bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EGIFM - EXTENDABLE GATEWAY AND INDUSTRIAL FIREWALL FOR MODBUS
Authors: Tranca Dumitrucristian , Banu Calin iulian , Rosner Daniel
Published: February 2023

In Ukraine, December 2015, took place one successful cyberattack on a power grid. Hackers were able to compromise the information systems of three energy distribution companies leaving about 230 thousand people without electricity for several hours. Industrial equipment used in factories, refineries, power plant stations and in other automation facilities have a service life of tens of years. In many working power plants and other automation devices and infrastructures designed in the 80's are still being used. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition(SCADA) systems are based on standard industrial protocols to control and gather data from the on-field devices (sensors, stations, drives, robots, controllers, etc.). With the spreading of the Internet in industrial facilities, new technologies and possibilities have arisen, gluing together the robustness of the automation equipment with the remote control and visualization offered by the internet, enhancing SCADA systems and allowing remote monitorization and control of different infrastructures. Together with the technologies came more advanced threats aimed at the devices and SCADA systems connected to the internet. SCADA systems can become a point of vulnerability when connected to a cyber environment and current security solutions are not designed nor targeted for protecting these industrial infrastructures Modern industrial equipment is controlled using protocols designed decades ago that do not implement any security features. One of the most used protocols in industrial equipment is Modbus. Our solution, EIGFM addresses the Modbus vulnerabilities that permitted the attack by filtering and encrypting the packages with little changes on the network and equipment, especially on software level. We have tested our device showing the power consumption is lower than 3W and that it is capable of filtering Modbus packets based on a configurable ruleset.
FLEXIBLE METHODOLOGY FOR ASSISTED SMALL SCHOOL CHILDREN INVESTIGATION
Authors: Braun Barbu cristian
Published: February 2023

Results on scholar, current and sportive activities for children depend in a very large extent by the visual function health. A child with unsolved problems at visual system certainly will have trouble at school but also in other current activities. Such problems have as main cause the fact that low vision lead to an effort increasing for information perception, understanding and concentration of attention. As a consequence, a major importance is given to the compensatory solutions for low vision, using glasses or contact lenses. A very important aspect is referring to the solutions efficiency evaluation for visual function, especially after a period of time of glasses or contact lenses wearing. For this reason, in the paper is presented a new method developed as research activity, the key-element being to make an efficient and flexible software application for randomly displaying of some optotypes and for degree of rightness and readiness evaluation while their reading. Using the software, the examiner could generate automatically a score and a verdict on child testing results (low vision, degree of correction after training etc). Running the application, the optometrist will be able to select: the age, the category of tracked optotypes, method for quantifying. He will obtain very useful information on totalized scores for all important criteria, depending by the child answer during the tests. In the present, the research activity is focused on the improvement and testing the software application for it’s widely use by the students on optometry, as activity to prepare their career.
THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE ON THE MOTIVES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS
Authors: Cristescu Irina
Published: February 2023

The proliferation of online social networks (OSNs) among university students becomes a challenge for teachers in what regards finding new ways of exploiting the educational potential of social networks. The increasing popularity of OSNs among students is raising several research questions regarding the motives for joining and using the social networking websites. The online social networks are information and communication technologies that facilitate the interaction and the network creation among professors, pupils, students and parents, on the one side, and content creation within and outside the classroom, on the other side. Facebook is an example of an OSN capable of offering educational support such as: increased communication among students, greater access to course materials, collaboration, increased enjoyment, students' community building, thematic discussion groups. The objective of this article is to present and explore the relationship between social influence and the motives of using Facebook by students from an educational perspective. Three categories of motives have been considered: extending social relations, information & collaboration, and maintaining social relations. A total of 758 students from seven Romanian universities took part in this study. The results of a multiple-regression analysis show that social influence has an effect on the motives of using Facebook. People and friends influence students in extending their social relations through the use of Facebook. The use of OSNs depends on the degree to which students perceive that other persons important to them believe they should use a specific technology. The results of this research contribute to a better understanding of the importance of social influence in taking the decision to use Facebook.
ANALYSIS OF THE WAY OF SERVICE IN A COMPLEX COMPUTER PROCESS WITHIN AN EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM (WWW.COMUNICARE.RO)
Authors: Gaitanaru Andrei
Published: February 2023

