Papers by Margarita Esponda-Argüero
International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 2008
This paper describes a system for generating animations of algorithms for use in the classroom. T... more This paper describes a system for generating animations of algorithms for use in the classroom. The animations emulate the individual steps of an algorithm in graphical form and can be posted to the Web. The system is based in Flash. In order to generate an animation the code of an algorithm is extended with annotations which generate the script code. We call our scripting language "Flashdance".
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 2008
This paper describes a system for electronic voting in the classroom based on mobile devices. The... more This paper describes a system for electronic voting in the classroom based on mobile devices. There is no need for special hardware. Cellular telephones or iPods with access to the Internet can be used for electronic polling. The system is so flexible, that the questions can be handwritten on the blackboard, on the spot, then generating automatically a web address which can be accessed with the voting device. Electronic voting can be started spontaneously without tedious preparations. This approach can be seamlessly integrated in E-Chalk, our electronic classroom software.
In this paper we show how video recordings of lectures can be enhanced through "social editi... more In this paper we show how video recordings of lectures can be enhanced through "social editing", a special sort of "human computation". We record lectures using six cameras arranged to produce a panoramic view (360 degrees) of the classroom. After recording, viewers can replay the lectures on a computer and can navigate through them tilting and zooming a virtual camera. All user interactions are recorded by the system, and are later used to decide which views should be stored and their zoom level. The result is an automatically edited video as a result of the social navigation of the first few initial viewers of the lecture.
Title and Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Algorithmic Animation in ... more Title and Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Algorithmic Animation in Education 2 Survey of Algorithmic Animation Platforms 3 Principles of Algorithmic Animation 4 Chalk Animator - Algorithmic Animation for an Electronic Chalkboard 5 Interactive Computer Driven Animation of Sketches 6 Flashdance - An Algorithmic Animation Platform for the Web 7 Conclusions and Future Work 8 Summary of Contributions References
Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2008
This article is a review of the pedagogical experience obtained with systems for algorithmic anim... more This article is a review of the pedagogical experience obtained with systems for algorithmic animation. Algorithms consist of a sequence of operations whose effect on data structures can be visualized using a computer. Students learn algorithms by stepping the animation through the different individual operations, possibly reversing their effect. Algorithmic animation seems to improve the student's understanding of algorithms, but mainly when they can become active participants, not just spectators. Students who write their own algorithmic animations are more engaged and can profit more from them. At the end of this article, we extract some consequences for the development of future algorithmic animation systems.
Techniques for visualizing data structures in algorithmic animations
Information Visualization, 2009
This paper deals with techniques for the design and production of appealing algorithmic animation... more This paper deals with techniques for the design and production of appealing algorithmic animations and their use in computer science education. A good visual animation is both a technical artifact and a work of art that can greatly enhance the understanding of an algorithm's workings. In the first part of the paper, I show that awareness of the composition principles used by other animators and visual artists can help programmers to create better algorithmic animations. The second part shows how to incorporate those ideas in novel animation systems, which represent data structures in a visually intuitive manner. The animations described in this paper have been implemented and used in the classroom for courses at university level.
International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2016
In order to reduce the passivity of students and enhance their learning experience in large lectu... more In order to reduce the passivity of students and enhance their learning experience in large lectures, we developed a browser-based tool called Classroom Interacter to promote classroom interaction. It allows students to use their own mobile devices to participate in the learning process. The main features of Classroom Interacter include live voting, status setting and question sending. The evaluation results showed that, students were satisfied with the usability and felt it was helpful for their study. Although distraction was reported by some students, the system received very positive evaluations. Most students showed their willingness to use Classroom Interacter in the future.
EDULEARN19 Proceedings, 2019
In the Mexican National Education System the standardized measures like the National Assessment o... more In the Mexican National Education System the standardized measures like the National Assessment of Academic Achievement in Schools (ENLACE), Quality Exams and Educational Achievement (EXCALE) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) have shown that the learning deficit of Mexican students in basic skills such as mathematics and reading comprehension are not adequate for a society with sustainable growth. In view of this, the need arises to create support strategies for the teaching-learning process at the national and state level. In the case of the state of Campeche, located in the Mexican southeast, regardless of the psycho pedagogical strategies, the state government has implemented various projects for the use of Information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. In Mexico, the penetration of ICT is relatively low (less than 30% of the population) but the weight of technology is increasing. These data suggest that students and teachers are permanent users...
Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces, 2016
We have built a display wall system with four liquid crystal displays to provide a very large vis... more We have built a display wall system with four liquid crystal displays to provide a very large visual area for university lectures. A program was developed to transform the display wall into an electronic blackboard. It has been used in a long-term classroom practice. Based on the research results, we demonstrate the benefits of the digital multi-display system for classroom learning.
Technological Adaptability in Educational Technology: A Case Study
INTED2016 Proceedings, 2016
International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 2014
Pen-based technologies can be combined with different kinds of hardware and software to gain peda... more Pen-based technologies can be combined with different kinds of hardware and software to gain pedagogical benefits on blended learning applications. Particularly, digital ink and handwriting recognition furnish the convenience to access, navigate and manipulate data more easily. It is also well know that user interfaces for pen computing can be implemented in several ways, with different techniques and for several kinds of applications. A modular programming architecture for pen-based digital ink was developed in order to provide a robust, reliable, usable and sustainable multimedia technology for a blended learning application. We present this approach and the respective advantages.
