marginalized populations.

Alisha Ali

PhotoCLUB: Designing a virtual community using digital photography to empower marginalized youth (2011)

The literature on the use of technology for education has focused primarily on mainstream academic settings. Our work represents a shift from that focus and presents creative options for simultaneously enhancing both the educational and psychosocial development of marginalized youth. This paper will describe our PhotoCLUB project that we are conducting at Freedom House, a domestic violence shelter in New York City that specializes in serving women and children who are domestic violence survivors with disabilities. As a crisis shelter, Freedom House can only house residents for a maximum of 135 days. This limit poses significant challenges to the resident youth who, due to their transient circumstances, are not attending school consistently and who often experience this shelter as their only source of belongingness in a supportive community. Freedom House uses state-of-the-art accessibility technology throughout the shelter and is committed to using technology to the greatest extent possibility to support their services for their residents. We introduced our PhotoCLUB program at the shelter with the following aims in mind: (1) to provide a means of engagement and creative expression for youth residing in the shelter; (2) to encourage the youth to collectively explore their educational and life goals by using digital photography to capture images of their “ideal possible selves”; and (3) to work collaboratively with the youth to design an online community that will allow them to remain connected to the PhotoCLUB and its members beyond their 135-day stay at the shelter. In this paper, we will present various photographic images taken by the youth participants along with the specific strategies they developed for achieving the educational and personal goals represented by their ideal possible selves. We will also describe the participatory process of collaborating with the youth to create the online virtual PhotoCLUB community.

Alisha Ali PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University within the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Her research investigates innovative approaches to serving the educational and psychosocial needs of low-income communities in urban settings. Dr. Ali’s recent projects have examined factors related to depression in low-income women, including the effects of poverty, violence, and discrimination. Among her current research is a series of projects, funded by the Allstate Foundation and the American Psychological Foundation, examining the psychosocial impact of economic empowerment programs for families residing in domestic violence shelters. She is also the creator of the New York-based PhotoCLUB project, a digital photography program aimed at supporting the attainment of educational and personal goals of high-risk youth. Findings from the pilot evaluation of the PhotoCLUB program have demonstrated positive academic and psychosocial effects among the youth participants. PhotoCLUB is being implemented as an after-school program in various settings in New York City, including shelters, schools, and low-income housing projects. Dr. Ali also recently completed a longitudinal investigation of the effects of a poverty transition program on depressive symptoms of program participants and found the program to be highly successful in reducing depression. Dr. Ali is editor, along with Dana C. Jack, of the book Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression and Gender in the Social World published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.

Utpola Borah

 Using multimedia technology to teach North Indian vocal music (2011)
 

The tradition of music education in Hindustani (North Indian) classical music known as the “guru-sishya parampara,” is a unique system of transmitting musical knowledge, which can be trace back to the Vedic period (1^st-6^th centuries BCE). The terms guru (mentor/master), sishya (pupil/disciple) and parampara (tradition) collectively refer to an oral tradition that transmits the art/music through a preceptor. In India it is the basis of transmission for all art forms and embodies the living and learning relationship between master and disciple in both formal and informal learning settings. Although the guru-sishya parampara is being supported by variety of institutional setting in India and abroad, currently many gurus (instructors) are employing multimedia technologies for teaching music. These technologies include interactive DVDs, websites, and most prominently video conferencing primarily through “skype.” Indian classical music requires face-to-face interaction between pupil and student. The use of skype facilitates learning in diverse geographical locations, as it is often difficult for students to find competent gurus outside (and even within) India. However, skype lessons require greater use of written materials and fixed lesson plans. Multimedia technologies do not replace traditional learning systems, but have great potential for the teaching and learning of many styles of music throughout the world.

Teaching information
North Indian Classical music is prevalent throughout the North, West and Eastern regions of India as well as in the neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Languages used in compositions

The  North Indian classical music compositions are in written in several north Indian languages and dialects such as Hindi, Braj, Marwari, Bhojpuri, Khariboli, Punjabi and Bengali  etc.,

Teaching materials:

Usually basic music lessons for HM/North Indian Classical music follow a standardized system from Bhatkhande Kramik Pustak Malika (six volume set containing Raga composition with notation and descriptions).

Content of lesson

1.     Basic vocal exercises for voice culture by teaching the notes of a Raga

2.     Graduated series of vocal exercises for various embellishments, improvisation techniques, and to increase vocal range and flexibility.

3.     Reading and learning to sing from notation

4.     Learning to sing in tala, intricate nuances of tala or rhythmic cycles, and rendering of raga and tala as bandish (composition) by oral demonstration. 

5.     Learning to elaborate with technical details like Alap (non-rhythmic verses) , taan (rapid melodic improvisation) etc.,

Utpola Borahis an Ethno-musicologist, Educationist and Cultural Archivist and Performer of Hindustani Classical Music.  She has made important contributions to the discipline from the time she started her Doctoral research at the University of Delhi.  Utpola has done an extensive study on “Bihu songs of Assam” which has found expression in her book, “Bihu Festival of Assam-Music, Dance & Performance” published by B.R. Rhythms, Dehli (2005). Her experience in the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE) has earned her recognition in the field of Ethnomusicology and in other areas of Cultural studies like Folklore, Anthropology and Performing arts of India.  Utpola has worked as a Course Writer, Content editor and Expert for the PG Diploma in Folklore and Cultural Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi.  She has presented lectures and given demonstrations at International and National seminars and conferences in India and USA.  Utpola is aneminent Hindustani (North India) Classical vocalist.  She has been trained extensively in the traditional “Gurukul” system and is an accomplished performer.

John Born

The application of film mixing to interactive media design (2011)

My earliest research is based on taking the auditory hierarchy used in film and animation and applying it to instructional message design to strengthen narrative comprehension for the learner.  I based my research on instructional message design theory, the auditory hierarchy, and on various aesthetic and technical principles of sound design derived from my film and animation studies.

My work began with the study of sound design to enhance the use of still imagery and text through presentations developed in Microsoft PowerPoint. My ongoing research on the topic has forced me to ask new questions concerning the application of film mixing to interactive media design, specifically in the context of 3D simulations and non-linear media.  The interactive media design component addresses the progression from a static, ‘linear model’ of presentation to an interactive, learner-centered narrative enhancement, informed by learner input.  A key question that comes from this style of interactivity is: “Will the learner acquire the required narrative content if they select an interactive path different from the original intention of the instructor (content creator)?” And “How can sound design seamlessly support narrative in a non-linear, ‘ever changing’ Constructivist environment?”

This is where the principles of film sound design can assist the structuring of audio and visual information in an instructional interactive environment. Expertise in film mixing theory and practice can inform the creation of more ‘immersive’ narratives. Additionally, a technical understanding of interactive audio ‘gaming’ tools, such as Wwise, can also be instrumental in the creation of dynamically adaptive ‘sound design spaces’ that change in real-time, maintaining user engagement.

John Born is an instructor in the Multimedia Studies Department at UNB and an Instructional Technology Specialist at UNB’s Center for Enhanced Teaching and Learning.  He is the owner and operator of his own media consulting company bornThinkers Consulting, that combines the design world of multimedia with leadership and personal coaching.

John has been working in the professional area of media production since 1999 and is actively involved in the education and learning field, having presented workshops and training in media design worldwide from Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Las Vegas and Trinidad & Tobago.  John is a recipient of the New Brunswick Rising Stars Award recognizing IT leadership in New Brunswick.

