Searching for "museum"

bluetooth and surveillance

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html

Recent reports have noted how companies use data gathered from cell towers, ambient Wi-Fi, and GPS. But the location data industry has a much more precise, and unobtrusive, tool: Bluetooth beacons.

Most people aren’t aware they are being watched with beacons, but the “beacosystem” tracks millions of people every day. Beacons are placed at airportsmallssubwaysbusestaxissporting arenasgymshotelshospitalsmusic festivalscinemas and museums, and even on billboards.

Companies like Reveal Mobile collect data from software development kits inside hundreds of frequently used apps. In the United States, another company, inMarket, covers 38 percent of millennial moms and about one-quarter of all smartphones, and tracks 50 million people each month. Other players have similar reach.

What is an S.D.K.?A Software Development Kit is code that’s inserted into an app and enables certain features, like activating your phone’s Bluetooth sensor. Location data companies create S.D.K.s and developers insert them into their apps, creating a conduit for recording and storing your movement data.

Beacons are also being used for smart cities initiatives. The location company Gimbal provided beacons for LinkNYC kiosks that provoked privacy concerns about tracking passers-by. Beacon initiatives have been started in other cities, including Amsterdam (in partnership with Google), London and Norwich.

Familiar tech giants are also players in the beacosystem. In 2015, Facebook began shipping free Facebook Bluetooth beacons to businesses for location marketing inside the Facebook app. Leaked documents show that Facebook worried that users would “freak out” and spread “negative memes” about the program. The company recently removed the Facebook Bluetooth beacons section from their website.

Not to be left out, in 2017, Google introduced Project Beacon and began sending beacons to businesses for use with Google Ads services. Google uses the beacons to send the businesses’ visitors notificationsthat ask them to leave photos and reviews, among other features. And last year, investigators at Quartz found that Google Android can track you using Bluetooth beacons even when you turn Bluetooth off in your phone.

Companies collecting micro-location data defend the practice by arguing that users can opt out of location services. They maintain that consumers embrace targeted ads because they’re more relevant.

You can download an app like Beacon Scanner and scan for beacons when you enter a store. But even if you detect the beacons, you don’t know who is collecting the data.

The Times’s guide on how to stop apps from tracking your location. For Android users, the F-Droid app store hosts free and open- source apps that do not spy on users with hidden trackers.

++++++++++++++++++++
More on surveillance in this IMS Blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance

eliminate librarians

Washington district latest to eliminate librarians

April 18, 2019

https://www.educationdive.com/news/washington-district-latest-to-eliminate-librarians/552914/

As school districts prioritize their budget needs for the coming year, there is a temptation to cut school librarian positions or reduce them to part-time status as some school districts are doing. The decision in SPS also comes as President Donald Trump, for a third time, has proposed to cut federal funding for the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which provides grants to both public and school libraries.

Research supports the impact that school librarians make on academic achievement, especially with regard to reading and writing scores. For instance, a Pennsylvania study cited in the Spokesman-Review article notes that 1.6% fewer students tested at the below basic level in reading when they had access to full-time librarians. The difference was even greater for minority students and those with disabilities, averaging at about a 5% improvement for those populations. Other research also supports the academic benefit of school librarians and demonstrates how they contribute to learning gains.

But modern school librarians offer so much more. They also teach digital literacy and digital citizenship in a day of easy access to misleading information and fake news. Many oversee makerspaces in libraries and learning centers that have been updated to meet a host of student needs. And they support teachers and administrators by researching information, helping with lesson plans, culling websites to create links that provide the most relevant information, and assisting with technology needs.

++++++++++
more on school librarians in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=school+librarian

online discussions activities

What Makes a Question Effective?

Thursday, April 18, 3:00–4:00 p.m. CDT

We answer the question we are asked. Asking good questions improves instructor/student communications and designing successful discussions begin by drafting good questions. Many of us are looking for ways to improve online discussion activities: let’s start with the questions we ask. Through a presentation and a facilitated discussion, we will explore how to get the type of responses we are looking for by looking at what makes a question effective.

About the presenter: Treden Wagoner, Instructional Designer, has an MA in Education and over 20 years’ teaching experience. He has specialized in education technology since 2002. As an instructional designer, Treden works with CEHD instructors to develop effective course sites and the integration of technology for teaching and learning. His interest in asking good questions began when he was an art museum educator.

