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[van der Pol et al., 2004] van der Pol, J., Admiraal, W., and Simons, P. R. J. (2004). Context enhancement for co-intentionality and co-reference in asynchronous cmc.
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The author defines two different process that contribute to the collaborative annotations of text and that reflect in the learning process: co-intentionality and co-reference. The former refer to the attempt to maintain a shared set of intentions while communcating (e.g., stay in the same thread providing answers on the same subject). The latter refer to the attempt to maintain a shared frame of reference (e.g., the ability to take reciprocal perspectives). An interesting idea I found is therefore that a shared context then does not always and automatically provide participants in communication the means to reach sufficient levels of co-reference and co-intentionality.

Subsequently, the author provides list some of the mechanism that may affect grounding, in relation to co-reference and co-intentionality, to provide the least collaborative effort. He introduce a critic to Clark’s model developed by Koschmann, who views communication essentially as an active and continuos process of grounding. In Koschman view, using common ground is not a logical or mathematical process of deduction and the success of the operation cannot be taken for granted. I personally refer to this effect as ‘false grounding’.

Another effect listed by the author is then the non-verbal communication that may influence the grounding process itself. For instance, when communicating about a certain topic, the availability of the object of the discussion in some sort of mediatic representation is reflecting on the communication itself and in particular, for the author, to the co-reference mechanism.

The author incorporate his findings into an Annotation System developed at the University of Utrecht.

NV Swith. Mutual Knowledge. Academic Press, 1982

This book should contain the discussion that Sperber&Wilson had with Clark about the critics they raised on the Contribution Model and proposing the Relevance Theory. I am looking forward to read it.

Ulysses is the perfect tool for writing articles/books/thesis. It separates completely the presentation from the content, in the fashion of Latex or the initial view of the HTML as Tim Berners Lee envisioned it. There are lots of interesting features in this tool that makes it worth to try out.

Nice thread on the growing phenomenon of blogs and how this is changing the way of using the internet, of connecting to other people, and of learning.

-> In search for a virtual settlement: An exploration of weblog community boundaries by Lilia Efimova & Stephanie Hendrick

Two interesting references, the first on Multimodal analysis, listen Nico 🙂 :

– Kress, G and Van Leeuwen, T. multimodal discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

– Batonio, A., Kahn, J. and Decortis, F. Travelling narratives as a multi-sensorial experience: A user-centered approach to smart objects. Proceeding of Smart Objects Conference, Grenoble, 2003.

[Walker, 2004] Walker, K. (2004). Learning location with cinematics narratives. In ACM, editor, Proceedings of the ACM Multimedia, New York, NY, USA. Available from: http://www.londonknowledgelab.ac.uk/people/kevin/s09-walker.pdf.
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The paper describe the approach of using phisical walkthrough the city space to support learning. The author describe nicely how such approach support and is supported by different theories: co-constructivist approach, exploration and reflection, activity theory, trail theory, introduced by Peterson and Levene, for which an hypertext trail can explain how students follows a linear path through a knowledge ecology -whether a set of web pages, a physical space, or a narrative. A trail is composed of individual learning objects, self contained piece of knowledge.

The author links this to spatial learning for which learning and recal are seen as interwoven motor activities where spatial activities are powerfull in recall by association.

In this sense, a Location Based Service like Urban Tapestries, can be seen as a powerfull system for supporting this kind of narrative creation providing a shared and reflective travel notebook for the user (see Batonio et. al.). The author claim for a scriptability of the system that can make learning more evident/effective.

Two notes before going to sleep:

1- I was pointed to this site by F. Hesse, whom I met at Patrick’s thesis discussion. Still not clear what to do with this, I will check tomorrow:

The Special Priority Program’s aim is to investigate the generic qualities of networked computers as media for knowledge communication. It does not aim to superficially compare certain technical solutions or to globally contrast those settings using media with those using none. Instead, our research focuses on the basic underlying mechanisms of human interaction with technology.
The results of our research will help to generate theoretical concepts that bridge the gap between the ‘mainstream’ theories of the participating disciplines and research on CSCL (computer supported collaborative learning).
It goes without saying that the basic approach of the research program does not stand in the way of conclusions being drawn for a better application and implementation of communication technologies. On the contrary: Recommendations on how to design tools better adapted to human demands and limitations can be made on a more solid basis.

2- Jakkob pointed me to this interesting paper by Koshmann about reconsidering Common Ground: an examination of Clark’s Contribution Theory. Interesting …

Via Pasta and Vinegar, interesting research on how to simulate geopolitical processes. I am really interested in this kind of ideas and how to use such visualizations to support people opinion forming and democratic discussion. I wonder if the underlying model can be made accessible to the viewer by the mean of interaction design of the media by which it is accessed.

GeoSim is an agent-based computational environment that simulates geopolitical processes. Initially developed in Pascal to support Prof. Cederman’s dissertation research – see Emergent Actors in World Politics– the current version of the systems implemented in RePast, a Java-based package. This framework has been used to explore complex issues in world politics, such as the influence of polarity configurations, the evolution of democracy in the international system, nationalist transformations, and the reconstruction of war-size and state-size distributions.

The output of a GeoSim simulation exhibiting that rebelions in weak states and mountainous area are more frequent than elsewhere.

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I was interested in this movie that was realised by a coproduction french and Italian. Sounds like a nice story and the trailer is just astonishing. I am looking forward to see the movie.

New York 2095. Une pyramide flottante au-dessus de Manhattan…
Une population de mutants, d’extraterrestres, d’humains, réels ou synthétiques…
Une campagne électorale. Un serial killer boulimique qui cherche un corps sain et un dieu à tête de faucon qui n’a que sept jours pour préserver son immortalité.
Un pénitentier géostationnaire qui perd un dissident subversif congelé depuis trente ans et une jeune femme sans origine connue, aux cheveux et aux larmes bleus… Trois noms : Horus, Nikopol, Jill…Trois êtres aux destins convergeants où tout est truqué: les voix, les corps, les souvenirs. Tout, sauf l’amour qui surgit comme une délivrance.

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