E-Learning

Technology development, mainly for telecommunications and computer systems, was a key factor for the interactivity and, thus, for the expansion of e-learning. This book is divided into two parts, presenting some proposals to deal with e-learning challenges, opening up a way of learning about and discussing new methodologies to increase the interaction level of classes and implementing technical tools for helping students to make better use of e-learning resources. In the first part, the reader may find chapters mentioning the required infrastructure for e-learning models and processes, organizational practices, suggestions, implementation of methods for assessing results, and case studies focused on pedagogical aspects that can be applied generically in different environments. The second part is related to tools that can be adopted by users such as graphical tools for engineering, mobile phone networks, and techniques to build robots, among others. Moreover, part two includes some chapters dedicated specifically to e-learning areas like engineering and architecture

The Terminology of Composition Studies: A Historical Approach.

Recently, composition scholars have shown interest in examining their own language. My study furthers this interest by providing a historical analysis of the terminology commonly used in composition studies. The historical focus allows an analysis of how our vocabulary has changed in relation to specific schools of thought in composition studies, thus encouraging an awareness of the influence of context--professional, institutional, cultural, and personal--on the scholarship in composition studies. Such influences, I argue, are often ignored to the detriment of our discipline. Chapter one further explains the scope and purpose of my study. Chapters two and three analyze in-depth two terms, audience and authority, both of which have been both elusive and problematic in the field. I follow the developments and changing uses of these terms as seen in composition studies\u27 major publications since the 1960s, the decade of the paradigm shift to process theories of writing. Audience and authority serve as case studies to illustrate the importance of reading our disciplinary scholarship and our disciplinary history with a critical eye and with an awareness of the different contexts from which they emerge. In chapter four, I put into practice the suggestions offered in the above chapters. In this section, I provide a glossary of frequently used terms in composition studies. Each definition is divided into four sections. In section (a), I provide a brief, historical explanation of the term, giving a working definition of the term as well as knowledge of past roles the term has played in conversation. I also indicate negative and/or position connotations of the term. Section (b) includes definitions of the term offered by established composition scholars, and section (c) provides examples of the word in context. Section (d) includes names often associated with the concept. By looking at the terms historically and by looking at the various meanings, I attempt to put our language in context and to encourage diverse voices from various locations to take part in the composition conversation

Science inquiry learning environments created by national board certified teachers.

The purpose of this study was to discern what differences exist between the science inquiry learning environments created by National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and non-NBCTs. Four research questions organized the data collection and analysis: (a) How do National Board Certified science teachers\u27 knowledge of the nature of science differ from that of their non-NBCT counterparts? (b) How do the frequencies of student science inquiry behaviors supported by in middle/secondary learning environments created by NBCTs differ from those created by their non-NBCT counterparts? (c) What is the relationship between the frequency of students\u27 science inquiry behaviors and their science reasoning and understanding of the nature of science? (d) What is the impact of teacher perceptions factors impacting curriculum and limiting inquiry on the existence of inquiry learning environments? The setting in which this study was conducted was middle and high schools in Kentucky during the period between October 2006 and January 2007. The population sampled for the study was middle and secondary science teachers certified to teach in Kentucky. Of importance among those were the approximately 70 National Board Certified middle and high school science teachers. The teacher sample consisted of 50 teachers, of whom 19 were NBCTs and 31 were non-NBCTs. This study compared the science inquiry teaching environments created by NBCTs and non-NBCTs along with their consequent effect on the science reasoning and nature of science (NOS) understanding of their students. In addition, it examined the relationship with these science inquiry environments of other teacher characteristics along with teacher perception of factors influencing curriculum and factors limiting inquiry. This study used a multi-level mixed methodology study incorporating both quantitative and qualitative measures of both teachers and their students. It was a quasi-experimental design using non-random assignment of participants to treatment and control groups and dependent pre- and post-tests (Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). Teacher and student NOS understanding was measured using the Student Understanding of Science and Science Inquiry (SUSSI) instrument (Liang, et. Al, 2006). Science inquiry environment was measured with the Elementary Science Inquiry Survey (ESIS) (Dunbar, 2002) which was given both to teachers and their students. Science inquiry environment measurements were triangulated with observations of a stratified random sub-sample of participating teachers. Observations were structured using the low-inference Collaboratives for Excellence in Teaching Practice (CETP) Classroom Observation Protocol (COP) (Lawrenz, Huffman, & Appleldoorn 2002), and the high-inference Reform Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (Piburn & Sawada, 2000). NBCTs possessed more informed view of NOS than did non-NBCTs. Additionally, high school science teachers possessed more informed views regarding NOS than did middle school science teachers, with the most informed views belonging to high school science NBCTs. High school science NBCTs created learning environments in which students engaged in science inquiry behaviors significantly more frequently than did high school science non-NBCTs. Middle school science NBCTs, on the other hand, did not create learning environments that differed in significant ways from those of middle school science non-NBCTs. Students of high school science NBCTs possessed significantly higher science reasoning than did students of high school science non-NBCTs. Middle school students of science NBCTs possessed no more science reasoning ability than did middle school students of science non-NBCTs. NOS understanding displayed by students of both middle school and high school science NBCTs was not distinguished from students of non-NBCTs. Classroom science inquiry environment created by non-NBCTs were correlated with science teachers\u27 perceptions of factors determining the

