Designing for change: mash-up personal learning environments

Institutions for formal education and most work places are equipped today with at least some kind of tools that bring together people and content artefacts in learning activities to support them in constructing and processing information and knowledge. For almost half a century, science and practice have been discussing models on how to bring personalisation through digital means to these environments. Learning environments and their construction as well as maintenance makes up the most crucial part of the learning process and the desired learning outcomes and theories should take this into account. Instruction itself as the predominant paradigm has to step down. The learning environment is an (if not 'the�) important outcome of a learning process, not just a stage to perform a 'learning play'. For these good reasons, we therefore consider instructional design theories to be flawed. In this article we first clarify key concepts and assumptions for personalised learning environments. Afterwards, we summarise our critique on the contemporary models for personalised adaptive learning. Subsequently, we propose our alternative, i.e. the concept of a mash-up personal learning environment that provides adaptation mechanisms for learning environment construction and maintenance. The web application mash-up solution allows learners to reuse existing (web-based) tools plus services. Our alternative, LISL is a design language model for creating, managing, maintaining, and learning about learning environment design; it is complemented by a proof of concept, the MUPPLE platform. We demonstrate this approach with a prototypical implementation and a – we think – comprehensible example. Finally, we round up the article with a discussion on possible extensions of this new model and open problems

Використання хмарних обчислень для розвитку інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів

The article deals with the problem for development of techers’ information and communication competence and use of cloud computing for it. The analysis of the modern approaches to the use of cloud technologies and projects for professional development of teachers and development of teachers’ information and communication competence have been presented.There are the main characteristics of software as a service on the Internet for education leading companies Google, Microsoft, IBM. There are described some actions of these companies, which are conducted to help teachers to master cloud technology for improving the professional activities and development of teachers’ information and communication competence. The examples of ways of development of teachers’ information and communication competence and training teachers to use modern ICT in the professional activity are given in the paper. The Cloud based model for development of teachers’ information and communication competence has been proposed.Стаття присвячена проблемі розвитку інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів за допомогою використання хмарних обчислень. Здійснюється аналіз сучасних підходів до використання хмарних технологій та проектів для професійного розвитку вчителів та розвитку інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів. Пропонуються основні характеристики хмарних обчислень провідних компаній Google, Microsoft, IBM, з точки зори їх необхідності для здійснення навчального процесу в мережі Інтернет. Описуються дії цих компаній та інші навчальні проекти, метою яких є розвиток інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів за допомогою хмарних обчислень. Наводяться приклади шляхів рішення проблеми розвитку інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів за допомогою використання сучасних інформаційно-комунікаційних технологій. Запропонована модель розвитку інформаційно-комунікаційної компетентності вчителів на базі хмарних обчислень, виділені основні вимоги та елементи цієї моделі

The Skills Shortage and the Payoff to Vocational Education

[Excerpt] Skill demands also appear to be rising within occupations. Increasing numbers of manufacturing workers are working in production cells in which every member of the team is expected to learn every job. Production workers are being given responsibilities--quality checking, statistical process control (SPC) record keeping, resetting machines shown by SPC to be straying from target dimensions, redesigning the layout of the machines in the production cell--that used to be the sole province of supervisors, specialized technicians and industrial engineers. What implications do these changes in skill demands have for the payoff to high school vocational education? Are workers who develop the technical skills taught in trade and technical programs, in fact, more productive when they get a job in the field? Are the skills taught in these programs still valued by the labor market? Has the payoff to high school vocational training increased along with the payoff to other skills? What changes in the way vocational education is delivered are implied by the tight labor markets for highly skilled workers? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining four different kinds of evidence on the economic payoffs to occupationally specific training in high school

BUILDING CROSS – CULTURAL COMPETENCE TO IMPROVE ENGLISH EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

This paper is intended to expose the importance of cross-cultural competenc to improve English oral communication effectively. The background of this paper is due to my teaching experience in English Department of School of Bumiayu Islamic Teacher Training. (CCU)course is offered to the students in the sixth semester. To know the students’ knowledge about cross-culture, in the begining of semester session, before they got the materials, the writer instructed them to make a group of two or three, then practiced communicating in English. The number of the students in a class is thirty five, so there are about twelve groups. Each group was then extended one topic to perform in the role play. The writer took several topics from the guidance book entitled ‘Business Across Culture: Effective Communication Straegies’. Based on practicing to communicate in English with foreigners through role plays, most students still performed/showed Javanese or moslem attitude in which are not appropriate with foreign’s culture. Meanwhile, the cultural competence will affect practically some aspect of language use. It can influence the foreigners’ respond whether or not they accept the communicator’s attitude. Negative or inappropriate impression of English learners of course can inhibit the effective communication

Construction safety and digital design: a review

As digital technologies become widely used in designing buildings and infrastructure, questions arise about their impacts on construction safety. This review explores relationships between construction safety and digital design practices with the aim of fostering and directing further research. It surveys state-of-the-art research on databases, virtual reality, geographic information systems, 4D CAD, building information modeling and sensing technologies, finding various digital tools for addressing safety issues in the construction phase, but few tools to support design for construction safety. It also considers a literature on safety critical, digital and design practices that raises a general concern about ‘mindlessness’ in the use of technologies, and has implications for the emerging research agenda around construction safety and digital design. Bringing these strands of literature together suggests new kinds of interventions, such as the development of tools and processes for using digital models to promote mindfulness through multi-party collaboration on safet

THE IMPLICATION OF FUNCTIONAL THEORY IN TEACHING READING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT FOR MIDDLE AGE STUDENTS (Functional Communication Activities in Language Teaching)

Functional theory views language as means of communication. So, communicative competence is the goal of language teaching. One of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systemic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view. Teaching language as communication focuses on the ability to use language for different purposes. In this article the writer focused on functional communication activities in language teaching. The aim of this article is to know the implementation of functional communication activities in teaching reading a descriptive text for middle age students

Parental rearing style as a predictor of attachment and psychosocial adjustment during young adulthood

Parental rearing-styles are crucial for psychosocial adjustment both during childhood and adulthood. The current study examined whether: (a) parental rearing-styles predicted psychosocial adjustment in young-adulthood, (b) this relationship was mediated by attachment styles , and ( c ) gender differences occur in these relationships. Two hundred and forty (103 male and 132 female) university students completed measures assessing parental rearing-style , current attachment style, romantic relationship satisfaction, friendship quality, self-esteem, and social competence. Multigroup structural equation modelling, conducted separately by gender, revealed that parental rearing-style predicted psychosocial adjustment during young-adulthood. Further, there was also evidence of gender differences and that self-models and other-models of attachment mediated this relationship. Together, these findings reinforce the importance of perceived parental rearing-style for subsequent psychosocial adjustment