bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of Synthetic Speech in Language Learning Tools
Authors: Saz Oscar , Lleida Eduardo
Published: May 2010

This Chapter aims to bring up a discussion on the use of Computer Synthesized Speech (CSS) in the development of Computer-Aided Speech and Language Therapy (CASLT) tools for the improvement of the communication skills in handicapped individuals. CSS is strongly required in these tools for two reasons: Providing alternative communication to users with different impairments and reinforcing the correct pronunciation of words and sentences. Different possibilities have arisen for this goal, including pre-recorded audio, embedded Text-to-Speech (TTS) devices or talking faces. These possibilities are reviewed and the implications of their use with handicapped individuals are commented, showing the experience of the authors in the development of tools for Spanish speech therapy. Finally, a preliminary study in the use of computer-based tools for the teaching of Spanish to young children showed how the synthetic speech feature in the language learning tool was sufficient to maintain the possibilities of the tool as a valuable language teaching element in the absence of other visual elements.
Attitudes toward Computer Synthesized Speech
Authors: Mullennix John W. , Stern Steven E.
Published: May 2010

This chapter reviews an emerging area of research that focuses on the attitudes and social perceptions that people have toward users of computer synthesized speech (CSS). General attitudes toward people with speech impairments and AAC users are briefly discussed. Recent research on people’s attitudes toward speaking computers is reviewed, with the emphasis on the similarity in the way that people treat computers and humans. The research on attitudes toward CSS and whether persuasive appeals conveyed through CSS indicates that, in general, people view CSS less favorably than natural human speech. However, this tendency is reversed when people know that the user is speech impaired. It also appears that people’s attitudes are modified by the situation which CSS is used for. Overall, the findings present an intriguing perspective on attitudes toward people with speech impairments who use CSS and will serve to stimulate further research in this area.
Stereotypes of People with Physical Disabilities and Speech Impairments as Detected by Partially Structured Attitude Measures
Authors: Stern Steven E. , Mullennix John W. , Fortier Ashley Davis , Steinhauser Elizabeth
Published: May 2010

Partially Structured Attitude Measures (PSAMs) are non-reaction-time based measures of implicit attitudes. Participants’ attitudes are measured by the degree to which they react toward ambiguous stimuli. The authors developed a series of PSAMs to examine six stereotypes of people with disabilities: asexual, unappealing, isolated, dependent, entitled, and unemployable. In two studies, they found that PSAMs detected implicit endorsements of stereotypes toward people with a physical disability, speech impairment, or combination of the two. Compared to people without disabilities, stereotypes were endorsed for people with disabilities, with unappealing, dependent and unemployable being more prominent for physically disabled targets and dependent, entitled and isolated being more prominent for speech disabled targets. Implications for understanding the stereotyping of people with physical and speech disabilities are discussed.
XML Compression
Authors: Chung Chin-Wan , Park Myung-Jae , Lee Jihyun
Published: May 2010

To effectively reduce the redundancy and verbosity of XML data, various studies for XML compression have been conducted. Especially, XML data management systems and applications require the support of direct query processing and update on compressed XML data, the stream based compression/decompression, and the reduction of the size of the compressed data. In order to fully support the various aspects of XML compression, existing XML compression techniques should be carefully examined and the additional requirements for XML compression techniques should be considered. In this chapter, the authors first classify existing representative XML compression techniques according to their characteristics. Second, they explain the details of XML specific compression techniques. Third, they summarize the performance of the compression techniques in terms of the compression ratio and the compression and decompression time. Lastly, they present some future research directions.
Labeling XML Documents
Authors: Lu Jiaheng , Xu Liang , Ling Tok Wang , Li Changqing
Published: May 2010

XML labeling schemes play an important role in XML query processing. Containment and Prefix labeling schemes are two of the most popular labeling schemes. In order to perform efficient XML query processing, this chapter shows how to extend the traditional prefix labeling scheme to speedup query processing. In addition, for XML documents that are updated frequently, many labeling schemes require relabeling which can be very expensive. A lot of research interest has been generated on designing dynamic XML labeling schemes. Making labeling schemes dynamic turns out to be a challenging problem and many of the approaches proposed only partially avoid relabeling. This chapter describes some recently emerged dynamic labeling schemes that can completely avoid relabeling, making efficient update processing in XML database management systems possible.
Content-Based Publish/Subscribe for XML Data
Authors: Ni Yuan , Chan Chee-Yong
Published: May 2010

