bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Terrorist Attacks
Authors: Rankin William B.
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines how airport and airline managers could review their incident and command plans to enhance security counter-measures for terrorist attacks through the use of a well constructed plan-do-check-act (PDCA) tool, in the context of a Safety Management System (SMS), and incorporating a structured field survey into their emergency incident plan and command plan reviews. Thus, through the examination of actual emergency incident plan and command plan survey, airport managers are given the opportunity to work issues through the trials and tribulations of refining their incident and command plans on a recurring basis. It is suggested that a PDCA tool be implemented as a SMS model for the enhancement of these plans in the airline environment.
Improved Airport Enterprise Service Bus with Self-Healing Architecture (IAESB-SH)
Authors: Al Hadid Issam
Published: October 2011

This chapter introduces the different aviation and airport Information Technology systems. Also, this chapter provides architecture based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that improves the information accessibility and sharing across the different airport departments, integrating the existing legacy systems with other applications, and improving and maximizing the system’s reliability, adaptability, robustness, and availability using the self-healing agent and virtual Web service connector to guarantee the quality of service (QoS).
Augmentation Systems
Authors: Sharawi Mohammad S.
Published: October 2011

The global positioning satellite system (GPS) has been utilized for commercial use after the year 2000. Since then, GPS receivers have been integrated for accurate positing of ground as well as space vehicles. Almost all aircrafts nowadays rely on GPS based system for their take off, landing, and en-route navigation. Relying on GPS alone does note provide the meter level accuracy needed to guarantee safe operation of aircrafts. Thus several augmentation systems have been deployed worldwide to enhance the accuracy of the GPS system. Several augmentation systems that serve local as well as wide coverage areas are discussed in this chapter, specifically the LAAS system, the WAAS system as well as the EGNOS system. The architecture as well the performance metrics for each of these augmentation systems are presented and discussed.
Knowledge
Authors: Ettantawi Shadi , El-Sheikh Asim
Published: October 2011

A number of disciplines have approached the concept of knowledge. None of the existing definitions of knowledge can be generalized to other disciplines, and most importantly, none of such attempts fit the requirements of information systems (IS). This chapter suggests to perceive knowledge from the point of view of IS, as an attempt to answer IS requirements better. The proposed vision of knowledge is based on Information Systems’ layers.
Virtual Reality in Architecture, in Engineering and Beyond
Authors: Sala Nicoletta
Published: October 2011

Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology which has various application fields (from video games to psychiatry). It is indispensable in critical simulation, for instance in military training, in surgical operation simulation, in creation of environments which could set off phobias (in psychiatry), or in realization of virtual prototypes, for instance in industrial design. The aim of this chapter is to present how the VR also finds excellent application fields in architecture and in engineering. For instance, in the teaching of the basic concepts, in techniques of graphic rebuilding for the building restoration, in realization of virtual visits inside buildings, and in urban generative processes simulated by computer. Another use of the virtual reality is in the introduction of a new kind of architecture: Virtual Architecture, strongly connected to the Information and Communication Technology (ITC), to the Internet, and in the virtual prototyping in engineering.
An Extraction, Transformation, and Loading Tool Applied to a Fuzzy Data Mining System
Authors: Carrasco Ramón A. , Hornos Miguel J. , Villar Pedro , Aguilar María A.
Published: October 2011

In this chapter, we address the problem of integrating semantically heterogeneous data (including data expressed in natural language), which are collected from various questionnaires published in different websites, into a Data Warehouse. We present an extension of the sentences and architecture of data mining Fuzzy Structured Query Language as an extraction, transformation, and loading tool to integrate semantically heterogeneous data from these websites. Moreover, we show a case study using the questionnaires (carried out during several years) about the courses on Information and Communication Technologies which are taught in the Business Studies implanted at the University of Granada (Spain). With this integrated information, the Data Warehouse user can make several analyses with the benefit of an easy linguistic interpretability. The solution proposed here can be used to similar integration problems.
Virtual Tourism
Authors: Zhao Jingyuan , Ordóñez de Pablos Patricia , Tenysson Robert
Published: October 2011

Although the research on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared with international research on virtual tourism. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the development of tourism industries, virtual tourism will effectively meet the needs of tourists. This study focuses on functions and profit models of virtual tourism in China, and also discusses on the application of virtual tourism in China.
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
Authors: Leong Aliana M W , Li Xi
Published: October 2011

