This study aimed to establish an accurate baseline for Facebook usage and to investigate its learning potential via biometric perspective. This was explored by asking college students to browse their own Facebook page and peruse the content while wearing a high-fidelity EEG headset to record brainwave activity they experienced. Their actions were then coded using the empirically based Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) engagement model to identify elements that could potentially be leveraged for learning. Based on these results, Facebook does not seem to make an ideal learning platform, due to higher frustration levels during higher cognitive tasks compared to passively consuming personally relevant non-instructional content. However, it may have more positive impacts on learning as long as initial frustration level is transformed smoothly to engagement and motivation for some learning opportunities and activities.

Drawing from the scholarly literature, it seems that across all levels of education, teachers frequently must assume that students come to them without knowledge of statistics; in essence, instructors start from scratch each time they set out to teach statistics. As such, augmented reality (AR) presents an opportunity to explore ways for students to learn basic statistical reasoning skills authentically and engagingly. This study investigated the impact of an AR learning environment, MantarayAR, on college students' learning outcomes and the perception of collaboration and engagement. The design of this study was a 3 x 2 factorial design that compared and analyzed the performance of students given three types of augmented reality conditions; a high AR experience (with movement throughout a physical space), a low AR experience (without movement throughout a physical space), and no AR experience (2-D images and text), as well as two levels of collaboration (pairs and no pairs). Using the pre-test to categorize students into low or high prior knowledge, students with low prior knowledge assigned to either high or low AR experience had statistically significant higher learning gains than those assigned to a no AR experience. The results suggest that an AR experience was particularly advantageous for students without prior knowledge of statistical reasoning. Also, students in the AR conditions reported a higher perception of engagement as measured than those who did not.

Traditional user experience assessments rely on self-report, human-system performance, and observational data that incompletely capture users' psychological demands, processing, or affect. Specifically, self-report measures require users to identify and articulate subjective responses to product features, yet users may not possess accurate awareness or may be unwilling or unable to express themselves. Similarly, human-system performance and observational measures require analysts to make inferences about hidden psychological states based on observed external patterns. This chapter discusses how biometric sensor-based affect detection technologies (e.g., eye tracking and EEG) may supplement traditional methods. By measuring biometric indicators of psychological states, researchers can gain potentially richer and more accurate insights into user experience. These technologies are gaining traction in educational technology development and functionality, and thus the extension of these tools for usability and user experience evaluation is highly feasible.

This study compares the use of a laptop versus a touch-screen PC to perform web-based information search tasks. Thirty-six participants took part in a lab-based experiment. They were asked to use either a laptop or a touch-screen PC to seek information on the web and retrieve relevant pieces of information while their sessions were recorded. Cognitive load was measured through eye-related data and cortical activity (EEG) along with a self-reported scale. Main results indicated that participants who used the laptop outperformed those who used the touch-screen PC, with more relevant webpages bookmarked (F = 9.678, p = .004) and more relevant elements retrieved (F = 6.302, p = .018). Participants with the touch-screen PC also spent more time on each webpage than their counterparts (F = 9.2141, p = .005). These results suggest that using the touch-screen PC required more mental effort, which is supported by cognitive load measurements. Linear mixed-model analyses showed significant differences across devices in both pupil size variation (F = 3.692, p = .05) and EEG-based cognitive load index (F = 5.181, p = .028). This study raises issues about whether touch-screen computers are suited for every computing needs.