Webinar details

Webinar link

Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019, 3:00−4:00 p.m. CDT

Code: 746 250 839

Password: MNLC@2019

+++++++++++++++

previous webinars’ recordings:

youtube iconLearning Commons YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL5D8pOXtaGRV512wUQt5Qg

++++++++++
more on instructional design in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=instructional+design

Conference on Digital Libraries

CM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries
June 2-6, 2019 – Urbana-Champaign, IL
Curated Knowledge. Connected People. Extraordinary Results.
UPDATED DEADLINE: January 25, 2019
JCDL welcomes interesting submissions ranging across theories, systems,
services, and applications. We invite those managing, operating, developing,
curating, evaluating, or utilizing digital libraries broadly defined, covering
academic or public institutions, including archives, museums, and social
networks. We seek involvement of those in iSchools, as well as working in
computer or information or social sciences and technologies. Multiple tracks
and sessions will ensure tailoring to researchers, practitioners, and diverse
communities including data science/analytics, data curation/stewardship,
information retrieval, human-computer interaction, hypertext (and Web/network
science), multimedia, publishing, preservation, digital humanities, machine
learning/AI, heritage/culture, health/medicine, policy, law, and privacy/
intellectual property.
Additional Topics of Interest:
In addition to the topics indicated above, the following are some of the many
topics that will be considered relevant, as long as connections are made to
digital libraries:
* Collaborative and participatory information environments
* Crowdsourcing and human computation
* Cyberinfrastructure architectures, applications, and deployments
* Distributed information systems
* Document genres
* Extracting semantics, entities, and patterns from large collections
* Information and knowledge systems
* Information visualization
* Infrastructure and service design
* Knowledge discovery
* Linked data and its applications
* Performance evaluation
* Personal digital information management
* Scientific data management
* Social media, architecture, and applications
* Social networks, virtual organizations and networked information
* User behavior and modeling
* User communities and user research
We invite submissions in many forms: short papers, long papers, panels,
posters, tutorials, and workshops. We also host a Doctoral Consortium.
Submission Deadlines:
Jan. 25, 2019 – Tutorial, workshop, full paper and short paper, and consortium
submissions
Jan. 29, 2019 – Panel, poster and demonstration submissions
Submissions are to be made in electronic format via the conference’s EasyChair
submission page. Please see the conference website for more details:
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F2019.jcdl.org%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cpmiltenoff%40stcloudstate.edu%7C51f8325dcd444ea9051b08d67affde34%7C5e40e2ed600b4eeaa9851d0c9dcca629%7C0&sdata=RaBtwLMPYb0gwcqsXHHXsNODc1UrU3w3BFtI7uMgtKY%3D&reserved=0
To maximize your use of LITA-L or to unsubscribe, see https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ala.org%2Flita%2Finvolve%2Femail&data=01%7C01%7Cpmiltenoff%40stcloudstate.edu%7C51f8325dcd444ea9051b08d67affde34%7C5e40e2ed600b4eeaa9851d0c9dcca629%7C0&sdata=panFuqJKW49%2B1XimfiRvGBQjgajRVMyCCIpXqpiPXbQ%3D&reserved=0

Evelyn Berezin

Evelyn Berezin, Computer Scientist Behind Groundbreaking Word Processor, Dies At 93

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/676024428/evelyn-berezin-computer-scientist-behind-groundbreaking-word-processor-dies-at-9

Evelyn Berezin, a computer scientist who designed the world’s first word processor, has died at the age of 93.

as she explained in an oral history interview, she was having trouble finding work in the physics field, so she started asking about computers — having barely even heard of them.

It wasn’t easy being a woman in the industry. In 1960, Berezin says she was offered a job at the New York Stock Exchange, as a vice president managing the computer system that handled their communications. But then the offer was retracted by the board of directors.

In 2006, Berezin was inducted into the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame, and she joined the Women In Technology Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2015, she became a fellow at the Computer History Museum.

Hololens in academic library

Blurred Lines—between virtual reality games, research, and education

http://library.ifla.org/2133/

p. 5 a LibGuide was created that provided a better description of the available software for both the Microsoft Hololens and the HTC Vive and also discussed potential applications for the technology.

