Virtual Dialogue Research Articles

Regional parties' web strategies in the age of virtual dialogue and closeness

The website continues to be one of the main axes of the political parties' communicative dimension, even though recent research prioritises analysis of the political uses on social media, especially during electoral campaigns. Setting out from this context and from the premise that regional parties tend to show a greater proximity to the society in which they are inserted, the article develops a specific qualitative and descriptive methodology focusing on the website strategies of five organisations with representatives in the Parliament of the Basque Country, an autonomous community within the Spanish State, where there is a greater interest in political affairs. As the conclusions argue, the analysed websites evidence an evolved political marketing scenario challenged by the tensions between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 political communication styles, along with the lines of a true public and social dialogue, and the current needs of politics in the age of interactivity and social media.

English Language Learners’ Strategies for Reading Computer-Based Texts at Home and in School

This study investigated four elementary-level English language learners’ (ELLs’) use of strategies for reading computer-based texts at home and in school. The ELLs in this study were in the fourth and fifth grades in a public elementary school. We identify the ELLs’ strategies for reading computer-based texts in home and school environments. We present a taxonomy of five reading-strategy categories, which includes 15 total strategies that they pursued at home and in school. We describe the central role of dialogue in helping ELLs learn to read computer-based texts: The learners engaged in real and virtual dialogues with adults, peers, authors, and themselves, in ways that enhanced their development of effective reading strategies. We discuss pedagogical implications of our findings, describing how parents and teachers might work separately and together to facilitate ELLs’ reading in today’s learning contexts that include electronic literacies.

Critique of Fetishism and Publicness of Art - Virtual dialogue between Adorno and Dewey -

Critique of Fetishism and Publicness of Art - Virtual dialogue between Adorno and Dewey -

Living in a Parasite: Marx, Serres, Platonov, and the Animal Kingdom

This essay addresses the metaphor of the animal kingdom as applied to a philosophical analysis of human society, particularly in the work of Karl Marx and Michel Serres. It creates a virtual dialog between Marx, Serres, and Hegel about the parasitic structure in nature and society and analyzes the dialectics of animal multiplicity, capital, spirit, mediation, and universality. This analysis focuses first on the animal/bestial aspects of social ontology. It historically problematizes the question of the encounter between nature and history. Referring to the writings of Russian communist writer and intellectual Andrey Platonov, the essay further investigates the Marxist origins of Russian avant-garde culture and its politics of nature.

Speech mimicry as a communicative game: Gestalt-analysis

The work is dedicated to the phenomenon of speech mimicry in the literary dialogue. The term ‘mimicry’ falls back to biology and is used in the article as a specific way adjusting and modelling one’s speech in accordance with the speaker’s wish to create a certain image in the eyes of their interlocutor for the purpose of pursuing his/her communicative goal. The author argues that the Gestalt-approach to the real and virtual dialogue gives objective clues for unmasking the mimics in the process of speech interaction.

The links between economic theory and the history of economic thought. Graziani from general equilibrium analysis to the theory of the monetary circuit

Augusto Graziani’s theoretical work is closely intertwined with his ceaseless virtual dialogue with the economists of the past. Here I propose a novel investigation of the links that connect his theoretical work with his studies in the history of economic thought. I consider how the evolution of Graziani’s own theoretical approach went hand in hand with his studies on other economists and schools of thought, from his early analysis of General Equilibrium Theory to the Theory of the Monetary Circuit. Walras, Pareto, Barone, Knight, Hayek, Hicks, Fua, Malthus, Marx, Wicksell, Schumpeter, Robertson, Fanno, Keynes are some, but by no means all, of the authors to whom Graziani devoted his attention. I illustrate the relationships between their models and Graziani’s own theoretical framework. This investigation sheds light on Graziani’s critical approach to the history of the discipline, and on the very close association between the analytical and the conceptual dimensions of his work.

Argumentación y metáfora en el discurso político en torno a la inmigración

The conceptual metaphor, developed within the framework of cognitive linguistics, constitutes a tool for both supporting and refuting trains of argument; it therefore enables a collection of polyphonic voices to be identified, reflecting opposing ideologies and representing their particular vision of the events under debate. From a corpus of texts belonging to the “hypergenre” of the social debate concerning immigration, we analyse the conceptual and linguistic metaphors that categorize the host country and the image of immigrants. Through a study of this imagery, we demonstrate that the choice of source domains and of conceptual structures generates a virtual dialogue between opposing ideologies—supporters and detractors of the phenomenon of immigration— and show that, in effect, metaphor plays an important role in the process of argument.

