The use of goodread to create authentic classroom experiences is discussed. Goodreads is "the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations". In 2019, the site had 80 million users, 2.3 ...billion books, and 80 million reviews. On Goodreads, you can review books, add other users as friends, read reviews, get system-generated reading recommendations, participate in polls and message boards, and follow authors. Goodreads is available via any Web browser and as an app for most major mobile devices and tablets.
We present a system for capturing, reconstructing, compressing, and rendering high quality immersive light field video. We accomplish this by leveraging the recently introduced DeepView view ...interpolation algorithm, replacing its underlying multi-plane image (MPI) scene representation with a collection of spherical shells that are better suited for representing panoramic light field content. We further process this data to reduce the large number of shell layers to a small, fixed number of RGBA+depth layers without significant loss in visual quality. The resulting RGB, alpha, and depth channels in these layers are then compressed using conventional texture atlasing and video compression techniques. The final compressed representation is lightweight and can be rendered on mobile VR/AR platforms or in a web browser. We demonstrate light field video results using data from the 16-camera rig of Pozo et al. 2019 as well as a new low-cost hemispherical array made from 46 synchronized action sports cameras. From this data we produce 6 degree of freedom volumetric videos with a wide 70 cm viewing baseline, 10 pixels per degree angular resolution, and a wide field of view, at 30 frames per second video frame rates. Advancing over previous work, we show that our system is able to reproduce challenging content such as view-dependent reflections, semi-transparent surfaces, and near-field objects as close as 34 cm to the surface of the camera rig.
We present a novel approach to view synthesis using multiplane images (MPIs). Building on recent advances in learned gradient descent, our algorithm generates an MPI from a set of sparse camera ...viewpoints. The resulting method incorporates occlusion reasoning, improving performance on challenging scene features such as object boundaries, lighting reflections, thin structures, and scenes with high depth complexity. We show that our method achieves high-quality, state-of-the-art results on two datasets: the Kalantari light field dataset, and a new camera array dataset, Spaces, which we make publicly available.
The researcher combined qualitative media analysis with tools for discourse analysis to review Blackboard Collaborate™, a tool often used in online education. Technology design references Discourses ...which dictate how and why these tools should be used. The analysis showed Collaborate™ uses sign systems and knowledge, along with politics, to reinforce a traditional educational Discourse. Educators should be aware of embedded Discourses to effectively incorporate technology into their practice, and designers should consider such Discourses during development. This paper describes discourse analysis as one approach to evaluating technology with regards to affordances for, and constraints to, teaching and learning.
Coarse woody debris (CWD) chronosequences were developed for managed and unmanaged red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) stands across the Great Lakes states. Throughout stand development, there is less CWD ...in managed than in unmanaged forests, and effects of management are strongest in young forests (0-30 years old). At stand initiation, CWD is 80% lower in managed than unmanaged forests, 20 200 versus 113 200 kg·ha
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, while at 90 years, CWD is 35% lower, 6600 versus 10 400 kg·ha
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. Timber management especially affects snags. In young managed forests, snag biomass is less than 1% of that in unmanaged forests, 150 versus 58 200 kg·ha
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, while log biomass is 80% lower, 5000 versus 22 800 kg·ha
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. This trend continues in mature forests (91-150 years old), where snag biomass is 75% lower in managed than in unmanaged forests, 1700 versus 6400 kg·ha
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. Management has relatively little impact on total log biomass of mature forests but increases the biomass of fresh logs nearly 10-fold, to 1400 versus 150 kg·ha
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. CWD in managed forests is highly variable, primarily related to thinning schedules in individual stands.
Purpose
Founded in sociocultural theories of learning, the authors argue that engaging learners in collaborative knowledge building is critical. When responding to others’ ideas, research shows that ...learners in online settings more frequently focus on surface-level aspects of colleagues’ contributions – sharing, comparing and praising – rather than engaging in knowledge building. Collaborative, knowledge-building discourse includes generative interactional practices that feature disagreeing, negotiating meaning, testing and reflecting on co-constructed ideas, summarizing conversations and making metacognitive contributions to discussions. The purpose of this paper is to review studies that show evidence of key design features and pedagogical practices that support collaborative knowledge building by promoting generative interactional practices and particular patterns in interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper presents pragmatic design and instructional guidelines for online course discussions. The purpose is to synthesize existing research and share a detailed framework for supporting generative discussion in asynchronous online work.
