Steph's Adventure in the Woods: blog Archives

Index - blog

300 (January 27, 2010)
On pageload counts (January 26, 2010)
Bye bye rainbows (November 16, 2009)
255 (November 15, 2009)
New feature - commenters (August 06, 2009)
Changed my blog title (February 24, 2009)
Get Clicky (February 24, 2009)
Blogroll (February 06, 2009)
Reorganized! (February 01, 2009)
About Me (February 01, 2009)
Long time no see... (April 19, 2008)
Meta-blogging? (February 25, 2007)
Filler Entry (February 19, 2007)
Some stylesheet changes... (November 07, 2006)

January 27, 2010

300

This is my 300th entry on this blog. Wheee!

Posted by Frozone January 27, 2010 08:16 AM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

January 26, 2010

On pageload counts

I have a stat counter on this page that tells me I average about 25 hits per day. But my counter is designed such that the hit is tracked when folks load up the main web page; it doesn't count the RSS feed. I was also thinking that most of the people who read this blog out of interest in the topic or they know me personally are the ones subscribing via RSS, whereas most of the hits from the main page, usually via search, are from folks who accidentally stumble on this blog while they are actually looking for something else. I get lots of weird hits from people looking for images which I've used as examples in the past, or, people searching for lines of poetry that I'd quoted before.

I guess I'm just musing about how much things have changed and about how people use the 'web is different than when the original stat counter was invented. Use of the web is not as much about surfing around and following the links as it used to be. Would I be wrong if I proposed that the average "web path" 10 years ago was longer than it is now? Hmmm, I wonder.... :-)

I would like to dedicate this post to Dora the Explorer, who is keeping the kiddo entertained long enough for me to type this.

Posted by Frozone January 26, 2010 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

November 16, 2009

Bye bye rainbows

I'm thinking about taking down the rainbow that's currently splashed across the top of this blog. It doesn't really suit me anymore.

Take one last look! heh.

Posted by Frozone November 16, 2009 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

November 15, 2009

255

This is post #255 on this blog.

That is all. heh.

Posted by Frozone November 15, 2009 08:57 AM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

August 06, 2009

New feature - commenters

If you click on "Blog" in the rainbow navigational menu plastered across the top of this site (tee hee, how I love rainbows!), you will find a new heading on that page called Commenters. This section lists all the people who have ever commented on this blog. Yay!

Posted by Frozone August 06, 2009 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

February 24, 2009

Changed my blog title

I changed the title of my blog. I wanted a name that had some meaning for me. The original name, "Steph's U of S Community blog" came from the days when I was employed at the separate school division office, and, one day I discovered the university's new blog service. At the time, the school division was just looking at using blogs (now proliferous!) and at the time I thought it would be neat to network with the university world and blog about common goals and experiences.

How this blog has changed! Instead, it has turned into a personal blog about my research interests.

The new name -- "Steph's Adventure in the Woods" has a few stories behind it, so I'll tell you here!

First, there's a metaphor of "The Woods" as research. On my adventure, it's exciting and there are surprises and treasures to find all over the place. It's also challenging to navigate and I get lost sometimes. I don't always know where I'm going but look up at the stars and the sun for inspiration. (Gosh, I'm cheesy.)

The background graphic of my blog is also conveniently wood-ish, with the sky and trees. By the way, here's the original image where I got the trees from. The pic is from the summer of 2006, about a 10 minute walk from our house. (I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world!)

I also changed the subtitle of my blog. Originally, it read "A computer science student's personal research notes". However, I am no longer a student, and now that I have a baby daughter, I might not be able to become a student again for a long time. Instead, the subtitle is now "A computer scientist's personal research notes." Even as I'm a mommy, and at work I'm a "Coordinator - Online Support" and one day I hope to eventually be a "Grad Student", throughout all of this I am perpetually a computer scientist. :-D

Posted by Frozone February 24, 2009 05:55 PM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

Get Clicky

I heard via Twitter about a new tool for monitoring traffic on your website: Clicky Web Analytics. The interface is fresher than the current tool I'm using. 'Going to try this new one for a while and if I like it, I'll switch over my other projects. There is an option to upgrade to a premium service for $$$, however you can continue to use Clicky for free with a couple limitations (they only keep your data for 30 days, and there's a limit of 3000 daily page view trackings).