With the passage of time, ICT has become accessible and used by more and more individuals without technical knowledge or skills. At the same time, the complexity of the instruments has grown enormously. Now those who acquire and use technology are not just IT specialists but also educational content creators, managers, teachers, instructors and students. These rapid changes have often left behind those who have failed to adapt and document properly. Lack of information and fear of the unknown often creates confusion and hostility towards the use of ICT in education. Processes running on multiple systems vary over time. For this reason, there is no static set of processes (and time intervals) that can be used for deterministic modelling. However, the CPU distribution and grid-generated bursts can be determined. These distributions can be measured and then approximated or estimated [1]. The results are mathematical formulas that describe the likelihood of occurrence of an event, for example the probability of the system being in a stable state. Usually the distribution is exponential, Poisson type, and is described by its average value. Similarly, the timing of the processes arriving in the system must be provided. From these two distributions the average values of productivity, usage, waiting time can be calculated using queuing networks analysis. Queuing networks are called open when the jobs can enter or leave the network by any node [2]. If the jobs cannot leave or enter the network, it is called closed, and the number of jobs on the network remains constant. Therefore, a network where a new job is admitted every time an old job leaves the system can be considered a closed network [3].
USING THE METHODS OF E-LEARNING IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Authors: Potcovaru Anamadalina
Published: February 2023

This paper reviews research literature on e-learning, teaching process, the motivating system. Specific attention is given to why organizations use e-learning. This research reports the findings of a questionnaire study applied to students of the Faculty of Management and Public Administration of The Bucharest University of Economic Studies. The findings highlight the opportunities, the benefits and the barriers of using the methods of e-learning in the teaching activity and also present the social, cultural and ethical dimensions of it. The article focuses on strategies for improving the learning process while investigating the students’ opinion regarding these modern methods of learning. Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. (Kolb, 1984, p.41) Studies have shown that e-learning is a very useful method of studying. E-learning is a key factor in teaching. Current trends in teaching embrace e-learning tools. E-learning provides some strategies of teaching to perform better in this area. The following article presents how e-learning courses improve teaching practices. Not all teachers are ready to deliver teaching by digital means, but technology has improved the ways of teaching and learning. Also the management of the university has to invest resources in developing the infrastructure to facilitate these modern methods of teaching. This article aims not to demonstrate that the traditional methods must be replaced by modern methods, but to prove that it is better to use the both of them in the teaching process. Another purpose of this paper is to find methods for motivating the students to participate in the teaching process.
EPALE FOR ONLINE ADULT EDUCATION IN ROMANIA
Authors: Silvestru Catalin ionut , Ion Virgil , Lupescu Marianernut , Silvestru (bere) Camelia ramona , Icociu Vasilica  cristina
Published: February 2023

Taking into account the growing importance of online platforms for education, the current case study focuses the viability and high effectiveness of online adult education and training of EPALE in Romania. EPALE (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe) represents a multilingual community for teachers, trainers, academics, policymakers and anyone else with a professional role in adult learning across Europe. The case study is based on a quantitative analysis, focusing on the various reasons why online adult education and training represents a good step in lifelong education. The present study presents a formal quantitative point of view, based on survey conducted on various age categories of people. The methodology is based on statistical quantitative survey, using a questionnaire with 20 questions and grows upon the result of 3 open questions. The survey is constructed upon the active population of EPALE adult education programs collecting the data using an online platform. By using a random online survey, we support our conclusions using a fixed sample of the population. The main variables taken into consideration are: age, number of adults that are active in EPALE online education programs, regions, urban and rural areas. Using the ANOVA statistical test and studying the Independent T-test and Paired Sample T-test, we conclude with regard to the possible differences within the studied groups on the usage, viability, and effectiveness of EPALE adult education in Romania. After studying the survey results on a quantitative level, we can intervene and conclude on the importance of lifelong learning that is statistically sustained by EPALE online adult education.
STUDENTS' PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF MOOCS
Authors: Bucovetchi Olga maria cristina
Published: February 2023

