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Informal Learning with Twitter
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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SIMILAR VOICES, SAME PERSPECTIVES? INTERNATIONAL MOVIE REVIEWERS AT THE IMDB
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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MAPPING THE IDENTITY OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION THROUGH AUTHOR AND KEYWORD NETWORKS
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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INFORMATION QUALITY: RESTRUCTURING THE MODERN ACADEMIC LIBRARY FOR RESEARCH ACCURACY
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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SELECTING AN EFFECTIVE DELIVERY METHOD FOR MULTIMEDIA-BASED DISTANCE EDUCATION
Title
SELECTING AN EFFECTIVE DELIVERY METHOD FOR MULTIMEDIA-BASED DISTANCE EDUCATION
Creator
BURIAN, ARNOLD
Date
1998-05
THE EFFECT OF MOOD INDUCTION ON ADOLESCENT SPEECH BEHAVIOR
Title
THE EFFECT OF MOOD INDUCTION ON ADOLESCENT SPEECH BEHAVIOR
Creator
LAWRENCE, HALCYON
Date
2010-12
Description
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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