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(1 - 15 of 15)
- Title
- Informal Learning with Twitter
- Creator
- Wilhelm, Eva C.
- Date
- 2011-04-25, 2011-05
- Description
-
Twitter use has evolved from status updates to a broad range of uses from personal broadcasting to information sharing and conversations. A...
Show moreTwitter use has evolved from status updates to a broad range of uses from personal broadcasting to information sharing and conversations. A study was conducted to determine how Twitter is used for informal learning purposes. It was examined what kind of questions with a learning objective are asked, and under which circumstances these questions are answered. Questions were categorized according to question topic, type, structure and audience. According to the analysis, users most frequently asked for definitions and procedural information about technology, web, software and Twitter use. The questions with the highest answer rate were questions directed at individual users via @replies, and asked about definitions and other factual information.
M.S. in Technical Communication and Informational Design, May 2011
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- Title
- Learning the Lingo? Gender, Prestige and Linguistic Adaptation in Review Communities
- Creator
- Hemphill, Libby, Otterbacher, Jahna
- Date
- 2011-11-19, 2012-02
- Publisher
- ACM Press
- Description
-
Women and men communicate differently in both face-to- face and computer-mediated environments. We study linguistic patterns considered...
Show moreWomen and men communicate differently in both face-to- face and computer-mediated environments. We study linguistic patterns considered gendered in reviews contributed to the Internet Movie Database. IMDb has been described as a male-majority community, in which females contribute fewer reviews and enjoy less prestige than males. Analyzing reviews posted by prolific males and females, we hypothesize that females adjust their communication styles to be in sync with their male counterparts. We find evidence that while certain characteristics of “female language” persevere over time (e.g., frequent use of pronouns) others (e.g., hedging) decrease with time. Surprisingly, we also find that males often increase their use of “female” features. Our results indicate, that even when they resemble men’s reviews linguistically, women’s reviews still enjoy less prestige and smaller audiences.
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- Title
- Asian American Chicago Network: A Case Study of Facebook Group Use By Immigrant Groups
- Creator
- Rao, Xi, Hemphill, Libby
- Date
- 2016, 2016
- Publisher
- ACM
- Description
-
Through analyzing data from posts and about users, we describe how one particular Facebook group helps immigrants to the U.S. use social media...
Show moreThrough analyzing data from posts and about users, we describe how one particular Facebook group helps immigrants to the U.S. use social media to build a local community. As a preliminary study in intercultural communication through social media, we analyze one case, the Asian American Chicago Network (AACN) Facebook group, and uncover common topics users discuss and relationships between user tenure and various indicators of leadership and interaction. Our small finalized results from this preliminary project suggest that members of AACN likely use it (1) to build a professional network in the U.S.A., and (2) to reinforce and affirm their Asian culture and identities.
Sponsorship: National Science Foundation Award Number 1525662
Rao, X., & Hemphill, L. (2016). Asian American Chicago Network: A Case Study of Facebook Group Use By Immigrant Groups. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (pp. 381–384). New York, NY, USA: ACM. http://doi.org/10.1145/2818052.2869077
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- Title
- SITUATING FANS' SOCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF FAN STUDIES
- Creator
- Rao, Xi
- Date
- 2015, 2015-05
- Description
-
This paper explores how TV fans use social media. By revtewmg academic perspectives on fandom ofTV shows and social media in past several...
Show moreThis paper explores how TV fans use social media. By revtewmg academic perspectives on fandom ofTV shows and social media in past several decades, this paper discusses the way that audiences react to TV shows using the affordance of social media. At the begirming, this article traces the image, activities, and meaning of fandom. Fans were portrayed as deviant creatures until the late 80s. This image was clarified when people looked into fans and their creative works. Scholars realized that fans productively generated creative products based on the given materials, which reflected the social experience of the creators. Therefore, fandom was soon understood as a way of fans to resist the dominant culture in the society. Later on, social media offer fans an immediate, widespread platform to contribute to the TV conversation. With this platform, normal fans show up. Different from productive fandom, median fans are less active in making new meanings of the TV program. Interestingly, a large number of TV audiences are using social media during the broadcast, participating in the discussion of shows. This evidences the convergence of the traditional media, TV, and the new media, social media. It is also found that comments of TV viewers on social media in turn, influence the content of the TV show. Rather than merely spectators, fans are a part of the TV production. As a special case, gender is discussed from the perspective of fandom. Female composers dominant the fan-writing world. Study the producers and products of fan fiction may provide valuable insights into gender dilemmas in the real world. At the end of this essay, 1 summarize how social media atTect the participation of TV fans and discuss remaining questions worthy of future research. Since fandom becomes ubiquitous in the social media age, it is possible to explore fandom as a way to better understand our daily life.
M.S. in Information Architecture, May 2015
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- Title
- SIMILAR VOICES, SAME PERSPECTIVES? INTERNATIONAL MOVIE REVIEWERS AT THE IMDB
- Creator
- Gao, Jing
- Date
- 2012-04-21, 2012-05
- Description
-
Online communities enable people from around the world to interact online. But having the opportunity to speak and being heard are two...