Carol Casswell and Norman Yakel (2009)

But where are the resources? (2009)

By using technology, we have the potential to engage learners and weave a strong fabric of curriculum-based learning without giving away the loom!  When the content is relevant and designed with the overwhelmed, sincerely engaged teacher in mind, what is possible? How do we teach art using a technology-based approach – one that leads directly back into the art classroom and to challenging student-centered content, processes and outcomes?

What does technology offer? What do the arts ask? What do the arts offer? Where is Saskatchewan’s art? To whom do public gallery collections belong?  How do we gain access to public collections? Who visits?  Who sees the collections of public galleries? Join us for a  discussion and demonstration of some of the possibilities…

Carol Casswell has extensive experience in curriculum and professional development planning for Regina Public Schools, currently teaches high school Arts Education Grades 9-12, is a doctoral student at the University of Regina, and is Co-Director of ARTSask, a project involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Norman Yakel is a senior professor in the Arts Education Program of the Faculty of Education, University of Regina where in addition to teaching, he is involved in numerous innovative community field work activities, supervises students in Graduate Studies in Art Education and is Co-Director of field work activities, involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Representing the University of Regina, the presenters are the co-directors for the development of the ARTSask website, which received generous funding support from Canadian Heritage, in a competitive context, for two separate stages of the website’s development.  

Presenters are also developers of ARTmakerapp, an application for iPad and iPhone, designed for digital art-making that is intuitive, inspiring and by its design simplicity, accessible to everyone.

Rory Crath, Chris Trevelyan & Adrienne Chambon

A Multimedia Installation for Encouraging Learners' Self-Reflexivity (2009)

A central objective of social work education is to engender critical forms of self-reflexivity in the social work practitioner. One recent social work text goes so far as to say: “...critical reflection on the use of self is the link that mediates theory and practice in social work” (Mandell, 2007, x). A broad body of literature has explored various pedagogical approaches for facilitating self-reflexivity (Fook, 2002; Sakamoto & Pitner, 2005), some of which has focused on the potential limitations of text-based learning processes (Kumsa, 2007). Little attention, however, has been given to the role of multimedia technologies might play in encouraging more reflexive uses of self. In response to this gap in social work education, we developed a multimedia learning environment to enhance the teaching and learning of self-reflexivity. The installation focuses on the core concept of 'self-determination' and is comprised of audio-visual and text-based technologies, and installation objects. Our aim was to create a pedagogical process that exceeded the limits of text-based approaches to promoting the critical use of self.

The installation has been piloted with the MSW students at the University of Western Ontario, and at the University of Toronto's 2008 “Social Work Theory Conference” as part of its graduate student orientation. Most recently, we provided a learning/training session to field educators at the Faculty. Extending our educational research outside academia, we have been invited to conduct professional development workshops in a range of organizations, including The Hospital for Sick Kids, Baycrest Geriatric Services, Integra and Catholic Family Services. Arrangements are also being made to offer the multimedia workshop to psychiatric-survivors at the YWCA. The interactive installation format has been adapted to its various audiences and settings, and is evolving as we more closely consider the potential of multimedia technologies to foster learning that includes embodied, affective and analytic dimensions. Our research, funded through a SSHR grant awarded to Adrienne Chambon, queries how this technologically infused pedagogy can contribute to the profession's efforts to bridge the divide between theory and practice in diverse cultural contexts. We propose a special, one-hour, interactive session for  the upcoming conference. This would entail three components. First, participants would experience the multimedia learning installation.

Second, we would present our research on the unique learning outcomes potentiated by this technologically enhanced workshop. Finally, we would facilitate discussion on the implications of and possible directions for future developments in the area of multimedia teaching and learning.

Rory Crath, Chris Trevelyan, and Adrienne Chambon are all at the department of social work at the University of Toronto.

Benet Davetian

Harnessing YouTube as an in-class educational aid (2011)

A generation grown up with high tech media is bound to have a different neurology and different patterns of thought than one brought up on linear media such as print. Even broadcast media have changed in the manner they affect attention and interest; the sequential plot has been replaced with quick-cut vignettes that demand rapid eye movement and rapid reassembly of the storyline.

This new generation requires new methods of teaching. The text is no longer sufficient to engage the interest and involvement of students. In a YouTube video viewed by over 3 million people (“A Vision of Students Today”) students confess what they do with their time every day. A great deal of it is spent on social media. In my presentation I will propose that, in view of limited funds in schools and universities for the acquisition of videos, YOUTUBE offers tremendous opportunities for multimedia teaching aids. In my own director’s channel youtube.com/sociologicalI maintain playlists for each course. I am able to accompany my lectures with excellent videos that provide living examples of the material being discussed. I will share this concept and practice at the Conference and be available for anyone who wishes to know how they can also set up such a teaching aid. I will also discuss empirical evidence showing how the brain processes images and thoughts and how such knowledge can facilitate the educational process.

Benet Davetian is former chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at UPEI and Associate Professor of Sociology. He is also director of The Civility Institute (http://www.civilityintsitute.com). Dr. Davetian also maintains a sociology website which provides students with web resources and access to online course materials (http://www.bdavetian.com). His latest book is Civility – A Cultural History (University of Toronto Press, 2009). 

PhD University of Sussex; SSHRC Doctoral and British Commonwealth Scholarship
Post Doctoral SSHRC Fellow Concordia University.
B.A. and MA with great distinction Concordia University

Michael Lantz

The Use of “Clickers” in the Classroom: Teaching Innovation or Merely an Amusing Novelty? (2009)

The individual response system, or “clickers” are now being used in many classrooms as an active learning component of courses. Educators considering the use of clickers in their own classrooms may wonder whether the clickers are a worthwhile, pedagogical tool or merely an amusing novelty. As Pengfei (2008) points out, research has examined the clicker effects on interaction within the classroom, but little research has examined whether clicker use can affect the understanding of concepts.  This chapter will discuss ways in which clickers may help students organize and understand material presented in the classroom.

Michael Lantz is a professor of psychology at Kent State University. 

David LeBlanc (2011)

                                                                                                                         Using On-Line Tools to Drive Group Development Projects (2011)

Traditional approaches to software development involved extensive planning and scheduling of nearly all development tasks in advance. As such, the actual development of the functioning system ('coding') happened with a minimum of day-to-day communication and tracking. With the development of modern Agile approaches to software development, much of the planning and scheduling is done 'on the fly', necessitating a well-developed system for communication and for keeping track of who is working on what and how they are progressing. In this talk I will discuss how a simple on-line tool (Google Docs) is used by students to coordinate, schedule and track group development projects that run from 3-8 months.

David LeBlanc is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Prince Edward Island.  He has a background in artificial intelligence, cognitive science and theoretical linguistics, with degrees in computer science and linguistics.  His current research focuses on cross-cultural variation in interface design—work he is eager to expand to the study of variation in player preferences within video games.  This work involves experimental usability testing.

Cameron Montgomery

Learning processes and assessment: students’ learning in a mandatory course in Teacher Education (PED 3517: “learning processes and assessment”) (2009)

The objective of the presentation is to identify and present the learning objectives attained in a mandatory Francophone teacher education course (PED 3517: learning processes and assessment) at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. The presentation will start with a contextual description, followed by an analysis and a synthesis of the professors’ teaching steps showing the integration of theoretical concepts with a focus on cognition into the learning processes, in addition to the factors that contributed to successful learning.   Concrete examples of five former students’ learning portfolios and their associated challenges will be included.  Technology (i.e. Blackboard Vista) will be used throughout the presentation mirroring the learning tool that was used by the professor and students in the classroom.  The presentation will conclude with a discussion regarding successful integration of theory into the learning processes, the role that technology plays as a medium, and implications for teacher education will conclude the presentation.