Dialogue on Improvisation, Composition and Performance: On Singularity, Complexity and Context

This virtual dialogue that brings into play two seemingly opposing positions actually exposes complementary ideas about improvisation. Marcel Cobussen deals with the complexity of interactive and unique environments and seeks to expand the scope of the concept, pointing to the inevitable presence of a certain degree of improvisation in any musical performance. For him, improvisation is always present. Rogerio Costa, in turn states that, on the one hand this broader view can contribute to overcoming rigid and simplistic categorizations, however, can eventually reduce the power of environments specifically centered on improvisation. From this point of view he emphasizes the social significance of free improvisation in specific musical contexts in Brazil. The apparent differences between the two approaches are mainly due to different perspectives from which each of the researchers weaves their reflections. The various issues raised during the dialogue - some of them seemingly unanswered - can serve as starting points for new debates and discussions that contribute to further research on the subject.

Engaging with a history of counselling, spirituality and faith in Scotland: a readers' theatre script

This paper presents an abbreviated version of a verbatim script developed from oral history interviews with individuals key to the development of counselling and psychotherapy in Scotland from 1960 to 2000. Earlier versions were used in workshops with counsellors and pastoral care practitioners to share counter-narratives of counselling and to provide opportunities for conversations about historical and contemporary relationships between faith, spirituality, counselling and psychotherapy. By presenting intertwined histories in a readers' theatre script, the narrative nature of lives lived in context was respected. By bringing oral histories into virtual dialogue with each other and with contemporary practitioners, whether through workshops or through publications, the interplay between individual, institutional and societal narratives remains visible and open to change.

Virtual Dialog with Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Examining the Traditional Culture in Terms of Perception

The article stems from a mute and pre-theoretical conviction that an obscure concept of the flesh of the world, introduced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, can be clarified by the traditional rural lifeworld. on the other hand, it is supposed that the concept of the flesh of the world can help revealing the life-style of the folk. The examination of the traditional culture in the article concentrates on the field research carried out in the lithuanian village. one woman’s way of life and her manner of speech are explored in depth till the common structures of the lived tradition are disclosed.
 The woman’s relations with plants, animals and things, examined in terms of contents of her speech, but also and even more so – in terms of its style, allow exposing the certain manner of perception that is called in the article diakinaisthetic. in the diakinaisthetic seeing the seer does not objectify what is seen – rather, the seer and the seen come into mutual, reciprocal contact. The perceiver cannot clearly distinguish herself / himself from the perceived as she / he is weaved into the texture of the flesh of the world through the flow of perception. in the field of perception the propensity to mimetism of the traditional rural culture as well as comparisons and parallelisms that abound in the pertinent speech are explained.

Virtual dialogues and exchanges. The social and cognitive dimensions of interactions among students

L’article centra l’atencio en el tema de les interaccions entre iguals en entorns virtuals. La perspectiva d’analisi posa atencio tant en la dimensio cognitiva de les interaccions com en la seva dimensio social (de consideracio mes recent en la bibliografia sobre el tema). Es va treballar amb 28 grups d’alumnes (15 de grau i 13 de formats per alumnes de postgrau) que mantenien interaccions en forums electronics sobre la realitzacio d’una tasca academica proposada en el marc de les assignatures que cursaven. L’analisi dels dialegs entre alumnes en els 28 forums grupals va permetre la construccio de set categories que classifiquen les intervencions d’acord amb el seu proposit o finalitat principal; es a dir: 1) intervencions socials i/o alienes a la tasca; 2) organitzacio per a fer una tasca; 3) avancos en la redaccio de la resposta; 4) sol·licituds d’ajuda; 5) acceptacio de la resposta elaborada en grup; 6) resposta a sol·licituds d’ajuda, i 7) socialitzacio de la consigna i/o la seva interpretacio. La distribucio dels diferents tipus d’intervencions en cada grup va ser semblant i homogenia, sense diferencies entre alumnes de grau i de postgrau. En tots es va registrar una majoria d’intervencions socials, seguides d’intervencions d’organitzacio i, en una proporcio menor, avancos en la redaccio de la resposta. Les intervencions restants van ser irregulars i molt poc frequents. Tambe es va observar una mitjana d’intervencions superior per alumne en els grups de postgrau. En canvi, no es van observar diferencies quant a la mitjana d’intervencions per alumne considerant la grandaria dels grups. Les consideracions finals emfatitzen la necessitat de saber mes cosa sobre la comunicacio en entorns virtuals, ja que aixo contribuira a dissenyar propostes innovadores, que ampliin les oportunitats d’aprenentatge en aquests entorns.