Content-based publish/subscribe system is an effective means to deliver relevant data to interested data consumers. As the emergence of XML, it quickly becomes the de facto for data exchange on the Internet. Therefore, to use XML format in the content-based publish/subscribe system attracts increasing interests. This chapter firstly introduces the content-based publish/subscribe system for XML data; followed by the discussion of issues in this system and introduction of solutions to these issues. Finally, this chapter points out some possible research directions for the content-based publish/subscribe system for XML data.
XP2P
Authors: Bonifati Angela , Cuzzocrea Alfredo
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents XP2P (XPath for P2P), a framework for fragmenting and managing XML data over structured peer-to-peer networks. XP2P is characterized by an innovative mechanism for fragmenting XML documents based on meaningful XPath queries, and novel fingerprinting techniques for indexing and looking-up distributed fragments based on Chord’s DHT. Efficient algorithms for querying distributed fragments over peer-to-peer networks are also presented and experimentally assessed against both synthetic and real XML data sets. A comprehensive analysis of future research directions on XML data management over peer-to-peer networks completes the contribution of the chapter.
XML Data Integration
Authors: Qi Yan , Cao Huiping , Candan K. Selçuk , Sapino Maria Luisa
Published: May 2010

In XML Data Integration, data/metadata merging and query processing are indispensable. Specifically, merging integrates multiple disparate (heterogeneous and autonomous) input data sources together for further usage, while query processing is one main reason why the data need to be integrated in the first place. Besides, when supported with appropriate user feedback techniques, queries can also provide contexts in which conflicts among the input sources can be interpreted and resolved. The flexibility of XML structure provides opportunities for alleviating some of the difficulties that other less flexible data types face in the presence of uncertainty; yet, this flexibility also introduces new challenges in merging multiple sources and query processing over integrated data. In this chapter, the authors discuss two alternative ways XML data/schema can be integrated: conflict-eliminating (where the result is cleaned from any conflicts that the different sources might have with each other) and conflict-preserving (where the resulting XML data or XML schema captures the alternative interpretations of the data). They also present techniques for query processing over integrated, possibly imprecise, XML data, and cover strategies that can be used for resolving underlying conflicts.
Integration of Relational and Native Approaches to XML Query Processing
Authors: Wu Huayu , Ling Tok Wang
Published: May 2010

Existing XML twig pattern query processing algorithms fall into two classes: the relational approach and the native approach. Both kinds of approaches have their advantages and limitations. Particularly, the relational approach can search for data values (content search) efficiently using tables, but it is not efficient to match query structure to documents (structural search). The native approach processes structural search efficiently, but it has problem dealing with values. In this chapter, a hybrid approach for XML query processing is introduced. In this approach, the content search and the structural search in a twig pattern query are performed separately using the data structures in the relational approach and the native approach, i.e. relational tables and inverted lists. The authors show that this hybrid style technique can process both structural search and content search efficiently, and then improve the query processing performance comparing to the existing approaches. Furthermore, when more semantic information on object class and relationship between objects in the XML document is known, the relational tables used can be optimized according to such semantic information to achieve a better performance. Finally after performing twig pattern matching, value results can be extracted easily using relational tables, rather than navigating the document again in many other approaches.
Negotiations of Meaning with MOODLE
Authors: Bettoni Marco
Published: May 2010

In this chapter we present a design for an e-collaboration environment and its implementation with MOODLE within the context of a research knowledge network at our university. In the first part, after a short introduction of our constructivist knowledge model, we present our idea of what we call a “design for meaning”, explaining its theoretical foundation and developing its conceptual features. In the second part we show how we have implemented this concept with Moodle for supporting a community-based knowledge network of researchers at our university and reflect on the experiences that we have collected during this 3 years pilot project.
E-Collaborative Help-Seeking Using Social Web Features
Authors: Schworm Silke , Heckner Markus
Published: May 2010

