The aim of this thesis was twofold, on the one hand to compile a set of usability and accessibility guidelines in order to establish the characteristics of a user friendly website, and on the other to test these guidelines on eight library webcourses with user education to see how well they adhered to the guidelines. The methods used were literature survey and source studies. The guidelines found in the literature survey were divided into four different categories: document properties, structure and navigability, visual characteristics and accessibility. In order to establish the adequacy of the guidelines, I examined reference sources, mostly on the web. To a certain extent this examination has been based on HCI Human-Computer interaction theories.

Universeum är ett upplevelsecentrum för naturvetenskap och teknik, ett så kallat Science Centre.I vårt arbete undersöker vi hur vetenskap bäst kommuniceras till barn och ungdomar via textskyltar på ett Science Centre. Vi analyserar vilket språk som bör användas och hur skyltarnas layout ska utformas för att väcka intresse, ge information och lust att lära mer inomnaturvetenskap och teknik. Baserat på denna analys ger vi även förslag på skylttexter och skyltlayout till Universeums avdelning Explora..

Driveability analysis of terrain data offers an important technique for decision support for all kinds of movements in the terrain. The work described in this report uses a high resolution digital terrain model generated from the laser radar data and further processed by the Category Viewer program, and information from the Real Estate Map. Properties of features found in a filtering process are calculated and compared with a set of rules in a knowledge base to get a driveability cost. This cost is then visualized in a graphical user interface. An evaluation of what driveability is and what it is affected by is performed, and a general cost function is developed, which can be used even if not all relevant information is available.

The school is a place of work where teachers, with different tools, are supposed to teach their students for the future. In the study the teachers? opinions will be lifted when it comes to use of computers as a tool to teach the students how to read and write. The interpretation is that the use of computers is reflecting the development of society and the intention is to find out if computers will be used in a didactic purpose in teaching. We focused on getting knowledge about which different opinions there are among teachers in grade 1-3 when it comes to the use of computers as a tool in teaching how to read and write.

The aim of this essay is to create an understanding, of how teachers comprehend knowledge, grades and tests in a school context. It is important to get a grip of the different parts of the teacher?s reality. The test, the grades and knowledge are deeply connected as a part of a whole. The teachers view on knowledge can not be understood without asking about the practical parts of their work and understand how the different parts are dependent on each other.The main material consists of interviews with four teachers that work in a public mandatory school in the south suburbs of Stockholm.

För att alla elever ska kunna uppnå scientific literacy bör man utgå från barnens erfarenheter där naturorienterade ämnen, NO, knyts till ett sammanhang ? en kontext. I kontexten synliggörs naturvetenskapens mänskliga sida, och därmed visa att NO är mer än fakta. Elever behöver lära om naturvetenskapen, vilket kallas nature of science, NOS. Vårt syfte är att ta reda på hur lärare aktualiserar nature of science genom ett Linné-tema.

This project is a learning CD-ROM production aimed at first-time parents. It is using both sound and images, moving as well as non-moving. The purpose of the production is to be an interesting alternative to traditional books. We have been looking at similar productions like drivers license educational CD-ROMs and encyclopedias for inspiration and ideas on how to proceed. In order to give the content some dynamics, we've also added the element of 3D-animated sequences. The application is supposed to be run as a simple executable file with flash embedded.

Barn och ungdomar ägnar idag en betydande del av sin fritid till datoranvändning. I denna uppsats har vi valt att undersöka datoranvändningens eventuella effekter på ungdomarnas betyg i språk. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om man kan se samband mellan, dvs. positiva eller negativa effekter på, betygen i engelska hos elever i år 9 och deras datoranvändning utanför skoltid. Utifrån detta har vi även undersökt vilken typ av datoranvändning som har dessa effekter, hur lång tid framför datorn som motsvarar dessa resultat, samt om det finns skillnader mellan flickors och pojkars datoranvändning och deras mätbara språkkunskaper.

