Considerações sobre a implantação efetiva de um sistema de baixo custo de resposta em sala de aula

Orientador: Eduardo Alves do Valle JuniorDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Defendemos que a efetividade da implantação de um sistema de resposta em sala de aula depende da superação de uma série de restrições, tanto infra-estruturais quanto psicológicas, intimamente relacionadas com a tecnologia utilizada e com o público alvo pretendido. Demos sequência à investigação da criação de um sistema de baixo custo de resposta em sala de aula, o paperclickers, que requer um único dispositivo móvel para o professor capturar respostas em sala de aula, fornecidas pelos alunos através de cartões com códigos impressos. Mantivemos o objetivo de fomentar a adoção de técnicas de aprendizagem ativa em países em desenvolvimento, oferecendo uma ferramenta de fácil implementação e associada a uma metodologia de ensino específica ¿ a Instrução pelos Pares. Mas acrescentamos o enfoque de analisar e atuar sobre as possíveis barreiras de adoção, considerando como público alvo, professores de ensino médio de escolas públicas brasileiras. Compilamos os resultados dos testes de usabilidade realizados durante a pesquisa original, e descrevemos como a interpretação desses dados afetou a usabilidade da versão atual do software. Tratamos dificuldades de detecção e decodificação dos cartões de respostas, decorrentes do novo e dinâmico cenário de uso dos TopCodes, a codificação escolhida para nossa solução, muito diferente das suas condições originais. Propusemos e experimentamos melhorias de robustez no processamento dos TopCodes, analisando como a aplicação dessas melhorias afetou a usabilidade global da solução. Disponibilizamos paperclickers para o público em geral, numa versão inicial e de código aberto. Projetamos também a primeira parte de uma série de tutoriais em vídeo, para treinamento tanto no uso do paperclickers quanto da metodologia de Instrução pelos Pares. Com isso, ilustramos o material a ser criado para nosso público alvo, com a intenção de reduzir as barreiras psicológicas de adoção, focando na efetividade de implantação da nossa soluçãoAbstract: We propose the effective delivery of a classroom response system (CRS) has to overcome a series of infrastructural and psychological restrictions, intimately related to the technology used, as well as to the intended target audience. We carry on the research to create paperclickers, a low-cost CRS system, which requires a single mobile device for the teachers to capture students responses during a class, provided through paper cards with printed codes. We kept aiming at broadening the adoption of active learning techniques in developing countries, offering a tool for straightforward implementation and associated with Peer Instruction methodology; our specific goals are to analyze and reduce the existing adoption barriers, focusing on Brazilian public high school teachers. We compiled and analyzed the results of the first usability tests round, performed by the paperclickers initial research; we then described how the findings affected the tool usability. We tackled new challenges on the TopCodes machine encoding, the solution applied on the answering cards, related to the detection and decoding procedures in the classroom environment, very different from TopCodes original usage scenario. We proposed additional processing steps to improve the detection and decoding robustness; we then performed experiments to evaluate how those changes affected the overall solution usability. The resulting paperclickers version is currently available for the public at large as an open-source release. We also designed the first part of training video tutorials, covering both paperclickers and Peer Instruction usage, illustrating the material to be created for the selected target audience, aiming to reduce the psychological adoption barriers, towards an effective delivery of our solutionMestradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoMestre em Engenharia Elétrica e de Computaçã

Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio

National Educators' Workshop: Update 1989 Standard Experiments in Engineering Materials Science and Technology

Presented here is a collection of experiments presented and demonstrated at the National Educators' Workshop: Update 89, held October 17 to 19, 1989 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia. The experiments related to the nature and properties of engineering materials and provided information to assist in teaching about materials in the education community

A Formative Evaluation Research Study to Guide the Design of the Categorization Step Practice Utility (MS-CPU) as an Integral Part of Preparation for the GED Mathematics Test Using the Ms. Stephens Algebra Story Problem-solving Tutor (MSASPT)

abstract: The mathematics test is the most difficult test in the GED (General Education Development) Test battery, largely due to the presence of story problems. Raising performance levels of story problem-solving would have a significant effect on GED Test passage rates. The subject of this formative research study is Ms. Stephens’ Categorization Practice Utility (MS-CPU), an example-tracing intelligent tutoring system that serves as practice for the first step (problem categorization) in a larger comprehensive story problem-solving pedagogy that purports to raise the level of story problem-solving performance. During the analysis phase of this project, knowledge components and particular competencies that enable learning (schema building) were identified. During the development phase, a tutoring system was designed and implemented that algorithmically teaches these competencies to the student with graphical, interactive, and animated utilities. Because the tutoring system provides a much more concrete rather than conceptual, learning environment, it should foster a much greater apprehension of a story problem-solving process. With this experience, the student should begin to recognize the generalizability of concrete operations that accomplish particular story problem-solving goals and begin to build conceptual knowledge and a more conceptual approach to the task. During the formative evaluation phase, qualitative methods were used to identify obstacles in the MS-CPU user interface and disconnections in the pedagogy that impede learning story problem categorization and solution preparation. The study was conducted over two iterations where identification of obstacles and change plans (mitigations) produced a qualitative data table used to modify the first version systems (MS-CPU 1.1). Mitigation corrections produced the second version of the MS-CPU 1.2, and the next iteration of the study was conducted producing a second set of obstacle/mitigation tables. Pre-posttests were conducted in each iteration to provide corroboration for the effectiveness of the mitigations that were performed. The study resulted in the identification of a number of learning obstacles in the first version of the MS-CPU 1.1. Their mitigation produced a second version of the MS-CPU 1.2 whose identified obstacles were much less than the first version. It was determined that an additional iteration is needed before more quantitative research is conducted.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Educational Technology 201