Many help systems fail because users do not perceive them as helpful and refuse to use them. Obviously there is a gap between the intentions of the help content authors and the achievement of objectives concerning the perceived usefulness by help users. Current help systems show considerable weaknesses concerning (1) the comprehensibility of the help content, and (2) the format of the help output. Users are often seriously challenged with understanding the instructions given by the system, which usually is not adequately adapted to users’ prior knowledge or their vocabulary. This problem is strengthened by the implementation problem of missing feedback channels. The current paper aims to address these issues by presenting an information architecture for an online help system, which constitutes the basis for a dynamic help system, gradually developed by experts and users. It combines earlier models of design patterns with features for user contribution from social software.
How to Design Support for Collaborative E-Learning
Authors: Diziol Dejana , Rummel Nikol
Published: May 2010

Research on collaborative e-learning has often shown the effectiveness of students’ interaction on their group performance and their individual learning outcomes. However, these positive effects cannot always be found. Collaboration assistance such as pre-collaboration training and collaboration scripts have been shown to support student interaction and problem-solving. When developing assistance for collaboration, teachers and designers must make decisions concerning the processes the support should target, the timing of support, and the interplay of support on multiple levels. The framework we introduce in this book chapter describes these dimensions in detail. We present advantages and disadvantages of different design options, and give an example from our own research to exemplify the design of an e-learning environment that provides collaboration support. We discuss how the circumstances of any particular learning situation might influence which type of support is optimal, and conclude the book chapter with a discussion of possible future developments.
Games in Health Education
Authors: Kaszap Margot
Published: May 2010

Studies indicate that teachers are not effectively encouraging appropriate health and well-being strategies among their students (Turcotte, Gaudreau, & Otis, 2007). Because educational games offer many advantages in promoting health, motivation, and active participation in learning, (Sauvé, Power, IsaBelle, Samson, & St-Pierre, 2002), it is important to determine which types of games health education teachers can use best. Building on health education needs and social representation theory, this chapter presents a study of pre-service (student) teachers to identify social representations that pre-service teachers have about games, including whether they perceived games as supporting learning at home and in school, and which types and aspects of games they preferred. The answers to these questions helped the research team to create games to meet the needs of future teachers in enhancing their students’ health education.
Design of a Socioconstructivist Game for the Classroom
Authors: Kaszap Margot , Rail Sylvie
Published: May 2010

The overall goal of our research was to create a Web-based health education game that was compatible with new school requirements in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, Canada, covering the development of competencies including problem solving and critical thinking, while using a learning approach involving the collective construction of knowledge. This chapter introduces the theoretical and empirical studies which led us to choose the game framework and question types to achieve the desired learning objectives.
Advancing the Study of Educational Gaming
Authors: Wideman Herbert H. , Owston Ronald , Brown Christine
Published: May 2010

Most of the published research in educational gaming has had methodological limitations. Process data critical to understanding under what conditions games can promote learning are typically not collected, and unreliable student and teacher self-reports are often the primary data source used when assessing the educational efficacy of many games. To address these and other methodological issues, the authors have developed a research software tool, OpenVULab1, which can record screen activity during game2 play in classroom settings remotely and unobtrusively, together with a synchronized audio track of player discussion. This chapter describes the structure, operation, and affordances of the tool and reports on the results of a field trial designed to evaluate its utility. In this trial, 42 college students were studied using OpenVULab as they played a coursework-related web-based learning game. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the trial outcomes, showing how they concretely demonstrate the methodological advantages that the use of OpenVULab offers researchers.
The Use of Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology Research
Authors: Renaud Patrice , Chartier Sylvain , Fedoroff Paul , Bradford John , Rouleau Joanne L.
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents research that is laying a foundation for new simulation applications that promise learning-oriented treatments for mental health conditions. After presenting background on their technologies and measurement techniques, the authors describe experimental applications of this approach. Analysis of negative and positive responses to virtual reality (VR) stimuli, as well as their complex composites, can lead to a better understanding of patient responses, including fundamental perceptual and cognitive causal relationships. Measuring patients’ dynamic parameters in VR simulations can possibly lead to new treatment approaches for psychopathologies The biological and behavioral feedback obtained by virtual mediation, based on parameters of the perceptivo-motor dynamics such those described in this chapter, represents a promising avenue for future investigation.
Collaborative Online Multimedia Problem-Based Learning Simulations (COMPS)
Authors: Schell Robyn , Kaufman David
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a Collaborative Online Multimedia Problem-based Learning Simulation (COMPS) instructional model designed to help students and practitioners in the health professions develop clinical reasoning and diagnostic skills. Both students and instructors are searching for effective learning platforms and pedagogical models that enable them to collaborate, study, and work at a distance. In order to address this need, COMPS was developed to support a case-based tutorial model where learners can work together online to solve authentic problems no matter where they are located. The model aims to bring together the strongest features of simulations, namely engagement and immersiveness, with one of the strongest features of face-to-face learning—social interaction. The COMPS model combines these strengths to create a new learning system for health education and examines how students learn in this online environment. This chapter also discusses the next steps in our research and development, investigating the use of a COMPS model on a dedicated platform.
Formative Evaluation of an Online Educational Game
Authors: Sauvé Louise , Renaud Lise , Elissalde Jérôme , Hanca Gabriela
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the creation of an educational game about sexually transmitted infections. STIs: Stopping the Transmission was created using the Parcheesi™ generic educational game shell (GEGS). It also presents the validation of the game with experts, followed by its trial with secondary school students to measure the effectiveness of the motivational mechanisms provided by the shell and its adequacy in meeting teachers’ pedagogic requirements.
The Effectiveness of Health Informatics
Authors: Paolucci Francesco , Ergas Henry , Hannan Terry , Aarts Jos
Published: May 2010

