Video activity extraction and reporting with incremental unsupervised learning

The present work presents a new method for activity extraction and reporting from video based on the aggregation of fuzzy relations. Trajectory clustering is first employed mainly to discover the points of entry and exit of mobiles appearing in the scene. In a second step, proximity relations between resulting clusters of detected mobiles and contextual elements from the scene are modeled employing fuzzy relations. These can then be aggregated employing typical soft-computing algebra. A clustering algorithm based on the transitive closure calculation of the fuzzy relations allows building the structure of the scene and characterises the ongoing different activities of the scene. Discovered activity zones can be reported as activity maps with different granularities thanks to the analysis of the transitive closure matrix. Taking advantage of the soft relation properties, activity zones and related activities can be labeled in a more human-like language. We present results obtained on real videos corresponding to apron monitoring in the Toulouse airport in France.

Languaging in virtual learning sites : studies of online encounters in the language-focused classroom

This thesis focuses upon a series of empirical studies which examine communication and learning in online glocal communities within higher education in Sweden. A recurring theme in the theoretical framework deals with issues of languaging in virtual multimodal environments as well as the making of identity and negotiation of meaning in these settings; analyzing the activity, what people do, in contraposition to the study of how people talk about their activity. The studies arise from netnographic work during two online Italian for Beginners courses offered by a Swedish university. Microanalyses of the interactions occurring through multimodal video-conferencing software are amplified by the study of the courses’ organisation of space and time and have allowed for the identification of communicative strategies and interactional patterns in virtual learning sites when participants communicate in a language variety with which they have a limited experience. The findings from the four studies included in the thesis indicate that students who are part of institutional virtual higher educational settings make use of several resources in order to perform their identity positions inside the group as a way to enrich and nurture the process of communication and learning in this online glocal community. The sociocultural dialogical analyses also shed light on the ways in which participants gathering in discursive technological spaces benefit from the opportunity to go to class without commuting to the physical building of the institution providing the course. This identity position is, thus, both experienced by participants in interaction, and also afforded by the ‘spaceless’ nature of the online environment.

LEARNING A COMPLEX MOTOR SKILL FROM VIDEO and POINT-LIGHT DEMONSTRATIONS

The aim of this Study was to compare the learning process of a highly complex ballet skill following demonstrations of point light and video models 16 participants divided into point light and video groups (ns = 8) performed 160 trials of a pirouette equally distributed in blocks of 20 trials alternating periods of demonstration and practice with a retention test a day later Measures of head and trunk oscillation coordination d1 parity from the model and movement time difference showed similarities between video and point light groups ballet experts evaluations indicated superiority of performance in the video over the point light group Results are discussed in terms of the task requirements of dissociation between head and trunk rotations focusing on the hypothesis of sufficiency and higher relevance of information contained in biological motion models applied to learning of complex motor skills

Comparing the Teaching-Learning Process With and Without the Use of Computerized Technological Resources

Computerized technological resources have become essential in education, particularly for teaching topics that require the performance of specific tasks. These resources can effectively help the execution of such tasks and the teaching-learning process itself. After the development of a Web site on the topic of nursing staff scheduling, this study aimed at comparing the development of students involved in the teaching-learning process of the previously mentioned topic, with and without the use of computer technology. Two random groups of undergraduate nursing students from a public university in São Paulo state, Brazil, were organized: a case group (used the Web site) and a control group (did not use the Web site). Data were collected from 2003 to 2005 after approval by the Research Ethics Committee. Results showed no significant difference in motivation or knowledge acquisition. A similar performance for the two groups was also verified. Other aspects observed were difficulty in doing the nursing staff scheduling exercise and the students' acknowledgment of the topic's importance for their training and professional lives; easy access was considered to be a positive aspect for maintaining the Web site.