Posted by Frozone February 24, 2009 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

February 06, 2009

February 01, 2009

Reorganized!

There, I added a nice menu bar across the top. You can visit my research index (an overview "by concept", which I was whining about earlier), the blog index (so I still kinda adhere to blogging culture by letting people find all my posts chronologically), or, visit an about me page. I felt like I needed 3 menu options, so "About me" got tacked on to the end.

Posted by Frozone February 01, 2009 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

About Me

Welcome to my blog! This is primarily a research blog where I share my ideas and notes. I also write occasionally about being a woman in computer science, or about how parenting affects my research.

My primary research interest is applied artificial intelligence in education. I am also interested in cognitive science, phenomenology, educational psychology and pedagogy. I completed my B.Sc.H. in Computer Science in 2004 and plan to apply for grad studies for September 2010.

To find out more about the title of this blog, read this.

Other "me" stuff:

Quizzes

I am nerdier than 68% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

Posted by Frozone February 01, 2009 11:20 PM | Comments (5)
categorized under blog

April 19, 2008

Long time no see...

Hello, Blog!

Wow, it's been over 2 months sine I've paid any attention here. Even then, I haven't really done a lot of serious research here since... well, I guess I got a pretty good entry in at Christmas time and over New Year's.

But this isn't to say I haven't been doing research at all, lately! On the contrary: since September, I've taken 2 AI classes and have learned quite a lot. Much of it is still sinking in, and some of it probably won't click until I see the concepts applied myself as I continue to hunt around in search of whatever I'm searching for. I think that this education will help me to "grow up" in terms of reacting to new ideas (including my own) and to be able to perceive them in the context of modern AI. Since my free time is no longer being poured into assignments, I hope to start spending more time here again.

One of the first things I anticipate doing is tackling my "Index" from February 2007. Skimming over it even now, I can see several glaring AI concepts that I was obviously trying to find, but just didn't know how to name them before.

Also: since the last entry, I've learned that I'm pregnant! My husband and I are really excited, and so are our families and friends. Right now, I'm at roughly 4 months or approximately 17 weeks. For the last week or so, I've been able to feel my baby moving around. People tell me I'm not supposed to feel this until 20 weeks or so, but the books say that if you are a woman of smaller stature (which I am) you may feel your baby sooner. I figure that's what's happening to me.

James and I have decided that if it's a girl, we'll name her Sophia, which means "wisdom". If it's a boy, will name him Thomas, which is James's grandfather's name on his father's side.

Well, time to go move the laundry and clean up the kitchen. Laters!

Posted by Frozone April 19, 2008 05:58 PM | Comments (2)
categorized under blog

February 25, 2007

Meta-blogging?

'So I've got this new component to my website.

*points down*

See that black box? That's me, trying to think 3rd-dimensionally. See, this Movable Type blogging system is great in that I can categorize my entries by labelling each with a tag, and, I can even organize my categories into hierarchies.

However, if I want to take a really big step back and trace through all of the themes, patterns and lines of throught, like a needle poking through each blog entry.... then I struggle with how to represent this "Meta-blogging". I considered making a Category called Meta-blog and organizing sub-categories under there, but that was WAY too time-consuming, especially given that my 3rd-dimensional vision will change around a lot, and I want it to be flexible.

My first solution was to use my good 'ol coiled Hilroy notebook and my Crayola markers. It was great for about a week. Then, I started missing the ability to add new lines between other lines without running out of space. I also had forgotten how much I use the "Search" box on my own blog! lol

Besides, it's nice to have all my notes back on the blog again. =)

Twelve pages in my Hilroy notebook are now living in the black box below. I've just coded up the ordered list within my Main Index template in Movable Type. Ideally, this black box should be just another blog-entry, but I can't figure out how to use Moveble Type tags to disply 1 specific entry.