Both the HTC Vive and the Hololens were made bookable through the library’s LibCalendar booking system, streamlining the booking process and creating a better user experience.

When the decision was made to bring virtual and augmented reality into the McGill University Library, an important aspect of this project was to develop a collection of related software to be used alongside the technology. In building this software collection a priority was placed on acquiring software that could be demonstrated as having educational value, or that could potentially be used in relation to, or in support of, university courses.

For the Microsoft Hololens, all software was acquired through Microsoft’s Online Store. The store has a number of educationally relevant HoloLens apps available for purchase. The app ARchitect, for example, gives a basic sense of how augmented reality could be used for viewing new building designs. The app Robotics BIW allows user to simulate robotic functions. A select number of apps, such as Land of the Dinosaurs and Boulevard, provide applications for natural history and art. There were a select number of apps related to science, mathematics and medicine, and others with artistic applications. All of the HoloLens applications were free but, compared to what is available for virtual reality, the experiences were much smaller in size and scope.

For the HoloLens, a generic user account was created and shared with person who booked the HoloLens at the time of their booking. After logging into this account – which could sometimes prove to be a challenge because typing is done using the headset’s gesture controls – the user could select a floating tile which would reveal a list of available software. An unresolved problem was that users would then need to refer to the HoloLens LibGuide for a detailed description of the software, or else choose software based on name alone, and the names were not always helpful.

For the Microsoft HoloLens, the three most popular software programs were Land of the Dinosaurs, Palmyra and Insight Heart. Insight Heart allow users to view and manipulate a 3D rendering of a high-resolution human heart, Land of the Dinosaurs provided an augment reality experience featuring 3D renderings of dinosaurs, and Palmyra gave an augmented reality tour of the ancient city of Palmyra.

p. 7 Though many students had ideas for research projects that could make use of the technology, there was no available software that would have allowed them to use augmented reality in the way they wanted. There were no students interested in developing their own software to be used with the technology either.

p. 8 we found that the Microsoft HoloLens received significant use from our patrons, we would recommend the purchase of one only for libraries serving researchers and developers.

++++++++++++

Getting Real in the Library: A Case Study at the University of Florida

Samuel R. Putnam and Sara Russell GonzalezIssue 39, 2018-02-05

Getting Real in the Library: A Case Study at the University of Florida

As an alternative, Microsoft offers a Hololens with enterprise options geared toward multiple users for $5000.

The transition from mobile app development to VR/AR technology also reflected the increased investment in VR/AR by some of the largest technology companies in the world. In the past four years, Facebook purchased the virtual reality company Oculus, Apple released the ARKit for developing augmented reality applications on iOS devices, Google developed Google Cardboard as an affordable VR option, and Sony released Playstation VR to accompany their gaming platform, just to name a few notable examples. This increase of VR/AR development was mirrored by a rise in student interest and faculty research in using and creating new VR/AR content at UF.

+++++++++++

Arnhem, J.-P. van, Elliott, C., & Rose, M. (2018). Augmented and Virtual Reality in Libraries. Rowman & Littlefield.
https://books.google.com/books?id=PslaDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA205&ots=HT7qTY-16o&dq=hololens%20academic%20library&lr&pg=PA214#v=onepage&q=hololens%20academic%20library&f=false
360 degree video in library instruction
+++++++++++++++
Hammady, R., & Ma, M. (2018). Designing Spatial UI as a Solution of the Narrow FOV of Microsoft HoloLens: Prototype of Virtual Museum Guide. In Proceedings of the 4th International AR & VR Conference 2018. Springer. Retrieved from https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/4799/
‘HoloMuse’ that engage users with archaeological artefacts through gesture-based interactions (Pollalis, Fahnbulleh, Tynes, & Shaer, 2017). Another research utilised HoloLens to provide in-situ assistant for users (Blattgerste, Strenge, Renner, Pfeiffer, & Essig, 2017). HoloLens also used to provide magnification for low vision users by complementary finger-worn camera alongside with the HMD (Stearns, DeSouza, Yin, Findlater, & Froehlich, 2017). Even in the medical applications, HoloLens contributed in 3D visualisation purposes using AR techniques (Syed, Zakaria, & Lozanoff, 2017) and provide optimised measurements in medical surgeries(Pratt et al., 2018) (Adabi et al., 2017). Application of HoloLens extended to visualise prototype designs (DeLaOsa, 2017) and showed its potential in gaming industry (Volpe, 2015) (Alvarez, 2015) and engaging cultural visitors with gaming activities (Raptis, Fidas, & Avouris, 2017).
++++++++++++
van Arnhem, J.-P., & Spiller, J. M. (2014). Augmented Reality for Discovery and Instruction. Journal of Web Librarianship, 8(2), 214–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2014.904208