Cameron Montgomery, Ph.D., is a professor in the department of Education at the University of Ottawa.

Amy Franklin Whittaker

Towards  a “Poor” Presentation:  What can Jerzy Grotowski Teach Engineering Students in the Digital Age? (2009)

Edward R. Tufte, critic of Microsoft’s Power Point, is concerned that slideware reduces the analytical quality of presentations (Tufte, 2003).  Yet, in the field of engineering communication, the visual representation of abstract information is necessary for the communication of complex concepts to the audience.  The problem arises when presenters over rely on the visuals by using slides to present the “script” of the presentation. This generally involves presenters reading from slides that are text heavy. On the other side, novice presenters may get caught up in creating visually stunning presentations at the expense of planning what to say and how to say it. Presenters need to be made aware of the specific relationship that is created when they become “performers” in front of an audience.  It is imperative that presenters understand that Power Point is a tool that is meant to be integrated and in support of the presentation.  According to Philip Auslander, performance is competing with mediatized forms (Auslander, 1999), and in a sense, Power Point, as a pre-recorded electronic medium can easily upstage the presenter. This paper aims to examine a methodology of performance training that a theatre instructor can teach engineering students to help them in the “performance” of classroom presentations in the digital age.   The kernel of Jerzy Grotowski’s theory on theatre practice is that the essence of the theatre lies in the relationship between the actor and the spectator.  This theatre is called the “Poor Theatre” since it opposes the synthetic, rich theatre that tries to create the “total experience” – a redefined notion in an age of film, television, and now internet.  Grotowski identified three key concepts and tried to systemize them: powerful acting (performing) occurs at the meeting place of the personal and archetypal, the most effective kind of performance takes place if there is a minimum of accoutrements, and finally, the theatre (or performance) is intercultural and needs to relate “truths” to many cultures (Schechner, 1997). Grotowski’s desire to demystify the creative process and develop a methodology of performance training will be examined in relation to technical presentations and their (arguably) necessary integration of digital media.

Amy Franklin Whittaker is part of the Engineering Communication Program at the University of Toronto.

Ichiro Fujinaga

If it can do music, it can do anything: Music and digital libraries (2009)

Ichiro Fujinaga is an Associate Professor in Music Technology Area at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.  He has a Bachelor's degree in Music/Percussion and Mathematics from the University of Alberta, and a Master's degree in Music Theory, and a Ph.D. in Music Technology from McGill University.  In 2003-4, he was the Acting Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) at McGill.  IN 2002-3, he was the Chair of the Music Technology Area at the School of Music.  Before that he was a faculty member of the Computer Music Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the John Hopkins University.  Research interests include music theory, machine learning, music perception, digital signal processing, genetic algorithms, and music information acquisition, preservation, and retrieval.  He is also a member of Montreal's traditional Japanese drumming group "Arashi Daiko" and tours with them across North America and Europe.

Eric Hervet and Mustapha Kardouchi

Art Object Recognition by Image Processing based on Color and Hidden Markov models (2009)

Nowadays, most of the daily information we use is digital, whether in the arts or at our work. However, images are often stored in huge, unclassified databases where it is extremely difficult for people to search for images with specific or desirable features. For example, an artist or an art teacher interested in painting may want to retrieve images with a specific color hue or a particular texture. Therefore, it is necessary to provide users with a searching tool that helps them retrieve images according to specific characteristics.

This work proposes a searching tool based on image colors. The approach involves two steps:

−Color features extracted using color histograms: It computes the statistical distribution of the colors in an image. In order to take into account both color distribution and spatial information, weighted histograms are used. Weights (usually local laplacian or entropy) are needed to compute the probability of a color in its neighbourhood. Weighted histograms are an efficient way to retrieve similar images according to their color information.

−A training model based on HMM (Hidden Markov Models): Markov models constitute the most successful approach developed for modeling the statistical variations in temporal pattern recognition applications. They have been proved very efficient in speech recognition, and are nowadays implemented in recent operating systems (Vista, MacOS, Linux). A Markov process is a system which can be described at any time as a set of N distinct states. In the case of color images, Markov states correspond to color packets. Indeed, a color image usually contains only hundreds or a few thousands different colors among a theoretical choice of 16,777,216 (typical RGB color model). This means many colors are missing, and this information is used to compute packets of continuous colors. HMM-based systems must first be trained and validated with data samples in order to acquire their probabilities of transitions between states. Once trained and validated, the system can be used to classify learned or new patterns.

This method has been tested on the image database COIL (Columbia Object Image Library) which contains 7,200 images of 100 different objects, each object being viewed under 72 different angles. The optimal results were obtained by using one third of the images of each object for the training phase, and the rest for validation. More specifically, every image is previously indexed by its color histogram information from which the set of color packets is used as Markov states. The rate recognition success on COIL reaches 90%, meaning that 90% of the images are correctly assigned to their corresponding object. In order to improve the recognition rate, we plan to extract other visual image features like shapes or textures as well as to be able to process databases with higher number of images.

Eric Hervet, Ph.D. and Mustapha Kardouchi, Ph.D. are part of the Département d’informatique at the Université de Moncton.

Bruce Homer

The icon effect: Using iconic visual representation to support learners with low prior knowledge (2011)

For the past several years, we have been investigating effective ways to present visual information in computer-based multimedia learning environments, particularly for low prior knowledge learners. Based on the semiotic theory of Peirce (1955) and relevant developmental and educational theory (Deacon, 1997; Homer & Nelson, 2005), we have identified iconic representations as being particularly effective for low prior knowledge learners. In this context, icons are representational signs whose meaning is based on some physical semblance to the object they represent (e.g., using a flame to represent heat). In our work with scientific visualizations, we have found that the addition of iconic representations to simulations supports learners with low prior knowledge in the relevant content area. This “icon effect” is fairly robust, and has been found in a diverse array of learners including Korean middle school students (Lee, Plass & Homer, 2006), American high school students in both rural (Plass et al., 2009; Homer & Plass, 2010) and urban (Homer et al., 2011) settings. Recent research, however, suggests that the icon effect may be mediated by other factors, such as cognitive development (Homer & Plass, 2010). In the current paper, we review the theoretical basis and empirical support for the icon effect. We conclude with an outline for future research and discussion of the practical implication of the icon effect for designing educational materials, including possibilities of faded and adaptive scaffolding to support the broadest range of learners.

Bruce D. Homer is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology in the Learning, Development and Instruction subprogram at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is director of the Child Interactive Learning and Development (CHILD) Lab. He is also training director for the Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Research Training (IPoRT) program, and Director of Research at the Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education (CREATE). Dr. Homer’s research examines the ways in which children acquire and use cultural tools to store and transmit knowledge (e.g., language, literacy, and information technologies), and how these tools transform developmental and learning processes. Of particular interest is how development and learning affect the ways in which mental representations are formed. Dr. Homer’s current research includes work on multimedia learning environments, videogames for learning, and language, cognition and symbolic understanding in children. He has served as consultant for a number of educational projects, including his current work with project UMIGO, which is funded by a US Department of Education Ready to Learn Grant to developing a transmedia curriculum to support young children’s acquisition of math skills. Dr. Homer’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Educational Sciences, the National Institutes of Health and Microsoft Research. He completed a B.Sc. in Psychology at Dalhousie University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Human Development and Applied Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies of Education at the University of Toronto.