Since 2012 - "the year of MOOC (Massive Online Open Classes)" as stated an article in New York Times, most top universities started to offer some sort of MOOC. Class-center.com declared that "more than 700 universities around the world have launched free online courses and that by the end of 2016, around 58 million students had signed up for at least one MOOC". Moreover, Coursera, the most famous MOOC provider launched specialization tracks that allow subscribers to earn ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) to prestigious universities. As a consequence, the author tried to analyze students perception towards MOOC phenomenon. The students that participated into the demarche were both Romanian and Erasmus students attending classes to University "Politehnica" of Bucharest, the largest technical university in Romania. Only the students of the 4th year have been considered eligible to take part in the survey, as they are targeted as MOOCs potential students - "89% of Coursera learners are over the age of 22”, as stated Coursera CEO. The main objective of the present paper consists in identifying the benefits of using MOOCs and also the challenges students have to face when accessing them. Moreover, the research identifies the limitations of MOOCs towards students perception and proposes several "possible futures" for educational platforms. The tool used within the research was the questionnaire that lead to conclusions related to the perceptive boundaries of MOOC within the respondents. The results complete the state of knowledge of the Romanian higher education system and also could complement the methods of improving the quality of higher education services by including the suggestions received from the beneficiaries of educational services - the students.
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - A MUST FOR EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ROMANIA
Authors: Condruzbacescu Monica
Published: February 2023

The paper focuses on the concept of open educational resources (OER) and their influence on Romanian education system. The concept of OER appeared in 2002 at the UNESCO forum, representing any kind of didactic projects, course materials, textbooks, video materials, multimedia applications or files from the Internet, used in the teaching-learning process. They are used free of charge by teachers or students. Another important issue approached is the advantages and risks of using OER. Some of the advantages are: access to quality education for a larger number of persons; growing the community’s interest in education; stimulation of innovation; low cost. And the risks are: low relative priority of the subject in the education reform; it is impossible to control the OER quality; there is not a viable business model based on OER. The last part of the paper deals with OER in Romania. The concept of open educational resources is new in Romania, even if in practice we find examples of such materials. The introduction of digital textbooks is one of the new projects proposed by the Ministry of Education. Like all over the world, the private sector - businesses or non-governmental organizations - is more dynamic and connected to the latest ideas. It is no surprise, therefore, that even with regard to OER, we find several exploratory attempts, some of which are relatively successful: DidaTec, Edu.moodle.ro, Didactic.ro, Education.inmures.ro. The conclusion is that the digital dimension of education will become more important in the years to come and that it is a phenomenon that we can not control. Romania has three major options: let things grow naturally; speed ​​up the process by stimulating the creation and use of OER through public policy measures; force a rapid shift from traditional resources to OER through major investments and specific legislation. Of the three options we recommend the second, the one of equilibrium.
SHARING THE DIGITAL RESOURCES
Authors: Covaci Marinela
Published: February 2023

The National Library of Romania shares digital resources, providing access to knowledge and cultural heritage, through three online platforms. These are: a) The Traditional Virtual Catalog for the books published before 1993. It is the virtual image of the traditional catalog which is organized alphabetically by author name in the appropriate folders physical drawers. 1,600,000 sheets are structured in 1600 folders, and a folder contains on average 1,000 sheets scanned catalog. Book-to-Book Platform, a crowd-cataloguing tool, provides both search and retrieval of bibliographic information in virtual catalog of books traditionally published before 1993 and the possibility to learn and contribute voluntarily in the development of the catalog by creating associated metadata catalog sheets scanned. Book-to-Book is a collaborative project.Through specialized internships and specialized seminars in National Library of Romania, students from Faculty of Letters are better prepared for integration in labor market, achieving skills and abilities, a good level of professional preparation The platform and database was designed by the students from the Techical University Bucuresti. Accessible at http://bookathon.bibnat.ro/ b) The Online Catalog. The online catalog web component is offered determined by the integrated library system, Aleph and contains bibliographic informations about documents in the library collections since 1993: books, periodicals, multimedia documents, periodical articles culture. In the online catalog, defined by logical databases, The doctoral theses Referential, which provides access to online content thereof (by digitizing paper or archiving electronic content of CD attached by author) and digital library for blind (project Sound of pages) that disabled users have access to requested digitized works. Accessible http://alephnew.bibnat.ro:8991/F . c) The National Digital Library Started in 2009, it was conducted on dedicated library software, Digitool. It is comprised of digital collections created by digitizing special collections of documents in the National Library of Romania, organized by themes or after events. Currently includes the following collections: Historical Archive, Incunabula, Old Romanian books and bibliophile, Potographs of personalities, romanian illustrated postcards, picture postcards, manuscripts, old maps, musical scores, albums with engravings, exlibris, japanese prints, drawings Romanian etc. These collections are the result of research on copyright of items. The metadata and the thumbnails of the digital collections was harvested via OAI-PMH protocol and published in Europeana, keeping the source of the original URL and a digital objects, after a careful analysis of the metadata and a data migration process. Accessible at http://digitool.bibnat.ro/R . Databases have grown steadily and have become e-learning tools for some categories of users. The systems provide open resources, learning and navigating tutorials and contribute to the knowledgeable and creative society.
MODERN TECHNIQUES OF CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Authors: Nicoglu Corina
Published: February 2023

