Investigations into Velocity and Distance Perception Based on Different Types of Moving Sound Sources with Respect to Auditory Virtual Environments

The characteristics of moving sound sources have strong implications on the listener's distance perception and the estimation of velocity. Modifications of the typical sound emissions as they are currently occurring due to the tendency towards electromobility have an impact on the pedestrian's safety in road traffic. Thus, investigations of the relevant cues for velocity and distance perception of moving sound sources are not only of interest for the psychoacoustic community, but also for several applications, like e.g. virtual reality, noise pollution and safety aspects of road traffic. This article describes a series of psychoacoustic experiments in this field. Dichotic and diotic stimuli of a set of real-life recordings taken from a passing passenger car and a motorcycle were presented to test subjects who in turn were asked to determine the velocity of the object and its minimal distance from the listener. The results of these psychoacoustic experiments show that the estimated velocity is strongly linked to the object's distance. Furthermore, it could be shown that binaural cues contribute significantly to the perception of velocity. In a further experiment, it was shown that - independently of the type of the vehicle - the main parameter for distance determination is the maximum sound pressure level at the listener's position. The article suggests a system architecture for the adequate consideration of moving sound sources in virtual auditory environments. Virtual environments can thus be used to investigate the influence of new vehicle powertrain concepts and the related sound emissions of these vehicles on the pedestrians' ability to estimate the distance and velocity of moving objects.

DIGITAL HISTORY: DESIGNING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS THAT SUPPORT CRITICAL THINKING AND IDEA EXCHANGE, MOTIVATE AND ENGAGE USERS

In my thesis I argue for the use of system designs that: a) open access to a variety of users and allow for collaboration and idea exchange, while at the same time, b) are designed to motivate and engage users. To exemplify my proposed systems design, I created an interactive and open digital history project focused on Romanian culture and identity during Communism, from 1947, when the Communist Party took power by forcing the King to abdicate, until the revolution in 1989, which marked the end of Communism in Romania (Gilberg, 1990, Boia, 2014). In my project, I present the possibility to recreate Habermas’ notion of public sphere and “the unforced force of the better argument” (Habermas, 1989) and Dewey’s (2004) understanding of democracy as a mode of associated living imbued of the spirit of inquiry within contemporary digital history projects. Second, I outline system designs that motivate and engage users, by satisfying the basic psychological needs outlined in Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Two more concepts are included to complete the proposed digital history project design: presence (Ryan, Rigby, & Przybylski, 2006) and learner hero (Rigby & Przybylski, 2009).

DIGITAL HISTORY: DESIGNING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS THAT SUPPORT CRITICAL THINKING AND IDEA EXCHANGE, MOTIVATE AND ENGAGE USERS

Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2016-08-29 15:56:53.748

O ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e sua incorporação na Unicamp

The text describes a study about the adoption of virtual learning environments and its consequences to the learning process of undergraduate students at the State University of Campinas - Unicamp. These environments can be incorporated in various ways into the academic daily life of students and teachers. One efficient way to promote the adoption of these environments, as observed by the Distance Learning support team, is to train teachers and students in their use. Two training alternatives are described in this text to instruct the academic community in the use of TelEduc, a freeware developed and coordinated by the NIED - Núcleo de Informática Aplicada à Educação (Center for Information Technology Applied to Education), and officially adopted by Unicamp. Training courses are offered in two ways - presence or distance learning - to suit each teacher's preferences. This article compares the two modes of training, showing their strong and weak points. The adoption of TelEduc and its direct consequences to the learning process are described in a study carried out with some engineering undergraduates at Unicamp. The authors' questions and the general views of teachers and students regarding the effectiveness of the use of TelEduc as a supporting tool to presence teaching are presented. This investigation revealed the importance of training teachers in the effective use of these environments.

Students' collective knowledge construction in the virtual learning environment ""ToLigado - your school interactive newspaper""

Introduction. The ToLigado Project - Your School Interactive Newspaper is an interactive virtual learning environment conceived, developed, implemented and supported by researchers at the School of the Future Research Laboratory of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Method. This virtual learning environment aims to motivate trans-disciplinary research among public school students and teachers in 2,931 schools equipped with Internet-access computer rooms. Within this virtual community, students produce collective multimedia research documents that are immediately published in the portal. The project also aims to increase students' autonomy for research, collaborative work and Web authorship. Main sections of the portal are presented and described. Results. Partial results of the first two years' implementation are presented and indicate a strong motivation among students to produce knowledge despite the fragile hardware and software infrastructure at the time. Discussion. In this new environment, students should be seen as 'knowledge architects' and teachers as facilitators, or 'curiosity managers'. The ToLigado portal may constitute a repository for future studies regarding student attitudes in virtual learning environments, students' behaviour as 'authors', Web authorship involving collective knowledge production, teachers' behaviour as facilitators, and virtual learning environments as digital repositories of students' knowledge construction and social capital in virtual learning communities.