Mark Leggott et. al

Digital Libraries (2009)

Mark Leggott is the head librarian at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Mike MacAdam (2009)

New web-based tool for developing skills and understanding skills when learning another language (2009)

There is a wealth of technology choices for learning and teaching the skills of reading and writing. Books, paper, pens, printing presses, word processors, and websites allow teachers to assign learning activities, evaluate the students’ work and assign new activities. Publishers also provide useful learning material. This isn’t the case for skills of speaking and understanding language where the dominant “technology” is a blackboard and the teacher’s voice. Most students can’t practice skills outside the classroom. This may be one of the main reasons why students have difficulty developing good speaking and understanding skills when learning another language. The free Chuala  (pronounced koala) website is the equivalent of a “Wikipedia for pronunciation” that allows users to login and record pronunciation examples in any of the 7,589 languages in the ISO 639 standard for language names. Name and geography information can also be added to specify accents, e.g. Acadian PEI French or American Midwest English. Translations can be added in any language and the resulting pronunciation examples can be grouped into lessons and courses.

Teaching and learning pronunciation skills is fundamentally changed when teachers and students have access to a free tool that automates the repetitive work required to develop good pronunciation and understanding skills. This presentation will identify some of the problems associated with developing good pronunciation and understanding skills. Some teaching and learning strategies based primarily on the deliberate practice methodology proposed by Anders Ericsson will be identified. Directions for future research in this area will be presented and discussed.

Mike MacAdam has a BSc (Physics) from UPEI and two degrees from Université Laval; a Master's in Instructional Practice and a teaching diploma. He also has a diploma from the National Coaching Institute in Victoria. Mike is President and Co-founder of Extemporel Inc. His Master's thesis included the development of a computerized system for evaluating the events that occur during basketball games. 

His research has been greatly influenced by Jean Brunelle, one of his faculty advisors at Université Laval, and Daryl Siedentop of Ohio State University. He has been working in the area of language acquisition, with a focus on developing pronunciation and understanding skills, since 1999. The goal is to develop tools to help authors and publishers develop interactive pronunciation courses that can be made available to mass markets. As part of this project, Extemporel has developed tools for researchers to facilitate fundamental research in language acquisition.

Sandy McAuley (2009)

Decolonizing Cyberspace: Online Knowledge-building support for a MEd Program for Inuit Educators in Nunavut (2009)

Offered by UPEI in partnership with the Nunavut Department of Education, Nunavut Arctic College, and St. Francis Xavier University, the Nunavut Master of Education (MEd) Program will see 21 graduates walk across the stage in Iqaluit, Nunavut on July 1, 2009. The first graduate degree to be offered entirely in Nunavut, the Nunavut MEd confronted a range of geographical, socio-cultural, and linguistic challenges over its three-year life. An integral part of the program, and perhaps one of its most surprising successes was the use of an asynchronous knowledge building environment to enable distance course delivery, supplement face-to-face course delivery, and support an ongoing community of learners between courses. This session will explore the design decisions behind the online portion of the Nunavut MEd, illustrate how it worked in practice, and discuss some of the learnings that emerged.

Sandy McAuley worked for seventeen years with online learning environments as supports for very small isolated secondary schools in Canada’s arctic. His work with educators and students to create and investigate online bilingual knowledge-building communities for Inuit students became the basis for his doctoral research at OISE/UToronto. A portion of this work was supported by the Canadian TeleLearning National Centres of Excellence and as a member of this team Sandy contributed to the development of Knowledge Forum, a powerful collaborative hypermedia environment. Sandy joined the UPEI Faculty of Education in 2003.

Sandy’s background in teaching English literature and creative drama has resulted in an interest in how digital media can use sound, graphics, and user-controllable virtual spaces to support the construction of meaning and the creation of knowledge and identity. His work in the far north has contributed to an awareness of the kinds of issues that cultural differences may bring to the use of these media to support learning.

Chadia Moghrabi and Adnen Barhoumi (2009)

An Adaptive Environment for Learning (2009)

This paper will present the design of an adaptive software tool which is based on learning theories, such as learning styles and multiple intelligences.  A literature review of existing e-learning systems that use learning styles as adaptability criteria will be presented.  The paper concludes with a review of artificial intelligence techniques and adaptability approaches useful in e-learning. InStyle is the new adaptability component being added to our LogiAuteur software. InStyle would react differently to different students by detecting their learning styles, based on their answers and their preferences, and then suggesting exercises or sections that correspond more appropriately to their needs (in progress).  Initially it presents the material/content in a variety of ways (each corresponding to a specific learning style), then asks the students to comment whether they liked it and why. Such intended flexibility would be available to the teacher during the preparation of the course material and to the students through an on-line learning environment. This approach promises to improve the student’s engagement and learning.

Dr. Chadia Moghrabi is professor and head of the Computer Science Department at the Université de Moncton.  She is also the research leader for the Moncton site of the Institute on Culture, Multimedia, Technology and Cognition (CMTC).  She was the technical director of Arts-Netlantic CMTC. Both projects were in collaboration and under the lead of Professor Cohen from UPEI.  She obtained her Master and Doctorate degrees from the University of Paris.  She worked in Paris both in the industry and as a lecturer at Université de Pierre et Marie Curie.  Her research interests cover Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Teaching Systems, and natural language processing.

Adnen Barhoumi was pursuing a Masters degree in Computer Science at the Université de Moncton, under the supervision of professor Chadia Moghrabi.

Chadia Moghrabi & Eric Snow (2011)

Assessing open-ended questions through a modified ontology approach (2011)

This talk will present the design of a software tool aiming at semiautomatic assessment of open questions in e-learning environments. A literature review of existing systems that rely on Semantic Web technologies for the representation of domain-specific knowledge, such as the Web Ontology Language (OWL), will be presented. The talk concludes with an overview of the semantic similarity measurement techniques found in the literature.

Assessment by closed questions in e-learning courses is easily achieved by both humans and computers, but only triggers rote learning by students. This corresponds to the lowest level of Bloom’s taxonomy, namely knowledge. The highest level of this taxonomy, evaluation, requires more complex reasoning and can only be assessed by the use of open questions. The grading of these open questions is a tedious task for human teachers, therefore our approach aims at reducing the teachers’ workload by providing semiautomatic and objective evaluation of students’ answers.

Our software tool seeks to evaluate students’ answers to open questions in e-learning course exams by comparing them to a correct answer given by the course’s teacher. Using Natural Language Processing techniques, both the students’ and the teacher’s answers are semi-automatically annotated according to a reference domain-specific ontology. Using Semantic Web technologies, the ontology is represented in OWL, and could be acquired from different sources on the Web. Once semantically annotated, the students’ and teacher’s answers are compared using accepted semantic similarity measuring techniques and graded automatically according to parameters predefined by the teacher. Since our system is targeted at undergraduate computer science courses, the novelty of our approach resides in the encoding of procedural information in the ontology to accurately represent algorithmic knowledge.

This tool would be helpful in an e-learning setting where a more thorough evaluation of the students’ understanding of the material is needed; or to reduce the time spent by the teachers on grading papers.

Dr. Chadia Moghrabi is professor and head of the Computer Science Department at the Université de Moncton.  She is also the research leader for the Moncton site of the Institute on Culture, Multimedia, Technology and Cognition (CMTC).  She was the technical director of Arts-Netlantic CMTC. Both projects were in collaboration and under the lead of Professor Cohen from UPEI.  She obtained her Master and Doctorate degrees from the University of Paris.  She worked in Paris both in the industry and as a lecturer at Université de Pierre et Marie Curie.  Her research interests cover Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Teaching Systems, and natural language processing.