The Informational Society has imposed a set of rules on the professionals from various domains but, for the information based librarians, even a broader set of rules applies. Together, the diversification of public services, the hybrid library and the digital literacy contribute to forming new ways of cultivating professional development. Library professionals now have a vast area of attributes to fulfill, having to combine both the traditional librarian tasks with the use of the latest technologies and equipment regarding IT&C, project management, trainings, sociology or STEM. Continuous professional training is one of the attributes of an efficient management. Even since hiring, it is important to correctly identify an employee's skills, evaluate them regularly and add new ones through professional training. Only highly trained librarians can deliver quality services. In this context, knowledge management has a fundamental role. With its help we can create new collective tools for professional development. On the other hand, knowledge is based on learning, therefore, this articles will present the methods through which those concepts can be applied in the Romanian libraries by the use of modern technologies and high quality management of human resources. In this articles, in order to train good specialists in the Information Science, we propose modern e-learning and e-evaluation models and, based on their intrinsic advantages, we have them recommended to our associations and to the Library and Information Science education forms, but also to the library managers. Starting from the existing realities in a library, a plan will be presented which will be based on the identification of the skills and abilities necessary for the modern librarian profession. Certainly, implementing these methods would lead to a greater efficiency in training with much lower costs for institutions.
DIGITAL MEDIA, IDENTITY AND THE LEARNING DESIGNER
Authors: Radu Catalin
Published: February 2023

Museums, archives, and other educational institutions around the world share on social media activity focused on World War I history. Following these institutions on social media, allow any user to discover interesting content almost every single day. More, experts and educators are sometimes online to answer questions, test knowledge in pop quizzes, and stream behind the scenes with live video. A special point is that of showing that the First World War marked a turning point with the appearance of news and artwork intended to capture the moment in a realistic way, by first-hand participants. Before World War I, war news and art largely depicted heroic military leaders and romanticized battles, done long after the fact, far from the battlefield. This study try to encompass all the forms in which social media contribute to the creation of public knowledge, underlining that, the number of object records created or the number of records made available to the public online, gives us vital information and a strong sense of what in military history is known and where improvement is needed. This article examines how practitioners can make informed choices about curriculum design and pedagogical approaches in their settings, based on historical theories and principles. The approaches advocated here respect some of the tenets of the ideological tradition, but at the same time provide a secure justification for play that inform by evidence from research and curriculum models from different countries. We have emphasized that practitioners should use policy frameworks as a guiding structure.
A COMPUTERIZED, GAMIFIED INTERVENTION TRAINING VISUAL PERSPECTIVE-TAKING. THEORETICAL RATIONALE AND PROPOSAL OF A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.
Authors: Cosmoiu Anamaria , Nedelcea Catalin , Podina Ioana roxana
Published: February 2023

Perspective-taking is a core theory of mind process, entailing the ability to understand and predict others' mental states. While the literature suggests that priming a perspective-taking stance increases empathic concern and intergroup cohesion and reduces implicit negative attitudes such as racial bias and prejudice, no study up to date has attempted to foster perspective-taking implicitly, by training visual perspective-taking in a computerized task.
In the current paper, we propose a computerized, gamified intervention for visual perspective-taking in adolescents and young adults. The intervention is an adapted version of extant visual perspective-taking assessment protocols and is envisioned to train participants to selectively attend to the visual perspective of an animated avatar, instead of their own. By training an allocentric bias, the intervention aims to increase empathic and theory of mind abilities and to foster interpersonal communication and cohesion. An additionally hypothesized benefit of the intervention is a decrease in self-focused attention, a marker of social anxiety disorder. As such, the intervention is suited to address two different, but inter-related needs: optimizing social functioning and managing social anxiety symptomatology.
Introducing users to gamification elements, such as earning badges, advancing through increasing difficulty levels, receiving feedback and leaderboards highlighting achievements, is intended to increase the intervention's efficacy and to promote adherence.
Design considerations for testing the intervention in an experimental trial will additionally be proposed, with the intervention contrasted against a sham control condition that will equally train egocentric and allocentric biases in visual perspective-taking.
Theoretical and practical implications for educational settings will be discussed.
A PLAYFUL FORM OF TEACHING AND LEARNING USING MICRO-WORLD APPLICATIONS
Authors: Stoffova Veronika , Czakoova Krisztina
Published: February 2023