Health care is complex and there are few sectors that can compare to it in complexity and in the need for almost instantaneous information management and access to knowledge resources during clinical decision-making. There is substantial evidence available of the actual, and potential, benefits of e-health tools that use computerized clinical decision support systems (CDSS) as a means for improving health care delivery. CDSS and associated technologies will not only lead to an improvement in health care but will also change the nature of what we call electronic health records (EHR) The technologies that “define” the EHR will change the nature of how we deliver care in the future. Significant challenges relating to the evaluation of these health information management systems relate to demonstrating their ongoing cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, and effects on the quality of care and patient outcomes. However, health information technology is still mainly about the effectiveness of processes and process outcomes, and the technology is still not mature, which may lead to unintended consequences, but it remains promising and unavoidable in the long run.
Closing the Gap
Authors: Jordanova Malina
Published: May 2010

Brought to life by contemporary changes of our world, e-health offers enormous possibilities. In the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly resolution on e-health, WHO has defined e-health as the cost-effective and secure use of information and communication technologies in support of health and health-related fields, including healthcare services, health surveillance, health literature, and health education (WHO, 2005). It is impossible to have a detailed view of its potential as e-health affects the entire health sector and is a viable tool to provide routine, as well as specialized, health services. It is able to improve both the access to, and the standard of, health care. The aim of the chapter is to focus on how e-health can help in closing one gap - optimizing patient care. The examples included and references provided are ready to be introduced in practice immediately. Special attention is dedicated to cost effectiveness of e-health applications.
Extending Health Services to Rural Communities
Authors: Smith Anthony C , Edirippulige Sisira
Published: May 2010

Providing quality healthcare services to geographically isolated communities remains a considerable challenge to health service providers throughout the world. The conventional approach of referring patients to specialists often requiring the patient to travel long distances still remains mainstream. Meanwhile, the advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) have acted as a catalyst for substantial changes in human activities in areas such as communication, commerce, and education. Researchers are exploring the potential of ICT to improve health services for patients in rural and remote areas. This chapter provides an overview of telemedicine applications and the experience of a research and health service which has pioneered the delivery of specialist pediatric services at a distance (telepediatrics) in Queensland, Australia.
Will Privacy Concerns Derail the Electronic Health Record? Balancing the Risks and Benefits
Authors: Gibson Candace J. , Abrams Kelly J.
Published: May 2010

The introduction of information technologies and the electronic record in health care is thought to be a key means of improving efficiencies and effectiveness of the health care system; ensuring critical information is readily available at the point of care, decreasing unnecessary duplication of tests, increasing patient safety (particularly from adverse drug events), and linking providers and patients spatially and temporally across the continuum of care as health care moves out of the traditional hospital setting to the community and home. There is a steady movement in many countries towards eHealth and a fully implemented, in some cases, pan-regional or pan-national electronic heath record. A number of barriers and challenges exist in EHR implementation. These include lack of resources (both capital and human resources), resistance to change and adoption of new technologies, and lack of standards to ensure interoperability across separate applications and systems. From the public’s perspective, maintaining the security, privacy, and confidentiality of personal health information is a prominent concern and privacy of personal health information still looms as a potential stumbling block for the implementation of a omprehensive, shared electronic record. There are some steps that can be taken to increase the public’s comfort level and to ensure that these new systems are designed and used with security and privacy in mind.
Implications of Web 2.0 Technology on Healthcare
Authors: Fiaidhi Jinan , Mohammed Sabah , Wei Yuan
Published: May 2010

