Learning how to learn using a virtual learning environment for philosophy

Many students find theoretical subjects hard and challenging. Although they may pass modules in the subject, they often fail to attain a deeper, conceptual understanding. coMentor , a virtual learning environment on the WWW was developed to support such conceptual subjects by providing facilities for debate, discussion, groupwork, resource sharing and vicarious learning. The system was evaluated with undergraduates taking a philosophy module. Although there was no unequivocal evidence of gains in final assessment in those using the system, there was evidence of other forms of learning. Students learned from seeing each other's work, from having to 'write' down their ideas and share them with others and they adopted learning styles that were beneficial to learning a theoretical subject matter. Using a Learning Styles Inventory Scale, those using coMentor showed higher levels of deep learning and significantly higher levels of strategic learning than those who used the system little.     

ARCHITECT: A layered framework for classifying technologies of event-based systems

In the past decade, event-based systems (EBS) have received increasing attention from various communities. Central to these systems is the notion of event, which is often generally considered as “a happening of interest”. An EBS encompasses a large range of functionalities on various technological levels (e.g., language, execution, or communication). Existing approaches vary in the scope of implemented functionality and underlying technical concepts. For this reason, comparing EBS solutions is a challenging task. Furthermore, the lack of a unified view on EBS poses challenges to system architects in choosing and combining technologies for building event-based systems.     

Effects of online teaching presence on students' interactions and collaborative knowledge construction

This study analysed the instructors' teaching presence of three courses conducted by an instructor to explore the effects of the instructors' online teaching presence on students' interactions and collaborative knowledge constructions. Content analysis, social network analysis, and lag sequential analysis were used to explore the mechanism of teaching presence on students' interactions and collaborative knowledge construction. Results demonstrate that the design and organization, as well as facilitating discourse, can facilitate students' interaction, reduce the number of peripheral students, and facilitate students' collaborative knowledge construction, especially in the knowledge sharing, discovery, discussion, and application, whereas direct instruction has positive effects on teachers' centrality and negative effects on knowledge negotiation and testing. The result can give the instructors some guidance on online teaching practices.     

WISEngineering: Supporting precollege engineering design and mathematical understanding

Introducing engineering into precollege classroom settings has the potential to facilitate learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts and to increase interest in STEM careers. Successful engineering design projects in secondary schools require extensive support for both teachers and students. Computer-based learning environments can support both teachers and students to implement and learn from engineering design projects. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on how engineering approaches can augment learning in authentic K-12 settings. This paper presents research on the development and pilot testing of WISEngineering, a new web-based engineering design learning environment. Three middle school units were developed using a knowledge integration learning perspective and a scaffolded, informed engineering approach with the goal of improving understanding of standards-based mathematical concepts and engineering ideas. Seventh grade math students from two teachers in a socioeconomically diverse and low-performing district participated in three WISEngineering units over the course of a semester. Students significantly improved their mathematical scores from pretest to posttest for all three projects and on state standardized tests. Student, teacher, and administrator interviews reveal that WISEngineering projects promoted collaboration, tolerance, and development of pro-social skills among at-risk youth. Results demonstrate that informed engineering design projects facilitated through the WISEngineering computer-based environment can help students learn Common Core mathematical concepts and principles. Additionally, results suggest that WISEngineering projects can be particularly beneficial for at-risk and diverse student populations.     

A comparison study of polyominoes explorations in a physical and virtual manipulative environment

This study develops virtual manipulative, polyominoes kits for junior high school students to explore polyominoes. The current work conducts a non‐equivalent group pretest–post‐test quasi‐experimental design to compare the performance difference between using physical manipulatives and virtual manipulatives in finding the number of polyominoes. Sixty eighth‐grade students from two different classes in a junior high school in Taipei County of Taiwan participated in this study. The current research randomly selected one class as the experiment group and the other as the control group. Students in the experiment group used virtual manipulatives to explore polyominoes and those in the control group used physical manipulatives. The results revealed that learning in the experiment group is as effective as that in the control group. This study identifies two obvious strategies (add one and reduce) among students in both groups. New ideas, including using new symbols to record the results and considering the influence of symmetry and rotation on the figures, occurred in the virtual manipulative group. Students in the virtual environment paid much more attention to exploring the polyomino problem.     

How and what university students learn through online and face-to-face discussion: conceptions, intentions and approaches

Abstract This paper reports a phenomenographic investigation into students' experiences of learning through discussion – both online and face to face (F2F). The study context was a second-year undergraduate course in psychology for social work in which the teacher had designed discussion tasks to begin in F2F mode and to continue online. A combination of open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to investigate students' conceptions of what they were learning, their intentions and their approaches to learning through discussion. Analysis of the interview and open-ended questionnaire data identified a number of qualitatively different conceptions, intentions and approaches to learning through discussion. Associations were found between what students thought they were learning through discussions, their approaches to learning through discussion and their course grade. Students with a cohesive conception and students adopting a deep approach (to learning through online discussion) got better course grades. There was no significant difference between deep and surface approaches to F2F discussion and course grade. The outcomes of this study have implications for the design of online and F2F discussion tasks and in particular for helping students adopt richer conceptions of what they stand to gain through discussion.     

