Shane Schick writes: Cultural library to gauge how Canadians use technology, for itBusiness.ca.
...The University of Prince Edward Island Tuesday said it will be the first organization in Canada to use an IBM-built digital library to study how culture influences the way people can use technology to learn.
A custom-configured system, built on an IBM eServer Bladecenter running Content Manager and a number of applications out of the vendor's research division, is expected to arrive from IBM's Vancouver lab sometime later this month. IBM also announced a $1.3 million in-kind contribution to the project as part of a five-year agreement with the university.
The project is two-fold. Researchers within UPEI's Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Culture, Multimedia, Technology and Cognition will create the library with cultural artifacts from PEI and New Brunswick. They will then use this material in multimedia teaching environments and study how effective they are, developing courseware and methods of evaluation. Items in the library may include local folklore, musical literature and oral histories.
"We look at behaviour patterns, literally watching people learn," said Richard Kurial, dean of faculty of arts at PEIU. "Whether it's brain waves, heart beat, eye motion -- all of the kind of stuff that brings a certain psychological rigour." Kurial said the research team hopes to put together audio/visual records of how people learn to create exercises in positive teaching that will capture the nuances of Atlantic Canada...
K-Collector Topics: Content Management Influence literature Music research Writing IBM