Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Social Data Analysis
Mikaila Arthur; Roger Clark · Rhode Island College Digital Publishing · 2021
Social data analysis enables you, as a researcher, to organize the facts you collect during your research. Your data may have come from a questionnaire survey, a set of interviews, or observations. They may be data that have been made available to you from some organization, national or international agency or other researchers. Whatever their source, social data can be daunting to put together in a way that makes sense to you and others. This book is meant to help you in your initial attempts to analyze data. In doing so it will introduce you to ways that others have found useful in their attempts to organize data. You might think of it as like a recipe book, a resource that you can refer to as you prepare data for your own consumption and that of others. And, like a recipe book that teaches you to prepare simple dishes, you may find this one pretty exciting. Analyzing data in a revealing way is at least as rewarding, we’ve found, as it is to cook up a yummy cashew carrot paté or a steaming corn chowder. We’d like to share our pleasure with you.
![The Data Renaissance: Analyzing the Disciplinary Effects of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Beyond [Revised Edition]](/api/files/covers/otl-1718.webp)
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The Data Renaissance: Analyzing the Disciplinary Effects of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Beyond [Revised Edition]
J.J. Sylvia IV · ROTEL · 2024
The Data Renaissance delves into the complexities of data's role in various industries and its broader impact on society. It highlights the challenges in investigating data practices, citing examples like TikTok, where algorithms and data handling are closely guarded secrets. The content, contributed by students under the guidance of an expert, covers a wide range of topics, including the ethical aspects of generative AI in education and the workplace, and case studies reflecting real-world experiences. This evolving text, intended to be updated with each class, serves as a dynamic resource for educators and students alike, offering insights and discussion guides for an in-depth understanding of the ever-changing landscape of data in our digital age.
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A Tale of Two Systems
René Reitsma; Kevin Krueger · Oregon State University · 2017
This is the story of a web-based information system rebuild. The system in question is www.teachengineering.org, a digital library of K-12 engineering curriculum that was built from the ground up with established technology and which for 13 years enjoyed lasting support from its growing user community and its sponsors. These 13 years, however, cover the period during which smart phones and tablets became commonplace, during which the Internet of Things started replacing the Semantic Web, during which NoSQL databases made their way out of the research labs and into everyday development shops, during which we collectively started moving IT functions and services into ‘the cloud,’ and during which computing performance doubled a few times, yet again. During this same period, TeachEngineering’s user base grew from a few hundred to more than 3 million users annually, its collection size quadrupled, it went through several user interface renewals, and significant functionality was added while having an exemplary service record, and it enjoyed continued financial support from its sponsors. In this monograph we provide a side-by-side of this rebuild. We lay out the choices made in the old architecture —we refer to it as TE 1.0— and compare and contrast them with the choices made for TE 2.0. We explain why both the 1.0 and 2.0 choices were made and discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with them.
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A Person-Centered Guide to Demystifying Technology: Working together to observe, question, design, prototype, and implement/reject technology in support of people's valued beings and doings
Martin Wolske · University of Illinois Library - Urbana · 2023
Digital technologies old and new are not objects that can be packed inside a box. They are a seamless, indivisible combination of people, organizations, policies, economies, histories, cultures, knowledge, and material things that are continuously shaped and reshaped. Every one of us innovates-in-use our everyday technologies; we just do not always know it. We are shaped by the networked information tools in our midst, and we shape them and thereby shape others. While many of the chapters in this book can be approached as standalone explorations, as many around the world have done, its full potential comes when collaboratively taken as a journey through twelve sessions. Each session in this second, revised edition includes two thematically linked chapters, one more socially oriented and one more technically oriented. Sessions are brought together into three larger generative themes that are built from three decades of participatory design in and with community, and from the teaching of these concepts and practices in courses and workshops. Approached within a community of practice, learning outcomes include discovering ways to advance power, both power within and power with others; advancing our technical skills, but also and even more, our progressive community engagement skills, our critical sociotechnical skills, and our cognitive, information, and social-emotional skills; and progressing our culturally competent collective leadership through social justice storytelling within a framing of reciprocity. In so doing, this textbook seeks to address the call placed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – to rapidly shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.
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Think DSP: Digital Signal Processing in Python
Allen Downey · Green Tea Press · 2012
Think DSP is an introduction to Digital Signal Processing in Python. The premise of this book (and the other books in the Think X series) is that if you know how to program, you can use that skill to learn other things. The author is writing this book because he thinks the conventional approach to digital signal processing is backward: most books (and the classes that use them) present the material bottom-up, starting with mathematical abstractions like phasors.
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Fast Fourier Transforms
C. Sidney Burrus · OpenStax CNX · 2012
This book focuses on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), discrete convolution, and, particularly, the fast algorithms to calculate them. These topics have been at the center of digital signal processing since its beginning, and new results in hardware, theory and applications continue to keep them important and exciting. This book uses an index map, a polynomial decomposition, an operator factorization, and a conversion to a filter to develop a very general and efficient description of fast algorithms to calculate the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). The work of Winograd is outlined, chapters by Selesnick, Pueschel, and Johnson are included, and computer programs are provided.
