Exploiting popular culture : exploring pedagogical and motivational approaches for design and technology education

This paper describes a case study of pedagogical developments carried out with teachers and secondary school students in response to new curriculum content in Product Design courses presented in Scottish secondary schools. The pedagogy attempts to challenge the anti-commercial manufacturing attitude that prevails among teachers and students and is based on motivational principles. It makes explicit use of the language and tools of popular media culture, specifically 'ask the audience' interaction and investigative forensic science. An electronic voting system is incorporated as an introduction to detailed product evaluation and technical analysis collaborative activities. It examines the educational potential of such ICT systems to help students explore emotional response, product semantics and value judgements and make connections to commercial manufacturing detail design

The Multi-Agent Programming Contest: A r\'esum\'e

The Multi-Agent Programming Contest, MAPC, is an annual event organized since 2005 out of Clausthal University of Technology. Its aim is to investigate the potential of using decentralized, autonomously acting intelligent agents, by providing a complex scenario to be solved in a competitive environment. For this we need suitable benchmarks where agent-based systems can shine. We present previous editions of the contest and also its current scenario and results from its use in the 2019 MAPC with a special focus on its suitability. We conclude with lessons learned over the years.Comment: Submitted to the proceedings of the Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2019, to appear in Springer Lect. Notes Computer Challenges Series https://www.springer.com/series/1652

Alignment of the Challenger Center Curriculum with the Washington State Essential Learning Requirements and the Use of Multiple Intelligences

The State ofWashington has recently adopted a set oflearning standards called the Essential Academic Learning Requirements. It is the intention of this Master\u27s project to align the learning objectives of the Challenger Center curriculum with the Essential Academic Learning Requirements for Science, so that it may be used as a sixth and seventh grade enrichment opportunity. Itis also within the scope of this project to include Gardner\u27s theory on multiple intelligence as an educational tool to improve student learning. It will be suggested that with the use of multiple intelligences and the integration of informal science learning experiences, students will develop improved problem solving skills and knowledge retention. This in turn may improve the overall performance on the State assessment for the new standards

Developing STEM Interest and Genre Knowledge Through Science Fiction Prototyping

Upward Bound Math and Science, a federally funded initiative, aims to persuade U.S. high schoolers to become college STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) majors. The program attempts this persuasion by developing students’ content and procedural knowledge so that students may succeed in high school and college STEM courses. Primary focus on knowledge acquisition, however, may cause missed opportunities to engage the imaginative dimensions of students’ science identities and students’ senses of wonder for science. In this reflective essay, I describe a science fiction prototyping assignment that meets the knowledge-based objectives of the Writing Skills course in a five-week Upward Bound summer program at one Eastern U.S. public university and, at the same time, prompts students to perform science identities by writing narrative genres that echo students’ wonder-at attitudes toward science. This assignment is informed by science educator and theorist Yannis Hadzigeorgiou’s argument that imagination should be at the center of science education, as well as by Etienne Wenger’s communities-of-practice framework that describes imagination as one key way of forging belonging in society. By thinking about how future innovations may impact future families through the activity of composing a narrative and an informative genre, students communicate understanding and wonder for science to disciplinary and general audiences, with benefits for their attitudes toward and identities related to science

Gamification of assembly planning in virtual environment

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the gamification of virtual assembly planning on the user performance, user experience and engagement. / Design/methodology/approach: A multi-touch table was used to manipulate virtual parts and gamification features were integrated into the virtual assembly environment. An experiment was conducted in two conditions: a gamified and a non-gamified virtual environment. Subjects had to assemble a virtual pump. The user performance was evaluated in terms of the number of errors, the feasibility of the generated assembly sequence and the user feedback. / Findings: The gamification reduced the number of errors and increased the score representing the number of right decisions. The results of the subjective and objective analysis showed that the number of errors decreased with engagement in the gamified assembly. The increase in the overall user experience reduced the number of errors. The subjective evaluation showed a significant difference between the gamified and the non-gamified assembly in terms of the level of engagement, the learning usability and the overall experience. / Research limitations/implications: The effective learning retention after training has not been tested, and longitudinal studies are necessary. The effect of the used gamification elements has been evaluated as a whole; further work could isolate the most beneficial features and add other elements that might be more beneficial for learning. / Originality/value: The research reported in this paper provides valuable insights into the gamification of virtual assembly using a low-cost multi-touch interface. The results are promising for training operators to assemble a product at the design stage

