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A Disaster-Related Information Provision System for Inducing Prompt Behavior to Ensure Safety
Mokutani, Taisei; Utsu, Keisuke; Uchida, Osamu (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
Flood damage that causes many victims occurs every year worldwide. For example, about 300 people were killed in Krishna flood that occurred in India in 2009. Despite the importance of early evacuation, many residents cannot start evacuation when an actual flood disaster occurs. Various previous studies pointed out that many residents cannot recognize the dangerous situation from evacuation formation correctly. Therefore, it is thought that provision of personalized and understandable information to each resident in real time leads to the early evacuation behavior of residents. In this study, we propose a system that correctly provides disaster information to encourage residents’ safety assurance behavior and implement the prototype of it. The proposed system is implemented as a web application and provide disaster-related information based on the user’s current location.
An Investigation into the Perception of Companies in South Africa Regarding the Use of Social Media Platforms
Botha, Lizani; Taylor, Estelle; Huisman, Magda (South Africa)
ABSTRACT:
Nearly a quarter of South Africa’s population are active social media users, spending on average 2.7 hours each day using social media platforms. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of companies regarding the use of social media platforms for marketing, branding and customer relationship management. By gaining better understanding of these perceptions, researchers can develop guidelines to improve the usefulness of social media for companies. A positivistic paradigm was adopted for this study. The results show that the majority of the respondents feel that social media has been useful for the company. Facebook is seen as the most effective platform for marketing, for branding and for customer relationship management. Only a few of the respondents indicated that the company is measuring social media efforts and social return on investment. A lack of time is seen as the biggest factor why companies may not make more use of social media platforms. The main goal in using social media is to improve brand awareness.
Assessment Techniques and Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Abosalem, Yousef (United Arab Emirates)
ABSTRACT:
Improving students’ higher-order thinking skills is higher-order thinking skills is a collective experience; one teacher of a specific subject cannot alone improve the higher-order thinking skills, and it is a collaborative process between all subjects’ teachers and can be taught for all levels of studying .Moreover, these skills can be developed in a cumulative fashion as students’ progress through
their courses and subjects and other experiences they get from their institutions. As well, by including their subjects by problem solving, critical thinking and decision making activities will help students enhance their higher-order thinking skills. In this paper a mathematics test in fractions was constructed and analyzed for both grades 8 and 9 to make sure how teacher-made tests are constructed and how much of them agreed with the Bloom’s
Taxonomy levels. Results showed that most of teacher-made tests measure the lower levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. Moreover, 57.14% of the test items are applications and 28.57% are recognition items. Moreover, many studies indicated that 87% of the teachers’ items that have participated in this study used level 1 of the taxonomy. These numbers reflect the tendency of the assessment methods used in schools to ask students to recall information or to do routine questions.
Augmented Reality as Visual Communication for People with ASD
Menéndez, Esteban; López de Luise, María Daniela (Argentina)
ABSTRACT:
The goal of this paper is to present a behavioral modeling method for patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and an implemented prototype of it. The model is automatically derived from the natural interaction between a patient and his environment. This proposal differs from current treatments and tools, in that the individual is not trained by imposing semantic patterns, but ideograms built from the patient’s preferences and environment. By using Augmented Reality, the autistic is being treated in an innovative way: the model gathers the environment variables and through communication by exchange of images (PECS) the treatment becomes a agile, continuous and flexible process. The procedure is expedited since the patient does not have to select PECS, but they appear to him. The activity recording is them processed in such a way to control and describe the cognitive and social profile of the patient. It also, performs a customize performance statistics. Likewise, the special administration of these statistics is intended to lay the groundwork for more representative future work that could allow the derivation of umbiased patient´s evolution.
Cooperative Education and Work-Integrated Education Development for Sustainable Tourism: A Case of Thailand
Setarnawat, Sakchai (Thailand)
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the values from Work-based learning by Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education (CWIE) to study the actual needs from the Learning outcomes by developing ways for improvements from the CWIE Program that will be essential for the Tourism and Hotel Industry Work-based learning program. The data has been accumulated by using Mixed-Method with Exploratory-Sequential Approach, and Instrument-Development Design. The main focal point for this study is Quantitative Research by using Qualitative Research as the sub-step. The information was received from 40 people involved with the program from The Ministry of Tourism and Sports, The Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tourism and Hotel Faculties, Hotel Industries and Tourism Industries; Focus Groups have also been divided into 4 separated regions. The surveys have been developed after the information had been collected 400 sets of sample and used stratified random samplings by using the ratio of Tourism Industries, Travel Industries, Hotels, Resorts and Service Apartment in each region. The results have concluded that the most gained value from Work-based learning by Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education (CWIE) is Corporate Social Responsibility. Considering the overall learning outcomes, the results show that Tourism and Hotel Industries require graduates with great ethics and morals. Hence, the most suitable developmental approaches for CWIE are 1) Consistency of pedagogical practices 2) Concentration on soft skill development 3) Concentration on mentoring and 4) Fostering long-term relationship.
