Paper Title, Authors, Abstract (Issue 1, Volume 6, 2012)

Pages

The Effect of Integrating Technology in Teaching as Part of Teachers' PCK on Students’ Attitude, Misconceptions, and Mathematical Problem Solving Performance
Farhad Kazemi, Sahar Bayat

Abstract: The results of the researches have indicated that pedagogical content is an essential and critical element in determining a teacher’s success in handling the teaching and learning process and further produces effective teaching. This paper is going to investigate the relationship between integrating of technology as part of teachers’ PCK on attitude toward fractions, misconceptions and mathematical problem solving performance of the fifth grade students in the elementary school. 24 teachers and 476 students were employed as participants in this study. A check list consist of 12 items which using technology was one of the items was implemented to measure PCK of the teachers. The checklist was made according to classification of teachers’ PCK Jang et al (2009). Based on the research result, a significant relationship between using technology and with PCK’ teachers was found (r= 0.810, P<0.01). In addition, the results indicated a significant relationship between using technology in classroom by teachers with student’s attitude(r= r=0.549, p<0.05), misconceptions and their mathematical problem solving performance.
 

Lifelong Learners in Engineering Education – Students’ Perspectives
Emlyn Witt, Irene Lill

Abstract: Lifelong learning has been at the centre of many national education reforms in the past decade and higher education policy has been considerably shaped by it. At a policy level, a simple, elegant vision of integration and mutual dependence between learners, industry and higher education institutions (HEIs) is prescribed. In terms of this prescription, study programmes at HEIs are aligned to industry’s skills and knowledge requirements and learners actively select and pursue educational opportunities in order to make and keep themselves employable. This paper describes a study of learner perspectives on lifelong learning and construction industry skills requirements in Estonia. The findings suggest considerable diversity in learner perceptions of what constitute current and future industrial requirements, a dissatisfaction among learners regarding the adequacy of HEI responses to industry needs and a reluctance to conform to the prescribed role of lifelong learner, all of which challenge the prescribed model.
 

Students Perspective on Improving Programming Courses
Michal Blaho, Martin Foltin, Peter Fodrek, Ján Murgaš

Abstract: Improvement and modernization of the universities courses should be every year’s task. This task is especially needed for computer programming courses where new technologies are coming very often. In the first classes of study at the university many students have hard time in programming courses. It is because they comes from different secondary schools and they have different experience of computer programming which is often not enough for university courses or they hadn’t programming at secondary schools at all. We did small questionnaire at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava to know how student evaluate our programming courses and what they want to improve.
 

Designing for the Environment: an Undergraduate Case Study Supported by Global Collaborative Design
Iván Esparragoza, J. Alejandro Betancur, Carlos Rodríguez

Abstract: Global collaborative design is a common practice nowadays due to the international nature and business scope of many corporations. Therefore, it is critical to educate future engineers with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the now common multinational settings. This paper describes an international collaborative learning experience among students from different institutions in the Americas through a multinational design project at an undergraduate level. The case study presented here refers to the conceptual design of an automatic machine to sort plastic bottles and aluminum cans to be used in different locations including malls, shopping centers, office buildings, and academic institutions among others. Global collaborative design imposes problems in terms of communication and information management; this project presents from an undergraduate case study, a methodological synthesis from which these problems were satisfactorily resolved, illustrating how a typical design methodology can be implemented in multinational projects, and how the participation of students in this kind of practice can contribute to gain knowledge in the global design process and in the development of professional skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, and global awareness. The collaborative concepts involved in the development of this project were specially adapted from several cases of international cooperation set out in the automobile industry, where the mutual aid generated between the companies involved, enables the development and expansion of new technologies; therefore, the collaborative structure of this project has a special potential for implementation not only in academia, but also in enterprises with international projection and implicated in the management of collaborative-based projects.
 

Collaborative Learning: A Means to Creative Thinking in Design
Siu-Kay Pun

Abstract: Employers are increasingly looking for graduates who can think creatively and collaborate effectively to come up with innovative solutions to complex problems. This paper presents a study on applying a pedagogical approach based on collaborative learning to a course for students from different majors. The objective of the course is to develop in students creative thinking skills in solving design problems. The results show the effectiveness of this approach in making team-learning fun for the students who are from different majors. The team projects completed were highly creative and effective and also showed the influence of their own disciplines in the solutions they came up with.
 

Methods of Protection Population by Sheltering from the Perspective of Municipalities with Extended Powers
Jakub Rak, Lucie Jurikova

Abstract: The article introduces a proposal for the information system for the support and management of the population protection in the area of the municipality with extended powers and its subordinate bodies. The proposal results from the legislation of the Czech Republic as well as the requirements of the municipality bodies and other users of the information system. Furthermore, the article is devoted to a description of ―a shelter module‖ which is one of the nine basic elements of the information system. Presently, the shelter module is being employed within the framework of the municipality with extended powers in Zlín and it fulfils the majority of the requirements of its practical utilisation.
 