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a non-contact, automatic identification technology. Through its radio frequency signal, RFID offers automatic target recognition and access to relevant and without human intervention identification of work is made. RFID can work in various environments. It can identify fast moving objects and is capable of identifying multiple tags, in a rapid and convenient operation. Since the 1990s, RFID technology has been widely used in commercial, logistics, property management and other fields, but interest towards potential application to the needs of the tourism industry only began in recent years.
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in the Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector
Authors: Lin Chad
Published: October 2011

The hospitality and tourism sector is one of fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. In order to become more efficient and effective in delivering products and services to customers via the use of ICT, hospitality and tourism organizations have to rethink the ways in which they build relationships with their customers by initiating electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) projects. Inappropriate eCRM decision-making and implementation can result in multi-million dollar losses, which can translate into a loss of competitiveness. Therefore, the case study approach was conducted to: (1) identify potential ICT costs and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in general; and (2) identify and examine key issues in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian hospitality and tourism sector. The contribution of this book chapter is two-fold. First, it offers hospitality and tourism executives with a more realistic insight about the impact of their eCRM investments on their business. Second, potential key issues, costs and risk factors associated with eCRM implementation are presented to assist these organizations in dealing with these challenges.
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
Authors: Pantano Eleonora , Servidio Rocco
Published: October 2011

In addition, the chapter outlines the possible implications for both marketers and tourists.
CRM 2.0 and E-Government
Authors: González Daniel Pérez , González Pedro Solana
Published: October 2011

In the new technological and social reality characterized by collaborative environments where people share information and experiences as a source of value, the purpose of this chapter is explain how public administrations and governments can make use of CRM integrated with the functionalities of Web 2.0. In this regard, firstly we study how CRM can be integrated with Web 2.0, creating what might be called CRM 2.0, and analyze how governments can use CRM 2.0 to optimize their work processes and improve their services. Then we analyse the social impact relating with the priority objectives for governments, and present the case of different pioneer public administrations in the use of CRM 2.0, analyzing its technological solution and achieved benefits. As a result of this analysis, we have found positive evidence of the beneficial effects for society and for the public administration itself, generated by the use of CRM 2.0 in e-government. Finally, we present the future lines of work and the conclusions.
Partner Relationship Management
Authors: Jiménez-López Diego , Ruano-Mayoral Marcos , Fernández-González Joaquín , Isla Fernando Cabezas
Published: October 2011

R&D activities normally require consortium formation due to the different areas of expertise involved in such activities. On the one hand, it is not trivial for a R&D entity to decide in which projects it should participate, or which are the adequate partners to form a consortium. On the other hand, acceptation of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems has become a reality for the industry and researchers in areas, such as marketing, communication, or computer science. These tools contain in their basic packages features to manage key company actives, including partners and clients. However, R&D environments involve special characteristics and traits, which require an extension of functionalities in order to be accurately covered. The increasing strength and usefulness of semantic technologies have led to innovative decision support processes and management of partners and R&D call for proposals. This work introduces an architecture that integrates R&D processes with the CRM philosophy.
Sales Force Automation Usage and Performance
Authors: Lee Jason Wai Chow , Mohamad Osman , Ramayah T. , Ching Joyce Ong Sheau
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the relationships between SFA usage and sales performance among IT salesforce by adopting the technology adoption model (TAM). Data was collected from 150 IT sales persons in a questionnaire survey to examine the relationships between SFA usage (organizing, route plan, presenting and reporting, informing, support, processing and record keeping) and salesperson performance (efficiency, administrative efficiency, control and communication efficiency). Findings from multiple regression analyses indicate that route plan, organizing, presenting, reporting and processing have significant relationships with salesperson performance. The study suggests strongly the significant role of appropriate SFA usage in enhancing the performance of sales personnel in the IT industry. Implications and suggestions for future research on SFA are also presented.
Database Marketing Process Supported by Ontologies
Authors: Pinto Filipe Mota
Published: October 2011

The dramatic explosion of data and the growing number of different data sources are exposing researchers to a new challenge - how to acquire, maintain, and share knowledge from large databases in the context of rapidly applied and evolving research. This paper describes research on an ontological approach for leveraging the semantic content of ontologies to improve knowledge discovery in databases. We analyze how ontologies and knowledge discovery process may interoperate and present our efforts to bridge the two fields, knowledge discovery in databases and ontology learning for successful database usage projects.
Enhancing BI Systems Application Through the Integration of IT Governance and Knowledge Capabilities of the Organization
Authors: Hammami Samir , Alkhaldi Firas M.
Published: October 2011