So anyways, today's content is in the black box.

Posted by Frozone February 25, 2007 08:48 AM | Comments (4)
categorized under blog

February 19, 2007

Filler Entry

test test

.... Hum, hum. I have just discovered that my blog collapses into a horizontal mess if I don't have any recent postings. (Hence this little "filler" post.) 'Mental note to go adjust some CSS-width-settings in my page divisions.

Life has been busy lately; Oh, how I wish there were more hours in a day! (Don't we all!) I presently have a splitting headache. 'Don't think I will be posting much today. I wonder how many painkillers a person can safely take in a day. Yup, I better just go lie down. Goodnight!

Steph

Posted by Frozone February 19, 2007 02:06 PM | Comments (1)
categorized under blog

November 07, 2006

Some stylesheet changes...

"Enough with the pink polka-dots," I figured. They were just so two-dimensional.

Both the tree graphic and sky graphic come from some of the pictures my husband and I took on one of our Sunday walks through the park.

I'll keep tweaking away at the stylesheet; given the opportunity, I do enjoy playing with site designs. The only thing I'm unhappy about is that Microsoft Internet Explorer is apparently incapable of displaying alpha-channel transparencies in a PNG image. (If you are an IE user, I recommend checkin' out this site in Firefox, it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

In other news, I've caught up on my reading on situation calculus and also learned a little about event calculus. I found myself wondering about threaded applications with multiple agents, thinking that the latter calculus' attention to time is significant.

Weee, time for me to go make some Tuna Chowder. I hope I have enough cheese.

Posted by Frozone November 07, 2006 05:50 PM | Comments (0)
categorized under blog

Index to Steph's Notes

Feb. 24th 2007 - Weee! This new part of my website is not an entry, but rather a permanent fixture whose purpose is to "Look Down on All Those Notes With Some Grand Vision of Organization". Wish me luck. LOL

Representing meta-data (fuel) & the different kinds of "hooks" that intelligent systems can use (how fuel is injected into the motor of the engine)

Motivation: Semantic net / Rationalizable to a machine

Technology & Philosophy: RDF, modus ponens,

Predicates, Logic & situation calculus

When in doubt, do some math

What kinds of data? - What kinds of meta-data would an AIEd system possibly need, and how is it represented?

task domain knowledge
"is-prerequisite-to"-type knowledge

Jackpot! A pedagogical ontology

interactions with learning objects & other learners - (location, composition is-a/part-of, sequencing by restricting navigation, personalization, ontologies for LO context)

Types of 'Ecological' data

lesson plans, curriculum plans, practicing sessions (What is stored, what is generated on the fly? What is remembered?)

Agent memory

How to organize it - When is it stored in a database? Meta-data? Agent memory banks? Protocols? Repositories? XML files? Home-servers? WSDL services? Frameworks? Portable banks? P2P access?

Database of object-agent interactions
Concept of "Home" on a P2P network -- maybe the bulk of a learning object's usage data is on its home server and can be queried using WSDL or something ? Similar homes for each student's usage history, etc. Baggage problem.

Links to the ontologies

referring to a concept/relationship - ex. AgentOwl?

Generation of this data

Rationalization: For use by other AIEd systems
What is generated - discuss items under part I.C.
When it's generated - describe procedural model, which parts of the engine generate what (isa-part-of data, XML feeds, web services, meta data bout groups and collaboration, protocols, examples Friend of A Friend FOAF project)

Thinking about the system's RDF output

Technical notes of HOW it's generated: JENA, issues of implementation demo, my Hermione & Ron agent examples, lol
Usage of this generated data - see part IV. A.

Given the engine, who uses it?

