Hypertext News

Ted Nelson Newcomer Award

Hypertext '99 introduced a new annual ACM SIGWEB award for the best newcomer paper presented at the annual ACM SIGWEB Hypertext Conference. Papers that are rated among the best papers overall and are written solely by authors who have never published in earlier Hypertext proceedings are eligible for the Nelson Award (affectionately named the "Teddy"). Papers authored and co-authored by members of the award committee are not eligible for an award. The award committee reserves the right to give both awards to the same paper, not to give an award, or to split an award among several papers The award is named after Theodor H. Nelson, in recognition of his numerous contributions to the field of hypertext and hypermedia over the past 35 years. The award carries a $1,000 cash price

This years winner was Elizabeth Brown with the paper Real users, real results: examining the limitations of learning styles within AEH . This paper examines the current state of AEH (adaptive educational hypermedia) research into explicit learning style modelling for user personalisation. It addresses the problem of nonnaive test subjects, who are often in user trials, thus contributing to experimental bias. Instead, the authors suggest using real people, i.e. users with a range of backgrounds and abilities, in order to gain a truer insight into evidence-based research. The report on a study carried out with No statistically significant differences were found between experimental groups, learning style preferences or learning environments. We discuss the significance of this, and then critically analyse the use of learning styles in relation to this study and also in the wider context.real users: around 80 children at a UKprimary school. The study investigated sequential and global learning styles as a personalisation mechanism in an AEH system. The user trial involved matching and mismatching users and learning environments to see if learning improved. The AEH system used by the children was DEUS, a new e-learning platform that is conceptually similar to WHURLE, an AEH that also used learning styles as its user model. No statistically significant differences were found between experimental groups, learning style preferences or learning environments. We discuss the significance of this, and then critically analyse the use of learning styles in relation to this study and also in the wider context.

The Ted Nelson Newcomer Award was presented by Theodor Holm Nelson to Elizabeth Brown during an awards presentation at the conference dinner.

Full Paper: http://doi.acm.org/1= 0.1145/1286240.1286261_

Labels: Awards, Elizabeth Brown, Ted Nelson Newcomer Award