Findings
The authors review studies that show evidence of key design features and pedagogical practices that support collaborative knowledge building. Design features to promote generative discourse include using the asynchronous nature of online settings to have students work privately, share their work, discuss their work with the class and then revise; providing instructions/discussion criteria that scaffold knowledge building; and using appropriate digital tools that mediate interaction around content. The pedagogical practices that affect patterns of interaction include modeling generative discourse, promoting increased interactions by and between participants and using opportunistic grouping strategies.
Originality/value
The authors include examples from one of their existing online courses that include these design features and pedagogical practices and discuss results from their ongoing work regarding the generativity of learner interactions in this course.
The topics of addiction and recovery are neither uniformly nor sufficiently covered in the M.Div. program for ministers going into the local church. Yet no more universal issue impacts every ...congregation than addiction to substances and processes and the need for healing through recovery. The lack of knowledge leads to silence and inaction on these issues, which perpetuates shame and judgment and continued struggles with addiction. This project explores how effective a compressed educational module about addiction and recovery might be in shifting the knowledge, attitude, and sense of competency in a local church minister lacking in this area.I pulled together a cohort of ministers from local churches in the greater Atlanta area. We explored the concepts and history of the understanding and approach to treatment for addiction. We discussed concepts around recovery, particularly focused on the 12-step programs because of how widespread and effective they have been through the years. We thought about how ministers and congregations have a unique and essential role in supporting individuals and their families in addiction and recovery and how the church can create an ecosystem of healthy flourishing through recovery.The results of the project, surveys, and interviews were encouraging. The participating ministers communicated that they did not know enough and that this information should have been a part of their ministry since seminary. Through the project, all eight ministers demonstrated a shift in their knowledge, attitude, and sense of competency around addiction and recovery. Each of the participants had clear and practical next steps they planned to take to engage these issues further.
The nature of the bonding and the aromaticity of the heavy Group 14 homologues of cyclopropenylium cations E3H3+ and E2H2E′H+ (E, E′=C–Pb) have been investigated systematically at the BP86/TZ2P DFT ...level by using several methods. Aromatic stabilization energies (ASE) were evaluated from the values obtained from energy decomposition analysis (EDA) of charged acyclic reference molecules. The EDA‐ASE results compare well with the extra cyclic resonance energy (ECRE) values given by the block localized wavefunction (BLW) method. Although all compounds investigated are Hückel 4n+2 π electron species, their ASEs indicate that the inclusion of Group 14 elements heavier than carbon reduces the aromaticity; the parent C3H3+ ion and Si2H2CH+ are the most aromatic, and Pb3H3+ is the least so. The higher energies for the cyclopropenium analogues reported in 1995 employed an isodesmic scheme, and are reinterpreted by using the BLW method. The decrease in the strength of both the π cyclic conjugation and the aromaticity in the order C≫Si>Ge>Sn>Pb agrees reasonably well with the trends given by the refined nucleus‐independent chemical shift NICS(0)πzz index.
Sniffing out aromaticity: The π aromaticity of homologues of the cyclopropenylium cations E3H3+ and E2H2E′H+ (E, E′=C–Pb) was evaluated. All the compounds follow the 4n+2 Hückel aromaticity rule, but their energetic stabilization varies and the aromaticity and degree of cyclic π‐electron conjugation decreases in the order C≫Si>Ge>Sn>Pb. Orbital plots reveal that the occupied π MO responsible for aromaticity is increasingly localized on going from carbon to lead.
This study reports on the effects of a mobile game designed in conjunction with an art museum to develop children's understanding of line, shape, and color. Four researchers (two graduate students ...and two professors at a private university in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States) examined 8 children, ages 6 to 13, for conceptual change in their understanding of art. Grounded theory and thematic analysis were used to examine children's conceptions of line, shape, and color through gameplay and to answer the research question, "How does a mobile application impact students' conceptual understanding of line, shape and color?" The researchers found that the mobile learning experience was effectively mediating participants' school and personal experiences to support conceptual change.
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