Taking a process-orientated, social constructivist lens, we examine the case of a digital game called Words Matter. The game was designed for children with dyslexia and was informed by principles from casual games and evidence-based practice from special education. Focusing on the game play of two groups of children, we employ a systematic thematic analytic approach on videos of children's verbal and non-verbal interaction triangulated with their game logs, concentrating on the nature of student-student as well as student-tutor social interactions. Our findings show that children spontaneously engage in 'game talk' regarding game performance, content, actions and experiences. While this game talk facilitates a strong sense of social engagement and playfulness, it also caters to a variety of new opportunities for learning by sparking tutor and student-initiated interventions. Alongside its social theoretical lens on digital games-based learning, the paper analyses game-based social interactions in tandem with game design decisions enabling additional implications to be drawn for practice and game design.

Information on the total dry-matter intake (TDMI), concentrates supplied (C), live weight (LW), week of lactation (WL), milk yield (MY) and composition, quality of forage fed to, and parities of, 385 cows from five different sources were assembled to develop appetite prediction equations. The equations were based on multiple regression and least squares constants and were calculated using the data from each source and the data pooled from all sources. The major factors affecting total dry-matter intake (TDMI) were C, LW, WL and MY and for the pooled data these factors explained 73-76% (iJ 2 ) of the total variation in TDMI. The predictive values of some of the equations were tested against independent sets of data and for groups of cows and individual cows, the equations predicted TDMI within +1-1 and 1-6 kg, respectively. The application of the equations in the field is discussed and some suggestions made for increasing the R 2 of future appetite equations.

While Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research has at its core the desire to support student learning, experience from other AI domains suggest that such ethical intentions are not by themselves sufficient. There is also the need to consider explicitly issues such as fairness, accountability, transparency, bias, autonomy, agency, and inclusion. At a more general level, there is also a need to differentiate between doing ethical things and doing things ethically, to understand and to make pedagogical choices that are ethical, and to account for the ever-present possibility of unintended consequences. However, addressing these and related questions is far from trivial. As a first step towards addressing this critical gap, we invited 60 of the AIED community’s leading researchers to respond to a survey of questions about ethics and the application of AI in educational contexts. In this paper, we first introduce issues around the ethics of AI in education. Next, we summarise the contributions of the 17 respondents, and discuss the complex issues that they raised. Specific outcomes include the recognition that most AIED researchers are not trained to tackle the emerging ethical questions. A well-designed framework for engaging with ethics of AIED that combined a multidisciplinary approach and a set of robust guidelines seems vital in this context.

Authenticating the students' identity and authenticity of their work is increasingly important to reduce academic malpractices and for quality assurance purposes in Education. There is a growing body of research about technological innovations to combat cheating and plagiarism. However, the literature is very limited on the impact of e-authentication systems across distinctive end-users because it is not a widespread practice at the moment. A considerable gap is to understand whether the use of eauthentication systems would increase trust on e-assessment, and to extend, whether students' acceptance would vary across gender, age and previous experiences. This study aims to shed light on this area by examining the attitudes and experiences of 328 students who used an authentication system known as adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (TeSLA). Evidence from mixed-method analysis suggests a broadly positive acceptance of these e-authentication technologies by distance education students. However, significant differences in the students' responses indicated, for instance, that men were less concerned about providing personal data than women; middle-aged participants were more aware of the nuances of cheating and plagiarism; while younger students were more likely to reject e-authentication, considerably due to data privacy and security and students with disabilities due to concerns about their special needs.

This paper describes the design and ecologically valid evaluation of a learner model that lies at the heart of an intelligent learning environment called iTalk2Learn. A core objective of the learner model is to adapt formative feedback based on students' a↵ective states. Types of adaptation include what type of formative feedback should be provided and how it should be presented. Two Bayesian networks trained with data gathered in a series of Wizard-of-Oz studies are used for the adaptation process. This paper reports results from a quasi-experimental evaluation, in authentic classroom settings, which compared a version of iTalk2Learn that adapted feedback based on students' a↵ective states as they were talking aloud with the system (the affect condition) with one that provided feedback based only on the students' performance (the non-a↵ect condition). Our results suggest that a↵ect-aware support contributes to reducing boredom and o↵-task behavior, and may have an e↵ect on learning. We discuss the internal and ecological validity of the study, in light of pedagogical considerations that informed the design of the two conditions. Overall, the results of the study have implications both for the design of educational technology and for classroom approaches to teaching, because they highlight the important role that a↵ect-aware modelling plays in the adaptive delivery of formative feedback to support learning.