Determinants of Health Information Exchange Adoption: Comparative Analysis of Four Countries
Jin, Bei (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
In this article, a tentative framework of health information exchange (HIE) adoption determinants would be presented through case study and literature review concerning four countries representing different stages of HIE development: the U.S., Japan, Estonia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Assuming the technical and organizational requirements in adopting HIE would be satisfied, social and political factors along with health system characters are pointed out as the determinants of HIE adoption and promotion in different
counties.
Didactic Environment and its Influence on Student Cognitive Engagement in Undergraduate Engineering Education
Kozanitis, Anastassis (Canada)
ABSTRACT:
In higher education, active learning pedagogies are sometimes used to emulate conditions that require students to perform complex tasks and to generate
cognitive engagement in these tasks. Recent studies, however, question the nature of learning situations in the classroom as a disengagement culture tends to emerge. The goal of this research is to compare the different forms of student cognitive engagement according to the characteristics of the didactic
environment. Data from a self-administered questionnaire shows that students in project-based courses perceive themselves as investing higher intellectual effort than counterparts in lecture-based courses. The other cognitive engagement factors did not render significant differences between the groups. More research is needed to better discriminate the situational factors that can influence cognitive engagement.
Do You Know Where Your Students Are? Digital Supervision and Digital Privacy in Schools
Robertson, Lorayne; Corrigan, Laurie (Canada)
ABSTRACT:
The increasing affordability of mobile devices, the rapid proliferation of educational applications, and the availability of internet access combine to allow more students to be online at school. When students learn online, their personal information needs to be protected. Student supervision in the past focused on physical presence, but it must evolve to include students in digital settings. Updated legislation and policy alone cannot eliminate risks to digital privacy. Students, teachers, and parents need to become more aware of the privacy risks and should acquire digital citizenship skills. The policy analysis described here examines the availability and direction of digital supervision policies in Canada and compares this to international policies and directions. The authors find key differences in policy approaches designed to supervise students online and protect their digital privacy. Based on the policy analysis, the authors recommend more collaborative efforts to protect students’ digital privacy and manage their online risks.
Exploration of Acquisition Based Dynamic Capabilities Underpinning a Reinvention of Business Models in Technology-Related M&A Process
Čirjevskis, Andrejs (Latvia)
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of the current paper is to examine how multiple dynamic capabilities might be aligning in M&A process and complement the reinvention of a business model of merging company in the technology-enabled industry. Our primary theoretical contribution is emerging conceptual model of research that bridges acquisition based dynamic capabilities framework with a business model canvas together and illustrates how acquisition based dynamic capabilities underpin a reinvention of building blocks of business models in M&A processes. The presented conceptual model encourages practitioners to grasp an exact relationship between micro-foundations of each perspective. Overall, the paper deepens the conversation at the nexus of dynamic capabilities and reinvention of a business model in pursuing a new customer value proposition in M&A process. Keywords: dynamic capabilities, business model, merger and acquisition, customer value proposition.
Facilitating Effective Student Participation in an Online Environment
van der Stap, Nanda *; Blair, Risa ** (* Netherlands, ** United States)
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to show how student participation in an online environment can be effected through voice feedback. For many Universities student evaluations are an important issue. Student evaluations and student results are largely dependent on student-teacher relations. Establishing such a relation is a challenge in an online environment because the teacher is not present. As such, it is essential that means are found to achieving a personal relation within the online environment. We have endeavoured to lower the threshold to such contact by exploiting tools that enable a more personal relation. Vocal feedback to assignments or discussions allows for a more personal approach that could still be deemed professional in ways that solely written feedback cannot.. Two studies were conducted with two groups of students: one in the Netherlands and one in the United States. Both groups were students in a higher vocational institute who received part of their education in an online environment. Most students favoured vocal feedback and whilst some students are more visible learners and preferred to read feedback rather than listen to it, they still felt that contact between them and the teacher had become more personal.