The article summarizes the long-term experiences of the author in the field of creation and use of didactic micro-world applications in education. In this article, there are systematized principles of creation and effective use of didactic application developed in micro-world Imagine. Special attention is paid to didactic transformation, visualisation, interactivity and active learning of pupils. The authors summarize recommendations regarding the graphic design, visualisation of knowledge presentation, interactivity of applications in order to transform the learning process into a great entertainment and interesting game in which everyone wins.
The authors in article present a wide range of didactic applications created in the micro-world Imagine for pupils at the first level of elementary schools. The main focus is on applications for language learning, both mother tongue and foreign languages. Interesting applications are in the form of didactic games. The difficulty level of playing or playing form of learning can be easily increased from the passive perception of the language to the active application of language rules and the cultivation of language sensitivity. A simple vocabulary extension can be increased from a simple assignment of the name of the object to the image that represents it, through the direct naming of the picture after the active use of the vocabulary, for example by creating the sentences, completing the story etc. In the field of grammar, it is from familiarity with the rule, through its perception in context, after its active application to solving the new language problem situation. Thus, it is possible to create applications for the development of all language communication skills: listening, reading, writing and talking "with understanding".
FUTURE STUDIES, FORECAST AND FORESIGHT - CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND RELEVANT FINDINGS
Authors: Dansuteu Stefanantonio , Giorgi Graziano
Published: February 2023

In an operational environment that changes continuously the classical education cannot last for a lifetime anymore. To face this challenge, the educational programmes should be diversified to include futures studies from an earlier learning stage, in order to provide pupils and students with the necessary tools to anticipate the future and choose a learning path that fulfils their development needs. In that way, the requirement to anticipate possible changes could provide the ability to adapt quickly and overcome the potential drawbacks determined by a lack of skills and competences of the future workforce. One objective of future studies could be also to produce super-forecasters for sensitive areas such as security and defence. Future studies facilitate the examination of possible developments in the future based on current knowledge and logical reasoning, allowing the study of postulating possible, probable and preferable futures. Even though the future remains unpredictable, there are some potential developments of the present reality or alternatives of the future that can be thought of. Therefore, as far as the future is unpredictable, only some potential developments of the present reality or alternatives of the future can be thought of. Apparently, there are few options at hand: do nothing, try to prepare for the future or try to shape the future actively.Forecasting and foresight are powerful tolls in the panoply of futures studies and, even though initially these concepts were used equivalently, there is a real difference between them. This paper will explain some of these differences along with an example of a good forecasting strategy, in an attempt to stimulate how to think about the future and then act decisively to create it.
USING A WEB-BASED FRAMEWORK TO BUILD AND EXPERIMENT WITH VIRTUAL REALITY WORLDS
Authors: Florea Andrei george , Buiu Catalin
Published: February 2023

As computing power and ubiquity increase, so do the opportunities of enhancing every day activities using technologies such as augmented (AR) or virtual reality (VR). While the former has seen extensive use on assembly/service lines, the latter has broader usage domains such as entertainment, remote meetings, remote medical assistance, social networking and many other. Preparing future VR developers usually requires expensive hardware and software as well as prebuilt environments. This paper proposes a novel method of teaching VR to students using A-FRAME, an open-source framework that promises to make VR as easy to create as a web page. The framework extends the Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) and Javascript, that together form the basis of all web-pages, by adding VR specific objects and functions thus allowing VR to be integrated into normal web pages.
The paper presents the traditional and eLearning methods used to teach students how to assemble a virtual world, add real-life objects (a TV, a DSLR camera and a smart phone) and a user-interface, all with the end objective of building a virtual electronics shop. The virtual shop has all the features of its real counterpart such as commercials on TV-screens, text details as well as a 360-degree view of each product. Each separate task was taught as a challenge that involved different software tools and methods.
The template application can be tested online on any computer or mobile phone (even using Google cardboard-like headsets) or dedicated VR headsets. All associated material and source code is available on Github.
MOBILE APPLICATION AND WI-FI NETWORK SECURITY FOR E-LEARNING PLATFORMS
Authors: Suciu George , Anwar Muneeb , Istrate Cristiana
Published: February 2023