Evaluation of a virtual dialogue method for acquired brain injury education: A pilot study

Objective: To assess the potential benefit of virtual dialogues with experts as a method for educating family members and caregivers of patients with an acquired brain injury (ABI).Methods: Knowledge of ABI was assessed by questionnaire for eight participants prior to and after interacting with a virtual dialogue method, called Virtual Conversations®. Participants also completed a survey regarding their perceived value of the experience.Results: Significant improvement on the Knowledge Questionnaire was apparent from before to after participation in the virtual dialogue by the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test (Z = −1.9734; p < 0.05). Five of eight participants showed large improvement on this test. All reported enjoying and learning from the experience.Conclusion: The virtual dialogue method increases knowledge of brain injury for most family caregivers. It is an effective and efficient way for family and friends of patients with ABI to learn about ABI in a short period of time at their own pace. Further evaluation of this method is indicated.

Virtual Dialogues with Native Speakers

The importance of conversing with native speakers during the process of learning a second language is understood by any linguist. Unfortunately, opportunities to talk with natives, particularly for extended periods of time, are rare for the majority of language students. Multimedia and speech recognition technologies, in concert, offer an exciting solution to this problem. The researchers at Interactive Drama Inc. (IDI) have adapted their speech-activated multimedia system (Conversim™) for foreign language training. The resulting model allows students to engage native speakers on CD-ROM in lengthy, face-to-face dialogues using natural spoken language. Four Virtual Conversations™ programs have been developed to comprise a series in Arabic.1 The series was rigorously tested by IDI under a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and in association with the Defense Language Institute and the U.S. Army Research Institute. This article describes the development of this series, the experiments that measured its use and effectiveness in a formal language training environment, and the significant findings of the research.

Conceptually meeting expectations of Generation Y by building personalised-customised hybrid bundles to target action sports consumers

This paper conceptually explores how bundling could lead to greater revenue and brand loyalty in the action sports industry by meeting the expectations of Generation Y. The author defines personalised-customised hybrid bundles and proposes using these bundles to target Generation Y action sports consumers. Generation Y grew up in an even more media-saturated and brand-conscious world then their parents. They use brands for self-expression to define what is ‘cool’ and seek counter cultures such as action sports. They expect a virtual dialogue with companies and comparison shop quickly. The author explores how bricks-and-clicks retailers can sell distinct products with different costs in a bundle through utilising Multi-channel Customer Management (MCM) in combination with customer's self-selection. A conceptual model is developed explaining how action sports capture Generation Y, and a second model demonstrates how MCM combined with customer self-selection can be used to create personalised-customised hybrid bundles.

Poster 60 Evaluation of a Virtual Dialogue Method for Acquired Brain Injury Education: A Pilot Study

Poster 60 Evaluation of a Virtual Dialogue Method for Acquired Brain Injury Education: A Pilot Study

Habermas on Understanding: Virtual Participation, Dialogue and the Universality of Truth

Although the success of Habermas’s theory of communicative action depends on his dialogical model of understanding in which a theorist is supposed to participate in the debate with the actors as a ‘virtual participant’ and seek context-transcendent truth through the exchange of speech acts, current literature on the theory of communicative action rarely touches on the difficulties it entails. In the first part of this paper, I will examine Habermas’s argument that understanding other cultural practices requires the interpreter to virtually participate in the “dialogue” with the actors as to the rationality of their cultural practice and discuss why, according to Habermas,such dialogue leads to the “context-transcendent truth”. In the second part, by using a concrete historical example, I will reconstruct a “virtual dialogue” between Habermas and Michael Polanyi as to the rationality of scientific practice and indicate why Habermas’s dialogical model of understanding based on the methodology of virtual participation cannot achieve what it professes to do.