Factors Affecting Students' Personalization vs. Privacy Decisions
Weinberger, Maor; Bouhnik, Dan (Israel)
ABSTRACT:
In this exploratory study we investigate the attitudes and influential factors of users' decisions in the dilemma whether to agree to online personalization or to protect their personal privacy. Various factors relating to online privacy and anonymity were considered, such as user's privacy concern on the Web in general and particularly on social networks, user online privacy literacy and field of study. To this end, a user study was carried out among 155 students of the Israeli academia, via a quantitative method using closed-ended questionnaires. The multivariate linear regression analysis showed that privacy concern strongly predicts users' decision in the personalization-privacy tradeoff. This research may be useful for finding ways to bridge the gap between users' previously reported desire for online personalization and protection of online privacy. The conclusions may also serve as a mean to mitigate online privacy paradox behavior.
Further Education under the Aspect of Quality
Miersch, Phillip; Jochem, Roland (Germany)
ABSTRACT:
The success of companies is determined by the qualifications of their employees, the reasons why they are required to attach great importance on further education activities. At the same time the diversity of further education makes it difficult to maintain an overview for anyone interested in learning, especially for persons responsible for human resource development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Many providers are flooding the market with partially little meaning product offerings and formats. The selection and conception of further education in SMEs often based on decisions out of sense or the scattergun approach. Especially restricted personal, time and financial resource are key drivers for insufficient consideration. The classification of learning objectives accompanied by the learning behavior will be a challenging task both for employees as well as human resource departments. An interdisciplinary research cooperation between educational science and quality science provided the basis for enhancing training and development selections. For this purpose, relevant characteristics for input and output were gathered by qualitative content analysis of educational literature and expert interviews among training experts. Dependencies between these characteristics were identified by interaction analysis. An algorithm was defined, that enables a systematically selection process.
Higher Education Quality – A Matter of Service
Abi Raad, Maurice; McKay, David (United Arab Emirates)
ABSTRACT:
With the increased requirement for responsiveness and accountability of higher education institutions and the growing competition for students and market share, higher education institutions are working diligently to provide fundamentals quality practices aimed at delivering better services, with ‘impressing the customer’ being the focus of all efforts. This paper presents a snapshot of the various frameworks used for quality evaluation and measurement in higher education. Among all the quality management frameworks, the paper reviews some of the most widely used in educational settings is the SERVQUAL, TQM with QFD, AQIP and SFIA models. It concludes by suggesting that the IT Service Management (ITIL) framework is both a viable and a valuable option to adapt to academia.
Hybrid Course Delivery: Examples from a Professional Issues Course
Sturgill, Ronda (United States)
ABSTRACT:
Hybrid or blended learning has developed and is well known as a common method of course delivery. While this method of course delivery has been used for years, there are still many philosophies and thoughts on how to deliver a hybrid course. This paper discusses examples from a specific Professional Issues course. The development of the course including specific components and method of delivery are identified. Student feedback and related research are discussed. Implications are provided for future hybrid delivered courses.
Information Behavior of University Students Living Outside the Disaster Area after the Kumamoto Earthquake
Tajima, Sachi; Uchida, Osamu; Utsu, Keisuke; Tomita, Makoto; Kajita, Yoshitaka; Yamamoto, Yoshiro (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
A survey was conducted into the information behavior of university students regarding the Kumamoto earthquake in 2016. An initial survey was conducted 1-2 weeks after the earthquake. A follow-up survey was conducted for some of the participants one week later. We found that participants had a high awareness of the effectiveness of posting on social media during disasters. The survey also revealed that information behavior about disaster was related to the daily information behavior. Focusing on the content of social media, there was a behavioral trend to share information posted by others. With regard to the social media generation, it is necessary to create opportunities for contact with disaster prevention and disaster risk reduction information in daily life by means of social media as a person concerned. Moreover, it is important to improve literacy about social media information.