Denna rapport jämför prestandan mellan state-of-the-art AI-botar i racing spelet TORCS och en AI-bot som kör med hjälp av ett artificiellt neuralt nätverk (ANN-bot). ANN-boten, som implementerades som en del av arbetet, använder en feedforward arkitektur och backpropagation för inlärning. Ett separat program som användes för att träna det neurala nätverket med träningdata som spelats in från TORCS implementerades också. Som state-of-the-art AI-botar användes AI-botar som har använts i en tävling. De fyra AI-botarna testades på åtta olika banor och data om hur lång tid varje varv tog och hur snabbt AI-botarna körde sparades och sammanställdes. Resultaten visar att på banorna som ANN-boten klarar av att köra runt så är ANN-boten snabbare än en den långsamaste state-of-the-art boten, men ANNboten klara inte av majoriteten av banorna som den testades på.

This study where designed to investigate if there are any positive relationship between the extent of physical activity during adolescent's leisure time and the academic performance, and also if there are any negative relationship between the academic performance and the time spent in front of the television or computers. Another part of the study tried to find out if physical activity has a direct and immediate influence on the performance in school. 91 pupils (51 girls and 40 boys) in the 8:th year of the Swedish primary school, from three different schools participated in the study. All 91 pupils first responded to a questionnaire concerning there activities in leisure time. They where then tested in a mathematical test and the results where compared with the extent of physical activity and TV/computer time they had stated in the questionnaire.

Science Fiction har sedan sin uppkomst gestaltat samhället och de samhällsfrågor som för sin tid är aktuella. Alltifrån ifall människans existens är kroppslig eller andlig, till vad som händer när livsformer från andra planeter kommer till Jorden, har diskuteras i Science Fiction. I tv-serien Battlestar Galactica gestaltas och problematiseras vår samtid. Genom att flytta mänskligheten från Jorden och ut i rymden, där de konfronteras med en mängd etiska och moraliska frågor ? tvingade att se över vad de själva är och vad de håller på att bli.

The aim of this thesis is to study different aspects of the public libraries' investment in public access computers connected to the Internet. What level of accessibility can be found at the surveyed libraries concerning the number of computers open to the public, as well as chat and email services? What activities have been taking place with the computers in focus, and what have the goals of these activities been? Is there any control of content, and what aspects of the Internet are, if that is the case, subject to censorship. And how do the governmental policies relate to the surveyed libraries' intentions and activities regarding the Internet? In order to answer these questions, each main library in the 42 largest towns of Sweden was surveyed response rate: 100 %.

Detta arbete är en magisteruppsats i Systemvetenskap med inriktning data och systemvetenskap, 10 poäng, vid Luleå Tekniska Universitet. Uppsatsen klargör vilka faktorer som avgör en användning eller icke-användning av Case-teknologin. Case-teknologin möjliggör ett ingenjörsmässigt närmande till mjukvaruproduktion och systemutveckling genom att tillföra nödvändig systematik, standardisering, automation och kvalitetssäkring. Ett stort antal undersökningar är gjorda genom årens lopp med syfte att förstå och förklara varför det som teoretiskt borde vara lösningen på problemet med undermåliga system inte tycks ha blivit detta. Resultatet av undersökningen tyder på att de variabler som Prekumar och Potter kom fram till i sin forskningsmodell ? relativa fördelar, kostnad, komplexitet, kompabilitet, produkt förespråkare, stöd från ledningen och operativ expertkunskap har störst påverkan på användningsbenägenheten av Case-teknologi..

The following essay or thesis is a study over scientific endeavors in the fringe. It is a study of Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, whose proponents aim to make the UFO phenomenon (or phenomena) a subject of scientific scrutiny. To achieve this, the ufologists first have to redefine common concepts of ufology as pseudo science or religion, mainly by challenging definitions given by scientific sceptics on the one hand, and proponents of conspiracy theories or the new age environment on the other. Thus UFO-Sverige seeks to construct an alternative scientific identity in contrast to adversaries on both sides, each unwilling to give the UFO phenomenon any further examination. Following the work of Tomas Gieryn's sociological grip on questions of epistemology, especially concerning the social boundaries of science from other cultural categories through what has been labelled as epistemic boundary work, during which proponents of a particular field aim to achieve epistemic authority and thus the legitimate right to define what is and what is not science, I seek to analyze how questions of science and legitimacy are actualized in an intellectual environment or culture not broadly accepted as scientific.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.