+++++++++++

Evaluating the Microsoft HoloLens through an augmented reality assembly application
Proceedings Volume 10197, Degraded Environments: Sensing, Processing, and Display 2017; 101970V (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2262626
Event: SPIE Defense + Security, 2017, Anaheim, California, United States
To assess the HoloLens’ potential for delivering AR assembly instructions, the cross-platform Unity 3D game engine was used to build a proof of concept application. Features focused upon when building the prototype were: user interfaces, dynamic 3D assembly instructions, and spatially registered content placement. The research showed that while the HoloLens is a promising system, there are still areas that require improvement, such as tracking accuracy, before the device is ready for deployment in a factory assembly setting.
+++++++++++
Pollalis, C., Fahnbulleh, W., Tynes, J., & Shaer, O. (2017). HoloMuse: Enhancing Engagement with Archaeological Artifacts Through Gesture-Based Interaction with Holograms. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (pp. 565–570). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3024969.3025094
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315472858_HoloMuse_Enhancing_Engagement_with_Archaeological_Artifacts_through_Gesture-Based_Interaction_with_Holograms
++++++++++++++
Gračanin, D., Ciambrone, A., Tasooji, R., & Handosa, M. (2017). Mixed Library — Bridging Real and Virtual Libraries. In S. Lackey & J. Chen (Eds.), Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (pp. 227–238). Springer International Publishing.
We use Microsoft HoloLens device to augment the user’s experience in the real library and to provide a rich set of affordances for embodied and social interactions.We describe a mixed reality based system, a prototype mixed library, that provides a variety of affordances to support embodied interactions and improve the user experience.

++++++++++++

Dourish, P. (n.d.). Where the Action Is. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/where-action
embodied interactions
Computer science as an engineering discipline has been spectacularly successful. Yet it is also a philosophical enterprise in the way it represents the world and creates and manipulates models of reality, people, and action. In this book, Paul Dourish addresses the philosophical bases of human-computer interaction. He looks at how what he calls “embodied interaction”—an approach to interacting with software systems that emphasizes skilled, engaged practice rather than disembodied rationality—reflects the phenomenological approaches of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and other twentieth-century philosophers. The phenomenological tradition emphasizes the primacy of natural practice over abstract cognition in everyday activity. Dourish shows how this perspective can shed light on the foundational underpinnings of current research on embodied interaction. He looks in particular at how tangible and social approaches to interaction are related, how they can be used to analyze and understand embodied interaction, and how they could affect the design of future interactive systems.

++++++++++

Pollalis, C., Fahnbulleh, W., Tynes, J., & Shaer, O. (2017). HoloMuse: Enhancing Engagement with Archaeological Artifacts Through Gesture-Based Interaction with Holograms. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (pp. 565–570). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3024969.3025094
HoloMuse, an AR application for the HoloLens wearable device, which allows users to actively engage with archaeological artifacts from a museum collection
pick up, rotate, scale, and alter a hologram of an original archeological artifact using in-air gestures. Users can also curate their own exhibit or customize an existing one by selecting artifacts from a virtual gallery and placing them within the physical world so that they are viewable only using the device. We intend to study the impact of HoloMuse on learning and engagement with college-level art history and archeology students.
++++++++++++

Dugas, Z., & Kerne Andruld. (2007). Location-Aware Augmented Reality Gaming for Emergency Response Education: Concepts and Development. ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242295040_Location-Aware_Augmented_Reality_Gaming_for_Emergency_Response_Education_Concepts_and_Development

+++++++++++

Library Spaces II: The IDEA Lab at the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center

https://prism.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/handle/1880/52190/DL5_mischo_IDEA_Lab2.pdf

++++++++++
more on Hololens in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=hololens