Enhancing the Impact of Investments in 'Educational' ICT

There has been a substantial level of investment in ICT in education over the last thirty years, but it has failed to have a proportionately large impact on learning. The purpose of this research was to identify ways of enhancing the impact of future investments in ICT in education. A proposition about one way to do this emerged from the literature. Empirical examination of this proposition highlighted deficiencies in the model and suggested that developing a framework for describing computer use in education would be a more productive approach. Existing frameworks were examined in the light of the data from the first three case studies, revealing significant weaknesses with them. This analysis resulted in the development of a set of criteria for evaluating frameworks for describing computer use in education. A new framework, the Computer Practice Framework (CPF), was then devised, based on key dimensions evident within the first three case studies. The CPF was evaluated against the criteria through further fieldwork in schools and higher education. This led to the refinement of the CPF and indicated that using it as a conceptual framework for thinking about computer use in education could help to create shared visions of the purposes underpinning investments in computer use in education. Using the CPF to support vision building, school development, curriculum planning, communication and shared understandings can enhance the likelihood of such investments having their intended impacts. The development of the CPF thus represents an original contribution to the field, which has the potential to enhance the impact of investments in ICT in education

Graduate Course Descriptions, 2005 Fall

Wright State University graduate course descriptions from Fall 2005

Graduate Course Descriptions, 2006 Winter

Wright State University graduate course descriptions from Winter 2006

JAEPL, Vol. 2, Winter 1996-1997

Essays Jean Trounstine. Sacred Spaces. Drama in the prison classroom teaches that transgression can enhance spirituality. Irene Papoulis. Spirituality and Composition: One Teacher\u27s Thoughts. The author explores her ambivalence about combining her interest in spirituality and her composition teaching. George Kalamaras. Meditative Silence and Reciprocity: The Dialogic Implications for \u27Spiritual Sites of Composing. Recent studies of silence must focus on the dialogical nature of Eastern meditation, examining the values of meditative awareness and social theories of reciprocity. Christopher Ferry. When the Distressed Teach the Oppressed: Toward an Understanding of Communion and Commitment. Jane Tompkins\u27 adaptation of Paulo Freire\u27s educational philosophy is critiqued through exploring the spiritual basis of his idea of the Easter experience. Mary Buley-Meissner. Diversity and Dialogue in Reforming the Academic Community. Affirming multiculturalism in higher education should include discussions of students\u27 spiritual diversity. Arlette Ingram Willis and Shuaib J. Meacham. Break Point: The Challenges of Teaching Multicultural Education Courses. Teaching multicultural education courses to preservice teachers exacts an emotional toll as they begin to acknowledge their ethnic awareness. John Ramey. Transcending Gender: A New Awareness of the Fluid Self in Writing. The constructs of the male and female in the gendered self are not binary opposites but interlocking halves of an inseparable whole. Margaret Batschelet and Linda Woodson. From Writers to Writer/Designers. Instructors should extend the idea of thought in word only to possibilities offered by the visual. Dennis Young. Re-Visioning Psychology in the Writing Class. With its emphasis on soul-work and the imaginal frames of psyche, archetypal psychology helps teachers more fully interpret the motivations and intricacies of writing and learning. Emily Nye. Aiding AIDS Through Writing: A Study and Bibliography. A writing group at an HIV clinic generated four kinds of narratives, each with a different healing function. A selected bibliography follows

Professional competency of modern specialist: means of formation, development and improvement

The modern scientific and methodical approaches to the study and analysis of professional competence that are in line with the state requirements for reforming education and the tendencies of introducing a competent approach as one of the key factors of today's vocational education are analyzed. The emphasis is placed on the fact that implementation of the competence approach should include the use of professional training of real professional tasks with the orientation of future professionals to analyze the results of their own professional activities and decisions. The basic principles of professional training of future managers of economic security are determined. It has been established that the professional training of future managers of economic security should be carried out on a modular basis

Mathematical warrants, objects and actions in higher school mathematics

'Higher school mathematics' connotes typical upper secondary school and early college mathematics. The mathematics at this level is characterised by moves to (1) rigour in justification,(2) abstraction in content and (3) fluency in symbolic manipulation. This thesis investigates these three transitions - towards rigour, abstraction, and tluencyusing philosophical method: for each of the three transitions a proposition is presented and arguments are given in favour of that proposition. These arguments employ concepts and results from contemporary English language-medium philosophy and also rely crucially on classroom issues or accounts of mathematical experience both to elucidate meaning and for the domain of application. These three propositions, with their arguments, are the three sub-theses at the centre of the thesis as a whole. The first of these sub-theses (1) argues that logical deduction, quasi-empiricism and visualisation are mathematical warrants, while authoritatively based justification is essentially non-mathematical. The second sub-thesis (2) argues that the reality of mathematical entities of the sort encountered in the higher school mathematics curriculum is actual not metaphoric. The third sub-thesis (3) claims that certain 'mathematical action' can be construed as non-propositional mathematical knowledge. The application of these general propositions to mathematics in education yields the following: 'coming to know mathematics' involves:(1) using mathematical warrants for justification and self conviction; (2) ontological commitment to mathematical objects; and (3)developing a capability to execute some mathematical procedures automatically