Eric Snow is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Computer Science at the Université de Moncton, under the supervision of professor Chadia Moghrabi, working on the automatic assessment of open-ended questions in e-learning. For 10 years, he was a Web programmer at the Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson (CEAAC) of the Université de Moncton. Since 2007, he was in charge of creating a database of archival resources and digital files for the CEAAC.

Chadia Moghrabi, Remy Mazerolle and Adnen Barhoumib (2009)

Experimenting with an E-learning Tool (2009)

This paper will present some preliminary experimentation with the usability of an e-learning tool. LogiAteur is a tool that intends to improve the effectiveness of e-learning software and environments.  This aim is achieved by designing it with a number of criteria:

−LogiAteur has a collaborative environment where teachers and students can collaborate. The teacher can structure the course content by chapter or by problem or by case study, thus allowing for problem based learning, an approach quite appreciated in the educational community.

−He/she can edit the content itself by using an in house editor, or can choose to import an existing document written in whatever standard format, such as Word, Excel, PDF, etc.

−The chat room allows for discussion groups thus creating a collaborative learning environmentwhere students could comment on a problem or a home work.

The software was tested in a 9th grade class where the data was collected. A new adaptability module, InStyle, based on learning styles is being designed and added to it.

Chadia Moghrabi, Ph.D. and Rémy Mazerolle and Adnen Barhoumi are all part of the Département d’informatique at the Université de Moncton

Imelda Latapie Venegas

Measuring cognitive and emotional states through a commercial brain- computer interface to support multimedia design (2011)

While designing multimedia learning material, we select visual elements, audio and text, based on multimedia learning principles, instructional design guidelines and other considerations such as cognitive load or working memory limitations for processing information. Besides the complexity of the content, there are other factors that can create cognitive load and some of them are linked to the learner’s individual characteristics like previous knowledge or learning style.

Multimedia systems do not acknowledge if the student is attentive or experiences frustration, if content is complex or if an image or animation is too abstract or too simple. Learner’s response to stimuli is hard to detect, unless we use special devices. Cameras, haptic sensors, microphones, motion detectors and biometric sensors are now added to the traditional keyboard and mouse. However, they also bring new challenges to the selection of effective visual or audio elements, as in the case of augmented reality, speech recognition or non-speech sound recognition.

Commercial brain-computer interfaces were created for the video game industry. However they can be used as designing tools by developers and researchers. They can be programmed to control how multimedia content is displayed based on user’s response to stimuli, or be used to test how effective a multimedia content design is while it is displayed in different devices, like laptops or smartphones where screen size and interaction features can vary.

A maze controlled by two servos and an Arduino®board was designed to test attention, frustration, cognitive load and performance. Movement input commands are sent through serial communication from a brain-computer interface to a laptop's serial port. The research project works with a commercial brain-computer interface capable to recognize facial expressions, cognitive and emotional states. Its goal is to distinguish attention and frustration levels and their relation with cognitive overload. In addition, we aim to analyze brain’s activity while learner is solving simple and complex cognitive tasks in search of a distinctive brain activity we can relate to cognitive load.

Imelda Latapie is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator from Mexico City.  She won a bronze award in the Eighth Annual3 Dimensional Art Directors & Illustrators Show (New,York), a mention in the 5th “Catálogo para ilustradores Infantiles y Juveniles” (Mexico), and her illustrations have been published in magazines, posters and children’s textbooks.  She graduated with honorsas a Graphic Designer from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Mexico City;and received the “Medalla al Mérito Universitario” from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, campus Azcapotzalco in Mexico City, for her studies in Hipermedia and also for her Master’s degree studies, with the dissertation:“Método para el diseño de aplicaciones educativas: Una propuesta centrada en el aprendizaje e instrucción multimedia” (A method for designing educative applications: A proposal centered in multimedia learning and multimedia instructional design).  At the moment she is working in her PhD dissertation about brain computer interfaces applied to cognitive load detection. She received a grant from the Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología del Distrito Federal, (Mexico) to support her doctoral investigation from August 2010 to January 2011.  She is studying to get her Bachelor of Computer Science at the University of the People; and she is interested in integrating new technologies to multimedia learning and multimedia instructional design.

Norman Yakel and Carol Casswell (2011)

“The times they are a-changin’*”: The massification of process and product in contemporary culture (2011)

The following proposed conference session offers participants a demonstration of two separate efforts to provide universal access to visual art experiences 1.)  A richly layered, curriculum-based website for online visual arts learning and 2.)  An intuitive, visual art-making application for the Apple iPad.    

How do technologies influence the massification of cultural artefacts or products and the processes to create them, within our contemporary society, through enhancement of public access?  How does this ever-changing technological milieu affect curriculum and classroom teaching in both secondary and post-secondary settings?

The visual presentation provides two clear examples of how, through enhancement of public access, technologies influence the massification of cultural artefacts or products and the processes used to create them within our contemporary society.  The intent is to share several ways in which technologies encourage, support and enhance public engagement with visual art and art experiences.

First, www.ARTSask.ca, an award-winning website, launched in August 2010, was initiated to offer an opportunity for comprehensive community access to major Canadian visual arts resources from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries, two primary public galleries of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.  The ARTSask project presents theme-based, content-related and interactive online learning about visual art and artists in both English and French.  The online materials are designed to feature and promote local and national collective cultural heritage through an interactive online sharing of the imagery, ideas and lives of contemporary Saskatchewan and Canadian artists.

Secondly, ARTmaker, an application for the Apple iPad that provides access for people of all ages to a means for intuitively creating, manipulating and using visual images.  By its design, ARTmaker is an image-making invitation for not only professional artists and high school art majors, but offers welcoming opportunities and introduces digital means to be creative with image production for those who have always wanted to but who assumed a lack of skills or experience with art materials.  The massification of visual image creation becomes a reality!

* Bob Dylan (1964)

http://www.artmakerapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ARTmaker-Ver31.mov

 www.ARTSask.ca

Carol Casswell has extensive experience in curriculum and professional development planning for Regina Public Schools, currently teaches high school Arts Education Grades 9-12, is a doctoral student at the University of Regina, and is Co-Director of ARTSask, a project involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Norman Yakel is a senior professor in the Arts Education Program of the Faculty of Education, University of Regina where in addition to teaching, he is involved in numerous innovative community field work activities, supervises students in Graduate Studies in Art Education and is Co-Director of field work activities, involving a partnership among the University of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education that has been designed to create an online, contemporary visual art curriculum resource, using images from the collections of the Mendel and MacKenzie Art Galleries of Saskatchewan.

Representing the University of Regina, the presenters are the co-directors for the development of the ARTSask website, which received generous funding support from Canadian Heritage, in a competitive context, for two separate stages of the website’s development.  

Presenters are also developers of ARTmakerapp, an application for iPad and iPhone, designed for digital art-making that is intuitive, inspiring and by its design simplicity, accessible to everyone.