Over years, research in Management Information Systems (MIS) has resulted in significant implications for organizations in a wide variety of areas by using socio-technical perspective, which has helped to deliver more business focused solutions. This study reports the results of an empirical examination of the effect of IT governance framework based on COBIT and Organizational Knowledge Pillars in enhancing the IT Governance framework (Business / IT Strategic alignment, Business value delivery, risk management, Resource management, performance measurement) to enhance the business intelligence application and usability within the organization. Quantitative method is adopted for answering the research questions. A questionnaire was used for data collection after contacting several companies, in addition confirmatory factor model and structural equation model were developed and tested and the overall results of the empirical investigation supported the general framework. Using confirmatory factor analysis techniques, the effects of the combination between IT governance factors seen by ITGI and organizational knowledge pillars of the firm on BI Systems application in it were tested and confirmed and the models were also verified. Several statistical methods were used for data analysis; moreover different statistical tools as software packages were employed such as SPSS 17 and EQS 6.1. The study proposes that knowledge management (KM) and IT Governance framework are vital organizational abilities that support business intelligence application; it also observes that combination of IT governance framework with organizational knowledge within the firm can enhance the organization’s BI system application and usability, and its goal is to advance the understanding of the relationships among these factors. The study develops and tested two main hypothesizes: (1) IT Governance framework supports business intelligence application. (2) Organizational knowledge, in turn, leads to support business intelligence application.
Data, Storage and Index Models for Graph Databases
Authors: Srinivasa Srinath
Published: October 2011

Management of graph structured data has important applications in several areas. Queries on such data sets are based on structural properties of the graphs, in addition to values of attributes. Answering such queries pose significant challenges, as reasoning about structural properties across graphs are typically intractable problems. This chapter provides an overview of the challenges in designing databases over graph datasets. Different application areas that use graph databases, pose their own unique set of challenges, making the task of designing a generic graph-oriented DBMS still an elusive goal. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a tutorial introduction to some of the major challenges of graph data management, survey some of the piecemeal solutions that have been proposed, and suggest an overall structure in which these different solutions can be meaningfully placed.
An Overview of Graph Indexing and Querying Techniques
Authors: Sakr Sherif , Al-Naymat Ghazi
Published: October 2011

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in the application of graphs in different domains. Graphs have been widely used for data modeling in different application domains such as: chemical compounds, protein networks, social networks and Semantic Web. Given a query graph, the task of retrieving related graphs as a result of the query from a large graph database is a key issue in any graph-based application. This has raised a crucial need for efficient graph indexing and querying techniques. In this chapter, we provide an overview of different techniques for indexing and querying graph databases. An overview of several proposals of graph query language is also given. Finally, we provide a set of guidelines for future research directions.
TEDI
Authors: Wei Fang
Published: October 2011

Our experimental results show that TEDI offers orders-of-magnitude performance improvement over existing approaches on the index construction time, the index size and the query answering.
Graph Mining Techniques
Authors: Appel Ana Paula , Faloutsos Christos , Junior Caetano Traina
Published: October 2011

Graphs appear in several settings, like social networks, recommendation systems, computer communication networks, gene/protein biological networks, among others. A large amount of graph patterns, as well as graph generator models that mimic such patterns have been proposed over the last years. However, a deep and recurring question still remains: “What is a good pattern?” The answer is related to finding a pattern or a tool able to help distinguishing between actual real-world and fake graphs. Here we explore the ability of ShatterPlots, a simple and powerful algorithm to tease out patterns of real graphs, helping us to spot fake/masked graphs. The idea is to force a graph to reach a critical (“Shattering”) point, randomly deleting edges, and study its properties at that point.
Graph Representation and Anonymization in Large Survey Rating Data
Authors: Sun Xiaoxun , Li Min
Published: October 2011