Internet of Things: Applications in Smart Healthcare
Ahmed, Shaftab *; Ilyas, Mohammad **; Akhtar Raja, M. Yasin ** (* Pakistan, ** United States)
ABSTRACT:
Advances in semiconductor-photonics and communication technologies have paved the way for devices and applications in almost every aspect of our lives. Various devices have functional capabilities to sense surrounding environment, to collect, process, and communicate (transmit/receive) information. These devices have their unique identification and can be connected from anywhere. Such connected devices form Internet of Things (IoT) and enable smart applications that were not possible before. One of such applications include smart healthcare. This paper discusses some of the potential applications
of IoTs in healthcare to improve the quality of life. The challenges and future directions of research are discussed particularly the importance of forensics and identity management of IoT devices for wider acceptance in society as well as security matters.
Investigation into Parameter Setting Methods for Auto Scaling
Koita, Takahiro; Sakaitani, Ryota (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
The stable operation of a safety check information system in times of disaster, such as earthquakes and tsunami, is essential. Most safety check information systems use a Cloud, but as there is a significant difference in the number of users during times of disaster and normal times, it is difficult to control the number of Servers. Auto Scaling has been attracting a lot of attention in this
regard. Auto Scaling is an Amazon Web Services function, which is a means of automatically expanding and shrinking the processing capacity of Amazon EC2, by increasing and decreasing the number of Servers according to a user-defined
configuration. However, as Auto Scaling characteristically has a large number of parameters and the effect of parameters differs according to the application or Web service, the difficult in setting parameters has been a serious issue. In this study, we evaluate the operation of Auto Scaling in evaluation tests, and
investigate a method of setting parameters, with the objective of automatic parameter configuration of Auto Scaling.
Is ICT Distracting or Enhancing Meaningful Relationships?
Jun, Heesoon (United States)
ABSTRACT:
ICTs are neutral but the way we use them determines whether they enhance our lives or distract us from living our lives. ICTs have revolutionized the way we access, share, and communicate information not only with each ecological
level [macro (culture and society), meso (institutions), micro (family)] within a culture but also globally. However, they also have contributed to our ability to develop undesirable habits (e.g., habitual checking the device which distracts
individuals from work and studying; focusing on creating desired self-image, rather than working on accepting realself and developing meaningful interpersonal relationship etc.). The purpose of the paper is to examine how ICTrelated overload manifests symptoms and to explore developing meaningful relationships by the way we use ICT.
Learning Complexity Leadership through Intergenerational Learning
Ropes, Donald; van Kleef, Han (Netherlands)
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the role intergenerational learning has in learning leadership in complex open-innovation projects. It was developed through a multidisciplinary and integrative review of the literature. While the literature review is not comprehensive, it serves to find recurring themes related to the idea of the role intergenerational learning plays in leadership learning in complex situations. We show that intergenerational learning as a type of informal
learning plays different roles at different times in complex project leadership. The resulting framework, which ties together the various concepts developed in the paper, is useful for guiding new empirical studies on leadership development as well as giving insight for designers of management
development programs aimed at leading innovation in complex environments.
Learning Method to Improve Student’s Programming Writing Skills
Kofune, Yasuyo; Koita, Takahiro (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
In this study, a novel teaching method is proposed to improve the programming skills of beginner students. The proposed method is based on the concept that the program-reading and program-writing skills are interrelated: novice students are generally able to understand the key points of writing programs by reading those written by others. The key practices of the proposed method are discussion and experience. Discussing a program provides students with ample opportunity to think about program processing. Furthermore, discussions among students enhance each participant’s understanding of the program. In addition, experience in conceptualizing the processing of a program is required for students to be able to write programs based on student’s own ideas. By examining a wide variety of programs, students gain experience in thinking about program processing and thereby develop the skills needed to write their own programs. Herein, a few methods to implement these foundational practices are discussed. We also describe an application of this approach in a second-grade programming class. By this method, students learn by reading program, creating a Unified Modeling Language diagram, and modifying and executing a previously written program. The use of the proposed teaching approach was found to help students improve their program-writing skills.
Learning Support Website of Physics with Emphasis on Connection with Mathematics
Nishioka, Keita; Kudo, Tomoshige; Nakamura, Akira (Japan)
ABSTRACT:
We have been developing a learning support website for high school and first-grade physics education. The feature of our website is the connection between physics and mathematics through hyperlink. Mathematical terms necessary to understand physics in our website link to mathematical knowledge in the
mathematics website that we have already developed. The link structure showing the relationships between mathematical and physical knowledge is successfully visualized by network graph drawing. Therefore, learners visiting our website can easily grasp the relationships. This web-based learning support environment is suitable for self-study or self-adaptive learning.