A video-based biometric authentication for e-learning web applications

In the last years there was an exponential growth in the offering of Web-enabled distance courses and in the number of enrolments in corporate and higher education using this modality. However, the lack of efficient mechanisms that assures user authentication in this sort of environment, in the system login as well as throughout his session, has been pointed out as a serious deficiency. Some studies have been led about possible biometric applications for web authentication. However, password based authentication still prevails. With the popularization of biometric enabled devices and resultant fall of prices for the collection of biometric traits, biometrics is reconsidered as a secure remote authentication form for web applications. In this work, the face recognition accuracy, captured on-line by a webcam in Internet environment, is investigated, simulating the natural interaction of a person in the context of a distance course environment. Partial results show that this technique can be successfully applied to confirm the presence of users throughout the course attendance in an educational distance course. An efficient client/server architecture is also proposed. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games with an Interpersonal Computer

Studies show the positive effects that video games can have on student performance and attitude towards learning. In the past few years, strategies have been generated to optimize the use of technological resources with the aim of facilitating widespread adoption of technology in the classroom. Given its low acquisition and maintenance costs, the interpersonal computer allows individual interaction and simultaneous learning with large groups of students. The purpose of this work was to compare arithmetical knowledge acquired by third-grade students through the use of game-based activities and non-game-based activities using an interpersonal computer, with knowledge acquired through the use of traditional paper-and-pencil activities, and to analyze their impact in various socio-cultural contexts. To do this, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 271 students in three different countries (Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica), in both rural and urban schools. A set of educational games for practising arithmetic was developed and tested in six schools within these three countries. Results show that there were no significant differences (ANCOVA) in the learning acquired from game-based vs. non-game-based activities. However, both showed a significant difference when compared with the traditional method. Additionally, both groups using the interpersonal computer showed higher levels of student interest than the traditional method group, and these technological methods were seen to be especially effective in increasing learning among weaker students.

Availability and Use of Audiovisual and Electronic Resources by Distance Learning Students in Nigerian Universities: a Case Study of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Ibadan Study Centre

This study investigated the availability and use of audiovisual and electronic resources by distance learning students at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). A questionnaire was administered tothe distance learning students selected across the various departments of the NOUN. The findings revealed that even though NOUN made provision for audiovisual and electronic resources for students' use, a majority of the audiovisual and electronic resources are available through personal provision by the students.The study also revealed regular use of audiovisual and electronic resources by the distance learning students. Constraints on use include poor power supply, poor infrastructure, lack of adequate skill, and high cost of access.

Moving from sustainable management to sustainable governance of natural resources: The role of social learning processes in rural India, Bolivia and Mali

The present paper discusses a conceptual, methodological and practical framework within which the limitations of the conventional notion of natural resource management (NRM) can be overcome. NRM is understood as the application of scientific ecological knowledge to resource management. By including a consideration of the normative imperatives that arise from scientific ecological knowledge and submitting them to public scrutiny, ‘sustainable management of natural resources’ can be recontextualised as ‘sustainable governance of natural resources’. This in turn makes it possible to place the politically neutralising discourse of ‘management’ in a space for wider societal debate, in which the different actors involved can deliberate and negotiate the norms, rules and power relations related to natural resource use and sustainable development. The transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources can be conceptualised as a social learning process involving scientists, experts, politicians and local actors, and their corresponding scientific and non-scientific knowledges. The social learning process is the result of what Habermas has described as ‘communicative action’, in contrast to ‘strategic action’. Sustainable governance of natural resources thus requires a new space for communicative action aiming at shared, intersubjectively validated definitions of actual situations and the goals and means required for transforming current norms, rules and power relations in order to achieve sustainable development. Case studies from rural India, Bolivia and Mali explore the potentials and limitations for broadening communicative action through an intensification of social learning processes at the interface of local and external knowledge. Key factors that enable or hinder the transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources through social learning processes and communicative action are discussed.

Place for video games : a theoretical and pedagogical framework for multiliteracies learning in English studies