e-Learning embodies the use of electronic data along with information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. An e-Learning platform is a web-based software and represents an important tool for educators to create and manage courses on the web. However, due to the close relation of e-Learning with the Internet, such platforms are cyber-threatened and recent attacks have increasingly targeted platforms vulnerable to cryptojacking, a technique used for mining cryptocurrencies using the computing resources of devices from unsuspecting users. The number of educational web platforms has increased in the last years, and are now widespread in the mobile applications environment to reach a broad audience of users.
The use of e-Learning mobile applications (m-Learning) enables employees to enrich their professional knowledge on their terms, whenever they want, by ensuring easy access to the learning material available on cloud platforms using any kind of Internet connection. The problem analyzed in the paper is related to the security of these m-Learning applications when connecting to public Wi-Fi network at a hotel or library, as an example of an unsecured network, while an office network is usually considered as secure. Our goal is to identify and mitigate the risks when users connect to a Wi-Fi public network, and also analyze how vulnerable devices are exposed to cybercriminals, as hackers can intercept communications between mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets using public Wi-Fi hotspots, namely a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack. Furthermore, we evaluate several open source penetration testing tools which aid to the identification of vulnerabilities and propose proper security solutions for e-Learning platforms in the context of using public Wi-Fi networks.
STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES: INNOVATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ROMANIA
Authors: Turlacu (lazar) Luizamaria , Herrezeel Tania , Orzan Gheorghe , Chivu Ralucagiorgiana
Published: February 2023

Technology is seen as an enabler for gaining new capabilities in universities. Nowadays, higher education institutions have seen how technology enhances the competitive advantage for not only the business environment but as well for their teachers and students. Innovation is mainstream and is creating opportunities to access and learn technologies that were not possible before. Universities should no longer be behind technology compared with other sectors. Although this is not yet explored, new technologies that as next-generation security, the blockchain, cloud, AI conversational interface, and digital credentials can be leverage from different industries. Innovative thinking on the basis of which institutions collaborate with various suppliers, distributors and customers to generate unique value easily replaces the traditional thinking that considers innovation as a property and marketing activity as a static show in one direction. Personalization is the key to offering quality services, and this is what disruptive technologies are offering. Universities have to focus on technologies that are appropriate for their strategy but at the same time to align with key market trends. Students are being more informed and empowered by personal devices that help and assist them in fulfilling their tasks and goals. Anticipating and meeting their needs and expectations suppose automating process and increasing digitization offering in universities. People and things are exchanging data at every moment. The barrier between the digital world and the physical world is crumbling which implies that higher education institutes need to be aligned with them for attracting and retaining students. The most significant technological opportunity for today's institution is to reduce total spend by targeted IT investments that are converted from fixed capital models to a variable cost operating models. Collaboration and co-creation are increasingly crucial for creating value for students and teachers."value" (including the age-old issue of cost optimization) but also higher levels of customer experience.
VISUAL TOOL FOR LEARNING GPU PROGRAMMING
Authors: Vulcan Alexandru mihai , Pietraru Radu nicolae , Nicolae Maximilian
Published: February 2023

Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) are unanimously considered as powerful computational resources. General-purpose computing on GPU (GPGPU), as well, is the de facto infrastructure for most of the today computationally intensive problems that researchers all over the globe dill with. High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities use state of the art GPUs. Many domains like deep learning, machine learning, and computational finance uses GPU's for decreasing the execution time. GPUs are widely used in data centers for high performance computing where virtualization techniques are intended for optimizing the resource utilization (e.g. GPU cloud computing). The GPU programming model requires for all the data to be stored in a global memory before it is used. This limits the dimension of the problem a GPU can handle. A system utilizing a cluster of GPU would have a bigger level of parallelization but also would eliminate the memory limitation imposed by a single GPU. These being just a few of the problems a programmer needs to handle. However, the ratio between specialists that are able to efficiently program such processors and the rest of programmers is very small. One important reason for this situation is the steepness of the GPU programming learning curve due to the complex parallel architecture of the processor. Therefore, the tool presented in this article aims to provide visual support for a better understanding of the execution on GPU. With it, the programmers can easily observe the trace of the parallel execution on their own algorithm and, from that, they could determine the unused GPU capacity that could be better exploited.
DIGITAL LITERACY IN THE AREA OF E-SAFETY AMONG TEACHERS (SECOND STAGE OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL) IN POLAND
Authors: Tomczyk Lukasz
Published: February 2023