Now that the health and medical sector is slowly but surely beginning to embrace Web 2.0 technologies and tactics such as social networking, blogging, and sharing health information, such usage may become an everyday occurrence. This new trend is emerging under the Health 2.0 umbrella where it has important effects on the future of medicine. This chapter introduces some important Health 2.0 concepts and discusses their advantages for health care and medical practice. In addition, this chapter provides a case study for building a Semantic Blog for Gene Annotation and Searching (GAS) among social network users. The GAS Blog enables users to syndicate and aggregate gene case studies via the RSS protocol, annotate gene case studies with the ability to add new tags (folksonomy), and search for/navigate gene case studies among a group or cross-groups based on FOAF, GO, and SCORM metadata. The GAS Blog is built upon an open source toolkit (WordPress) and further programmed via PHP. The GAS Blog is found to be very effective for annotation and navigation when compared with the traditional gene annotation and navigation systems, as well as with traditional search engines such as XPath.
Mini-Games with Major Impacts
Authors: Smith Peter A , Sanchez Alicia
Published: May 2010

The concept of mini-games has long been associated with small uninspired games found in conventional Computer Based Training (CBT). They have traditionally been made up of simple quizzes or matching games that have done little to engage the players in the learning event. This, however, is no longer the case. With advances in mini-game design paradigms, mini-games have become an effective means to engage learners with a specific learning objective both standalone and in the context of a greater training application. This work will explore educational and training mini-game development within Defense Acquisition University (DAU), National Science Foundation (NSF), and others.
DAU CardSim
Authors: Metcalf David , Raasch Sara , Graffeo Clarissa
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses DAU CardSim, a multiplayer card game for teaching defense acquisition strategies, and addresses the challenges in moving from a paper prototype of the game to a digital version. This post-mortem will break down the requirements and elements that went into the DAU CardSim design and the decision to adopt a card game system. The rapid development process used varying levels of simple prototypes for initial design and playtesting, as well as game balance and refinement. The culmination of the design process involved converting the physical card game to a digital version. This presented challenges in creation but lacked many of the inherent problems of developing a digital system from the ground up by streamlining the development cycle.
Kinesthetic Communication for Learning in Immersive Worlds
Authors: Ault Christopher , Warner-Ault Ann , Wolz Ursula , Nakra Teresa Marrin
Published: May 2010

Despite the maturation of the video games medium, most self-identified learning games take the traditional but flawed approach of transmitting fact-based content to the user, frequently through the superimposition of “drill and practice” quizzes on top of interactive game-play that has little inherent relationship to the subject matter. A model is described for a Spanish-learning video game that adopts a different approach, through a close integration of the learning content and the game world context, and through the application of a motion-based controller that provides the user with an innovative and pedagogically potent mechanism for communicating with the learning system. Foundational research is discussed pertaining to kinesthetic learning techniques and their potential for language acquisition. A proof-of-concept is detailed, in which the user demonstrates learning by executing appropriate gestural responses to commands or questions spoken by non-player characters. Language mastery is essential to the user’s success in the immediate game environment, and also to resolving the game’s underlying narrative.
Avatars and Diagnosis
Authors: McDonald Claudia L.
Published: May 2010

Medical education faces a host of obstacles in coming decades requiring that it rethink the way it delivers medical curricula, especially with regard to critical thinking and differential diagnostics. Traditional didactic curricula must be coupled with emerging technologies that provide experiential learning without risk to patients while not eroding the clinical effectiveness of advanced medical learners. Virtual-world technologies have advanced to a level where they must be considered as a method for delivering medical curricula effectively and safely; moreover, research must establish that such systems are reliable and valid means for delivering medical curricula; otherwise, they are of no use to the medical community, regardless of their technical sophistication. Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab is a project designed to explore these issues by developing a reliable and valid learning platform for delivering medical curricula in virtual space, space usually reserved for entertainment videogames.
Using Serious Games for Mental Health Education
Authors: Andrews Anya , Joyce Rachel , Bowers Clint
Published: May 2010

