Siri Fagernes

Dyslexic students in higher education and virtual learning environments: an exploratory study

This paper presents the results of an interview-based study of the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) among dyslexic students. Interviews were carried out with 12 informants who had been formally diagnosed as dyslexic. The informants were either enrolled in a university or college programme, or had graduated less than a year before the interview. The findings reveal that dyslexic students experience a number of challenges associated with VLE use, including information overload, imperfect word processing tools, inadequate search functions, and having to relate to more than one system at a time.

On the stability of adaptive Service Level Agreements

We consider some implications of non-linear feedback, due to policy combinatorics, on policy-based management of networked services. We pay special attention to the case where the monitoring of certain aspects of Service Level Agreements is used to alter future policy dynamically, according to a control feedback scheme. Using two simple models, we show that nonlinear policies are generally unstable to service provision, i.e. provide no reliable service levels (QoS). Hence we conclude that automated control by policy-rule combinatorics can damage quality of service goals.

Promise theory - a model of autonomous objects for pervasive computing and swarms

The theory of promises describes policy governed services, in a framework of completely autonomous agents, which assist one another by voluntary cooperation alone. We propose this as a framework for analysing realistic models of modern networking, and as a formal model for swarm intelligence

Coordination and information exchange among resource management agents

We aim to reduce the overhead of information gathering and updates in a scenario of semi-autonomous resource management agents in a multi-agent environment. We investigate the importance of coordinating timing of events compared with the level of information exchange among the agents; and how this affects deviations from best-case management as predicted by theoretical models. We demonstrate that asynchronous interaction between management agents requires only a small amount of information exchange between the agents to achieve near-optimal results. This suggests that there are lightweight alternatives to centralized data gathering and planning to achieve autonomic service management.

On the combined behavior of autonomous resource management agents

A central issue in autonomic management is how to coordinate several autonomic management processes, which is assumed to require significant knowledge exchange. This study investigates whether two autonomic control units, which control the same system, can achieve some level of self-coordination with minimal knowledge exchange between them. We present the results from simulations on a model of two autonomous resource controllers influencing the same system. Each of the controllers tries to balance system utility with the cost of resource usage, without the knowledge of the second controller. Simulations indicate that coordination of autonomic management processes is possible, as the system performs close to optimally with minimal knowledge exchange between the two resource controllers.

On Alternation and Information Sharing among Cooperating Autonomous Management Agents

In an environment of autonomous agents, it is advantageous for agents to function with as little information exchange as possible. Although zero information exchange is impractical, a small amount of information exchange is sufficient for coordinated management of two resources. At minimum, cooperating agents need to be able to operate alone for short periods. We explore the limits of coordinated execution for a two agent system for managing resources based upon performance, and conclude that the best performance is achieved if at least one agent has sufficient time undisturbed to manage its part. Counter intuitively, giving agents full knowledge of each others’ actions does not improve performance in our situation, and can even cause instability. These results suggest that coordination is more important than knowledge exchange in assuring convergence of networks of distributed agents.

Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Systems

Publisher Summary This chapter outlines some of the most important laws, ethical principles, and guidelines that may assist the system administrator in fulfilling his or her professional duties. Technology has brought many benefits, but is also the cause of many social and ethical concerns: system failures, the destruction of property, the so-called digital divide, workplace monitoring, Internet censorship, and the increasing gap between rich and poor, are some examples of important ethical questions that arise when we reflect on how technology has impacted modern life. A system administrators duties and responsibilities encompass more than technical knowledge. They are given broad access to the resources of computer systems because their job responsibilities require such access. Many companies have codes of ethics for employees who in the nature of their job have privileged access to company systems. System administrators are often faced with ethical dilemmas in situations, where they must make decisions and take proper action. There are many paths to becoming a system administrator, and many lack formal education. Decisions may therefore often be founded on intuition, or be taken under pressure. The consequences can be serious, like the risk of losing a job, either through negligence, or because of being pressured into some illegal or unethical activity.

Summary of stability of adaptive service level agreements

We consider the implications of feedback on policy-based management of networked services, paying special attention to the case where monitoring of service level agreements is used to alter policy dynamically. Using a simple model, we show that there are policies that are unstable under service provision, i.e. provide no reliable service levels (QoS), and that there are policies that can yield stable behaviour; hence we conclude that policy rule combinatorics can damage quality of service goals.

Resource-sharing among autonomous agents: A comparative study of selfish versus altruistic behaviour

We study a scenario for cloud services based on autonomous resource management agents in situations of competition for limited resources. In the scenario, autonomous agents make independent decisions on resource consumption in a competitive environment. Altruistic and selfish strategies for agent behaviour are simulated and compared with respect to whether they lead to successful resource management in the overall system, and how much information exchange is needed among the agents for the strategies to work. Our results imply that local agent information could be sufficient for global optimisation. Also, the selfish strategy proved stable compared to uninformed altruistic behaviour.

Navigation for Visually Impaired Using Haptic Feedback

Smartphones have become commodity tools and exist in large multiple in all parts of the population. The typical use of navigation applications focus on aiding users with no impairments. Guidance applications with enhancing features, and facilitating for i.e. people with visual impairments, focus on voice-based feedback. In this paper we focus on the use of haptic feedback as a tool and guidance for navigation, through utilising the vibration mechanism available in mobile phones. Through the development of a prototype application we illustrate how haptic feedback can be used to guide users in cases of visual impairment or hindrance. The preliminary results display a novel contribution to multi-modal navigation and exemplifies active use of receptors for smartphone feedback interpretation.