The text shows the importance of digital literacy among teachers in Poland. The analysis presented in the article narrows the concept of digital literacy to security issues. The importance of the subject results from the fact that teachers constitute an important link in the development of digital security at the second educational stage. The research was carried out on a sample of 279 teachers throughout Poland in 2016. The research is part of a national studies into the field of digital security in the school and family environment. The analyzes were carried out on behalf of the Ministry of National Education, commissioned by the Cities on the Internet Association (Stowarzyszenie Miasta w Internecie). The sample amounted up to 279 educators. The research tool involved: a knowledge and skill test on e-threats and a diagnostic survey (measuring attitudes towards the new media and collecting the sociodemographic data). The DL measurement was carried out as for the following areas: ergonomics of using the digital tools, reliability of information available on the Internet, safe interactions with other users, secure logins and passwords, protection of online image, copyrights. Each area was measured using 3 questions; the total number of test questions was eighteen. The tests are the attempt to go beyond the hitherto measurements of DL based on self-declarations. The weakest results were obtained in the area of copyrights. The highest test results were obtained for question regarding the protection from hoax. Teachers-beginners got the lowest results, thus they should be provided with particular support. The research shows the heterogeneity of the DL concept and the need for a lifelong education in the area of e-threats.
TEACHERS` NEEDS AND READINESS FOR EMPLOYING OER – A SURVEY WITHIN THE ROMANIAN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CONTEXT
Authors: Botnariuc Petre , Tibu Speranta
Published: February 2023

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the education system is a very important topic on the European Union and national policy agenda as well as in the teachers Professional Development and training. Various good practices in harnessing OER potential for pupils` learning are rising all over Romania. The current article sums up the results of a national study [1] designed within the context of a national multi-annual macro-structural project being implemented at national level - Relevant Curriculum, Open Education for All (CRED). A significand objective of the project is to facilitate the development of relevant OER and train teachers in order to support the current national curriculum reform. We will describe here the main issues associated with a systemic approach to implementing OER in the primary and secondary education practice in Romania, as shown by a thorough analysis undertook by the Institute of Education Sciences - IES in mid-2018 on this topic within the above-mentioned project [1]. The needs analysis had a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology approach and interviewed and surveyed Romanian teachers from both primary and secondary schools with regard to their prior experience in employing OER in the teaching practice, their specific hindrances and actual OER implementation needs. The main strategic implementation options are explored, discussing important factors like: opening access culture, digital environment and infrastructure, specific knowledge on licensing for an informed usage, types of open resources and ways of employing them in the teaching practice, specific target groups` implementation differences. A number of recommendations are also proposed based on the study results.
HETEROGENEITY OF STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF E-LEARNING PLATFORM QUALITY: A LATENT PROFILE ANALYSIS
Authors: Cristescu Irina , Balog Alexandru
Published: February 2023

E-learning platform quality is an important subject in the community of researchers and practitioners. Quality assessment approaches have different perspectives and differ in many respects, such as: objective, target groups and methods used. In recent years, the utility of advanced person-centered methods has become increasingly obvious. Person-centered approaches assume that samples come from heterogeneous populations and focus on identifying unobservable subpopulations that include individuals or similar cases. In this category are included both traditional techniques (e.g. cluster analysis) and advanced techniques (e.g. Latent Class Analysis, Latent Profile Analysis). In the present study, the e-learning platform quality is a general concept defined through three dimensions. The overall perception of students regarding the e-learning platform quality is based on the assessment of the following dimensions: e-learning system quality, information quality, and service quality. The aim of this paper is to extend previous research by adopting a person-oriented approach (e.g. LPA - latent profile analysis) and examine the heterogeneity of students' perceptions of e-learning platform quality. A sample of 385 students from five Romanian universities participated in the study. The data was analyzed with Mplus package version 7.4. The results of LPA revealed the presence of three profiles, reflecting different levels of e-learning platform quality perceptions: low, moderate, and high. The resulting profiles are distinct with respect to e-learning system quality, information quality, and service quality. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that the perceptions of e-learning platforms quality differed significantly across the three profiles. Finally, the article presented the practical implications of the results. The results contribute, on one hand, to identifying groups of students who shared similar perception patterns when dealing with e-learning platform quality. On the other hand, the results are useful in developing a strategy of improving the e-learning platforms by including the specific needs of each student categories identified.
INFORMATION SOCIETY, KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
Authors: Gaitanaru Andrei
Published: February 2023