Students / Learners / "Me"

instructional planning, student model, pre-requisites, tutoring, coaching, collaboration,constructivism

Teachers / Educators / "Me"

putting together lessons
be able to browse through task domain knowledge in an objective / encyclopaedia format, then be able to pick-and-choose what you need for your students
compose examples, design explanations, pull together diagrams, learning objects, etc. Haystack Relo?

Administration / Governement / Structure / Crowd Control

as restrictions/obstacles/sand pit to the robot in agent environment
can't just have a swarm of students and teachers out there -- need structure of courses, curriculum, objectives, requirements (at least, we do in this day and age!) - Report cards, evaluation, feedback
government, marks, certificates, requirements, funding, curriclum, attendance, delinquent, non-attending, motivation
school''s images, goals, strengths, payroll, HR, security, accounts, permissions, privacy
registration, failed courses

User Environment -- How does this engine work? What does the user see on the screen?

Introduction - Given a background in educational psychology, how does the system present itself -- what does the user see, and were does this data come from? Links to thoughts from part I.)
Task Domain Browsing - Suppose you're you're just idly browsing through the "raw" content. How would it look when it's not wrapped around a learning-context or lesson or tutorial or anything. 'Cross between browsing a raw task domain ontology and browsing a learning object repository.
1. Cleaning up the data -- Visualizing the data for humans to pick through the task domain and work on it. Suppose the "Subject Expert" discovers an advancement in science and needs to update the "world's" domain knowledge. (I used the "Subject Expert" terminology from Ontologies to Support Learning Design Context - Thanks Chris) How would they make corrections to ontologies and learning objects, or at least point the users of "old" objects towards adopting the newer ones.
2. "Modes" - Learning & Lessons / Checklist - Homework, Assignments, Courses being taken / Collaborative mode / Teaching mode / Calendar- email -adminisrative mode -- See also the different kinds of scenarios in the ActiveMath system

Evolution of this engine

target some key implementation hooks discussed in part I - design an experiment/demo

scrape a page - (Note, scraping can only give objective data, not in-context dat)
LO repository - related to browsing the task domain?
a learners "To Do" list - where does it come from? Assignments, courses.
sample group scenario
sample teacher lesson planning
sample data "left behind"
sample use of that data

Data mining (for what? lol )

discovery / generation of ontologies - when do you need to hunt for them, and when do you have to have a solidly-known & predictable ontology?

Ontological Engineering: taking a first bite

I/O - where it happens, which languages, protocols, which agents perform i/o and when, precepts, actuators

Role Assignments

Levels of authorization in web applications

My Environment Adapts to me

Displaying feedback from the server on JSP pages (Software engineering considerations)
Sketching out a design (Content planning vs. Delivery planning)

agent negotiations / social structures / ummm... Web 2.0 ?
1. Towards student modelling
2. Anatomy of an agent

garbage collection of meta data

Artificial Intelligence & Evolution

open learning environments

Agents, pets, grouping, Community modelling

Protocols - finding groups, cyber dollars, state diagrams (?)
"Community Studies" - graphs & communication hubs, types of communities (free-for-all, hierarchy of authority, etc.)
implications of joining a community - what do you share, which parts of your student model are relevant
Walls & sand traps -- deliberate restrictions as problem-solving for learning
Communication channels - individual-to-individual, individual-to-community, chat channels, agent-only "administrative" communications, ex. requests for related learning objects in a particular community, etc.

Educational/Pedagogical focus (this part probably shouldn't be its own section but rather incorporated into the whole picture, but it's separate for me right now because I'm still only just starting to learn about it.)

Semantics - what there is to talk about in Education
1. ex. Merril's First Principles of Instruction, linking educational terms to AI terms
  1. Educating myself about education
Pedagogical skills for tutors -- supporting human *and* artifical tutors
Student modelling - what the machine needs to know about the student, pedagogically-speaking, about learning history/preferences
Roles - Simulated students, Coaches, Tutors, Teachers,