Building and Reusing Medical Ontology for Tropical Diseases Management
Haikal Satria, Radha S. Priya, Lukman H. Ismail, Eko Supriyanto

Abstract: Currently, the use of ontologies in medicine is mainly focused on the representation and re-organization of medical terminologies. Moreover, there are only a small number of ontologies available in the domain of tropical diseases. Therefore, it is important to build and reuse medical ontology for tropical diseases management, which behaves as an information support system to represent the information related to tropical diseases in a uniform and organized manner. The building process of ontology in tropical diseases domain is fully described in this paper and has been implemented online using Protégé 4.1 and OWL DL syntaxes. In order to provide easy access to user, ontology browser was used as visualization tool. Functional testing of ontology has been done with involving medical data collected from faculty of tropical medicine, Mahidol University. Test result shows that the developed ontology is able to provide structured information about tropical diseases that are very useful for healthcare professionals. Since it is an online system, it can be accessed by the user anytime, anywhere and offer support for a better medical decision and indirectly helping in the management of tropical diseases.
 

A Demand for More Personalized Accessible Medical Informatics in an Aging World
M. Ianculescu, E. Lupeanu, A. Alexandru, E. Tudora, O. A. Coman, L. Coman

Abstract: Products and services based on new technology, such as ICT, are developing rapidly, and are used by large parts of the population – also by elderly people. Technology has potentials of raising the quality of elderly care and to make the services more adapted to individual needs and preferences. Medical Informatics is developing rapidly and has an increasingly possibility to play a role in health and care-services. It can, when implemented and used with care, be a key resource in enabling elderly people to live long lives. We want sustainable health and disability support services that can meet the needs of current and future generations of older people and support them to age positively. Ideas about aging have changed over time. Aging people are increasingly becoming computer literate and more willing to be empowered about their own state of health and way of living. This paper presents the most important features of promoting a positive aging with the help of medical informatics. AGECVD, a health informatics system, proposes a complex integrative approach of physiological aging and atherosclerosis processes which can determine a multitude of cardiovascular events. The „Multidisciplinary Complex System for the Efficient Management of the Anti-Aging information (AgingNice)” allows the sharing of the knowledge concerning the specific research and the promotion of the theoretical and practical information, both among the stakeholders from the medical area and at the citizen’s level.
 

A Software Testing Tool with the Function to Restore the State at Program Execution of a Program under Test
Yuhei Otani, Hiroaki Hashiura, Seiichi Komiya

Abstract: In a software development project, conducting a unit test is an important task but not an easy process. In particular, preparing a unit test procedure for a program that uses external resources such as files and databases as its input tends to be a difficult task since it requires the developer to set up various conditions. This paper proposes a unit test technique that can automatically reproduce runtime conditions of a java program by tracing the execution history of the program for the object generation method and the flow of changes, and also proposes a development support tool. Our technique and support tool allow the developer to automatically generate a unit test procedure for a program for which it is difficult in the past to create a unit test procedure since it uses external resources.
 

Use of Online Portal for Advanced Learning (OPAL) to enhance Medical Education
Sat Sharma, Charles Conway, Keith McConnell, Ira Ripstein, Bruce Martin, Aarti Paul, Ilana Simon, Jocelyn Advent, Carol Ann Northcott, Chuck Loewen, Dean Sandham

Abstract: Web based Curriculum Management Systems (CMS) are increasingly utilized to deliver medical education across Canadian and other Universities. CMS can facilitate the delivery of learning resources, broadens the capacity for tracking and reporting of teaching & learning across an institution, simplify and automate administrative and supervisory tasks, and serve a useful function for institutional accreditation. Some of these systems are equipped with business intelligence tools to analyze data and create reports to facilitate curriculum governance and education delivery. These intelligence reports can improve curriculum governance and are expected to be immensely advantageous while preparing for medical school accreditation visits. At University of Manitoba, we have been using Online Portal for Advanced Learning (OPAL) to generate reports to find missing sessions, learning objectives, resource uploading and instructor assignment during the pre clerkship year. In this paper, we demonstrate approaches to creation of necessary reports for curriculum governance and accreditation standards. We used OPAL for the following quality improvement projects: 1) reports of missing learning resources for the MED 1 year (Class of 2014); 2) reports of missing clinical encounters for the clerkship rotations for the Class of 2012. To determine if there was an impact on educational quality, we followed the trends of missing clinical encounters for four periods. We also used OPAL for accreditation reporting and curriculum mapping utilizing analytics dashboards to examine areas of potential gaps and overlaps. These intelligence reports can improve curriculum governance and are expected to be immensely advantageous while preparing for medical school accreditation visits.
 