Ellen Rose (2009)

Multimedia Learning in the Age of Interruption (2009)

This presentation will focus on the emergent cognitive style of "continuous partial attention."  Coined by former Microsoft executive Linda Stone, the term describes the fragmentation of attention characteristic of many computer users today, whose minds, as they use the computer to perform tasks, are perpetually alert to the possibility of incoming e-mail, instant messages, and other communications and contacts.  According to Stone, this constant pinging "makes us feel alive.  It's what makes us feel important. We just want to connect, connect, connect."  As an expression of the contemporary zeitgeist, continuous partial attention is capturing the same kind of attention in the popular press that "multi-tasking" did in the 1990s, but academic interest in the phenomenon is slow in coming.  This is particularly the case in the field of education, where little if any research has been done on the potential implications of continuous partial attention for computer-based learning.  This presentation describes the phenomenon and offers a new direction for the design and research of multimedia learning in the age of interruption.

Ellen Rose is a Professor of Education at the University of New Brunswick, where she held the McCain-Aliant Chair of Multimedia and Instructional Design from 2001 to 2010.  She is the author of two books and numerous articles on educational computing, the social effects of technology, and instructional design.  Her current research includes a SSHRC-funded study which uses hermeneutic phenomenology and media ecology as lenses through which to explore professors’ and students’ experiences of teaching and learning within Blackboard and other Learning Management Systems.

Ellen Rose (2011)

A media ecology perspective on multimedia and cognition:  Is multimedia making us stupid? (2011)

Grounded in the interdisciplinary perspective of media ecology, this paper offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between multimedia and cognition.  Working from the basic premise that media and technologies play an important role in shaping human habits of mind and social organizations, media ecologists contend that our modes of communication form an “information environment.”  Multimedia is now in the process of becoming not a spectacle to be marveled at but an unquestioned and ubiquitous element of the contemporary information environment.  From a media ecology perspective, this means that the question we must ask about multimedia is not only how we can use it to support learning, but also how continual engagement with a ubiquitous multimedia subtly alters cognitive patterns and propensities—in other words, how we think.  Research suggests that, as multimedia plays an increasingly central role in our daily communications and thought, it contributes to an emergent cognitive style of fragmented attention and superficial reading, while eroding our capability for sustained reflection.  Education is offered as the primary means by which students can be helped to achieve an epistemological distance from their information environment, which will allow them to think critically about the role of multimedia in their lives.

Ellen Rose is a Professor of Education at the University of New Brunswick, where she held the McCain-Aliant Chair of Multimedia and Instructional Design from 2001 to 2010.  She is the author of two books and numerous articles on educational computing, the social effects of technology, and instructional design.  Her current research includes a SSHRC-funded study which uses hermeneutic phenomenology and media ecology as lenses through which to explore professors’ and students’ experiences of teaching and learning within Blackboard and other Learning Management Systems.

Annabel J. Cohen (2009)

Narrative in Multimedia Learning: The Learner as Story Maker (2009)

Several mental models of multimedia learning emphasize limited processing capacity in encoding and retention of information (Mayer, 2002; Sweller, 2005).  They share the notion that appropriate use of multimedia can help to overcome the limited capacity. In contrast to the two preceding models, the Congruence-Association Model (CAM) arose from the context of film and media perception (Cohen, 2005). In an extension of this model to the education context,  CAM views the learner as aiming to make sense out of six simultaneous channels of information: text, visual scenes, speech, sound effects, music, and human-body motion.  This information is analysed in terms of its temporal structures and in terms of the associations (meanings) brought to mind.  Some information that leaks through to long term memory elicits hypotheses, expectation in a narrative context about what is actually happening at the level of the presentation.   It is argued that the learner creates a working narrative based on the best match between the lower order (structures and associations) and higher level (hypotheses) information. The model emphasizes that the learner as a creator of narrative. The model claims that a multimedia presentation which leads the learner to create a coherent narrative will promote superior learning (retention and transfer) than presentations (with or without media) that provide poor support for coherent narrative.   It follows that lecturers could consider the lecture in the context of narrative and the selection of multimedia enhancement in terms of its facilitation of generation of coherent narrative.

Annabel  J. Cohen (B.A. McGill; Ph. D. Queen’s University; ARCT Royal Conservatory – Toronto) has dedicated her career to the study of music cognition, with extensions to multimedia and learning in a cultural context. She is Principal Investigator and Project Director of AIRS (Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing, www.airsplace.ca), an interdisciplinary, international initiative supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through its major collaborative research initiative program. As a Professor of Psychology at the University of Prince Edward Island, she was the designated Project Leader for a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant that focused on interdisciplinary educational research in Culture, Multimedia, Technology and Cognition in partnership with UNB and U de Moncton. This project is the foundation for the current conference. She has published over 85 articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings papers, contributing to the psychological understanding of tonality, music transposition, the acquisition of music grammar, effects of film music, and creativity. A recent focus with her students has been the development of the AIRS short battery of singing skills. She is the editor of Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, and serves on the consulting boards of several other journals. Her research has received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). She is an Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University, Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, and Council member of the American Psychological Association.

Pamela Courtenay-Hall (2011)

Video-Gaming, Homo Digitalis, and the Internet as God in the 21^st Century (2011)

Video-gaming, cell phones, instant messaging, the Internet…educational discourse about new technology abounds with the worry that we are transforming from homo sapiens to homo digitalis, digital beings whose primary mode of interaction is not facial or manual or bodily, but digital and visual and cut off from bodily social interaction and from the natural world.  Research has even claimed changes in brain states to substantiate these concerns.  I explore the extent to which any such risk of being ‘cut off’ might be due not only to our isolation in front of computer screens, but also to the linguistic, perceptual and cognitive micro-features of video-game use…and by our being in effect repositioned in the world as creaturely fellow-users and dependents upon the vast unseen all-knowing all-powerful god of the 21^st century, the Internet.  But… advocating education over panic, I attend also to the political significations involved in the discourse of presenting video-gaming and Internet use as “addictions”.

Pamela Courtenay-Hall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Prince Edward Island.  Her research interests are in the areas of: environmental thought, feminist theory, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of education, parenting, sexuality, and critical thinking.  She has a B.A. (Mathematics) and B. Ed. (Senior/Intermediate Mathematics and Physics) from the University of Windsor, and M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Windsor with a concentration in ethics and environmental ethics, and an M. A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in philosophy of science.  Her Ph. D. in Philosophy is from the University of Toronto and her thesis title was “Ecoholism and its critics:  A critical exploration of holism in environmental ethics and the sciences of ecology”.

Pamela Courtenay-Hall (2009)

Video Games, Colonization, and Critical Computer Literacy (2009)

Most critical examinations of video game use focus on the extent to which many video games contribute to a culture of violence and sexism, lead to addiction, and disincline habitual users from healthy social interaction and physical exercise. These problems are real and important.  But there is a much more pervasive yet subtle problem with video game use that has not yet made it onto the research and educational policy radar screen. This is the impact of video game use on ecological perception. Ecological perception refers to the following four dimensions of perceptual behaviour:

1)ATTENTION SPAN

2)INSTANT GRATIFICATION EXPECTATION  (“IGE”)

3)HABITS OF PERCEPTION   (These include the time and space scales andpattern ranges which an individual brings to her experience.)

4)LANGUAGE HABITS  (The complexity and tenor of the language net that an individual develops, the narrative and moral significances cast by this net, and thesocial expectations formed as a result.)

These dimensions govern how children perceive the world they live in – how they perceive the people, the nonhuman beings, the landscapes and places, and the social practices in their world.  They also govern how children locate and orient themselves within their world, setting directions and limits on identity formation and habits of interaction with others.