The impact of general and specific performance and self-efficacy on learning with computer-based concept mapping

When students learn a new and challenging task, for which they have very limited corresponding personal or vicarious experiences to refer, it is important to understand how their self-efficacy beliefs evolve during the course of sequential lessons; how they differ in the way their general learning performance and self-efficacy influence their ratings of task-specific self-efficacy and performance; and, how such differences may result in different learning outcomes and motivations for learning. By examining a group of 66 students engaged in learning to construct good concept maps with computer software, this study revealed several important findings on these questions. Students generally tended to initially overestimate their ability to successfully carry out the required task. They also varied in the way their general self-efficacy and performance were associated with their task-specific self-efficacy and performance. And, these differences did appear to be associated with different learning outcomes and motivations for learning. These results indicate that investigating individual differences in students’ patterns of association between general and specific performance and their self-efficacy may lead to a better understanding of how students differ in their levels of motivation and outcomes when learning a new and challenging task.     

Enhancing student knowledge acquisition from online learning conversations

This article reports a theory-driven experimental study that evaluates the effects of an annotation functionality on online social interaction and individual learning outcomes. The central hypothesis of this study is that directly addressing a part of a text by annotating it and then connecting each annotation with its related discussion can decrease coordinative interaction costs and result in a higher-quality discussion that favors greater gains in individual learning outcomes. To reach our objective, we carried out a theory-driven experimental study that compares two versions of an anchored discussion system: one with annotation functionality and one without it, both displaying the learning material side by side with its associated discussion in one window. Participants were 106 students enrolled in two sections of a blended-format course in health education. We assigned each section to a software condition. The examination of students’ online social interaction centered on a fine-grained content analysis of coordination and knowledge construction activities as well as sequential analysis of knowledge construction activities. The results indicate that annotation functionality decreased coordinative interaction costs and stimulated more elaborated discussions that favored greater gains in individual learning outcomes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Developing a hands-on activity using virtual reality to help students learn by doing

This study combined virtual reality (VR) technology, the 6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, Enrich, and Evaluate) model, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to develop a hands-on activity aimed at helping students to achieve “learning by doing.” The participants were 162 tenth-grade students, divided into the Experimental Group (hands-on activity using VR technology) and the Control Group (hands-on activity via lectures). Using sequential analysis, this study investigated how the hands-on activity influenced the students' behavioral patterns in learning. The results showed that all of the students' learning performances and hands-on abilities were enhanced. Moreover, the students who used VR technology achieved both significantly better learning performances and hands-on abilities, indicating that VR might be able to help the students understand abstract scientific concepts and build mental models, which they used to internalize and organize knowledge structures. Furthermore, this study discovered that the students who learned using VR technology formed a cyclical learning pattern, starting with a group discussion (G), moving on to solving problems (S) and developing a product (D), and then going back to another group discussion. However, the students who learned via lectures produced a linear learning pattern in the order of G→S→D.     

Can interactive visualization tools engage and support pre-university students in exploring non-trivial mathematical concepts?

Many students find it difficult to engage with mathematical concepts. As a relatively new class of learning tools, visualization tools may be able to promote higher levels of engagement with mathematical concepts. Often, development of new tools may outpace empirical evaluations of the effectiveness of these tools, especially in educational contexts. This seems to be the case with educational visualization tools. Much evidence about the effectiveness of these tools appears to be more suggestive than based on empirical evaluations. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap and provide empirical evidence for the use of visualization tools in supporting exploratory and other learning-related activities. In particular, we aim to investigate whether visualization tools can be used to engage pre-university students in exploring non-trivial mathematical concepts. We focus particularly on this age group and content domain because of the difficulty these students may encounter when trying to investigate more challenging mathematical concepts. Also, it is during their formative years before university that students’ predisposition and likeness towards mathematical ideas are formed. We report in this paper a study assessing whether a visualization tool, whose design was informed explicitly by research from information visualization and human–computer interaction, could engage pre-university students in their exploration and learning of more advanced mathematical concepts. Students who participated in this study came from multiple grade levels and have diverse cognitive and language skills as well as preferences towards mathematics. The results of this study indicate that visualization tools can effectively engage these students and support their exploration of non-trivial mathematical concepts, only if the tool is designed such that it can cater the diverse needs of these students.     

Creating a Colorful Classroom: Incorporating Multimedia and Graphics into Library Instruction

Students need varied and engaging content to learn more effectively, but librarians struggle to bring interesting and engaging techniques and tools into the library classroom. Incorporation of multimedia and graphics will not only engage students, but help them better grasp various concepts and skills. As educators learn more about how people learn, we know that traditional slideshows and database walkthroughs are not the most effective tactics. This article presents ideas for librarians to use multimedia and graphics to engage students and learn research skills in the library classroom.     