The Effectiveness of Facebook Groups on Teaching and Improving Writing: Students’ Perceptions
Melor Md. Yunus, Hadi Salehi

Abstract: Language learning has grown beyond the boundaries of the four walls of the classroom; in fact, most language learning occurs outside and informally. Informal learning, through a medium like ICT therefore, is a significant alternative environment for language practice and use. This study attempts to investigate the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of Facebook (FB) groups for teaching and improving writing. The authors see a need to carry out this study as it provides a platform to discover pedagogical implications that would benefit the Y-generation in terms of improving their writing skills in a Malaysian ESL context. The respondents of this research comprise 43 third year students completing their bachelor’s degree in TESL, in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The students’ perceptions were measured through a questionnaire comprising 10 close-ended items and 3 open-ended ones. Respondents were required to participate in a Facebook group created by the researchers. The Facebook group, called ‘Write Out Loud’ was hosted by Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_193133474042344&ap=1. The findings showed that ‘Facebook groups’ is an effective tool in improving the students’ writing skills, especially in the brainstorming of ideas before the actual writing. The results of this study may be beneficial to ESL educators in incorporating ICT into their teaching repertoire. It is suggested that future research should focus on the challenges of integrating Facebook groups for teaching and improving writing, and look into the perceptions of the teachers as well. In addition, experimental research could also be done to see how FB and FB groups help in improving writing skills.
 

Mobile Devices and Corporate Data Security
Blaž Markelj, Igor Bernik

Abstract: Ensuring protection of corporate data has only recently become a main concern in the information and communication technology industry. In the past two years or so the use of mobile devices to access data has become a lot more frequent, therefore data security is now a new challenge for users and managers of information and computer systems alike – they all have to be aware of cyber threats, and the measures, which must necessarily be undertaken to maintain an adequate level of information security. Software for mobile devices, combined with the Internet, now provides easy and fast access to data and information; this relatively new technology facilitates rapid decision-making. Sophisticated software enables users to manage data and carry out various tasks on-line. The security of corporate data, in incidences when mobile devices are used to access information systems, can only be upheld, if users comply with certain safety measures.
 

Identifying a General Structure of Teachers’ In-service Learning
Lung-Hsing Kuo, Hsieh-Hua Yang, Hung-Jen Yang, Chin-Hsi Chen

Abstract: Teachers are professionals should change with the environment, enhance their professional abilities and to give students a better quality of education. In-service teacher advancement education is help teachers to enhance teachers’ professionalism and specialized knowledge of courses so that the overall quality of education is elevated. This study aims to find relationships between course type and age group, course type and first registered specialty, and to find structure base on profile (age group, first registered specialty, school level, and course type) of in-service teachers studied in-service teacher advancement education in Taiwan. We found there is a real relationship between course type and first registered specialty, course type and school level, and course type and age group for teachers who participated in in-service teacher advancement education. The result shows teachers who study course type of teaching or administration category can be divided into two groups.
 

Determine ICT Learning Groups among Teachers In-service Education Participants
Lung-Hsing Kuo, Jui-Chen Yu, Hung-Jen Yang, Lydia Lin

Abstract: Today, students no longer rely on teachers as the main source of knowledge because of the rapid development and advancement in ICT, particularly the Internet and Web. Information is abundant and can now be accessed from anyplace and at anytime. Teachers are professionals should change with the environment, enhance their professional abilities and to give students a better quality of education. This study aims to find structure base on profile (age group, first registered specialty, school level, and course type) of in-service teachers studied ICT related courses of in-service teacher advancement education in Taiwan. We found there is a real relationship between course type and school level for teachers participated ICT related courses of in-service teacher advancement education. The result shows teachers who study course type of teaching or administration category can be divided into two groups.
 

Interactive Whiteboard in the Primary School Environment
Martin Skutil, Martina Maněnová

Abstract: This paper focuses on one of the most advanced teaching facilities currently used on all types of schools, on the interactive whiteboard. Specifically, the contribution deals with the use of interactive whiteboards in primary school. Based on surveys that were carried out on the subject, defines the basic concepts on which the text is based. The empirical part of the contribution is based on a questionnaire survey aimed to find out how teachers work with the interactive whiteboard in primary school. A secondary objective was to identify what are the opinions of teachers on the use of interactive whiteboards in primary school.
 