A significant number of research and experimentation efforts are currently underway to identify the effective ways of leveraging advanced gaming technologies towards the development of innovative training and education solutions for the mental health domain. This chapter identifies mental health training and education needs of modern “at risk” populations and discusses the potential of serious games as instructional interventions for addressing those needs. Special attention is paid to the importance of prevention training and ways to facilitate prevention by using serious games. Within the chapter, the authors cite a number of specific mental health-related serious game efforts and discuss design considerations for effective serious games.
The Way Ahead for Serious Games
Authors: Cannon-Bowers Jan
Published: May 2010

Despite the fact that people have been playing games since before recorded history, the field of Serious Games—as a scientifically valid and viable area of investigation and application—is really in its infancy. In fact, the rise in availability and popularity of video games is a relatively recent phenomenon and actual applications of video game technology to serious pursuits are relatively rare. That said, I believe that Serious Games are coming into their own, and predict that the next few years will witness an explosion of new games, design features and guidelines, success stories, and scientific findings regarding their effectiveness. How quickly and fruitfully this happens depends, in part, on how well the community of researchers, designers, developers, evaluators, and end users can come together to systematically conceive of, and deploy games for serious purposes. Haphazard attempts—i.e., those that do not build on the findings of others’ experiences—will retard the speed at which viable games are consistently produced. Likewise, rigorous evaluation of those games that are developed cannot be neglected or future developers will likely fall prey to the same problems and pitfalls as their predecessors.
International Collaboration for Technology Enhanced Education in Rwanda
Authors: Breen Paul
Published: May 2010

This case is a case study of a collaborative project in the field of international education, within the specific discipline of teacher training. The author had an advisory role in this project which serves as a positive example of how STEP (social, technological, economic, and political) factors can be dealt with in the cont
Transnational Learning and Collaboration in Delivering MBA Programs in Emerging Markets
Authors: Jones Stephanie
Published: May 2010

This case focuses on the challenges of delivering Western-style MBA programs in emerging markets, looking at the experience of the Researcher in teaching and assessing courses within management programs (especially in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management) and in thesis and dissertation research and writing. The case considers: cultural differences, learning style differences, language differences, economic backgrounds of students, classroom behavior and etiquette, involvement in the learning process, teaching methods, the teacher and the students, group work, examining and evaluating, assignments, projects and reports, theses and major pieces of research-based work, life in the classroom, inter-student behavior, and life out of the classroom. The case focuses on MBA course delivery in China, the Arab World, Africa, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, former Russian states such as Kazakhstan, and South America, such as Peru and Suriname. Examples of specific MBA teaching and assessment are provided to give in-depth insights into the issues involved.
An Integrated Framework for Personalized T-Learning
Authors: Bellotti Francesco , Pellegrino Matteo , Tsampoulatidis Ioannis , Vrochidis Stefanos , Lhoas Pascal , Bo Giancarlo , De Gloria Alessandro , Kompatsiaris Ioannis
Published: May 2010

Broadcasting interactive learning applications through the digital TV promises to open new pedagogical perspectives given the wide penetration of the medium. This case deals with an open, flexible learning oriented technological framework for interactive digital TV. The framework is divided into two main parts: the production side, where the course is created and the client side, where it is presented on interactive digital television (iDTV) through an interactive learning environment. The course production is supported by an ad-hoc designed authoring tool, which has been thought for a use by pedagogical experts, while the runtime user interaction on iDTV is managed by a Course Multimedia Player. Experimental television learning (t-learning) courses were created by pedagogical experts and served as an important test and evaluation bench for the framework.
Real Time Internet-Based English as a Foreign Language Learning
Authors: Reynard Ruth
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this case was to explore the potential for using simple real time technology to connect native language speakers of English and foreign language learners of English. The intended design of the study was to explore the successes and challenges of language and cultural exchange within a real time technology-mediated class. Of particular interest was the effectiveness of connecting authentic language speakers as teachers and foreign language learners as students. The authors’ query was to evaluate how effective this methodology is in increasing the understanding of meaning and appropriate language use.
Meeting the Realities in Technology Enhanced Learning
Authors: Tlhapane Sibitse Mirriam , Simelane Sibongile
Published: May 2010

