Paper type: application.Background(s):computer science; educational research.Approach:Our approach is very practical: we are focusedon pedagogy and improved classroom practices –what Matthews ...(1997:8) calls “pedagogical constructivism.”Moreover, we discuss the relationships between our work and Papert’s constructionism.Context: The meaning and implications of “computational thinking” (CT) are only now starting to be clarified, and the applications of the Computer Science (CS) Unplugged approach are becoming clearer as research is appearing. Now is a good time to consider how these relate, and what the opportunities and issues are for teachers using this approach.Problem: The goal here is to connect computational thinking explicitly to the CS Unplugged pedagogical approach, and to identify the context where Unplugged can be used effectively. Method: We take a theoretical approach, selecting a representative sample of CS Unplugged activities and mapping them to CT concepts. Results: The CS Unplugged activities map well onto commonly accepted CT concepts, although caution must be taken not to regard CS Unplugged as being a complete approach to CT education. Implications: There is evidence that CS Unplugged activities have a useful role to help students and teachers engage with CT, and to support hands-on activities with digital devices.Constructivist content: A constructivist approach to teaching computer science concepts can be particularly valuable at present because the public (and many teachers who are likely to have to become engaged with the subject) do not see CS as something they are likely to understand. Providing a clear way for anyone to construct this knowledge for themselves gives an opportunity to empower them when it might otherwise have been regarded as a domain that is open to only a select few.
Predictive student models are increasingly used in learning environments due to their ability to enhance educational outcomes and support stakeholders in making informed decisions. However, ...predictive modelscan be biased and produce unfair outcomes, leading to potential discrimination against certain individualsand harmful long-term implications. This has prompted research on fairness metrics meant to capture and quantify such biases. Nonetheless, current metrics primarily focus on predictive performance comparisons between groups, without considering the behavior of the models or the severity of the biases in the outcomes. To address this gap, we proposed a novel metric in a previous work (Verger et al., 2023) named Model Absolute Density Distance (MADD), measuring algorithmic unfairness as the difference of the probability distributions of the model’s outcomes. In this paper, we extended our previous work with two major additions. Firstly, we provided theoretical and practical considerations on a hyperparameter of MADD, named bandwidth, useful for optimal measurement of fairness with this metric. Secondly, we demonstrated how MADD can be used not only to measure unfairness but also to mitigate it through postprocessing of the model’s outcomes while preserving its accuracy. We experimented with our approach on the same task of predicting student success in online courses as our previous work, and obtained successful results. To facilitate replication and future usages of MADD in different contexts, we developed an open-source Python package called maddlib (https://pypi.org/project/maddlib/). Altogether, our work contributes to advancing the research on fair student models in education.
Abstract The assessment of energy consumption of data traffic for Internet services usually relies on energy intensity figures (in Wh/GB). In this paper, we argue against using these indicators for ...evaluating the evolution of energy consumption of data transmission induced by changes in Internet usage. We describe a model that estimates global impacts for different scenarios of Internet usages and technological hypothesises, and show that it can overcome some limitations of intensity indicators. We experiment the model on four use‐cases: basic usage, video streaming, large downloads, and video conferencing. Results show that increasing the resolution of videos does increase the total energy consumption while misleadingly decreasing the power intensity indicator at the same time. In other words, a more efficient network does not necessarily mean less energy consumption.
Based on our empirical studies of 10 hackathons held by scientific communities, a corporation, and universities as well as the review of published literature, we discuss that hackathons can be ...organized around goals such as enriching social networks, facilitating collaborative learning, and workforce development. We also discuss design choices that can scaffold the organization of hackathons and their tradeoffs. Design choices include identifying a suitable mixture of attendee skills, the selection process for projects and teams, and whether to hold a competitive or collaborative event. Hackathons can achieve multiple goals if designed carefully.
Use of information and communication technologies for international development is moving to its next phase. This will require new technologies, new approaches to innovation, new intellectual ...integration, and, above all, a new view of the world's poor. The phase change from information and communication technologies for international development (ICT4D) 1.0 to ICT4D 2.0 presents opportunities for informatics professionals and offers new markets for ICT vendors. It also brings new challenges to our established methods of working and emphasizes the need for new expertise and new world views. The paper have shown that ICT4D 2.0 focuses on reframing the poor. Where ICT4D 1.0 marginalized them, allowing a supply-driven focus, ICT4D 2.0 centralizes them, creating a demand-driven focus. Where ICT4D 1.0 - fortified by the "bottom of the pyramid" concept - characterized the poor largely as passive consumers, ICT4D 2.0 sees them as active producers and innovators.
•Ethical issues in SNA research extend beyond anonymity and consent.•SNA ethics can progress through the active participation of researchers.•Reflexivity will enable a more ethically ‘virtuous’ ...approach to SNA research.•Indirect reciprocity and mutual learning can facilitate reflexivity in the SNA community.
Research in social network analysis (SNA) faces unprecedented ethical challenges today due to both technological developments (‘big’ data) and a growing tendency toward institutionalization of ethics governance. We argue that a suitable response requires a more comprehensive approach to SNA ethics, and we identify two main paths toward this goal. First, we need to recognize the breadth of the subject, no longer limited to anonymity and consent. Second, we need to encourage the active participation and contribution of SNA scholars. We advocate a need for greater reflexivity at both individual and collective levels, whereby researchers can learn from their own and their peers’ experiences, and foster a more ethically ‘virtuous’ approach within the whole SNA community.
This paper proposes a two-part contribution to the human factor issues raised by the prospect of the deployment of swarms of autonomous robots under the supervision of a human operator. First, we ...propose a generic framework for system description that allows us to analyze and guide the design of automated systems. Second, we analyze the way some highly adaptive systems such as swarms can be perceived by operators, and especially the way representational gaps between man and machine can impact global performances.
In the information systems (IS) domain, technology adoption has been one of the most extensively researched areas. Although in the last decade various models had been introduced to address the ...acceptance or rejection of information systems, there is still a lack of existing studies regarding a comprehensive review and classification of researches in this area. The main objective of this study is steered toward gaining a comprehensive understanding of the progresses made in the domain of IT adoption research, by highlighting the achievements, setbacks, and prospects recorded in this field so as to be able to identify existing research gaps and prospective areas for future research. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive review on the current state of IT adoption research. A total of 330 articles published in IS ranked journals between the years 2006 and 2015 in the domain of IT adoption were reviewed. The research scope was narrowed to six perspectives, namely year of publication, theories underlining the technology adoption, level of research, dependent variables, context of the technology adoption, and independent variables. In this research, information on trends in IT adoption is provided by examining related research works to provide insights and future direction on technology adoption for practitioners and researchers. This paper highlights future research paths that can be taken by researchers who wish to endeavor in technology adoption research. It also summarizes the key findings of previous research works including statistical findings of factors that had been introduced in IT adoption studies.
This article extends the economic-sociological concept of embeddedness to encompass not only social networks of, for example, friendship or kinship ties, but also economic networks of ownership and ...control relationships. Applying these ideas to the case of digital platform labour pinpoints two possible scenarios. When platforms take the role of market intermediaries, economic ties are thin and workers are left to their own devices, in a form of ‘disembeddedness’. When platforms partake in intricate inter-firm outsourcing structures, economic ties envelop workers in a ‘deep embeddedness’ which involves both stronger constraints and higher rewards. With this added dimension, the notion of embeddedness becomes a compelling tool to describe the social structures that frame economic action, including the power imbalances that characterize digital labour in the global economy.
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