International business education using global virtual teams: Relationship between cultural intelligence, global knowledge, and team performance

Corporate employees must interact with people from different cultures in cross‐cultural environments. This study examined the extent that cultural intelligence and global knowledge predicted team performance for university students engaged in collaborative team projects resembling the global corporate work environment. The sample for this study was 2,012 students who participated in the X-Culture Global Virtual Team Project during the spring semester of 2015. Participants were members of 412 teams representing 40 countries and attending 95 universities. Study results indicated that global knowledge and cultural intelligence significantly relate to team performance. Cultural intelligence is a significant partial mediation between global knowledge and team performance in international business courses

Personalised learning environments: Core development issues for construction

The growth of e-Learning has been continual and sustained. This has been fuelled by developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) the nuances of which are starting to reap considerable benefits in the educational and business environments. Specific benefits have included e-interoperability, scalability, adaptability and the mass-customisation of learning packages to the distributed learner community. Notwithstanding the technology related issues, from a pedagogic perspective, learning styles and instructional strategies are now being intensively studied in the "traditional’ classroom setting to leverage advantage. However, there has been little research undertaken on the application of learning styles within the educational arena, perhaps because of limited authoring applications or explicit choice vis-à-vis the creation of instructional strategies for specific learning styles. In this context, some of the evidence identifies that the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences in learning styles, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of learners. Therefore, the paradigm of "one size fits all", by default, can only address the generic learner issues (and not the specific ‘personalised’ learner requirements). This paper introduces the concepts and issues surrounding the development (and barriers) of personalised learning environments, which incorporates learning styles.The growth of e-Learning has been continual and sustained. This has been fuelled by developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) the nuances of which are starting to reap considerable benefits in the educational and business environments. Specific benefits have included e-interoperability, scalability, adaptability and the mass-customisation of learning packages to the distributed learner community. Notwithstanding the technology related issues, from a pedagogic perspective, learning styles and instructional strategies are now being intensively studied in the "traditional’ classroom setting to leverage advantage. However, there has been little research undertaken on the application of learning styles within the educational arena, perhaps because of limited authoring applications or explicit choice vis-à-vis the creation of instructional strategies for specific learning styles. In this context, some of the evidence identifies that the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences in learning styles, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of learners. Therefore, the paradigm of "one size fits all", by default, can only address the generic learner issues (and not the specific ‘personalised’ learner requirements). This paper introduces the concepts and issues surrounding the development (and barriers) of personalised learning environments, which incorporates learning styles

Personalised learning environments: Core development issues for construction

The growth of e-Learning has been continual and sustained. This has been fuelled by developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) the nuances of which are starting to reap considerable benefits in the educational and business environments. Specific benefits have included e-interoperability, scalability, adaptability and the mass-customisation of learning packages to the distributed learner community. Notwithstanding the technology related issues, from a pedagogic perspective, learning styles and instructional strategies are now being intensively studied in the "traditional’ classroom setting to leverage advantage. However, there has been little research undertaken on the application of learning styles within the educational arena, perhaps because of limited authoring applications or explicit choice vis-à-vis the creation of instructional strategies for specific learning styles. In this context, some of the evidence identifies that the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences in learning styles, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of learners. Therefore, the paradigm of "one size fits all", by default, can only address the generic learner issues (and not the specific ‘personalised’ learner requirements). This paper introduces the concepts and issues surrounding the development (and barriers) of personalised learning environments, which incorporates learning styles.The growth of e-Learning has been continual and sustained. This has been fuelled by developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) the nuances of which are starting to reap considerable benefits in the educational and business environments. Specific benefits have included e-interoperability, scalability, adaptability and the mass-customisation of learning packages to the distributed learner community. Notwithstanding the technology related issues, from a pedagogic perspective, learning styles and instructional strategies are now being intensively studied in the "traditional’ classroom setting to leverage advantage. However, there has been little research undertaken on the application of learning styles within the educational arena, perhaps because of limited authoring applications or explicit choice vis-à-vis the creation of instructional strategies for specific learning styles. In this context, some of the evidence identifies that the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences in learning styles, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of learners. Therefore, the paradigm of "one size fits all", by default, can only address the generic learner issues (and not the specific ‘personalised’ learner requirements). This paper introduces the concepts and issues surrounding the development (and barriers) of personalised learning environments, which incorporates learning styles