In this presentation, I will explore the ways in which ecological development is impacted by “the micro-features” of video game use – the complex dynamics of engagement that video games lead children into.  I will present evidence to suggest that the frequent use of many popular kinds of video games—both those purporting to be educational and those purporting only to be fun and exciting—can train into children certain limits of attention, excesses of “Instant Gratification Expectation,” perceptual habits centered on the fast- moving and readily digested, and (particularly for video games targeted at boys and young men)  language habits oriented around the values of competitive acquisition, colonization, or mutual extermination.   In other words, the dynamics of computer-game engagement can lead to a certain “colonization” of our children. I will also explore the potential of bringing these problems to children’s critical view, suggesting that this critical thinking” approach to video game use can not only diminish the harmful effects of colonization, but actually advance children’s “ecological development.”

In sum, I am arguing the need for, and suggesting possible strategies for, helping children and youth make progress toward a form of “computer literacy” that goes beyond keyboard dexterity, interfacing skills, and internet navigational expertise, to:

 ·awareness of the impact of computer gaming on their attention, expectation, andperceptual and language habits,

·understanding of computer programs as constructed texts,

·critical awareness of the cultural messages that computer games deliver,

·social and educational reflexivity in their use of computer games and programs. I call this “critical computer literacy.”

Pamela Courtenay-Hall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Prince Edward Island.  Her research interests are in the areas of: environmental thought, feminist theory, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of education, parenting, sexuality, and critical thinking.  She has a B.A. (Mathematics) and B. Ed. (Senior/Intermediate Mathematics and Physics) from the University of Windsor, and M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Windsor with a concentration in ethics and environmental ethics, and an M. A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in philosophy of science.  Her Ph. D. in Philosophy is from the University of Toronto and her thesis title was “Ecoholism and its critics:  A critical exploration of holism in environmental ethics and the sciences of ecology”.

Andrea Emberly

"Mandela Went to China...and India too": The Impact of Media on Children's Musical Cultures in South Africa (2009)

The cultural landscape of South Africa is reflected in the songs and games of young children whose music often embodies the social and political history of the world around them. My research with young children in the Limpopo province of South Africa is indicative of how children of similar ages identify with the idea of South Africa as a nation and how children themselves use music as an educational tool to engage with their social and cultural identities.

In a country such as South Africa, where the celebration of diversity stands central to the success of the country, the representation of race, class, culture, and ethnicity is distinctly approached in children's musical worlds. Educational media ("edutainment") produced for local broadcast, in the form of television and radio programming, directly impacts children's musical voices and the musical elements of this programming endeavor to overcome barriers of language, race, culture and class. In addition, ideas, thoughts, and newsworthy information are filtered into children's musical languages through the distribution of media in urban and rural areas. This paper explores ideas that have surfaced from my research on children's music and the media in South Africa and addresses the issues children express through their creative musical output. Music is indicative of the continuing social transformation in South Africa, and the manner in which children create, disseminate, and consume music represents the significant impact of media on the musical lives of children in both rural and urban South Africa.

Andrea Emberly recently completed her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington in 2009 where she focused on the musical cultures of childhood in Venda and Pedi cultures in Limpopo, South Africa. Her dissertation explores the intersections of local, national and global influences on children’s musical cultures including community music making, handclapping games, school music curriculums and television programs. She conducted field research in South Africa from 2005-2007 and recently returned to South Africa in 2009 to collect additional research as a part of the Communicative Human Musicality Project at the University of Western Australia.

Andrea is from Alberta, Canada and came to the University of Western Australia in September 2009. In her former life she studied classical trumpet performance at the University of Alberta and Illinois State University. She was inspired to shift her focus to ethnomusicology and now enjoys learning new handclapping games from the around the world and watching Bert and Ernie sing songs in different languages.

Anne Furlong

What do you mean, it’s gone? : multimodal narratives and rereading (2011)

Hypertextual narratives have given way to reader-driven narratives driven by advances in online technology and communities, and the merging of various technologies to create new spaces for the development of narrative. However, what is sometimes overlooked in the excitement over the possibilities raised by emerging media is that there are significant losses involved. I argue that the impossibility of rereading multimodal texts (created in a collaboration of writer, reader, and medium) presents a problem for interpretation: without rereading, some kinds of interpretive processes are permanently disabled. Since these processes—the refinement of hypotheses, the discovery of new interpretations, and the integration of conclusions—are central to critical reading, we should understand the implications for literacy in the multiplication of transitory texts. I urge a reconsideration of multimodal narratives, and suggest embedding interpretation within a reader-generated response to help harness the power of image, sound, text, and technology.

Anne Furlong,  Ph.D. (Linguistics), UCL, is a professor in the Department of English, at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Udo Krautwurst

The ‘Unknown Soldiers’ of the Classroom: Paul Virilio and Multimedia (2009)

This chapter puts forward the thesis that instrumental philosophies of technology are insufficient to address issues of multimedia-based instruction in classroom contexts. This is done through a critical examination of the analyses of Paul Virilio. He contends that the increasing militarization of societies globally is closely related to the development and spread of military technologies, including information technologies, among civilians and civilian institutions. Virilio implicitly poses the question of whether technology is a passive and ‘neutral’ instrument, or an active and ‘partial’ agent (and if so, how)? Ultimately, I argue that the value of his approach to technology is in the questions he raises, not necessarily in the answers he provides.

Dr. Udo Krautwurst is a social theorist with particular interest in the anthropology of representations and the historical confrontations between different means of knowledge production and technology. Recently, he has been researching and theorizing the anthropology of science and technology on PEI; he is studying the cultural practices surrounding information technologies and biotechnoscience and how these practices link to issues of power and issues of knowledge production that affect social relations.

David LeBlanc (2009)

Cross-Cultural Variation in Multimedia Presentation Preferences (2009)

Work in the study of cross-cultural variation has traditionally focused on identifying consistent , fundamental dimensions (i.e. Variables) of variation between major cultural groups. Work by researchers such as Hofstede (1997), Hall (1990) and Trompenaars (1993, 1998) has focused on identifying characteristics of cultural variation across national groups and then hypothesized how this variation could affect a particular group's preferences and interactions both within the group and across cultural boundaries. The most extensive study of this type has been done by Hofstede, the results of which led him to posit five distinct variables of cultural variation: power distance, collectivism, versus individualism, femininity versus masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term versus short-term  orientation. Other researchers have introduced different and/or additional variables (e.g. Hall posits a difference in him people organize their interactions with respect to time, monochronic versus polychronic), but Hofstede's work is best supported by empirical evidence and most popular with researchers applying this work to Information Technology (IT) studies (primarily due to its empirical base, its straight-forward description of variables and its initial focus on IT workers as its subjects).

Hofstede's theory relates to how people view the world and prefer to have their society organized. For example, the variable power distance measures the extent to which members of a cultural group expect and accept unequal power distribution with that culture. Cultures with a high power distance tend to have centralized political power and exhibit tall hierarchies in organizations with large differences in salary and status while cultures with low power distance  tend to view subordinates and supervisors as closer together and more interchangeable, with flatter hierarchies in organizations and less difference in salaries and status. The theory is often then related to how information should be presented to people within a cultural group, with (e.g.) members of a high power distance culture preferring to have new information supported by references to authority while members of a low power distance culture prefer to have new information supported by detailed explanations and supporting material. Hofstede's theories of cultural variation have been applied to the design of multimedia material by Aaron Marcus & Emilie W. Gould (2000). In this work, the authors discuss each of Hofstede's five variables and hypothesize how each should affect information interface design for a specific culture. In other words, how to design an effective and appealing multimedia interface for a specific cultural group based upon that group's cultural characteristics. To return to the example of power distance, the authors posit that this cultural characteristic should influence interface design in the following ways:

●Access to information: highly (high PD) vs. Less-highly (low PD) structured.

