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Bookmarking is one of the main methods by which users store the online information they find valuable. However, bookmarks in their current incarnation suffer from a number of drawbacks which do not support users in their daily routines. Bookmarks are very easy to make, but over time this causes bookmark collections to grow, requiring systems of organization to keep track of everything. Eventually though these systems of organization require organizing themselves. And as time passes the titles of both bookmarks and folders begin to loose their meaning and users find it harder and harder to determine a bookmark’s value or a folder’s contents based on title alone. This leads to the bookmarks themselves becoming stale and unused, making collections that much harder to search through when trying to re-find one’s found, online information.This thesis proposes to re-imagine bookmarks as visualized information that is easily recognizable, and can help users to predict the information a bookmark links to. In this way it is hoped that bookmarks can become a more meaningful link between users and their found, online information. Furthermore, automated tagging is proposed to assist users when searching for their content, as well as chronological sorting to help users visually scan through their collections and re-find their bookmarks. Finally, non- hierarchical, folder-less bookmarking was also proposed, though in the end this did not map to users’ habits. That being said, visualizing bookmarks would appear to be worth pursuing as it resonated with users, and could be one direction to follow in assisting users with their information collections.

The importance of learning mathematics and using it in daily life is obvious. On the other hand, the results from many national and international assessment studies show that the achievement of Turkish students are very far away from the bare minimum performance. However, in the measurement and evaluation procedures of both primary and secondary educational system, there is a lack of identification of this &ldquo / bare minimum&rdquo / or qualitative and clear descriptors for performance levels. A great importance is dedicated to the national exam results expressed in percentage terms of the correct responses, or in total score points in weighted scale scores, but there is still no system of presenting to students their scores with descriptions of these scores in terms of levels of skills that they did or did not reach. Therefore, this study has aimed to identify the knowledge and skills required for different performance levels defined by setting cut points for the results of a 4th grade mathematics achievement test. The test was conducted in 2007-2008 academic year with 269 fourth grade students in eight different private primary schools in Istanbul. Then, in 2008-2009 academic year, a group of ten teachers of mathematics and assessment experts took part in the study for identifying the performance level descriptors for 4th grade mathematics performance. Two different methods of standard setting were used. One of the methods was based on the oneparameter model of Item Response Theory (IRT) and mostly named as Bookmark Method. The method depended on the statistical identification of the cut points on the scale for performance levels such as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The other method was a judgmental method which required the participant teachers to classify the item as carrying the characteristics of performance levels, again, as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The study revealed that the item mappings from two methods were congruent to each other. There was a hierarchical ordering in terms of skills among the performance levels. Also, the results demonstrated that understanding and computation skills were heavily characteristics of Below Basic and Basic levels, whereas, problem solving skill was reached by the students of Proficient and Advanced levels.

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No description available.