Students are now involved in a vastly different textual landscape than many English scholars, one that relies on the “reading” and interpretation of multiple channels of simultaneous information. As a response to these new kinds of literate practices, my dissertation adds to the growing body of research on multimodal literacies, narratology in new media, and rhetoric through an examination of the place of video games in English teaching and research. I describe in this dissertation a hybridized theoretical basis for incorporating video games in English classrooms. This framework for textual analysis includes elements from narrative theory in literary study, rhetorical theory, and literacy theory, and when combined to account for the multiple modalities and complexities of gaming, can provide new insights about those theories and practices across all kinds of media, whether in written texts, films, or video games. In creating this framework, I hope to encourage students to view texts from a meta-level perspective, encompassing textual construction, use, and interpretation. In order to foster meta-level learning in an English course, I use specific theoretical frameworks from the fields of literary studies, narratology, film theory, aural theory, reader-response criticism, game studies, and multiliteracies theory to analyze a particular video game: World of Goo. These theoretical frameworks inform pedagogical practices used in the classroom for textual analysis of multiple media. Examining a video game from these perspectives, I use analytical methods from each, including close reading, explication, textual analysis, and individual elements of multiliteracies theory and pedagogy. In undertaking an in-depth analysis of World of Goo, I demonstrate the possibilities for classroom instruction with a complex blend of theories and pedagogies in English courses. This blend of theories and practices is meant to foster literacy learning across media, helping students develop metaknowledge of their own literate practices in multiple modes. Finally, I outline a design for a multiliteracies course that would allow English scholars to use video games along with other texts to interrogate texts as systems of information. In doing so, students can hopefully view and transform systems in their own lives as audiences, citizens, and workers.

Use of instructional video to prepare parents for learning infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Parents of premature infants often receive infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training prior to discharge from the hospital, but one study showed that 27.5% of parents could not demonstrate adequate CPR skills after completing an instructor-led class. We hypothesized that parents who viewed an instructional video on infant CPR before attending the class would perform better on a standardized skills test than parents who attended the class with no preparation. Parents randomized to the intervention (video) group viewed the video within 48 hours of the CPR class. Parents in the control group attended the class with no special preparation. All parents completed the CPR skills checklist test, usually within 7 days after class and before the infant's hospital discharge. The test rated subjects' skills in the areas of assessment, ventilation, and chest compressions; each section was rated as good, fair, or fail. In this pass/fail test, students had to be rated good or fair on all three sections to pass. All 10 subjects in the video group passed the test versus only 9 of 13 in the control group, but this difference was not significant (P = 0.08). However, 8 of 10 (80%) subjects in the video group were rated as good on all three sections, versus only 3 of 13 (18.7%) in the control group, and this was a significant difference (P = 0.012). We conclude that preparation of students using an instructional video prior to infant CPR class is associated with improvement in skills performance as measured by a standardized skills test. Video preparation is relatively inexpensive, eliminates the barrier of reading ability for preparation, and can be done at the convenience of the parent.

Individual Video Training iVT - Development of a National Infrastructure for Video-Supported Learning

Introduction: Video‐Supported Learning is particularly effective when it comes to skills and behaviors. Video registration of patient‐physician interviews, class room instruction or practical skills allow it to learners themselves, their peers, and their tutors to assess the quality of the learner's performance, to give specific feedback, and to make suggestions for improvement. Methods: In Switzerland, four pedagogical universities and two medical faculties joined to initiate the development of a national infrastructure for Video Supported Learning. The goal was to have a system that is simple to use, has most steps automated, provides the videos over the Internet, and has a sophisticated access control. Together with SWITCH, the national IT‐Support‐Organisation for Swiss Universities, the program iVT (Individual Video Training) was developed by integrating two preexisting technologies. The first technology is SWITCHcast, a podcast system. With SWITCHcast, videos are automatically uploaded to a server as soon as the registration is over. There the videos are processed and converted to different formats. The second technology is the national Single Logon System AAI (Authentification and Authorization Infrastructure) that enables iVT to link each video with the corresponding learner. The learner starts the registration with his Single Logon. Thus, the video can unambiguously be assigned. Via his institution's Learning Management System (LMS), the learner can access his video and give access to his video to peers and tutors. Results: iVT is now used at all involved institutions. The system works flawlessly. In Bern, we use iVT for the communications skills training in the forth and sixth year. Since students meet with patient actors alone, iVT is also used to certify attendance. Students are encouraged to watch the videos of the interview and the feedback of the patient actor. The offer to discuss a video with a tutor was not used by the students. Discussion: We plan to expand the use of iVT by making peer assessment compulsory. To support this, annotation capabilities are currently added to iVT. We also want to use iVT in training of practical skills, again for self as well as for peer assessment.  At present, we use iVT for quality control of patient actor's performance.