Using ASR Technology in Language Training for Specific Purposes: A Perspective from Quebec, Canada

For many patients throughout the world, access to healthcare depends on the patients’ and healthcare providers’ ability to communicate efficiently in each other’s language. One way to reduce linguistic barriers to healthcare access is to increase the number of linguistically and culturally competent healthcare professionals. Conspicuously absent in the literature on second language (L2) training of healthcare professionals, however, is the use of technology that combines meaningful interaction, feedback, simulation, and asynchronous access. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap by describing and evaluating the “Virtual Language Patient,” a computer-based L2 training module for healthcare professionals. The module employs automatic speech recognition technology, pronunciation assessment, and video clips of a simulated medical history interview with a minority language patient. Five nurses-in-training at a French-language nursing college in Quebec reported that the module was easy to operate and that it addressed their anticipated language learning needs. More importantly, analysis of the data file automatically generated by the module revealed improvements in acceptability of the nurses’ pronunciation of the medical interview questions. These findings suggest that the module can be effective in language training for healthcare professionals. Implications for the improvement of virtual dialogue systems are discussed.

Tiempos y cuerpos en el filosofar de la infancia

Times and bodies in the childhood philosophy This article discusses some of the results of an action based-research project developed in 2007 and 2008. We dedicated ourselves to the experience of installing “small children communities with thoughts of their own” in a rural public school, and in early childhood education classrooms in El Bolson and Bariloche, both located in the province of Rio Negro which lies in the Argentinean Patagonia region. This article presents our considerations about the temporal dimension prevailing in the spaces and mechanisms used when “philosophizing” with small children: a temporal dimension answering more to the aionic character of time more than to the chronological one in the act of thinking; of a thinking built as a joint result of the whole group, in which the corporal manifestations during the process of expressing their thoughts are quite evident. During this project we could also confirm the efficiency of the mechanisms used: weekly encounters of 40 or 50 minutes, the circle, the use of a microphone or other symbolic ways used for the distribution of speech, attentive listening, respect for the words of others, a climate of confidence, the offering of any type of proposition or question without the fear of being mocked, and focusing the discussion on an interesting theme for all. In this way, the experience was also one of democratic dialogue and collective thought building; a way to create something “in common” for the group in question, allowing for the construction of cultural referents of their own, and allowing for better knowledge of themselves and of others. We initiate this article by discussing some of the proposals expressed in the virtual dialogue between D. Kennedy and W. Kohan which appeared in the previous volume of this revue.

Who Are You What Are You Why?

The two of us created “Who Are You What Are You Why?” together, as an experiment predicated on Wittgenstein’s statement: “Do not forget that a poem, even though it is composed in the language of information, is not used in the language-game of giving information.” We began this experiment by separately composing a series of non-contiguous questions and then “mashing” them together to form a virtual dialogue that provides only questions, never answers. What are the effects of composing using recognizable language in unrecognizable configurations? Where is the demarcation between sense and nonsense? How can we form meaning from seeming meaninglessness? These are a few of the questions we hope to raise with this experiment.

Evaluation of a virtual dialogue method for breast cancer patient education

Objective Virtual dialogue—a voice-activated, interactive computer model that enables a user to have an individual virtual conversation with a real person—was evaluated as a method to educate women about breast cancer. Virtual dialogues with breast cancer experts were developed and used in a field study by women with and without the disease to assess the method's effectiveness. Methods In a clinical setting, subjects engaged in one-on-one virtual dialogues with an oncologist and a breast surgeon, and completed automated pre–post instruments developed to measure the feasibility of the method, and subjects’ knowledge gain and acceptance of the method. Results Seventy women, 39 with breast cancer and 31 without the disease, participated. The data demonstrated the feasibility and acceptance of the method, and significant learning gain across all subjects. Conclusion Virtual dialogues with knowledgeable health professionals can be a new and effective method for educating women about breast cancer. Practice implications Virtual dialogues may systematically comfort patients while providing them with comprehensive and reliable basic information about breast cancer. The method may also give health care providers more time to address their patients’ specific concerns.