Consequently, they are able to learn physics efficiently and effectively according to their ability and curiosity.
May Parental Reading Behavior Explain the Gender Differences in Subteeners’ Reading Attitude?
Joó, Aniko; Dani, Erzsébet (Hungary)
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents the results of a research project which analyzed the impact of parental reading behavior on the gender differences in subteeners’ reading attitude. The applied theoretical approach is based on the tri-component view of reading attitude. A sample of 1633 (815 male and 786 female) students and their parents filled in a questionnaire on reading preferences and habits, and the students completed a reading attitude scale. Variance analyses (ANOVA) are used to determine the statistically significant differences. Independent variables of the measurement are materialized dimensions of reading, and parents’ paper-based/online reading habits, purpose and frequency. As assumed, girls are generally more influenced by parental reading habits and exhibit more favorable reading attitude if either parent has positive reading behavior. Boys’ reading attitude is far less influenced by behavioral patterns; nevertheless, the father’s impact is significantly stronger than that of the mother. In the light of the results, this paper will also give some thought, briefly, to what can be done; thereby, indicating some directions of further research.
Need of a Paradigm Shift in Teaching Learning Process, Lessons to be Learnt on the Lines of Toyota Technical Training Institute Curriculum
Rocha, Alan Sanjay; Gupta, Sk (India)
ABSTRACT:
Employability studies have found an alarming number of unemployable engineers. This paper investigates two main aspects of the teaching learning process qualifications of technical teachers and need for redefining the curriculum. The curriculum for Teaching-learning process at Toyota Technical Institute, is brought under focus, to be able to identify gaps in curricula in other technical training Institutes and suggest aspects to be incorporated for making the curriculum holistic. A comparison of model curriculum prescribed by AICTE and Toyota technical training institute curriculum will be done. The factors responsible for current scenario of employability or un-employability are identified. The appropriateness of the curriculum prescribed by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has been critically evaluated. The use of ICT in enhancing the quality of teaching learning will also be discussed. The case of process of technical training at Toyota Technical Training Institute is considered in details and different stages of process, from selection for admission to final employment, have been studied to be able to prescribe appropriate approach to other Technical training Institutes.
Open Access in the Countries of the Visegrad Group. Instructor and Student Experiences
Juhász, Attila; Dani, Erzsébet (Hungary)
ABSTRACT:
In recent decades, publication of results of scientific research has earned its rightful place not only on traditional forums but in digital space as well. Collecting studies into databases and providing open access to them serves a double purpose. Not only does it accelerate, but it also liberalizes communication. Our paper presents the results of research conducted in the countries of the Visegrad Group (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) among higher education faculty and students, with an intention to inquire into how they relate to Open Access as well as into their habits of using repositories. With the help of a questionnaire survey, we sought to answer to the following questions:
What are the differences and similarities between the approach to Open Access in the countries of the region? What lies behind these?
Have respondents ever had access to Open Access? How do they feel about its advantages or disadvantages? Do they utilize its hidden potentials, or are they still skeptical about it?
Have academics seen an increase in the scientific visibility of their work due to open access?
Our research results indicate significant differences between the countries of the region, especially as regards student responses. We aimed to find reasons for these differences so as to be able to offer suggestions for further research topics in the field.
Play, Connect and Learn: Using Mobile Phones to Improve Early Grade Reading Skills at Home
Joshi, Ira (India)
ABSTRACT:
Mobile technologies offer great scope and potential for learning in countries with moderate income rates, low literacy levels, poor educational opportunities and high ownership of mobile phones. The paper discusses the efforts made by
Sesame Workshop in India to support children’s grade l and 2 reading skills, specifically foundational literacy and reading comprehension, using mobile phones at home. It provides the findings from a quasi-experimental design
research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile phone based reading application on the reading levels of children. A total of 627 children
participated in the research, which used an adapted version of Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) to measure children’s early grade reading skills, in their mother tongue. The findings indicate statistically significant gains for
children in the intervention group on four of the six subtasks: letter name identification, syllable identification, familiar word reading and oral reading fluency. These findings support the growing literature on the effectiveness of
engaging and developmentally appropriate content delivered through mobile phones to improve children’s reading skills.