International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 2014
We present a new interactive multimedia system for blended learning called PowerChalk. The goal o... more We present a new interactive multimedia system for blended learning called PowerChalk. The goal of PowerChalk is to provide a robust, reliable, usable and sustainable multimedia technology to any intelligent environment focused on blended learning. The software architecture allows adapting the system to any hardware configuration and supports collaboration, communication, creativity and learning. In this sense, PowerChalk resolves many limitations of current e-learning systems, improves human-computer interaction for the management of different kinds of hardware and data and allows to implement different configurations for intelligent environments. Index Terms-Multimedia technologies, blended learning, intelligent environments, pen-based user interfaces, modular programming.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004
This paper describes a system for the animation of algorithms on an electronic chalkboard. The in... more This paper describes a system for the animation of algorithms on an electronic chalkboard. The instructor teaching an algorithm can enter data directly through a drawingthe algorithm then makes use of this data, for exam-pIe numbers, or the image of a graph. The drawing becomes alive. The result is a more natural way of teaching and starting algorithmic animations. The paper also describes how to couple a sign and handwritingrecognition engine with the animation system. The lecturer can then write programs using her own handwriting, and the prograrnsruns. All animations can be enriched with sound and explanationsfrom the lecturer and can be posted to the Web.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2015
Blended learning systems have become more popular than e-learning systems or even more than conve... more Blended learning systems have become more popular than e-learning systems or even more than conventional educational methodologies. On Blended learning systems, the learners can view teaching materials asynchronously from different sources and collaborate with their peers and also they get the necessary face to face interaction with the instructor in the classroom. PowerChalk has arisen as the result from the analysis of several systems for E-Learning; it was designed to resolve an important limitation of current design methods: adaptability. In terms of adaptability, we have to consider that parallel to the evolution of e-learning methodologies, the intelligent agent paradigm has generated interest in many applications specially in order to support scaffolding activities and problem solving. It is for this reason that in this paper presents the develop of a Multi-Agent System (MAS) on the Pow-erChalk system, a blended learning application that provide a robust, reliable, usable and sustainable multimedia technology for collaborative learning.
Autonomy or interdependence in distributed systems?
Proceedings of the 3rd workshop on ACM SIGOPS European workshop Autonomy or interdependence in distributed systems? - EW 3, 1988
... ',yju,,,=d together to " . . . . either ~,e ..... u~p~,,~er,~]y or eise io~nea ........ more ... ',yju,,,=d together to " . . . . either ~,e ..... u~p~,,~er,~]y or eise io~nea ..... in o~ner ..... bv~ ]:)[L 'd~. ,/eLi " wv~ u~., ]t IS bv:..~lr)le""" tO ;din .... it~e, v~p..nuen~,y"~ ~ "~ Lv..J~,,., au~vr, omuu.l~, and I> arguat, ly natur-a; ,... do so. ...
ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 1992
A graphical approach for the comparison of RISC processors is presented in this note. Kiviat grap... more A graphical approach for the comparison of RISC processors is presented in this note. Kiviat graphs summarize some of the most relevant architectural parameters of RISC designs in a more appealing manner as tables of parameters.
Simulation einer parallelen Prolog-Maschine mit Modula-2
Informatik-Fachberichte, 1987
Prolog ist eine relativ junge Programmiersprache, die in den letzten Jahren viel an Popularitat g... more Prolog ist eine relativ junge Programmiersprache, die in den letzten Jahren viel an Popularitat gewonnen hat. Auschlaggebend fur den Erfolg von Prolog war, das es sich um die erste Sprache handelt, in der das Paradigma der logischen Programmierung auf eine effiziente Weise implementiert ist. Das Ideal des Logischen Programmierer sieht vor, die Algorithmen einer Berechnung in einen Kontroll- und Logikteil deutlich zu trennen. Der Programmierer braucht dann nur die Logik anzugeben und der Computer leitet aus dieser Information die notwendigen einzelnen Schritte ab. Anders gesagt: ein Logisches Programm enthalt nur logische Beziehungen und Regeln fur die Durchfuhrung der gewunschten Berechnung. Diese konnen statisch interpretiert werden, d.h. der Programmierer sollte eigentlich nicht mehr im Kopf das Programm selbst „ausfuhren“, wie das in anderen Programmiersprachen notig ist. Damit wird der von der von-Neumann-Architektur erzeugte intellektuelle Flaschenhals [Backus 1978] weiter abgebaut. So wie in funktionellen Programmiersprachen der Programmierer sich nicht mehr selbst um die Garbage Collection kummert (dies wird von einem in Software oder Hardware implementierten Garbage Collector erledigt), so kummert sich der Programmierer in der Logischen Programmierung nur um die Logik des Problems, nicht aber um die Kontrolle. Im Endeffekt sollte dies dazu fuhren, das Computer in naturlicher Sprache gestellte Probleme losen konnen. Nur die Logik mus stimmen, die Kontrollinformation wird automatisch generiert.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2013
This paper present a new interactive e-learning application called PowerChalk. PowerChalk arises ... more This paper present a new interactive e-learning application called PowerChalk. PowerChalk arises as the result from the analysis of the evolution of Information Systems Design Theory for E-Learning; it was designed to resolve an important limitation of current design methods and e-learning systems: adaptability. Modular programming is the design technique used in PowerChalk to improve human computer interaction with the management of different types of data in order to have positive effect on both learning score and learning satisfaction. PowerChalk works like a Transaction Processing System in order to support collaboration, communication, creativity and learning through a collection of organized modules. The characteristics of PowerChalk facilitate developing of competencies for using multimedia technologies in any learning session taking into account the teacher and student perspective. The goal of PowerChalk is to provide a robust, reliable, usable and sustainable multimedia technology for collaborative learning.
Uploads
Papers by Margarita Esponda-Argüero