We study the challenges of protecting privacy of individuals in the large public survey rating data in this chapter. Recent study shows that personal information in supposedly anonymous movie rating records is de-identified. The survey rating data usually contains both ratings of sensitive and non-sensitive issues. The ratings of sensitive issues involve personal privacy. Even though the survey participants do not reveal any of their ratings, their survey records are potentially identifiable by using information from other public sources. None of the existing anonymisation principles can effectively prevent such breaches in large survey rating data sets. We tackle the problem by defining a principle called (k, e)-anonymity model to protect privacy. Intuitively, the principle requires that, for each transaction t in the given survey rating data T, at least (k - 1) other transactions in T must have ratings similar to t, where the similarity is controlled by e. The (k, e)-anonymity model is formulated by its graphical representation and a specific graph-anonymisation problem is studied by adopting graph modification with graph theory. Various cases are analyzed and methods are developed to make the updated graph meet (k, e) requirements. The methods are applied to two real-life data sets to demonstrate their efficiency and practical utility.
Business Process Graphs
Authors: Dijkman Remco , Dumas Marlon , García-Bañuelos Luciano
Published: October 2011

Organizations create collections of hundreds or even thousands of business process models to describe their operations. This chapter explains how graphs can be used as underlying formalism to develop techniques for managing such collections. To this end it defines the business process graph formalism. On this formalism it defines techniques for determining similarity of business process graphs. Such techniques can be used to quickly search through a collection of business process graphs to find the graph that is most relevant to a given query. These techniques can be used by tool builders that develop tools for managing large collections of business process models. The aim of the chapter is to provide an overview of the research area of using graphs to do similarity search and matching of business processes.
A Review of Kernel Methods Based Approaches to Classification and Clustering of Sequential Patterns, Part I
Authors: D. Dileep A. , T. Veena , Sekhar C. Chandra
Published: October 2011

Sequential data mining involves analysis of sequential patterns of varying length. Sequential pattern analysis is important for pattern discovery from sequences of discrete symbols as in bioinformatics and text analysis, and from sequences or sets of continuous valued feature vectors as in processing of audio, speech, music, image, and video data. Pattern analysis techniques using kernel methods have been explored for static patterns as well as sequential patterns. The main issue in sequential pattern analysis using kernel methods is the design of a suitable kernel for sequential patterns of varying length. Kernel functions designed for sequential patterns are known as dynamic kernels. In this chapter, we present a brief description of kernel methods for pattern classification and clustering. Then we describe dynamic kernels for sequences of continuous feature vectors. We then present a review of approaches to sequential pattern classification and clustering using dynamic kernels.
A Review of Kernel Methods Based Approaches to Classification and Clustering of Sequential Patterns, Part II
Authors: T. Veena , D. Dileep A. , Sekhar C. Chandra
Published: October 2011

Pattern analysis tasks on sequences of discrete symbols are important for pattern discovery in bioinformatics, text analysis, speech processing, and handwritten character recognition. Discrete symbols may correspond to amino acids or nucleotides in biological sequence analysis, characters in text analysis, and codebook indices in processing of speech and handwritten character data. The main issues in kernel methods based approaches to pattern analysis tasks on discrete symbol sequences are related to defining a measure of similarity between sequences of discrete symbols, and handling the varying length nature of sequences. We present a review of methods to design dynamic kernels for sequences of discrete symbols. We then present a review of approaches to classification and clustering of sequences of discrete symbols using the dynamic kernel based methods.
Mining Statistically Significant Substrings Based on the Chi-Square Measure
Authors: Dutta Sourav , Bhattacharya Arnab
Published: October 2011

With the tremendous expansion of reservoirs of sequence data stored worldwide, efficient mining of large string databases in various domains including intrusion detection systems, player statistics, texts, and proteins, has emerged as a practical challenge. Searching for an unusual pattern within long strings of data is one of the foremost requirements for many diverse applications. Given a string, the problem is to identify the substrings that differ the most from the expected or normal behavior, i.e., the substrings that are statistically significant (or, in other words, less likely to occur due to chance alone). We first survey and analyze the different statistical measures available to meet this end. Next, we argue that the most appropriate metric is the chi-square measure. Finally, we discuss different approaches and algorithms proposed for retrieving the top-k substrings with the largest chi-square measure.
Classification of Biological Sequences
Authors: Rani Pratibha , Pudi Vikram
Published: October 2011