Rwandan Collaborative Model for Educator Capacity Building
Moore, Andrew *; Nyangoma, Vincentie **; Du Toit, Jaco ***; Wallet, Peter **; Rukundo, Pascal ** (* South Africa, ** Rwanda, *** Kenya)
ABSTRACT:
Collaboration between the Rwandan government, local industry and the University of Rwanda to develop and deploy educator technology-integration professional development initiatives neatly follows the Triple Helix Model[1]. However, in this Rwandan initiative a fourth collaborative partner proved significant, the regional/global education community coordinated by UNESCO’s Regional Office for Eastern Africa. The ICT Essentials for Teachers’ Course was designed to exploit a blended-learning methodology, developed using Open Educational Resources and deployed by locally trained online facilitators. This paper presents a model of how effective collaboration between stakeholders can result in the quick and cost effective development and deployment of educator training initiatives.
School Laboratories to Teach Robotics, Smart Home and Artificial Intelligence: From Theory to Practice
Bressler, Janine; Mohnke, Janett (Germany)
ABSTRACT:
This paper describes a selection of concrete ideas for a STEM school laboratory. The special focus is on a newly developed learning kit which deals with the topics Service Robotics, Smart Home and Artificial Intelligence using the teaching strategy MOMBI (Model Of Model-Based Instruction). The laboratory focuses specifically on high school students in upper secondary education.
Strategic Planning for the Second Half of Your Life
Blatstein, Ira (United States)
ABSTRACT:
In a previous article, the author discussed strategic planning and its application to a variety of organizations. This article extends the application of these strategic planning principles to an individual’s life. Increased life expectancy is leading to the desire/requirement to plan well beyond the end of an individual’s
traditional first career. The paper delves into application of strategic planning to plan the second half of an individual’s life. It also discusses the incorporation of these ideas into strategic planning classes. Finally the article reports on the results of a survey that has been used to assess the impact that this planning
has on students’ perspectives on their future and on strategic planning. Key conclusions of the paper are: 1) Doing this type of planning makes individuals feel positive about the future. They are more likely, I believe, to respond to opportunities as they arise. 2 After doing the planning, a larger number of respondents expect to involve other people in the development of their plans.
3) Many of the respondents did not have any personal strategic plan prepared before they did the one in this class. 4) A large majority of the respondents were impacted by the planning process. They either changed their plans, took specific actions, or changed their approach to planning overall. 5) The course and plan development altered many individuals view of their plan and planning
Teaching Better Requirements Engineering Using LEGO® Serious Play™
Mayr, Herwig (Austria)
ABSTRACT:
We present our experiences using LEGO Serious Play for Education and Training of (primarily) IT students and pro-fessionals. After summarizing the LEGO Serious Play technique we illustrate how we adapted its processes and workflow in order to teach requirements engineering to professionally experienced (IT) master students at the Up-per Austria University of Applied Sciences, Hagenberg, Austria. We elaborate on our experiences using this tech-nique from a student’s as well as a teacher’s perspective, concluding with its advantages and disadvantages for train-ing and education in an information technology environ-ment.
Transformative Effects of Ranking and Sense-Making Tasks in Introductory Physics Courses
Patricio, Orlando M.; Goetze, Jim R. (United States)
ABSTRACT:
Transformational effects of using ranking and sensemaking tasks or activities were explored in introductory physics courses. Ranking and sense-making tasks were assessed by utilization of student pre/posttest scores and also by comparison of final exam scores. Student portfolios of the activities were also assessed using the Laredo Community College, Natural Sciences Departmental
Rubric for critical thinking skills in order to ascertain the subject’s level of critical thinking skills. To gain better insights of the productive elements of the activities and to validate test scores, student impressions were collected and
analyzed. The activities were embedded in the usual, introductory physics classroom routines. There was a significant difference between pretest and posttests scores in both groups (control and experimental). The students’
learning transformation significantly improved. This implies that ranking and sense-making activities positively impact all types of learners.
Using Digital Media for the Lexicon Acquisition of Italian as a Foreign Language
Hirzinger-Unterrainer, Eva Maria (Austria)
ABSTRACT:
This paper illustrates a quasi-experimental study aimed at examining the potential of digital media for the vocabulary acquisition in Italian as an L3 in the Austrian school context. In order to investigate the effects of digital media on the lexical acquisition of Italian and on vocabulary learning strategies the two following groups of college students were involved: an experimental group and a control group. The first group were college students who used digital media to learn the lexical items of the classroom teaching, whereas the college students of the second one were presented with lexical input without using digital media. In order to investigate possible differences between these groups a pre- and a post-test of lexical acquisition and a questionnaire on vocabulary learning strategies were carried out at the beginning and the end of the school year. Furthermore interviews were conducted with six college students of the experimental group. This paper will give insights into the used vocabulary learning strategies and therefore in selected results of the author’s study.