Assyrian king Ashurbanipal

‘Some of the most appalling images ever created’ – I Am Ashurbanipal review

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/06/i-am-ashurbanipal-review-british-museum

You have to hand it to the ancient Assyrians – they were honest. Their artistic propaganda relishes every detail of torture, massacre, battlefield executions and human displacement that made Assyria the dominant power of the Middle East from about 900 to 612BC. Assyrian art contains some of the most appalling images ever created. In one scene, tongues are being ripped from the mouths of prisoners. That will mute their screams when, in the next stage of their torture, they are flayed alive. In another relief a surrendering general is about to be beheaded and in a third prisoners have to grind their fathers’ bones before being executed in the streets of Nineveh.

+++++++++++
more on history in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=history

sock from ancient Egypt

Imaging tool unravels secrets of child’s sock from ancient Egypt

Non-invasive technique devised by British Museum sheds light on dyeing and weaving process

 Thu 4 Oct 2018 

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/04/imaging-tool-unravels-secrets-of-childs-sock-from-ancient-egypt

Scientists at the British Museum have developed pioneering imaging to discover how enterprising Egyptians used dyes on a child’s sock, recovered from a rubbish dump in ancient Antinoupolis in Roman Egypt, and dating from 300AD.

Iron Age Sword

8-Year-Old Girl Discovers Iron Age Sword In Swedish Lake

October 4, 20187:16 PM ET   https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/654524234/8-year-old-girl-discovers-iron-age-sword-in-swedish-lake

According to the museum, the sword is about 33 inches long and “exceptionally well-preserved.” It even has a sheath made of wood and leather.

Further searching in the lake yielded a piece of metal jewelry from A.D. 300-400.

Saga Vanecek

An iron age sword was discovered by an 8-year-old girl who was wading in a lake this summer in southern Sweden, in what local authorities called

+++++++++++++
more on history in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=history

men in humanities

We Need More Men in the Humanities

Around the turn of the millennium, American society realized a looming crisis: the lack of female representation in STEM fields. But today we are witnessing a crisis of male leadership in a variety of workplaces. From the president to CEOs of major companies to actors and power players in Hollywood, the past several months have exposed the toxic work environments they preside over or worsen in scandal after scandal. Though different in nature, this crisis is of equal importance as the STEM shortage. Yet, to date, no prominent solutions or interventions have been seriously proposed. In contrast, a quick Google search brings up dozens of programs for girls in STEM, but not one national program appears for boys in the arts and humanities.
latest indicators of the demographics and earnings of public school humanities teachers — most of whom are women and many of whom aren’t paid well — underscore that we need more men in the arts and humanities.
 The Humanities Indicators report that, “As of 2015, women earned 61 percent of all master’s and professional-practice degrees in the humanities and 54 percent of the doctoral degrees in the field.” And the latest report on public school teachers found that “76 percent of humanities teachers were women, the largest share among subject specialists.” When male K-12 role models barely exist in these disciplines, what message does that send to our young boys and men?
You may have heard of Girls Who Code, the National Girls Collaborative Project, the National Math and Science Initiative, the Women in Engineering Proactive Network or the Million Women Mentors. Those programs are increasing the number of STEM graduates over all and injecting some much-needed diversity into the fields.
But our society suffers when boys and men are actively discouraged from pursuing their interests in the arts and humanities. The cycle of toxic masculinity starts early. Boys are often told not to cry or show emotion. They are socially trained to repress it, and they take pride in this false resilience.
the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. In an annual event called “Cops and Docs,” accomplished medical professionals and highly trained police officers take a group trip to the museum. Over the course of the evening, mixed groups of cops and docs look at paintings, sculptures and other works of art, and they then share their answers to a pretty basic question: What do you see?
Another program, “The Art of Perception,” takes police detectives, FBI agents and high-ranking Secret Service and CIA executives to well-known museums and galleries like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection to observe works by Picasso, Caravaggio, Edward Hopper and other masters. Program creator Amy E. Herman says the exercise is “not about looking at art. It’s about talking about what you see.
4Humanities, a nonprofit concerned with the role and perception of the humanities in public. For more information, please see: http://www.christinehenseler.com or http://4humanities.org/.

+++++++++++++
more on male students in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2014/09/19/less-boys-more-girls-in-college/

1 2 3 4 5 6