●Hierarchies in mental models: tall vs. Shallow.

●Emphasis on the social and moral order (e.g. Nationalism or religion) and its

symbols: significant/frequent vs. minor/infrequent use.

●Focus on expertise, authority, experts, certifications, official stamps, or logos:

strong vs. weak.

●Prominence given to leaders vs. citizens, customers, or employees.

Importance of security and restrictions or barriers to access: explicit, enforced,

frequent restrictions on users vs.. transparent, integrated, implicit freedom to

roam.

●Social roles used to organize information (e.g., a managers' section obvious to all

but sealed off from non-managers): frequent vs. Infrequent

Such guidelines for interface design are invaluable, if they are accurate. However,

the guidelines are to this day still largely hypotheses, albeit by a highly regarded interface

designer. It would be highly recommended that these hypotheses were backed up by

experimental testing  demonstrating their validity.

It is the purpose of this presentation to demonstrate how these hypotheses are being tested by the presenter, with examples taken from past and on-going experimentation. Discussion will focus on experimental design, testing techniques and advances (by Hofstede) to cultural classification that are nation-independent.

David LeBlanc is a professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at UPEI.  He has a background in artificial intelligence, cognitive science and theoretical linguistics, with degrees in computer science and linguistics.  His current research focuses on cross-cultural variation in interface design—work he is eager to expand to the study of variation in player preferences within video games.  This work involves experimental usability testing.

Ronald J. MacDonald

Integrating Technology in Senior High Science: Does Gender Matter? (2009)

Gender gaps in attitudes toward science and self-efficacy still exist in K-12 and post-secondary education. Student inquiry, supported by new hand-held data loggers, with their graphic interface may improve this situation. A mixed-method study involving grade 10 science and grade 11physics students from 10 teachers’ classrooms in PEI, Canada, sought to find if student inquiry, aided by data loggers, helps reduce attitudinal and self-efficacy gender gaps. Findings suggest that gender differences persist (such as science anxiety, self-efficacy and self-confidence in the ability to learn science). Implications for science teacher practice, technology integration and future research are suggested.

Ronald J. MacDonald teaches science methods, technology integration and research methods courses in the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island. He has been a junior and senior high school science teacher in Nova Scotia and Ontario, Canada, for 15 years. He has also been an information technology integration specialist and professional development facilitator.

His PhD dissertation addressed the intersections between teacher attitudes toward Information Communication Technology, leadership and professional development for ICT integration. His current research focuses on the development of communities of practice for supporting science teachers who want to increase student inquiry through the integration of ICTs, such as data logging technologies. Other current research addresses the following topics: gender differences in attitude toward science brought about when technologies are integrated in the classroom/laboratory; how New Learners (first year university students) learn with new technologies; and how to improve teacher education through building stronger links between university coursework and the school practicum.

Sandy McAuley (2011)

Multimedia, Relationality, and InuitQaujimajatuqangit in an Online Learning Environment (2011)

All technologies, including those involving multimedia, imply embedded cultural assumptions. This is particularly important in contexts such as that of the Nunavut MEd, the first graduate program to be offered in Nunavut, as the students are Inuit and speak Inuktitut as a first language, while lead instructors for their coursework are mostly non-Inuit and speak English as their first language. Creating an online learning environment to support the Nunavut MEd therefore requires establishing coherence between the multimedia technologies used and the language and culture of the students. Drawing on a framework developed for the 2009 HITS conference, this presentation will look at the relationship between Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit—traditional Inuit values—and the online environment supporting the MEd.

Sandy McAuley worked for seventeen years with online learning environments as supports for very small isolated secondary schools in Canada’s arctic. His work with educators and students to create and investigate online bilingual knowledge-building communities for Inuit students became the basis for his doctoral research at OISE/UToronto. A portion of this work was supported by the Canadian TeleLearning National Centres of Excellence and as a member of this team Sandy contributed to the development of Knowledge Forum, a powerful collaborative hypermedia environment. Sandy joined the UPEI Faculty of Education in 2003.

Sandy’s background in teaching English literature and creative drama has resulted in an interest in how digital media can use sound, graphics, and user-controllable virtual spaces to support the construction of meaning and the creation of knowledge and identity. His work in the far north has contributed to an awareness of the kinds of issues that cultural differences may bring to the use of these media to support learning.

Jean Mitchell

Tracking Modernities: Video Technology and The Vanuatu Young People’s Project (2009)

Independent since 1980, Vanuatu, like many postcolonial nations, is unable to meet the rising demand for formal education from its rapidly growing population of young people. In this paper I analyze how video technology and school drop-outs intersect in an urban project in Vanuatu, an archipelago in the southwest Pacific. Many young people living in marginalized urban settlements are disenchanted with the failed promises of development, particularly in the area of education that is characterized by high drop-out rates and low levels of literacy. Access to video production has provided some school-leavers and drop-outs opportunities to challenge the cultural and social constraints that limit their articulation in the public arena where discourse is dominated by elders and Melanesian big men. By tracking the ways in which video production has offered some young people new discursive possibilities, this paper explores how technology allows youth to mount a critique of modernity including ideas of what counts as literacy, education and authority in newly configured public spaces.

Jean Mitchell has a M.A. in International Development and a M.A. and PhD in Social Anthropology, and has lived, worked and conducted research for extended periods of time in India, Indonesia, and in the South Pacific nations of Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In India and Solomon Islands she worked for the United Nations while in Kiribati she researched gender and fisheries as part of a collaborative study with government officials. In Vanuatu she undertook extended fieldwork in an urban settlement culminating in the creation of the Vanuatu Young People’s Project at the Vanuatu Cultural centre. In this ongoing project young people are trained in research, advocacy and video production. Innovative ethnography that privileges collaborative approaches promotes indigenous researchers and foregrounds the perspectives of gender and youth have been central to my academic work. She recently completed a SSHRC-funded project entitled “Working Flash, Youth, Labour and Mobility in Vanuatu.”

Thomy Nilsson

Harnessing Color for Effective Presentation of Images and Text (2009)

Color combined with graphics enables presenting enormous amounts of information in a manner that can readily be understood.  Yet until recently it was generally believed that color had no effect on the legibility of visual graphics.  Because legibility had been defined in terms of processing speed, previous measurements of color legibility had been confounded by the fact that color information was transmitted by slower neural pathways than those for brightness.  Therefore these experiments found that only differences in brightness mattered.  To avoid this problem, I defined legibility in terms of the number of visual pathways needed to convey information.  Visual presentations that required fewer pathways to be seen clearly were defined as being more effective than presentations that required more pathways.  (This is simply a reversal of how visual acuity is defined in the 20/20 system.)  At the UPEI-Health Canada Legibility Testing Facility, we use distance thresholds to indirectly measure the required number of visual pathways.  Early data on legibility of colored graphic symbols on colored backgrounds found color combinations that were significantly more effective than black/white.  This proved that color does affect legibility.  The results of a three-year project involving 48,000 measurements by 12 persons with normal color vision are presented.  Examples of the effectiveness of various color combinations will be demonstrated.  Discussion includes effects of certain graphical characteristics and implications for standardizing color legibility.

Thomy Nilsson, Ph.D., is an emeritus professor of Psychology at the University of Prince Edward Island.