The case discusses the challenges of introducing technology-enhanced learning in geographically dispersed learners, most of who are situated in rural areas. These are post-diploma nursing learners with minimal computer literacy. They also have limited or even no access to computers at the university because they attend part time, have full-time jobs and stay far from the university and so cannot even visit computer labs after hours. Despite these challenges, these students end up being motivated to learn computers so that they can access learning material and also use them for lifelong learning. The case also covers computer training, e-applications used, online learning, studies done, partnerships between faculty and the directorate and teaching and learning with technology. The value of simple, cheap technologies like an interactive CD-ROM in initiating students to e-learning and overcoming their bandwidth problems is emphasised, including the gains made from the project. Both staff and managerial challenges are discussed and recommendations are made.
Authentic Assessment Contribution to Competence Based Education
Authors: Pereira Alda , Tinoca Luis , Oliveira Isolina
Published: May 2010

The new adopted pedagogical model (Pereira et al., 2007) at a European distance teaching university called for the use of new assessment strategies aligned with the most recent paradigm for assessment design in online learning. This new scenario supported the introduction of new authentic assessment strategies (Gulikers, Bastiaens, & Kirschner, 2004) that allow learners to attain deeper levels of knowledge, professional development skills and thinking processes. In this case, the authors’ explored a tool (the Learning Contract) to facilitate assessment authenticity as a way to promote student learning. They explored the use of the Learning Contract to increase student’s responsibility and commitment for their own learning, while at the same time facilitating its alignment with their professional practice, and contributing to the development of their life-long learning competencies.
Adopting Synchronous Audiographic Web Conferencing
Authors: Loch Birgit , Reushle Shirley , Jayne Nicola , Rowe Stephen
Published: May 2010

This chapter provides a comparative study of two Australian regional universities with a similar student profile as they investigate the use of synchronous audiographic web conferencing as a learning and teaching tool. In both universities, the trials of the web conferencing tool, Elluminate Live! (Elluminate) were initially driven by individual academics with an interest in new technologies. While similar in some aspects at the beginning, the two universities then approached the software trials in different ways. As part of this comparison, issues and challenges relating to software trials in educational environments are highlighted, and recommendations provided for others who may be considering the adoption of similar technologies.
A Pilot Project to Teach Road Safety Using Desktop Virtual Reality
Authors: Fokides Emmanuel , Tsolakidis Costas
Published: May 2010

In this work the issue of road safety education is presented. Virtual Reality can be used for this purpose with very good results. An application was developed based on a 3D video game. This application was simulating the environment of a town with traffic and contained not only all of its elements (cars, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings) but also special conditions such as night and rain. It was developed to simulate the walk of a pedestrian and could accommodate many users simultaneously. It was tested by the students of the last three grades of a primary school in Athens. The acquired capabilities of the students/users were compared with the equivalent capabilities of students that had training in the class using printed material only and with the knowledge of another group that had no training at all.
Distance Education and ICT-Supported Learning in Lesotho
Authors: Khoro Angelina
Published: May 2010

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are regarded as a major contributor to the transforming of distance learning. The researcher assumed that education practitioners in developing countries like Lesotho, have limited, or no access at all to ICT for supporting instruction, since they still rely heavily on print and tutor/learner meetings as their distance mode of course delivery. The study assessed the feasibility of introducing ICT-mediated education for tutors and learners on a Distance Education Programme in Lesotho. The paper specifically focused on issues relating to the place of ICT in teaching and learning at a distance, ICT policy initiatives and challenges of infrastructure, human resource capacity, and cost as they affect provision of, and access to computer-mediated learning. Interventions critical to alleviating the situation are also discussed. Policy-makers and distance education practitioners require this type of feedback to be able to effect meaningful improvements in ODL programmes.
Global Education Greenhouse
Authors: Kaun Karen , Arora Payal
Published: May 2010