The ingenuity of common workmen: and the invention of the computer

Since World War II, state support for scientific research has been assumed crucial to technological and economic progress. Governments accordingly spent tremendous sums to that end. Nothing epitomizes the alleged fruits of that involvement better than the electronic digital computer. The first such computer has been widely reputed to be the ENIAC, financed by the U.S. Army for the war but finished afterwards. Vastly improved computers followed, initially paid for in good share by the Federal Government of the United States, but with the private sector then dominating, both in development and use, and computers are of major significance.;Despite the supposed success of public-supported science, evidence is that computers would have evolved much the same without it but at less expense. Indeed, the foundations of modern computer theory and technology were articulated before World War II, both as a tool of applied mathematics and for information processing, and the computer was itself on the cusp of reality. Contrary to popular understanding, the ENIAC actually represented a movement backwards and a dead end.;Rather, modern computation derived more directly, for example, from the prewar work of John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, a physics professor and graduate student, respectively, at Iowa State College (now University) in Ames, Iowa. They built the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC), which, although special purpose and inexpensive, heralded the efficient and elegant design of modern computers. Moreover, while no one foresaw commercialization of computers based on the ungainly and costly ENIAC, the commercial possibilities of the ABC were immediately evident, although unrealized due to war. Evidence indicates, furthermore, that the private sector was willing and able to develop computers beyond the ABC and could have done so more effectively than government, to the most sophisticated machines.;A full and inclusive history of computers suggests that Adam Smith, the eighteenth century Scottish philosopher, had it right. He believed that minimal and aloof government best served society, and that the inherent genius of citizens was itself enough to ensure the general prosperity

NASA Tech Briefs, June 1996

Topics: New Computer Hardware; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery/Automation; Manufacturing/Fabrication; Mathematics and Information Sciences;Books and Reports

Indoor Radio Measurement and Planning for UMTS/HSPDA with Antennas

Over the last decade, mobile communication networks have evolved tremendously with a key focus on providing high speed data services in addition to voice. The third generation of mobile networks in the form of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is already offering revolutionary mobile broadband experience to its users by deploying High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) as its packet-data technology. With data speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and ubiquitous mobility, HSDPA is anticipated to become a preferred broadband access medium for end-users via mobile phones, laptops etc. While majority of these end-users are located indoors most of the time, approximately 70-80% of the HSDPA traffic is estimated to originate from inside buildings. Thus for network operators, indoor coverage has become a necessity for technical and business reasons. Macro-cellular (outdoor) to indoor coverage is a natural inexpensive way of providing network coverage inside the buildings. However, it does not guarantee sufficient link quality required for optimal HSDPA operation. On the contrary, deploying a dedicated indoor system may be far too expensive from an operator\u27s point of view. In this thesis, the concept is laid for the understanding of indoor radio wave propagation in a campus building environment which could be used to plan and improve outdoor-to-indoor UMTS/HSDPA radio propagation performance. It will be shown that indoor range performance depends not only on the transmit power of an indoor antenna, but also on the product\u27s response to multipath and obstructions in the environment along the radio propagation path. An extensive measurement campaign will be executed in different indoor environments analogous to easy, medium and hard radio conditions. The effects of walls, ceilings, doors and other obstacles on measurement results would be observed. Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the evolution of UMTS and HSDPA. It goes on to talk about radio wave propagation and some important properties of antennas which must be considered when choosing an antenna for indoor radio propagation. The challenges of in-building network coverage and also the objectives of this thesis are also mentioned in this chapter. The evolution and standardization, network architecture, radio features and most importantly, the radio resource management features of UMTS/HSDPA are given in chapter two. In this chapter, the reason why Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) was specified and selected for 3G (UMTS) systems would be seen. The architecture of the radio access network, interfaces with the radio access network between base stations and radio network controllers (RNC), and the interface between the radio access network and the core network are also described in this chapter. The main features of HSDPA are mentioned at the end of the chapter. In chapter three the principles of the WCDMA air interface, including spreading, Rake reception, signal fading, power control and handovers are introduced. The different types and characteristics of the propagation environments and how they influence radio wave propagation are mentioned. UMTS transport, logical and physical channels are also mentioned, highlighting their significance and relationship in and with the network. Radio network planning for UMTS is discussed in chapter four. The outdoor planning process which includes dimensioning, detailed planning, optimization and monitoring is outlined. Indoor radio planning with distributed antenna systems (DAS), which is the idea and motivation behind this thesis work, is also discussed. The various antennas considered and the antenna that was selected for this thesis experiment was discussed in chapter five. The antenna radiation pattern, directivity, gain and input impedance were the properties of the antenna that were taken into consideration. The importance of the choice of the antenna for any particular type of indoor environment is also mentioned. In chapter six, the design and fabrication of the monopole antennas used for the experimental measurement is mentioned. The procedure for measurement and the equipment used are also discussed. The results gotten from the experiment are finally analyzed and discussed. In this chapter the effect of walls, floors, doors, ceilings and other obstacles on radio wave propagation will be seen. Finally, chapter seven concludes this thesis work and gives some directions for future work

Second CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 1

Topics covered at the 2nd CLIPS Conference held at the Johnson Space Center, September 23-25, 1991 are given. Topics include rule groupings, fault detection using expert systems, decision making using expert systems, knowledge representation, computer aided design and debugging expert systems