The purpose of this report is twofold. First, to view the digitalization of modern manufacturing and then the U.S. business practices adopting digital technologies and policy suggestions regarding the new technologies. Second, to extract and provide policy recommendations that can enable Korea to take advantage of the business and policy experiences founded on digitalization of technologically advanced countries to enhance its competitiveness.Many nations are intensively competing for manufacturing leadership. Digitalization, broadly encompassing the 4th industrial revolution, has risen to a pivotal element for manufacturing firms to transform how products are designed, used, and serviced, which could lead their competitiveness to a surpassingly higher level. For the Korean manufacturing industry, which has almost used up the factor-oriented growth potential, its competitiveness will become more and more based around the strength of technological prowess. It is the main reason digitalization will acceptably play a game changer role in the industry in coming years.The business and policy experiences of the U.S., the forerunner in digital technologies, suggests that more should be done to materialize the opportunity of digitalization in the manufacturing industry. The Korean government will need to introduce a comprehensive manufacturing digitalization strategy and make the requisite investments if it wishes to keep pace. Manufacturers, small and medium-sized firms in particular, cannot simply expect to go-it-alone in this environment and will need to benefit from both smart collaborations with suppliers in value chains and public as well as market programs that encourage and incentivize their adoption and uptake of digital and other advanced production strategies and technologies.A variety of policy recommendations suggested here specific to the Korean manufacturing include: SMEs digitalization support programs, funding to equipment and technology upgrades, public-private partnership for digital manufacturing, cybersecurity, digital manufacturing supply chains, capital access for digital innovation, and digital manufacturing skills/education.

Information and communications technology (ICT) drives productivity growth in the developed and developing world alike. Yet despite the clear benefits, many nations discourage ICT adoption by businesses and consumers by imposing discriminatory tariffs and taxes on cell phones, computers, telecommunications services and an array of additional ICT goods and services in the vain hope of increasing government revenues and/or protecting domestic ICT producers. Of 125 nations examined in this report, 31 impose combined ICT tax and tariff rates of over 5 percent of product or service costs, with several countries adding more than 20 percent to costs. Another 40 countries impose taxes and tariffs of between 1 and 5 percent. Economic studies demonstrate that these added costs limit ICT adoption which slows productivity growth. This report examines ICT tax and tariff policies around the world, assesses the negative impact of these policies on ICT adoption and productivity growth and recommends that nations eliminate all tariffs and discriminatory taxes on ICT goods and services. Countries add taxes and tariffs to a range of consumer ICT products and services, including mobile phones and plans, computers and broadband service, and other electronics products. While 68 nations add at least 1 percent to the cost of ICT goods and services, Bangladesh imposes the highest costs, adding 57.8 percent to the cost of ICT goods and services over and above the country’s universal 15 percent VAT. In second and third place are Turkey and the Republic of the Congo, which add 26.1 percent and 23.8 percent, respectively. Greece, the only member of the OECD to rank in the top 20 countries, imposes 9.6 percent added ICT costs. Chile, only other OECD country in the top 50, adds 4 percent to costs. The majority of the countries that impose high costs are lower- or middle-income countries located in Africa, South Asia, and South America. Many of the same countries that have imposed significant costs on consumer ICT products have also enacted high taxes and tariffs on business-use ICT products and services such as office equipment and intermediate ICT parts as well as mobile phones and computers. Forty-six nations impose a total cost on business purchases of ICT goods and services of more than 5 percent. Fully one half of the top 50 countries for business-use ICT tax and tariff rates are from Sub-Saharan Africa, with 11 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean and the rest from other regions. While there are many similarities between consumer-use and business-use ICT taxes and tariffs, tariffs comprise a much larger percentage of total business ICT cost additions than taxes among top countries. The scholarly economic evidence is clear that because discriminatory taxes and tariffs raise costs for ICT users, whether businesses or consumers, they lead to reduced ICT adoption. The report estimates that these taxes and tariffs result in substantial decreases in adoption: over 20 percent for Bangladesh, Brazil, and the Republic of the Congo; between 10 percent and 20 percent for 11 more countries including Argentina, Pakistan, Ecuador, and Turkey; and between 5 percent and 10 percent for another 18 countries. Because of reduced ICT adoption, economic growth suffers. For example, for every $1 of tariffs imposed on imported ICT products, India suffered an economic loss of $1.30 because of lower productivity. Overall, estimates point to yearly growth reductions between 0.7 percentage points and 2.3 percentage points of GDP per capita for countries with the highest tax and tariff rates. Nations impose discriminatory taxes and tariffs on ICT goods and services for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they are relatively easy to tax and are seen as luxury goods. But because ICT taxes and tariffs limit growth, the net revenue benefits from taxing ICT goods and services are usually short lived. Studies indicate that revenue gains from such taxes and tariffs are often cancelled out over time because of reduced economic growth. For example, a recent study estimates that countries that reduce taxes on mobile goods and services regain revenue levels due to added sales and growth within 2 to 6 years. Governments also enact tariffs on ICT goods in the mostly vain belief that it will spur domestic ICT production. But studies find that in most instances all these tariffs do is raise costs for other ICT-using industries, making them less productive and competitive, while doing little to spur the growth of a domestic ICT goods sector. Given these findings, the guiding principle for nations should be straightforward: eliminate discriminatory taxes and tariffs on ICT goods and services for either consumers or businesses. This does not necessarily mean that ICT goods and services should be tax free — although some countries have happily begun moving in this direction — just that they should be taxed no higher than other goods and services. However, ICT goods should be tariff free since these are by definition always discriminatory. Finally, nations should also move to eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade that serve to raise the price of ICTs, such as domestic preferences for ICT procurement, local data storage requirements, and other protectionist measures. A clear way for nations to enable faster economic growth is to spur the use of ICT by businesses and consumers. And many can do this with the stroke of a pen: eliminating discriminatory taxes and tariffs on ICT goods and services.