Knowledge iTrust (KIT), a non-profit organization, through the co-operation of educational institutions, NGOs, and the private sector, launched the Peace Diaries1 following September 11, 2001 to establish a forum where educators, students and their families of diverse cultural backgrounds and discourse groups could gather and submit multi-modal literary works (e.g. text, artwork, audio recordings, etc.) that address issues of personal, local and global significance. While this project was a successful demonstration model of what is possible in the way of global learning in collaboration with many stakeholders and actors, there is enormous potential to extend and transform this initiative into a more synthesized and sustainable online global education portal. This learning will be incorporated into Global Education Greenhouse, a corporation in formation, that will create a new class of products and services for students in primary and secondary schools/grades k-12 that address a void in the current educational system.
Technology Enhanced Learning in China
Authors: Wang Victor X.
Published: May 2010

This case shall reveal technology enhanced learning in China in light of technology enhanced learning in the United States of America. As China has depended on radio and TV to deliver its educational programs to the masses, web technologies have not been used like its counterparts in North America (e.g., the United States of America). As a result of this dependence upon radio and TV, unique issues and challenges have emerged in the Chinese educational settings. Although this chapter focuses on one case related to a typical university of foreign languages in northern China, this case can be considered as a generic one as the issues and challenges of this case are similar to those as revealed in all other universities across China’s educational settings.
Interaction Data
Authors: Stillwell John , Dennett Adam , Duke-Williams Oliver
Published: May 2010

This initial chapter has two aims. Firstly, it seeks to clarify definitional and conceptual issues relating to the key interaction phenomena, migration and commuting, on which the authors concentrate in this book and for which they strive to obtain information to enhance their understanding of the processes that are taking place in the real world. The chapter explains the conceptual distinction between migrants and migrations, the importance of which becomes clear when the difference between transition and movement data is outlined, and it considers the alternative units of migrant measurement that are used such as individuals, wholly moving households and moving groups. Whilst migration tends to be measured over a period of time, typically a year, commuting is an activity that occurs on a much more frequent basis and consequently is usually measured as the numbers making a journey on one day. The chapter indicates how commuting to work and commuting to study are defined and measured. Secondly, the chapter contains the summary of an audit of interaction data sources, outlining the characteristics of the different types of data that are available from censuses, registers and surveys. Particular emphasis is placed on the former, the Census of Population, for which there are a number of data products providing migration and commuting counts at different spatial scales and disaggregated by various attributes; micro data are distinguished from macro data. However, the chapter also introduces a range of other interaction data sources such as the registers of National Health Service patients, the Pupil Level Annual School Census, the databases of the Higher Education Statistics Agency, various national level surveys such as the Labour Force Survey and the International Passenger Survey. In some cases, the data are exemplified using tables or maps. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the importance of the census as a key data source for small area analysis and a plea that, in a post-census world, sufficient steps be taken by central government to ensure the creation and provision of information systems for monitoring migration and commuting in an effective way, providing accurate and reliable intelligence on trends and creating opportunities for new research projects that develop explanations.
Access to Census Interaction Data
Authors: Dennett Adam , Stillwell John , Duke-Williams Oliver
Published: May 2010

This chapter is concerned with how users gain access to census interaction data. The authors outline a brief history of electronic access to interaction data sources and identify a number of issues and problems which led to the development of the Web-based Interface to Census Interaction Data (WICID). After presenting a number of practical and technical prerequisites for WICID, the authors explain in detail the architecture underpinning the system and the importance of the metadata framework for both initial successful implementation and ongoing maintenance and flexibility. Much of this chapter is devoted to explaining the basic query building and data extraction processes from a user perspective and further guidance relating to some of WICID’s less basic but no less useful features, is provided.
Interaction Data
Authors: Duke-Williams Oliver
Published: May 2010

As we saw in Chapter 1, interaction data sets have been derived from a number of sources, including censuses, other surveys and from a range of administrative sources. These typically have the characteristic that the data form large, sparsely populated matrices. Where the matrices do have non-zero values, those numbers are often small. This is highly significant when confidentiality is concerned – small numbers in aggregate data are generally seen as representing an increased risk of disclosure of data. This chapter looks at confidentiality issues with particular regard to interaction data. Different types of disclosure are considered, together with the reasons why interaction data are thought to pose particular disclosure problems. Methods of disclosure control are outlined, and then two particular methods are studied: those used in the 1991 and the 2001 UK Censuses. The methods used and the extent of their effects are described, and suggestions for how best to use the affected data sets are given.