Show moreOnline communities enable people from around the world to interact online. But having the opportunity to speak and being heard are two different issues. In most cases of intercultural communication online, people from different cultures interact in English. Are they still able to bring their own perspectives without using their native language? This study thus focuses on whether or not international voices are heard online and whether or not these voices that find audiences are really differ- ent, as compared to the local voice (i.e., dominant or majority voice). We question whether or not international voices are different, as previous studies on intercultural communication debate over whether or not voices are different by culture. Results of a content analysis show that international and U.S. participants tend to contribute similar content, which contrasts with the common assumption that people from dif- ferent cultures will write differently and resonates with previous studies that have proposed that culture, on its own, is not an effective predictor of online behavior.
M.S. in Technical Communication and Information Design, May 2012
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- Title
- MAPPING THE IDENTITY OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION THROUGH AUTHOR AND KEYWORD NETWORKS
- Creator
- Angderson, Charise
- Date
- 2012-04-22, 2012-05
- Description
-
The identity of the interdisciplinary field of technical communication continues to be debated. For the last decade of so scholars have argued...
Show moreThe identity of the interdisciplinary field of technical communication continues to be debated. For the last decade of so scholars have argued for the need to emphasize new and emerging technologies to be integrated in technical communication curricula and research. This thesis examines how journals in technical communication have responded to these calls for a change in focus through the use of affiliation and keyword network analyses. Through the author-journal affiliation networks, I found technical communication journals mirror power laws as exhibited in other fields; there is a small group of authors and institutions that produce the majority of works. The author’s institutional affiliations, both in terms of employment and graduate degree, follow this same pattern. Authors also tended to have degrees in technical communication or some iteration of it. Through the keyword network, I found that articles on technical communication are mainly discussing topics concerning rhetoric and composition, followed by research in and discussions on the field technical communication as well as information technology.
M.S. in Communication and Information Design, May 2012
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- Title
- From positivism to conventionalism: Comte, Renouvier, and Poincaré
- Creator
- Schmaus, Warren
- Date
- 2019, 2019
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Title
- INFORMATION QUALITY: RESTRUCTURING THE MODERN ACADEMIC LIBRARY FOR RESEARCH ACCURACY
- Creator
- JURKOWSKI, ODIN L.
- Date
- 1997-05
- Description
-
Information overload causes problems in accessing information and is becoming more prevalent as technology allows us to store greater amounts...
Show moreInformation overload causes problems in accessing information and is becoming more prevalent as technology allows us to store greater amounts of information, and as researchers produce ever more specialized knowledge. This thesis will begin with a discussion of this overload followed by an examination of statistics gathered at Illinois Institute of Technology (which support the trend of increased interlibrary loan transactions and the rise in information availability). Following a review of the literature in library and information science, psychology, and linguistics, this thesis will discuss some of the solutions to this problem. First, access may be improved by transforming the storage of information from traditional print resources to electronic. Considering the restrictions of the present vendor supplied print resources, the limitations due to present copyright law, and cost comparisons between print and electronic subscriptions, we find a distinct advantage to future electronic access. This access can be improved through the use of electronic journals, full-text/image databases, and virtual libraries. Second, the searching capabilities of information systems can be improved in order to narrow information into more accurate search results. This can be done by advanced indexing, adding value, relevance and ranking, citation analysis to direct the patron towards improved search results, and by taking advantage of hypertext capabilities in order to ease navigation through information systems.
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- Title
- SELECTING AN EFFECTIVE DELIVERY METHOD FOR MULTIMEDIA-BASED DISTANCE EDUCATION
- Creator
- BURIAN, ARNOLD
- Date
- 1998-05
- Title
- EVALUATION OF IMPLEMENTING SGML AT ENDEAVOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Creator
- STENGLEIN, KRISTEN R.
- Date
- 1996-04
- Description
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With large amounts of information for multiple outputs being stored on computers, companies need an effective method of creating, storing, and...
Show moreWith large amounts of information for multiple outputs being stored on computers, companies need an effective method of creating, storing, and re-using information. This proposal investigates whether the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is the best method to achieve these goals for a small company.
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- Title
- EVALUATION IF COMPLETENESS, COMPREHENSION AND CREDIBILITY ON AN E-HEALTH WEB SITE
- Creator
- MASTARONE, GINNIFER L.
- Date
- 2007-05
- Title
- THE EFFECT OF MOOD INDUCTION ON ADOLESCENT SPEECH BEHAVIOR
- Creator
- LAWRENCE, HALCYON
- Date
- 2010-12
- Description
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An experiment was conducted to determine if a sad mood induction procedure using music and self-imagery would produce sad speech in...
