TL Infobits - December, 2007
Issue 18
ISSN: 1931-3144
Searchable Video Lectures
Online Group Learning Problems and Solutions
Papers on Online Research, Writing, and Citation Practices
Resources from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Conference
Recommended Reading
SEARCHABLE VIDEO LECTURES
This fall researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released the MIT Lecture Browser, "a web interface to video recordings of lectures and seminars that have been indexed using automatic speech recognition technology." Users can search on terms or phrases and then play the video at the point(s) in the recording where their search term appears.
This technology first involved creating software that converted audio to text. Next the software was trained "to understand particular accents using accurate transcriptions of short snippets of recorded speech." Then the researchers provided data on uncommon words so the software could recognize technical terms that might be used in university lectures.
While the transcript's accuracy can be affected by speakers' verbal pauses or by nonnative English speakers' accents, the texts can be very close to the audio originals. The transcripts' accuracy is sufficient for searches, and there is potential for use by hearing-impaired students if future plans to allow users to make corrections to transcripts are implemented.
You can search and try out the Lecture Browser at http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/lectures/.
See also:
"Searching Video Lectures: A Tool from MIT Finds Keywords So That Students Can Efficiently Review Lectures"
By Kate Greene
Technology Review, November 26, 2007
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19747/page1/
ONLINE GROUP LEARNING PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
"Online group learning . . . if implemented appropriately, can provide an ideal environment in which interaction among students plays a central role in the learning process . . . . Why then is online group learning not more widely practiced, particularly within higher education?"
In "Seven Problems of Online Group Learning (and Their Solutions)" (Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 10, no. 4, 2007, pp. 257-268). Tim S. Roberts and Joanne M. McInnerney describe frequently-voiced justifications that instructors use for avoiding online group learning activities. The authors suggest several techniques for successfully solving such problems as:
-- student antipathy towards group work
-- a lack of essential group-work skills
-- possible inequalities of student abilities
-- the assessment of individuals within the groups.
The paper is available online at http://www.ifets.info/journals/10_4/22.pdf.
The Journal of Educational Technology & Society [ISSN 1436-4522]is a peer-reviewed, quarterly publication that "seeks academic articles on the issues affecting the developers of educational systems and educators who implement and manage such systems." Current and back issues are available at http://www.ifets.info/. The journal is published by the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society. For more information, see http://ifets.ieee.org/.
PAPERS ON ONLINE RESEARCH, WRITING, AND CITATION PRACTICES
"Online spaces play a crucial role in constructing not only what but how people write and research--and in how they come to see themselves as composers and researchers." Online research, writing, and citation practices is the theme of the Fall 2007 issue of Computers and Composition Online. The issue is available at http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/edwelcome_special07.html. Papers include:
"This Was (NOT!!) an Easy Assignment: Negotiating an Activity-Based Multimodal Framework for Composing"
By Jody Shipka
-- "exploration of students' experiences of multimodal writing instruction"
"Looking In by Looking Out: The DNA of Composition in the Information Age"
By Randall McClure and Lisa Baures
-- "provide[s] convincing arguments for the necessity of establishing collaborations between writing studies and library and information science professionals to provide adequate instruction in online research"
"Research Instruction at the Point of Need: Information Literacy and Online Tutorials"
By Tom Peele and Glenda Phipps
-- explores the "issue of information seeking strategies used by today's students from the perspective of a student"
Computers and Composition Online is a refereed online journal hosted at Bowling Green State University. For more information and back issues see http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htm. Computers and Composition Online is the companion journal to Computers and Composition: An International Journal, now in its 24th year.
RESOURCES FROM THE 2007 EDUCAUSE CONFERENCE
Proceedings, papers, slides, podcasts, and other resources from the October 2007 EDUCAUSE Conference, "Information Futures: Aligning Our Missions," are now available online at http://connect.educause.edu/term_view/EDUCAUSE2007.
Recommended Reading
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to kotlas@email.unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.
To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence
National Endowment for the Arts
Research Report #47, November 2007
Complete PDF version (100 pages): http://www.arts.gov/research/ToRead.pdf
20-page Executive Summary: http://www.arts.gov/research/ToRead_ExecSum.pdf
"To Read or Not To Read gathers and collates the best national data available to provide a reliable and comprehensive overview of American reading today. While it incorporates some statistics from the National Endowment for the Arts' 2004 report, Reading at Risk, this new study contains vastly more data from numerous sources. Although most of this information is publicly available, it has never been assembled and analyzed as a whole. To our knowledge, To Read or Not To Read is the most complete and up-to-date report of the nation's