深度学习及其在目标和行为识别中的新进展

深度学习是机器学习中的一个新的研究领域。通过深度学习的方法构建深度网络来抽取特征是目前目标和行为识别中得到关注的研究方向。为引起更多计算机视觉领域研究者对深度学习进行探索和讨论,并推动目标和行为识别的研究,本文对深度学习及其在目标和行为识别中的新进展给予了概述。本文先介绍深度学习领域研究的基本状况、主要概念和原理;然后介绍近期利用深度学习在目标和行为识别应用中的一些新进展;最后阐述了深度学习与神经网络之间的关系,深度学习的优缺点,以及目前深度学习理论需要解决的主要问题。这对拟将深度学习应用于目标和行为识别的研究人员应有所帮助。     

利用专家系统建模——对人工智能的应用研究

专家系统是为了方便对各种问题制定决策,模拟专家的推理而设计的计算机程序。专家系统在表现那些需要制定决策的问题解决任务中尤其有效。建构专家系统规则库的学生对任一知识领域内概念之间动态的、临时的关系都会进行反思性思考。建构专家系统用到的思维方式可能是各种认知工具中最难的,因为它需要形式推理与逻辑推理,建构专家系统需要智力上的参与和挑战。     

A Seminar Looking for Traces of History

Students need to overcome their reluctance in understanding how, and why, informatics has evolved as it has. Toward that end, the author developed a course—designed as a seminar—in which students were required to reflect on ideas presented in seminal papers and relate them to contemporary concepts in the respective informatics subdomain. This article describes the seminar's structure, methods, and goals.     

Concept learning games

In this paper, we intend to have a game theoretic study on the concept learning problem in a multi-agent system. Concept learning is a very essential and well-studied domain of machine learning when it is studied under the characteristics of a multi-agent system. The most important reasons are the partiality of the environment perception for any agent and also the communication holdbacks, resulting into a deep need for a collaborative protocol in favor of multi-agent transactions. Here we wish to investigate multi-agent concept learning with the help of its components, thoroughly with a game theoretic taste, esp. on the pre-learning processes. Based on two standard notations, we address the non-unanimity of concepts, classification of objects, voting and communicating protocol, and also the learning itself. In such a game of concept learning, we consider a group of agents, communicating and consulting to upgrade their ontologies based on their conceptualizations of the environment. For this purpose, we investigate the problem in two separate and standard distinctions of game theory study, cooperation and competition. Several solution concepts and innovative ideas from the multi-agent realm are used to produce an approach that contains the reasoning process of the agents in this system. Some experimentations come at the end to show the functionality of our approach. These experimentations come distinctly for both cooperative and competitive views.     

计算机基础教学网站开发的研究

设计的目的主要是研究一种通用的教学网站模式,并研究如何将WEB2.0技术融入到网站中,使其具有更强的交互性。教学网站是辅助教师和学生完成教学任务的系统,为教师提供布置作业、下载作业、发布通知、答疑室等服务,为学生提供作业上传、查看通知等服务,同时为学生提供一个展示自己的舞台,学生可以将自己的优秀作业以文章形式发表出来供大家学习。系统还提Spring+Hibernate,Struts控制与处理页面请求,Hibernate完成数据操作,Spring将前两者联系起来减小系统的耦合性。网页上使用了较多的JavaScript代码,使得页面的交互性更强。系统中建立了一套Ajax访问机制,使得页面与服务器间传输请求和结果更加简单。     

Cognitive processing differences between frequent and infrequent Internet users

The Internet is rapidly transforming a range of human activities; socio-cognitive theory assumes that engagement in transformed activities, over time, transforms human cognition. Four hundred and six college students completed four modified cognitive assessment system subtests, each assessing one dimension of the PASS model of cognitive processing (i.e., planning, attention, simultaneous and successive processing). Students also completed a rating scale that determined the extent and nature of their use of the Internet. Without exception, frequent Internet users cognitively outperformed infrequent Internet users. Results are interpreted as supporting the validity of two theoretical positions; tool use increases cognitive capacity and tools represent extension of cognitive processes.     

对计算机基础课课程体系思考

计算机基础教学不仅注重基础，更应注重应用。倡导创新实践，调动学生学习的积极性和主观能动性。如何发挥学生的积极性与主动性，本文对计算机基础课课程体系从创新教学观念，完善教学内容；与时俱进，更新教学手段；改革教学考核手段等三个方面进行了思考与探讨。     

论艺术设计类学生设计思维的培养

作为一名艺术教育工作者．我们不仅要传授学生一般的设计程序与方法,更要注意培养学生的设计思维,实现学生设计生涯的可持续发展。良好的学习、设计习惯是保障。深厚的人文素养是基础。此外,学生还应该对自然界和其他艺术形式有较为广泛的了解,对流行趋势有敏锐的感知,并努力使自己保持永远的“童心”。