The purpose of the State New Economy Index is to measure states’ economic structure. Unlike other reports that assess state economic performance or state economic policies, this study focuses more narrowly on a simple question: To what degree does the structure of the 50 state economies match the ideal structure of the innovation-driven New Economy? For example, we know that a defining characteristic of the New Economy is that it is global. Therefore, the Index uses a number of variables to measure state economies’ degrees of global integration.

Affect signals what humans care about and what matters to them. By providing computers with the capability to measure affect, researchers aspire to narrow the communication gap between the emotional human and the emotionally detached computer, with the ultimate aim of enhancing human–computer interactions. This chapter explores the multidisciplinary foundations of affective state measurement as a multimodal process. Specifically, it: (1) describes popular sensing technologies, including brain–computer interfaces, face-based emotion recognition systems, eye-tracking systems, physiological sensors, body language recognition, and text-based language processing; (2) explores the data gathered from each technology and its key characteristics; (3) outlines the pros and cons of each technology; (4) examines sampling, filtering, and multimodal affective data integration methodologies; and (5) presents the tools and algorithms used to analyze affective data off-line, seeking to make inferences regarding the meaning of that data and to correlate it with stimuli.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether playing Quest for the Code™, a computer game designed to teach children about asthma, would help healthy children acquire knowledge about and attitudes towards asthma and whether the beneficial effects would be maintained over time. The sample consisted of 155 children from four middle schools who were randomly assigned to play Quest for the Code™ or a game about nutrition serving as the control condition. Data were collected on knowledge and attitude pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at follow-up four weeks later. The results revealed that children who played Quest for the Code™ were more knowledgeable and had more positive attitudes than their peers in the control condition. And these benefits were maintained on follow-up tests. Our findings indicate the effectiveness and potential of using Quest for the Code™ as a tool for asthma education in a classroom setting.

Automobile instrument clusters and infotainment systems are commonly used and prominent in modern cars and trucks. Thus, the design of these systems and their usability can significantly affect driving performance and satisfaction. This study demonstrates how biometric sensor methods can be used to assess such usability. Specifically, the study examines users' visual attention and affective states in response to instrumentation in two hybrid cars. The study combines eye tracking, facial expression analysis, and electroencephalography (EEG) data to investigate how these two cluster and infotainment designs (a) capture visual attention; (b) potentially inspire engagement, frustration and confusion; and (c) impact users' perception of ease of use.

Technology-based start-ups have long been an important driver of America’s economic growth and competitiveness. But while these firms provide outsized contributions to employment, innovation, exports, and productivity growth, many policymakers focus more broadly on helping all business start-ups without regard to type. Such a broad-based focus risks reducing overall economic growth for three key reasons. First, most owners of new non-tech-based firms have no intention of growing beyond just a few employees. Second, small, non-tech-based firms on average have much lower productivity and wage levels than technology-based start-ups. And third, most non-tech start-ups are in local-serving industries (e.g., retail) and as such create few or no net new jobs. As such, the focus of entrepreneurship policy should be squarely on spurring more technology-based start-ups.

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