Virtual Global Classrooms without Walls: Collaborative Opportunities for Higher Learning Engagement
MacDonald, Cathy; Sheppard-LeMoine, Debra (Canada)
ABSTRACT:
Educational research demonstrates that conventional pedagogies are no longer effective for actively engaging learners and produces learning isolation. Alternative interpretative approaches that foster learning and inquiry from multiple perspectives and contexts, while emanating from the lived experiences of educators, students and clinicians, engage and empower students to explore and increase their understanding about sensitive topics (such as palliative care, leadership challenges, and practicing within vulnerable environments). Encouraging students to associate their personal experiences with evidenced-based knowledge and best practices in positive learning spaces supports innovative advancement of health care with a focus on culturally safe practices internationally. This can be accomplished via virtual global classrooms by using synchronous communication implementing video conferencing. The University of Calgary Qatar (UCQ), Doha has been active in this learning approach in both their undergraduate and graduate programs. A shared teaching/ learning experience was facilitated for the undergraduate Bachelor of Science (BScN) nursing students in Doha, Qatar and the Rankin School of Nursing, Saint Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada focusing on building understanding of community nursing practices in both countries. In the UCQ master’s program, a palliative care course was offered for three spring sessions and a leadership course was offered for one spring session with synchronous communication via video conferencing shared between Nova Scotia and the Middle East. These virtual learning opportunities provided fostered a relational and professional learning engagement that would not have been otherwise been possible. The authors contend that this work provides not only an opportunity for future higher learning engagements, but also a foundation for future global collaborative research and practice partnerships.
What's Going on?! Needs and Emotions During Classes. The FELIX-App: New Ways of Feedback and Evaluating Classes in Real Time
Apelojg, Benjamin (Germany)
ABSTRACT:
The “output-orientation” is omnipresent in teacher education. In order to evaluate teachers' and students' performances, a wide range of different quantitative questionnaires exist worldwide. One important goal of teaching evaluation is to increase the quality of teaching and learning. The author argues, that standard evaluations which are typically made at the end of the semester are problematic due to two reasons. The first one is that some of the questions are too general and don`t offer concrete ideas as to what kind of actions can be taken to make the courses better. The second problem is that the evaluation is mostly made when the course is already over. Because of this criticism, Apelojg invented the Felix-App which offers the possibility to give feedback in real-time by asking for the emotions and needs that occur during different learning situations. The idea is very simple: positive emotions and satisfied needs are helpful for the learning process. Negative emotions and unsatisfied needs have negative effects on the learning process. First descriptive results show, that “managing emotions” during classes can have positive effects on both motivation and emotions.
Where’s the ‘Data’ in Mathematics and Computer Science?
McMaster, Kirby; Rague, Brian; Sambasivam, Samuel; Wolthuis, Stuart (United States)
ABSTRACT:
In this research study, we examine how often Mathematics and Computer Science (CS) books reference the central concept of Data Science, which is represented by the single word data. From a sample of 304 Math and CS books, we recorded the frequency and rank for the word data within their concordances. A concordance is the 100 most frequently used words in a book, not including common English words. The CS books use the word data far more often than do the Math books. Database books in particular display the highest level of support for data, in that 11 of the 13 books having a concordance rank of 1 for data are in the Database category. Almost 90% of the Software Engineering and Computer Systems concordances contain the word data. The Computer Systems category (which includes Architecture, Operating Systems, Networks, and Security) has 7 of 15 books with data rank 10 or lower. Only half of the applied Math books include data in their concordances. In contrast, none of the traditional Math books, which emphasize theorems and proofs, list data as a concordance word.
WooDIE - Designing Web Data-Mining and Analysis Solutions with Python and Elasticsearch
Konrad, Philipp; Lachner, Christian; Pauler, Daniel; Sindl, Gregor; Kaufmann, Christian (Austria)
ABSTRACT:
This paper describes used techniques for a security software development project in progress with the purpose to develop a toolkit for mining information out of web pages with user provided content. Our approach uses Python for information gathering and Elasticsearch for datamining. This paper focuses on the information gathering phase of the project, datamining will be published as soon as we have at least a working prototype.
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