The rapid progress of computational biology, biotechnology, and bioinformatics in the last two decades has led to the accumulation of tremendous amounts of biological data that demands in-depth analysis. Data mining methods have been applied successfully for analyzing this data. An important problem in biological data analysis is to classify a newly discovered sequence like a protein or DNA sequence based on their important features and functions, using the collection of available sequences. In this chapter, we study this problem and present two Bayesian classifiers RBNBC (Rani & Pudi, 2008a) and REBMEC (Rani & Pudi, 2008c). The algorithms used in these classifiers incorporate repeated occurrences of subsequences within each sequence (Rani, 2008). Specifically, Repeat Based Naive Bayes Classifier (RBNBC) uses a novel formulation of Naive Bayes, and the second classifier, Repeat Based Maximum Entropy Classifier (REBMEC) uses a novel framework based on the classical Generalized Iterative Scaling (GIS) algorithm.
Analysis of Kinase Inhibitors and Druggability of Kinase-Targets Using Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: Prasanthi S. , Bhavani S.Durga , Rani T. Sobha , Bapi Raju S.
Published: October 2011

Vast majority of successful drugs or inhibitors achieve their activity by binding to, and modifying the activity of a protein leading to the concept of druggability. A target protein is druggable if it has the potential to bind the drug-like molecules. Hence kinase inhibitors need to be studied to understand the specificity of a kinase inhibitor in choosing a particular kinase target. In this paper we focus on human kinase drug target sequences since kinases are known to be potential drug targets. Also we do a preliminary analysis of kinase inhibitors in order to study the problem in the protein-ligand space in future. The identification of druggable kinases is treated as a classification problem in which druggable kinases are taken as positive data set and non-druggable kinases are chosen as negative data set. The classification problem is addressed using machine learning techniques like support vector machine (SVM) and decision tree (DT) and using sequence-specific features. One of the challenges of this classification problem is due to the unbalanced data with only 48 druggable kinases available against 509 non-drugggable kinases present at Uniprot. The accuracy of the decision tree classifier obtained is 57.65 which is not satisfactory. A two-tier architecture of decision trees is carefully designed such that recognition on the non-druggable dataset also gets improved. Thus the overall model is shown to achieve a final performance accuracy of 88.37. To the best of our knowledge, kinase druggability prediction using machine learning approaches has not been reported in literature.
Technology and Second Language Learning
Authors: Ziegler Nathan E. , Feucht Florian C.
Published: October 2011

Technology is often viewed as a necessary component for the facilitation of learning, especially for second language learners in early-childhood education. However, integrating technology in the classroom is a difficult task. The existing literature often does not bridge the fields of technology, second language learning, and cognitive development in childhood. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to develop a theoretical framework stemming from a critical literature review of conceptual and empirical works as they pertain to technology, second language learning, and cognitive development. This framework is used to describe conceptual issues and to identify educational implications for the use of technology in the second language classroom in early-childhood education. Furthermore, the chapter concludes with educational, conceptual, and methodological implications as they pertain to technology research and development in early second language classrooms.
Science Technology and Young Children
Authors: Giza Brian H.
Published: October 2011

Teachers of young children have access to an ever increasing diversity of technology tools. This chapter provides a framework for evaluating and applying tools for science in all classrooms. It includes a series of vignettes that illustrate the application of technology in the context of a tools-task-strategy approach.
Technology for Young Children with Special Needs
Authors: Bicard Sara C. , Bicard David F.
Published: October 2011

Children come to early childhood programs with a wide range of learning abilities, languages, cultural backgrounds, and educational experiences. Most classrooms also include children with special needs or exceptional children, who differ from these typically developing children to such a degree that an individualized program of adapted, specialized education is required to meet their needs (Heward, 2009). This chapter provides a framework for the use of technology to assist these exceptional children in early childhood and primary level classrooms.
Bridging the Gap between Policy and Implementation
Authors: Lopez Jorge
Published: October 2011

The last decade brought major change to the Mexican educational system as sweeping reforms across all levels were implemented. In particular the early years of education became the focus of legislation to increase quality, open access, and improve curriculum. Mexico captured international attention when it became the first country to make it obligatory for the State to provide pre-school education services for children 3 to 6 years of age and required parents to see that their children attend a public or private pre-school. This chapter explores the gap between policy and implementation of early childhood and technology reform. This sweeping reform is one of the first international attempts to support early childhood education at this level.
Language Support for First Year Human Physiology and Biology
Authors: Mate Karen Elizabeth , Rodger John Cameron , Lidbury Brett Andrew
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines student performance in Human Physiology and Biology in response to a number of interactive language-focused and career-oriented interventions that were integrated into both lecture and tutorial formats. The study took place at the University of Newcastle, Australia and involved around 1000 students on two campuses. Although it was not possible to demonstrate a clear overall improvement in student performance as a result of these interventions, the activities were viewed positively by the majority of students. Arguably, the major impact of the language and other interventions was in the level of student motivation and engagement with the course topic. Contemporary university students are highly focused on the relevance of a course to their chosen career path, suggesting that language-based teaching and learning strategies would be most effective if placed within a vocation-specific context.
Principles and Guidelines for Task Design in CMC Learning
Authors: Brandl Klaus
Published: October 2011

