In this paper we introduce a novel highly interactive process to generate natural language narratives on the basis of our ongoing work on semiotic relations. To the two basic components of interactive systems, namely, a software tool and a user interface, we add a third component - AI agents, understood as an upgraded rendition of software agents. Our semiotic relations approach considers four ways of composing new narratives from existing narratives. Along what semioticians call the horizontal syntagmatic axis, one can form the new narrative by combining two or more previous narratives. Along the vertical paradigmatic axis, the new narrative may emerge as a similar version, which imitates the previous one, possibly in a different context. Along the depth meronymic axis, the hierarchic narrative levels, such as plot, event, and scene, are explored, allowing either expansion or summarization. Lastly, the antithetic consideration, rather than adding a dimension, aims at some form of reversal, through the adoption of opposite values. A fully operational prototype is described. Its name, ChatGeppetto, conflates the skilled Geppetto, who fashioned Pinocchio, an early case of artisanship-produced human level intelligence, with ChatGPT, which operates as the main AI agent component. To run the experiments, we concentrated on book narratives.
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As I gaze out of my window, I am met with a totem. This totem is gray and windowless, nestled in between offices and academic buildings. Behind it is a park, and the longer I stare, the deeper it becomes embedded in the natural landscape, after a bit I forget it’s there. But in the corner of my eye I can see another one; another totem. This one intimidates me with its red glow. These buildings came to serve as mystical pillars of data flows to me, they became sites of reification, sites where the cloud finally condensed and data rained down. They assumed a posthuman status; high-tech facilities where humans are only needed to keep other humans out. I always imagined data as something abstract, as a floating entity, but as my encounters with these pillars started a process of materialization, it simultaneously sparked a desire to interrogate and to demystify.
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This paper will explore how a portfolio approach to teaching and learning can help the educator incorporate unique forms of reflective practice into his or her daily work. By being able to express ideas more clearly to himself, the educator can better promote the relational construction of knowledge in his educational communities. This paper, as part of a larger body of research asks, how can a portfolio approach to teaching and learning help the educator develop unique forms of reflective practice that will help him express his ideas more clearly, first to himself and then secondly to his educational communities? Research methodology is primarily participatory action research and includes an autoethnographic review of the author's work, reviews, interviews, observations, and focus groups with student teachers and professional teachers in the United Arab Emirates. The research concludes that in consideration of McLuhan's (1964) notion that the "medium is the message," the interactions that arise through the use of new media tools can lead us to relational, co-constructed ideas that are not those simply passed on from other texts. By making our thinking visible, the portfolio approach allows the educator to capture the contextual relationship between the author, the audience or community, and the knowledge being created.
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