Show moreAn experiment was conducted to determine if a sad mood induction procedure using music and self-imagery would produce sad speech in adolescents. The participants were asked to rate their perceived positive and negative affect and they were recorded. reading speech materials. Results indicate that although participants perceived a change in mood from neutral to sad, none of the baseline acoustic correlates of sad speech were identified in their recordings. These results suggest that either participants were not induced into a sad mood by this procedure or that the method of self-reporting is an inadequate assessment for this age group, signaling that more effective ways to measure mood for adolescents should be investigated. Additionally, since most studies on sad speech use actors, the results may indicate that acted speech provides significantly different correlates from emotionally-induced speech. Finally, a similarly valenced mood may have been induced instead of sadness (e.g. "calmness") which possesses different acoustic correlates from sad speech. Whilst the findings suggest that there is need for further research on these issues, this experiment demonstrates that mood inducement procedures (MIPs), primarily used in the field of psychology, can be applied in other domains. For example, MIPs conducted in online environments could provide useful insights into how mood affects users' online behaviors.
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- Title
- UTILIZATION OF CONCEPTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND USABILITY TO CREATE A CORPORATE EMPLOYEE TRAINING PROGRAM
- Creator
- DIGIACOMO, PHILIP A.
- Date
- 2007-05
- Description
-
Purpose: The Bally Problem...
Show morePurpose: The Bally Problem In 2003, Bally Total Fitness began the process of an international restructuring. The purpose of this restructuring initiative was to address the continuing decay of process efficiency, profitability and company image through a bottom up approach with the staff of the 400+ Bally Total Fitness clubs. The key for this approach was to place the primary focus on two departments; Operations and Employee Training & Development. This documentation and accompanying materials have been compiled as a means with which to outline and catalogue the employee training component of this restructure as well as the process in which the project was carried out. One of the primary reasons Employee Training & Development was considered key in this restructure was due to the need for a single department to facilitate the cultural change throughout the company, which was considered essential to the turnaround effort. The company realized that the only way to properly facilitate this change was to assure that adult learning professionals worked at all levels of the company to educate the staff and steer the needed transition. It was determined that Employee Training & Development must be restructured in a way that allowed for a higher quality of effectiveness in the field, regional offices and the corporate headquarters. The company, as a whole, was looking to implement a more balanced approach to training that would create a well rounded club level employee rather than staff with limited niche roles. Additionally, the company mandated that the corporate team for Employee Training & Development would simultaneously help to educate the executive team while field training managers facilitated the initiative in the clubs and regional offices. For this reason, the corporation decided to restructure the department with the primary goal of recreating a training department from the ground up that would utilize modern philosophies, concepts and technology for adult learning in order to strengthen the ability, productiveness and quality of employee training. To address the employee training component of the restructuring initiative, a team of training professionals were assembled with an initial purpose statement: To assess, evaluate and develop the Bally Total Fitness employee training program utilizing contemporary theories and approaches to adult learning. This team was directed to create and execute upon an approved turnaround strategy with the goal of improved employee development as the dominant focus. Accomplishment of this goal would only be considered to be achieved through development of a training program that addressed and resolved any issues found within the original employee training curriculum that could be shown to adversely affect the average employee's ability with responsibilities, on-the-job attitude and customer service. Preparation for this restructuring required the newly created team to conduct in depth analyses of each department within the corporation to determine the level of importance they played within the overall structure of daily business and how employee training impacted the quality and productivity of their functions. Once these departmental analyses were completed, the team would be expected to create, present and execute a project plan to begin the process of resolving the employee training issues plaguing the corporation.
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- Title
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WISHNICK LEARNING CENTER: A DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER
- Creator
- SMITH, KEVIN G.
- Date
- 2004-03
- Description
-
This research paper presents a case to establish a central location for multimedia usage, resources and services for both the IIT community...
Show moreThis research paper presents a case to establish a central location for multimedia usage, resources and services for both the IIT community and external communities on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology. Though a two phased research process, I worked to established baseline multimedia resource data from 10 separate university schools which in turn helped me to collect current multimedia resources information on all service providers on IIT campuses. The final step was to create and implement a detailed survey assessment of current IIT students and alumni, faculty and staff, community users, on campus service providers and partners on the impressions current impressions and needs of multimedia services on campus. I concluded that through more communication and collaboration between existing campus multimedia service providers and partners, plus open communication with the clients, IIT could better allocate current multimedia resources on campus for all respective clientele. By combining both financial and human resources and centralizing the efforts to one location, the campus can begin the current and growing need for more multimedia resources and services on campus. However, more in-depth research and assessment of current and future client needs are required to help support the case, while paying particular attention to current faculty skill set, incoming student skill set, and the surrounding community development in the area of technological skill set. Hypothesis and Objectives My hypothesis is that centralized multimedia resources and services on IIT's campuses would provide clients with more cost-effective, efficient services than the decentralized multimedia resources and services that are currently provided. Additionally, I plan to make recommendations for the role, staffing, facility usage, and placement of a new centrally located multimedia facility. The objectives of this research are to obtain insights, determine needs, and list accomplishments for multimedia facility usage currently provided on IIT campuses. I am also collecting information from faculty, students, and staff regarding current usage and projected multimedia needs. Information collected from the research will also help to establish future recommendations for the development of a Multimedia and Instructional Technology (MIT) facility on campus, (currently known as the Digital Media Center), and determine recommendations for current computer and technology resources on campus utilized by participants in the survey.
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