The goal of this chapter is to describe principles and guidelines that are to serve course designers and materials developers as a guide to task design in computer-mediated communication (CMC) learning environments. Drawing on cognitive and sociocultural perspectives, it argues that in task design it is imperative to bring into alignment a range of factors, such as the linguistic and cognitive complexity of the content, goals and outcome, processing conditions, and number of participants, in order to maximize targeted outcomes. The chapter is divided into three sections: First, a brief overview of theoretical perspectives and different design variables is provided. Second, different guidelines that are based on current research on CMC task effects are discussed. Last, the chapter concludes in the appendix with the description of rationales and procedures for 11 different task configurations that are to serve as prototypes and illustrate how task effects can be maximized in CMC-based online language learning.
Effects of an E-Learning Platform for EFL Chinese Learners
Authors: Shen Lin , Suwanthep Jitpanat , Zhang Felicia
Published: October 2011

As English has been increasingly recognized as one of the influential factors for China in taking parts in global community, students and Chinese professionals need to participate in international seminars and conferences, and internationally collaborate with academics through the lingua franca, English. Hence, being able to speak intelligible English has unavoidably become a necessity, especially for Chinese university students. The purpose of this chapter focuses on the implementation of constructive role plays (CRP) via the NHCE e-learning in learning English as a foreign language classes. This chapter exploits quantitative and qualitative methods such as pretest, post-test, student questionnaires and student role play recording analysis to collect data to demonstrate the effectiveness of CRP on Chinese university students’ spoken English development. Results showed that there was a significant increase in the students’ speaking proficiency for the experimental group as compared to the control group. The results also indicated that CRP has been highly successful as an effective aid in improving EFL students’ speaking. The NHCE e-learning platform can provide a motivating environment for L2 students to practice spoken English. However, the empirical results showed that the use of online audio chat facility to perform the CRP may make some students feel anxious, due to its synchronized nature. This suggests that its use should be carefully considered in relation to divergent groups of learners.
Constructionism in Action within European eTwinning Projects
Authors: Gajek Elzbieta
Published: October 2011

The European eTwinning programme, as part of the Lifelong Learning action has reached thousands of schools in Europe and beyond. It becomes a cultural trend in education where various theoretical grounds, managerial ideas, and practical solutions meet. Thus, in this chapter, eTwinning is presented as a practical collaborative implementation of ICT tools in education. Furthermore, an attempt to theorize it as an emerging trend, which combines communicative approaches to language learning, is made, including constructivist ideas – both social and cognitive, followed by constructionism as the key background concepts. A reference to other concepts, such as European Key Competences for Lifelong Learning and the feminist angle is made to contextualize the situation in schools. The conceptual framework is linked with the school practice in the ICT-based learning environment within the eTwinning programme. Further description, case studies, and evaluation of the results will be presented.
Using Technology in Providing Effective Training
Authors: Brewer Ernest W. , Stockton Stephen D. , Basile Tammi M.
Published: October 2011

The key to an organization’s abilities to provide effective training in the 21st century is by infusing technology into their training programs. Before technology infusion can occur, there must be a clear understanding of the dynamics of learning with technology and of the instructional culture of the organization. Developers of effective training programs infuse technology based on four phases—development, integration, implementation, and evaluation. The development phase involves the analysis of the organization, the creation of training goals and objectives, and the design of the training program. The integration phase determines the organization’s technology levels and allows developers and trainers to expedite training methods suitable for particular needs. The implementation phase consists of the actual delivery of the training. The evaluation phase is ongoing through formative evaluation, and it ends with a summative evaluation. Future trends of technology in training show promising models for effective individualized training in virtual environments.
Case Study of a New Zealand School’s Use and Development of a Parent Portal
Authors: Lynch Julie , Lee Kerry
Published: October 2011

Involving parents and the community in children’s learning has always been a difficult challenge. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has identified the value of this involvement and has directed schools to develop links with parents and the community. Learning Management Systems are seen as a way where this can be effectively achieved. This chapter will provide a case study of one of the first schools in New Zealand to take up the challenge of linking with parents by utilising their school learning management system. Examples will be used to provide evidence of the ways the school utilised their parent portal to enable parent and community interaction to assist with children’s learning.
Web 2.0 Technology and Educational Leadership Communication
Authors: Farmer Lesley
Published: October 2011