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Results are given for the effects of heavy dressings of nitrogen, in the presence and absence of phosphorus and potassium supplements, on : dry-matter yield ; botanical composition of herbage ; contents of crude protein, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and manganese. Brief reference is also made to the effects of the various experimental treatments on the uptake of certain other trace-constituents.The results indicate that high yields of pasture herbage having high protein and normal mineral contents can be maintained over a period of years by the use of fertilizer nitrogen, provided adequate fertilizer dressings of other major nutrients are given. Attention is drawn to various ion-antagonism effects that may influence the mineral composition of the herbage.In recent years pasture has acquired a steadily increasing importance as a crop in its own right. This is indeed in welcome contrast with the more or less incidental contribution that it made in early pastoral farming and, unfortunately, still makes in considerable areas of the British Isles. In the northern half of Great Britain, rotation or temporary pasture has long played an important part in the maintenance and improvement of the fertility of the arable land, and the importance of ley-farming systems is now well appreciated throughout the U.K. Even so, the term ' grassland ' still embraces land of widely varying agricultural value, ranging from rough mountain or heath, described, euphemistically in many cases, as used or capable of being used as grazing, through permanent grassland of indeterminate quality, to intensively managed and highly productive swards. It is necessary, therefore, in any consideration of the problems of the manuring of grassland, to define the category or type of grassland ; in particular, it is necessary to relate manuring to specific systems of management and utilization, to the botanical composition of the swards, to soil and climatic conditions and to other factors influencing manurial requirement. Manuring for the establishment and maintenance of pastureIn natural grazings and permanent grassland on unploughable land, substantial increases in output can be achieved by such remedial measures as good grazing management, surface cultivation, seeding and top-dressing with fertilizers. The maximum output of such land will normally, however, be much less than that of ploughable land and it is, of course, to the improvement of the latter that first consideration should be given. Although there are areas in this country where good grassland has been maintained over indefinite periods without recourse to ploughing, most ploughable pastures can with advantage be renovated by ploughing occasionally. Two main methods of laying down land to grass are : (I) undersowing a cereal crop, or occasionally a brassica such as rape, with grass and clover seeds, and ( 2 ) direct reseeding without a nurse-crop. The former is the more widely practised method, especially for rotation pasture. Treatment varies, of course, with soil and c...

SUMMABYInformation on the total organic matter intake, concentrates supplied (C), live weight (LW), week of lactation (WL), milk yield (MY), herbage organic matter digestibility (HOMD), herbage mass, sward height (SHT) or herbage allowance (HAL) measured individually for 357 cows at one of three sites was assembled. Observed intake was compared with intakes predicted by existing intake equations and new prediction equations based on regression models or regression and least-squares constants were developed. Major factors affecting intake were MY, LW, WL, C and HAL or SHT. Although HOMD was correlated with intake, better predictions were obtained when HOMD was omitted. There were differences between sites possibly associated with differences in measurement techniques.The predictive value of some existing equations and new equations were tested against independent sets of data. A simple equation (A) based on MY and LW (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, 1975) gave satisfactory average predictions but the mean square prediction error (MSPE) was high. The equations of Vadiveloo & Holmes (1979) adjusted for bias gave a relatively low MSPE. The preferred new equations for grazing cattle included MY, LW, WL, C and HAL or SHT, and their MSPE were similar to or lower than for indoor equations.The discussion indicates that a simple equation (A) would give adequate predictions for farm planning. The more detailed equations illustrate the inter-relations of animal with sward conditions and concentrate allowances. Predicted intakes may deviate from actual intakes because of short-term changes in body reserves. istics were published recently by Meijs & Hoekstrâ 19g4) a n d b y S t o c k d a l e (iggs). Further quanti-Any comprehensive study of voluntary intake tative information on the effects of sward and must take account of the animal factors which animal characteristics on the intake of grazing influence potential intake and the feed factors and dairy cattle is desirable to improve the accuracy of management factors which may reduce actual in-pasture budgeting and to increase understanding take below the potential.of the grazing complex. A feature of special interest Equations to predict the intakes of housed cows is the effect of supplementary feeds on herbage (Brown, Chandler & Holter, 1977; Vadiveloo & intake. Holmes, 1979;Lewis, 1981) account for about 75%The present work took account of intake and of the total variation in intake. Neilson et al. (1981) production measurements from 357 grazing dairy and Neal, Thomas & Cobby (1984) found that these cows recorded on nine experiments. These data equations provided the most accurate intake esti-were used first to test the effectiveness of existing mates available. Predictions of the intake of grazing equations for predicting grazing intake. New cattle have been derived from single experiments, equations were then developed which took account e.g. Wallace (1956) and Holmes & Jones (1964) of the animal effects and the influence of herbage using animal factors. Ea...