Globalization and the Trend in Demand for Higher Education in Malaysia
Norasmah Othman, Harinder Kaur T. Singh, Poo Bee Tin, Noorasiah Sulaiman

Abstract: Malaysia has always given an emphasis on the transformation of institutions of higher education to fulfill the demand for competitive and creative human capital. T his is to enable Malaysia to endure the challenges of globalization whereby some of this challenges can be damaging for the development of the nation. Education plays an important role in enabling Malaysia to withstand challenges brought by globalization. Therefore, it is crucial to identify what are the trend in demand for higher education in the era of globalization. This study has been conducted with the aim of identifying changes in demand for higher education after globalization. The trend in demand for pre-university education, higher education, technical and vocational education was compared between before and after globalization, whereby before and after 1995. Data were obtained from 288 samples using questionnaires as instrument. Respondents of this study were randomly selected from the population of administrators in institutions of higher education in Malaysia. Data obtained were analyzed using inferential statistics method to answer the research questions. It was found that trend in demand for pre-university education, higher education, technical and vocational education showed positive trend overall, with the trend for private HEIs and technical and vocational education showing the most significant changes. This gives the implication that globalization has impacted most on the demand for private HEIs as well as technical and vocational education to fulfill the demands for more skilled labours.
 

Hospitality and Tourism Education in Romania – Main Features and Patterns
Andreea Diana Păşcuţ, Mihaela Sofia Dinu

Abstract: The present study undertakes a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the current supply of tourism studies in the Romanian secondary education system. The purpose of the research is to identify the main features and patterns of the hospitality and tourism education in Romania assuming that training represents an essential factor in tourism development and in providing tourists with high quality services. Research has centred on detailed documentation regarding the entire Romanian tourism employment sector, and also the education system of tourism degrees, followed by a quantitative research based on intense online research and on processing in graphical representation the official statistics data available.
 

Designing M-Learning Applications for Collaborative Virtual Environments
Cristian Ciurea, Paul Pocatilu

Abstract: In this paper are presented specific quality characteristics of m-learning applications designed for assisting the collaborative learning process inside virtual environments. There are analyzed the features of virtual organizations and their collaborative character is presented. The advantages of virtual organizations are revealed compared with the classical organizations. Specific features of m-learning applications that run on smart-phones are described and also the advantages of integration with social network platforms are presented. The paper describes the m-learning applications and the mobile learning processes inside a virtual campus. Also the paper presents an existing mobile learning application, still under development. Metrics are built in order to evaluate the performance of mobile learning processes in collaborative virtual organizations.
 

Application of Remote Communication System For Nursing Education and Research
Takuri Takahashi, Hidetoshi Wakamatsu, Mitsue Maru, Rumi Maeda

Abstract: Authors have ever developed multilateral communication system not only for remote lecture but also for the conferences. The developed system was supposed to apply in the actual nursing conference and the lectures, which mean the systems should work under the situation which is often limited by equipment, qualities of communication line and human resources. Therefore, developed system was designed as web-based platform to perform which had wider application range and was able to reduce construction and introduction costs. The survey to more than 150 attendances of the remote lecture and conference by developed system showed that the most participants satisfied with its performances. From the result, authors discuss conditions of application of remote communication system for not only the lectures but also the nursing services. The developed system may available for nursing research, so application field of nursing was discussed. For further research, next generation system which enables to use by current mobile devices was discussed.
 

Practice Firms, e-Learning and Web 2.0 Technologies as a Bases of SELPRAF Training Programme for Unemployed
Tanja Arh, Andrej Jerman Blažič, Marija Mojca Peternel

Abstract: Within the lifelong learning strategy implementation a set of documents such as The Bruges Communiqué on enhanced European Cooperation in VET, A New Impetus for European cooperation in VET to support the Europe 2020 strategy and Key competences for lifelong learning are being launched by European Commission. All the documents have been prepared with the intention to additionally support and enhance Europe to become smarter, more sustainable and inclusive. It stimulates innovations adapted to individual learners, which consequently support the process of self-employment. As a concrete response to the deficiencies identified above, the general aim of the SELPRAF project is to encourage people’s interest for entrepreneurship through an innovative SELPRAF Training Programme for the acquisition of the four key competences: communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages, digital competence, and sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. In the paper special attention is given to the presentation of the concept of practice firms, e-learning and web 2.0 technologies as a bases of SELPRAF Training Programme for unemployed. Furthermore, some ideas and existing initiatives are presented and the expected impact on the Vocational Education and Training System in Slovenia and Croatia is introduced.
 

A Monastery Website Model Used for Entrepreneurial Purposes
Mirela-Catrinel Voicu

Abstract: In this paper we present a website model on the presentation of Romanian monasteries. Religion, arts, history, culture and tourism are some of the reference points which constitute the attraction of this monastery study. Our website model can be used for tourists or also when we want to develop some kind of business. For example, if someone is interested on business development, including activities on school of painting on glass, painting of icons, religious music, etc., then our website model can be used as a helping tool.