In today’s interactive world, leadership is becoming more broad-based. Effective educational leaders know how to leverage such participation to develop a collaborative community that facilitates continuous communication and improvement. Technologies, particularly Web 2.0, can optimize such purposeful interaction, and help coordinate efforts so that leaders can focus on their important tasks of overseeing the health of the educational organization. This chapter examines the nature of current educational leadership, and details Web 2.0 technologies that support such leaders.
Multiple Factors of Workforce Development that Affect the Efficacy of Training Transfer to the On-the-Job Performance of Public Health Care Workers
Authors: Petty Gregory C. , Farris Mark S.
Published: October 2011

This article investigated the multiple factors that affect the transfer of training of classroom instruction to on-the-job performance. There has been a lack of information relative to the effect of multiple factors related to the transfer of training, particularly in the area of public health workforce development. This study was conducted to investigate the multiple modalities that hinder or encourage transfer of training.
Defining Technology Challenges to Growth of an International Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
Authors: Beck Jules K. , Kacirek Kit
Published: October 2011

This case study addresses the emerging need for technology-focused development for an international humanitarian organization whose mission is to further community sustainability and citizen empowerment through agricultural and animal husbandry projects. This case study, based on a multi-method needs assessment conducted in both the US headquarters as well as abroad, explores how the organization might address issues of growth and program sustainability throughout the fifty-one countries on five continents where the organization maintains programs by focusing on the development of technology support systems in its country programs.
Distance Education at University Settings
Authors: Yilmaz Harun
Published: October 2011

Distance education has become a feasible alternative to traditional face-to-face education especially in support of new technology advancement. In order to see the current status of distance education, it is important to look at how distance education has evolved since its inception in the 1830s. Distance education has also affected the pedagogical paradigm throughout the years in parallel with its evolution. Therefore, when designing and developing a distance education course, a systematic approach needs to be employed using instructional design model, focusing on interactions provided by several technologies and collaboration techniques, as well as assessment methods. Specific emphasis is given to Web 2.0 technologies and how these technologies improve the collaboration in web-based courses.
Play and Play Therapy
Authors: Rosenstein Debra Leigh Walls
Published: October 2011

Play is the most powerful, the purest, and the most effective form of communication language and self-expression available (walls, 1982). The concept of therapy through play was derived from Melanie Klein (1921) and Anna Freud (1952). Unfortunately, play is a rapidly declining art due in large part to our ever-changing, fast paced and technologically driven society where recesses are being cut and children often turn to video games instead of the outdoors. With this in mind, incorporating play into the daily academic life of children is critical and vital for their total well being – physically, socially and intellectually. The focus of this chapter is to explain the importance of play, provide a review of the literature, and discuss the theoretical framework, techniques and current trends. Special attention will be focused on how educators can utilize play therapy to enhance self-esteem, social, interpersonal and problem solving skills and reduce the everyday stress that surrounds our children today.
Congruency in Higher Learning
Authors: Remtulla Karim A.
Published: October 2011

The core elements of people, processes, technology, and stakeholders remain similar for most higher learning institutions today. Yet, to culturally promote any one particular ‘form’ of adult education as ‘ideal’ for ‘all’ adult learners is increasingly exclusionary. The objective of this chapter is to enable future educational instructors, administrators, and leaders to respond to the changing needs of adult learners regarding congruence between core elements of higher learning institutions and sustainability of adult education program policies. Emanating from the seminal thinking of Carl R. Rogers, the opening sections of this chapter address personal and peripheral congruence. Then, the main section of this chapter puts forward a congruency-based framework for sustainable adult education program policies in higher learning institutions. Developing ‘congruent form(s)’ using core organizational elements will likely result in more socially just and culturally inclusive adult education and higher learning for diverse and global learner cohorts in the digital age.
Learner-Centered Technology Integration
Authors: An Yun-Jo
Published: October 2011