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Essentials of Geographic Information Systems
Jonathan Campbell; MIchael Shin · Saylor Foundation · 2011
Essentials of Geographic Information Systems integrates key concepts behind the technology with practical concerns and real-world applications. Recognizing that many potential GIS users are nonspecialists or may only need a few maps, this book is designed to be accessible, pragmatic, and concise. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems also illustrates how GIS is used to ask questions, inform choices, and guide policy. From the melting of the polar ice caps to privacy issues associated with mapping, this book provides a gentle, yet substantive, introduction to the use and application of digital maps, mapping, and GIS. In today's world, learning involves knowing how and where to search for information. In some respects, knowing where to look for answers and information is arguably just as important as the knowledge itself. Because Essentials of Geographic Information Systems is concise, focused, and directed, readers are encouraged to search for supplementary information and to follow up on specific topics of interest on their own when necessary. Essentials of Geographic Information Systems provides the foundations for learning GIS, but readers are encouraged to construct their own individual frameworks of GIS knowledge. The benefits of this approach are two-fold. First, it promotes active learning through research. Second, it facilitates flexible and selective learning—that is, what is learned is a function of individual needs and interest. Since GIS and related geospatial and navigation technology change so rapidly, a flexible and dynamic text is necessary in order to stay current and relevant. Though essential concepts in GIS tend to remain constant, the situations, applications, and examples of GIS are fluid and dynamic. Though this book is intended for use in introductory GIS courses, Essentials of Geographic Information Systems will also appeal to the large number of certificate, professional, extension, and online programs in GIS that are available today.
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Del ágora a la nube: El destino de las humanidades en la era de la IA
Karles Hoffmann-Jaramillo; Carlos Flores-Murillo; Eduardo Baidal-Bustamante · Editorial Grupo AEA · 2025
Explora la evolución del pensamiento crítico desde la Antigua Grecia hasta la era digital, analizando el impacto de la inteligencia artificial (IA) en la educación y la sociedad. Se inicia con una comparación entre el Ágora ateniense, donde se gestó el debate filosófico y la democracia, y los entornos digitales actuales, donde el acceso a la información ha cambiado la forma en que aprendemos. Se resalta cómo la enseñanza de Sócrates, Platón y Aristóteles, basada en el diálogo y la argumentación, sigue siendo relevante para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico en un mundo saturado de datos. En la era digital, la IA ha transformado la educación mediante herramientas que personalizan el aprendizaje y facilitan el acceso a información. Sin embargo, también plantea riesgos como la dependencia tecnológica, los sesgos algorítmicos y la pérdida de autonomía intelectual. El libro enfatiza la necesidad de equilibrar el uso de la tecnología con metodologías pedagógicas que fomenten la reflexión y el análisis crítico. Otro desafío clave es la desinformación, impulsada por la sobreabundancia de datos y la rapidez con la que circula la información en redes sociales. Ante esto, se propone fortalecer la capacidad de los estudiantes para evaluar fuentes, cuestionar datos y construir conocimientos con base en el análisis riguroso. Finalmente, la obra concluye que el futuro de la educación no debe estar centrado solo en la tecnología, sino en la formación de ciudadanos críticos y reflexivos. La IA puede ser una aliada en este proceso, pero es fundamental preservar la esencia humanista del aprendizaje, asegurando que la educación siga siendo un espacio de cuestionamiento, creatividad y pensamiento autónomo.
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Gestión Inteligente Sinergias en las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación
Miguel Fabricio Boné-Andrade; Luis Alfonso Núñez-Freire; Ramiro Enrique Guamán-Chávez · Editorial Grupo AEA · 2024
El libro aborda los desafíos y oportunidades de la inclusión digital, especialmente en el contexto rural de América Latina. Los capítulos iniciales analizan la transformación digital y sus efectos en áreas rurales, destacando la importancia de las TIC para mejorar la calidad de vida y reducir la brecha digital. Posteriormente, se examina el analfabetismo digital como barrera para la inclusión social, con propuestas para políticas de alfabetización que respondan a las necesidades de comunidades vulnerables. Los capítulos centrales exploran la alfabetización digital en Ecuador, enfatizando la infraestructura y las competencias digitales como ejes esenciales. La obra también cubre el rol de la educación superior en la inclusión digital, mostrando ejemplos de vinculación comunitaria por parte de universidades. Los capítulos finales presentan casos de uso de tecnologías en pequeñas empresas para optimizar procesos y mejorar la competitividad, y se discute la relevancia de la ciberseguridad en la era digital. En conjunto, el libro ofrece una perspectiva práctica y teórica, orientada a fomentar la participación equitativa en el ámbito digital, proponiendo soluciones adaptadas a contextos locales.