Academic Applications
Academic Information Services in the Advent of Artificial Intelligence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session LiLi Li
Impacted by the digital revolution, academic libraries worldwide are in transition to change ways of information delivery and dissemination to support excellence in teaching and learning. To illustrate the impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on future academic information services, this proposed presentation mainly focuses on the advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the fields of Deep Learning, Machine Translation, Roberts, and Voice Recognition, since they are driving forces to shape the next generation of academic information services in the future. The paper explores new challenges and opportunities for academic libraries worldwide in this section. In addition to general discussion of academic administration, budget control, staff training, etc., this proposed paper will explore technical limitations and legal impacts of the future Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications used in academic learning environments.
The Affordances of Book App Design for Supporting Early Literacy Development
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Antoinette Doyle, Jacqueline Hesson, Ross Connolly, Ling Li
For decades, parents have been encouraged to provide their young children with exposure to story books, primarily through parent-child reading. Such activity is known to promote some of the foundational supports that children’s transition into becoming readers. Evolving technology over the decades has influenced the way young children experience storybook reading. Today, book apps have replaced earlier technology such as the CD-ROM, and with current ubiquitous access to personal computers, tablets, smart phones, and other devices, digitized reading opportunities and uptake has skyrocketed for adults and children alike. Children’s e-book reading experiences are shaped by the affordances of evolving digital technology. Indeed, there is a dizzying array of multimedia enhancements to these books that aim to promote an interactive reading experience. Although the technological capacities of book apps are stunning, many parents, educators and researchers question the degree to which they actually benefit children’s literacy development. Our study, building on earlier evaluation tools for books on CD ROM, updated evaluative criteria appropriate for e-book evaluation. Using this tool, we systematically examined the design of currently popular e-book apps for young children (preschoolers to age eight), and examined the potential of the design of these apps to support young readers’ learning. We examined two overarching areas of research on children’s literacy development—print knowledge for supporting word reading skills and language development for supporting comprehension. We will discuss the findings about the design of children’s e-books in relation to their affordances for supporting the two key domains essential to reading success.
Teaching System Analysis and Design through Experiential Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Francine Vachon
The systems development life cycle (SLDC) is a complex process that often results in costly failures for businesses. Most failures result from human factors: incomplete or faulty requirements, user resistance, lack of user involvement, know-it-all developers, amongst others. In a systems analysis and design, students learn theoretical aspects and technical skills, such as project management, data flow diagrams, normalization, entity-relationship diagrams, database design or software customization. However, the greatest difficulty resides in understanding the human factors that impact SLDC. I teach system analysis and design through service-learning to help students understand the human aspect and organization politics of SLDC. At the beginning of the term, students form teams. Each team will then go through the whole SLDC to build and deliver an information system for a local non-profit organization or a small business. As they learn a new concept, they apply it immediately to their project. At the end of the term, they present and deliver their project and their system to their clients. Students gain a deeper understanding of their craft as well as practical experience. In this paper, I will discuss the lessons I learned from my students’ projects as well as best practices developed over the years. Critical success factors will be discussed.