To transform teaching and learning in ways that better meet the needs of digital natives, there has been increased emphasis on the integration of technology into teaching and learning. However, despite generally improved conditions for technology integration, high-level technology use, associated with constructivist or learner-centered practices, is still low. Many teachers and instructors are not using technologies to their potential, often integrating the new tools into their old practices. In an attempt to better support teachers and instructors in using emerging technologies to design and facilitate learner-centered instruction (LCI), this chapter provides an overview of learner-centered instruction (LCI) and the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework. Then, the potential of emerging technologies to foster learner-centered instruction (LCI) and future trends are discussed.
The Meta-Communicative, Yet Dancing ‘Pink Elephants’ in the Online Multicultural Teacher Education Classroom
Authors: Clark Christine , Stowers Gwen
Published: October 2011

This chapter takes a contrary view of the “meta” aspect of meta-communication (where meta is defined as “behind” or “beneath”) in the online multicultural teacher education classroom, arguing that such communication inhibits learning about (content) and through (pedagogy) sociopolitically-located multicultural teacher education by enabling e-racism, e-classism, and e-sexism to operate in largely covert manners in the distance education context. Accordingly, this chapter contends that digital meta-communication on issues of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and sex/gender needs to be “de-meta-ed” or made explicit in order for the kind of liberatory reflective conversation on these topics to occur that is foundational to the adequate preparation of PK-12 teachers to effectively educate all students.
Knowledge Is Infinity, Language is Limit!
Authors: Atay Simber
Published: October 2011

But to what extent can it be taught? There are the heteronyms of this problem such as Polanyi’s “tacit knowledge’’ or Hegel’s/Agamben’s Eleusinian Mystery. In Distance Education publications there is a current use of photographical illustrations; Photography itself is also a Distance Education program. Distance Education culture and Photography culture have also same mythological origins like Kairos and Mnemosyne.
Meta Communication Concept and the Role of Mass Media in Knowledge Building Process for Distance Education
Authors: Demiray Ugur , Taskiran Nurdan Oncel , Yilmaz Recep
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines and focuses on some issues and questions relating to how the use of meta communication concept should be functional and how it could influence knowledge building process. In addition to this, the role of mass communication and the mass communication tools which can be regarded as vital for distance learning, primarily the Internet, television, printed materials, and the categories by which media tools interact are also investigated. The ways mass media interacts with imply the interaction taking place between communicational tools and human mind are quite similar; that’s why mental building process of knowledge is dealt with likewise. Mind-tool interaction can be categorized into four sections: interaction through reading, interaction through listening, interaction through seeing-listening, and mutual interaction.
Online Education
Authors: Sundar Sethy Satya
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses and examines online learning in distance education (DE) context. It seeks to argue how learners cope with online education and become successful online learners. Further, while learning through the online mode how do communication skills assist them to prevent barriers in their learning activities? A critical reflection on communication skills of online learners is summarized and highlighted. The online learners’ reactions and responses are also mentioned in this chapter, documented in a few case studies available at different journals and Web portals. Further, the significance of blogging as a communication tool of online platform is elucidated with reference to learners’ engagement in social interaction and collaborative learning situations.
Technology-Enhanced Learning
Authors: Ashman Adrian F.
Published: October 2011

Small, modestly funded and resourced schools can be disadvantaged by limited access to information and communication technology (ICT). This chapter outlines a two-year project conducted in six small special schools located in metropolitan and rural communities. The project was designed to increase the participating schools’ ICT capabilities and promote the use of technology to deliver the curriculum in efficient and appealing ways to their students with a diversity of intellectual and behavioral difficulties. An ICT specialist supported the schools over the course of the project and promoted the introduction of Universal Design for Learning. At the conclusion of the project all schools had made notable gains in acquiring state-of-the-art technology. Teachers and students had become capable and enthusiastic users of hardware and a range of operating and educational software.
Online Facilitator Strategies of Professors Rated as Providing Different Levels of Support
Authors: Signer Barbara , Prieto Amanda McCluskey , Ely Margot
Published: October 2011

This research was supported by a Federal Title II D Enhancing Education through Technology Program awarded to Barbara Signer by The New York City Department of Education.
Privacy Concerns in Social Network Sites
Authors: Arikan Arda
Published: October 2011

In countries where English is not widely and socially used, prospective foreign language teachers cannot functionally use the language they are going to teach in their social environment. This makes social network sites (SNS) symbolically important. However, there are various reasons for these future teachers not fully participating in social networking. The main concern is about privacy. A study was conducted to examine this aspect. One hundred fourteen prospective teachers of English responded to questionnaire about their opinions on privacy issues. Results suggested that gender was a significant factor. Similarly, other factors include: place of residence and the information presented in their SNS pages.