Extended immersive learning environment: a hybrid remote/virtual laboratory

This paper presents a collaborative virtual learning environment, which includes technologies such as 3D virtual representations, learning and content management systems, remote experiments, and collaborative learning spaces, among others. It intends to facilitate the construction, management and sharing of knowledge among teachers and students, in a global perspective. The environment proposes the use of 3D social representations for accessing learning materials in a dynamic and interactive form, which is regarded to be closer to the physical reality experienced by teachers and students in a learning context. A first implementation of the proposed extended immersive learning environment, in the area of solid mechanics, is also described, including the access to theoretical contents and a remote experiment to determine the elastic modulus of a given object.These instructions give you basic guidelines for preparing camera-ready papers for conference proceedings. Use this document as a template if you are using Microsoft Word 6.0 or later. Otherwise, use this document as an instruction set. The electronic file of your paper will be formatted further. Define all symbols used in the abstract. Do not cite references in the abstract.

Práticas de Apoio à Supervisão Pedagógica com Recurso a um Ambiente Virtual na Universidade de Cabo Verde

Neste artigo pretendemos relatar uma experiência de apoio à supervisão de estágio e de dinamização de duas disciplinas na licenciatura de Ciências da Educação – Percurso de Desenvolvimento Pessoal e Social na Universidade de Cabo Verde (Uni-CV), com recurso à Moodle. Esta experiência, em curso, enquadra-se num projeto de Investigação-Ação (IA) a decorrer e com o qual se pretende melhorar a prática de orientação/supervisão de estágios pedagógicos no contexto da Uni-CV. Este texto reporta-se a um dos momentos de desenvolvimento do projeto, relativo à caraterização das competências tecnológicas dos estagiários/estudantes, principais destinatários desta ação e das suas expectativas em relação ao trabalho com ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem. Os dados foram recolhidos com recurso a um inquérito por questionário e a partir da sua análise constatamos que os inquiridos têm alguma facilidade de navegação na Web, possuem também competências básicas para o trabalho em ambientes online, assim como vontade experienciar trabalhar em diferentes ambientes de aprendizagem. As principais dificuldades identificadas, prendem-se com a dificuldade de acesso a um computador e à Internet.

La evaluación de competencias en un entorno virtual de aprendizaje

Peer-reviewed

Efficacy of virtual reality for triggering smoking craving: relation with level of presence and nicotine dependence

Virtual Reality environments that reproduce typical contexts associated with tobacco use may be useful for aiding smoking cessation. The main objective of this study was to assess the capacity of eight environments to produce the craving to smoke and determine the relation of craving to nicotine dependence and level of presence. The results show that all the environments were able to generate the desire to smoke; a direct relation was found between sense of presence and craving.

Habilitats comunicatives per a l’aprenentatge en l’entorn virtual = Communicative skills for learning in a virtual environment

The virtual learning environments are an option in permanent training with great possibilities for adults who look for studies that are compatible with their jobs and with their family life. So as to participate in determined learning as much in attitudes as knowledge and skills. The article is dedicated to analysing the necessary linguistic habits for moving within an environment of this type and offers didactic proposals that can facilitate the active participation in a virtual course and widen the perspectives of the control of new channels of communication with objectives that are different to learning

Institutional Personal Learning Environments – Paradise or Paradox? A Digital Literacies Perspective

This was my keynote presentation at Computer Supported Education (CSEDU) 2012, in Porto. It looks at the importance of digital literacies and how VLEs do not support their developmeng and looks at iPLEs as an alternative.

Entorno de aprendizaje virtual adaptativo soportado por un modelo de usuario integral

El objetivo de esta tesis es mejorar la efectividad y eficiencia de los entornos de aprendizaje virtual. Para lograr este propósito se define un Modelo de Usuario que considera las características del usuario, el contexto y la Interacción. Estas tres dimensiones son integradas en un Modelo de Usuario Integral (MUI) para proveer adaptación de contenido, formato y actividades en entornos educativos con heterogeneidad de usuarios, tecnologías e interacciones. Esta heterogeneidad genera la entrega de contenidos, formatos y actividades inadecuadas para los estudiantes. La particularización del MUI en un entorno educativo es definida Modelo de Estudiante Integral (MEI). Las principales aportaciones de esta tesis son la definición y validación de un MUI, la utilización de un MEI abierto para propiciar la reflexión de los estudiantes sobre sus procesos de aprendizaje, la integración tecnológica con independencia de plataforma y la validación del MEI con estudiantes en escenarios reales.

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.