In the decades of the seventeenth and 20th century, the predominant phrase was Computer Science, with ideas and trends that targeted an informational society. Gradually the concept of Information Society has gained ground and has become a reality since the explosion of the Internet, the main vector of this society. This has happened in the last decade of the 20th century. Starting with the 21st century, the concept of the Knowledge Society has moved.
New concepts that benefit from the suffix e are discovered and launched every year. From the timely attempts of the 95s to 96s to introduce the concept of e-commerce, 1998-2005 came to the promotion of e-business concepts, e-learning, e-procurement, e-voting, e-democracy, e-referendum, e-library and e-government. Practically starting with 2006 we can talk about the concept of e-everything. That is why the true information society must ensure the legal and social guarantees of every citizen who, anywhere and anytime, can access (receive) all the information necessary for his activity and solve the problems of each individual. If such safeguards do not exist, then society can not be considered informational.
It is possible to imagine a society in which industry, public administration and other specialized structures of power will be fully computerized and included in the system of current communication networks, yet information in such a society proves to be a good asset of the administrative and political elite. Whole masses of people, after which their potential creator and social activity can be isolated from the knowledge that is circulating and those created in these networks.
DEVELOPING TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES FOR FOOD SAFETY DISCIPLINES – A CASE STUDY
Authors: Radu Dana
Published: February 2023

The main purpose of this study was to explore teaching and learning resources (TLR) specific to food safety & consumer protection disciplines, in order to help students, lifelong learning food professionals and consumers to achieve their learning goals. The potential of different types of TLR related to working conditions as well as to students' needs and academic tradition of food science and engineering disciplines was assessed.
Personalized learning approach, essential for mature learners, pointed out to the importance of appropriate design and use of e-learning resources. A case study was carried out on the design of a website module on food safety, developed as part of an online tool for adult education. The content template was replicated and adapted, by the national teams from all 27 EU member states, under a European grant. The e-learning tool content was organized into four sections and designed intending to "bring the outside world into the learning space". This practical and user-friendly approach included real life situations along the food trajectory "from farm to fork" for science-based risk management.
The final section, containing fact sheets for each food group, synthesizes main physical, chemical and biological hazards. There are useful ready to use handouts. Food safety tips, glossary, quizzes and external links complete the profile of each section, providing the module with assessment characteristics.
Developing eTLR specific to food safety disciplines also provides feedback on the relevance of the research endeavour and proved to be useful to develop fresh thinking on food safety research topics.
APPLICATIONS OF MACHINE LEARNING IN MALWARE DETECTION
Authors: Vaduva Janalexandru , Pasca Vladraul , Florea Iuliamaria , Rughinis Razvan
Published: February 2023

In an ecosystem where education is done through software interaction, the security of those systems is one key aspect which should not trouble the educators nor the children and students that interact with them. The article addresses a problem that is growing every day, new malware samples, which steal data [10], encrypt data and ask for a ransom [11], get remote access to a personal computer [12], use computer resources to mine cryptocurrencies [13]. There are presented malware analysis reports that meticulously describe malicious software's behaviour and help security professionals to mitigate the risk. The need for security brings to light new methods to protect people's devices, like using machine learning or artificial intelligence. Random forest and neural network algorithms are implemented and the results are very encouraging, the accuracy in both cases is over 95%. In the last few years, because of the increasing computer resources and the more frequent usage of cloud services, these machine learning algorithms perform better and have caught the attention of many researchers in this area. The objectives of the project include the study of malicious software in order to find mitigation strategies, important characteristics of malware families that are used to generalize the problem of ransomware and malware detection. Also, it's presented the usage of open source sandbox to capture malware's behaviour and to use the results as the input for machine learning algorithms, and the study of different algorithms which can be used in classification problems. The current work can be a strong baseline to develop more advanced and useful algorithms, using millions of samples as the input dataset.