The nature and evaluation of commercial expert system building tools, revision 1

This memorandum reviews the factors that constitute an Expert System Building Tool (ESBT) and evaluates current tools in terms of these factors. Evaluation of these tools is based on their structure and their alternative forms of knowledge representation, inference mechanisms and developer end-user interfaces. Next, functional capabilities, such as diagnosis and design, are related to alternative forms of mechanization. The characteristics and capabilities of existing commercial tools are then reviewed in terms of these criteria

Teachers’ Influence on Integration of Tools into Mathematics Teaching

This paper examines the process through which three pre-service teachers learn to use mathematical tools; it also looks at pre-service teachers’ instrumentation of tools into mathematics teaching. Three pre-service teachers were studying at a primary mathematics teacher training program at Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey. During an eight-week period, workshops were conducted on curriculum tools with pre-service teachers. Subsequently, pre-service teachers’ lessons were observed in real school settings. The findings are underpinned by the theoretical framework based on the instrumental approach to tool use. Results indicate that pre-service teachers had difficulty in applying the appropriate use of tools, and teachers’ instrumentation schemes influenced students’ conceptual understanding. The analysis of data also suggests some implications about the usefulness of the instrumentation framework for effective integration of tools into mathematics teaching

Examining the use of computer simulations to promote learning of electrochemistry among college students

When computer simulations are popular in helping students understand chemistry in today\u27s classrooms, it is important to realize how instructional use of computer simulations affects students\u27 understanding of science. This dissertation centers around the impact of the use of computer simulations on college students\u27 learning. Chapter 1 generally addresses the background and the significance of the research topics. Chapter 2 reviews the literature from research that studied the factors that affect the use of computer simulations in helping students learn science. Learners were found to understand science theories better with descriptions and explanations presented in both verbal and visual formats than in verbal format alone. An individual\u27s prior knowledge and learning strategies have also been found to have an impact on her/his response to computer simulations and therefore affect the potential value of computer simulations. Chapter 3 reveals the impact of the use of computer simulations on students\u27 understanding of electrochemistry principles. The results confirm findings in earlier studies that college students seemed to be able to build mental models of chemical reactions from formula and equations with or without the help of computer simulations. The study in Chapter 3 indicates that it is likely that the design of the learning activities rather than the use of technology actually had an impact on students learning. Chapter 4 provides insights into how the use of simulations affected the communication between group members and how individuals with different levels of prior knowledge responded to computer programs and interacted with peers. Although prior knowledge was not found to interact with the use of computer simulations in affecting students\u27 understanding, the findings in Chapter 4 show that prior knowledge seemed to affect the ways that students solved problems and the ways they interacted with the computer simulations.;Taken together, these three studies in this dissertation suggest continuing research needs to be done in identifying and resolving issues when individual differences are considered. In addition, it is important that the design of learning activities be given a higher level of priority than the use of instructional technology when employing computer simulations in the classrooms

Connecting Mathematics and Mathematics Education

This open access book features a selection of articles written by Erich Ch. Wittmann between 1984 to 2019, which shows how the “design science conception” has been continuously developed over a number of decades. The articles not only describe this conception in general terms, but also demonstrate various substantial learning environments that serve as typical examples. In terms of teacher education, the book provides clear information on how to combine (well-understood) mathematics and methods courses to benefit of teachers. The role of mathematics in mathematics education is often explicitly and implicitly reduced to the delivery of subject matter that then has to be selected and made palpable for students using methods imported from psychology, sociology, educational research and related disciplines. While these fields have made significant contributions to mathematics education in recent decades, it cannot be ignored that mathematics itself, if well understood, provides essential knowledge for teaching mathematics beyond the pure delivery of subject matter. For this purpose, mathematics has to be conceived of as an organism that is deeply rooted in elementary operations of the human mind, which can be seamlessly developed to higher and higher levels so that the full richness of problems of various degrees of difficulty, and different means of representation, problem-solving strategies, and forms of proof can be used in ways that are appropriate for the respective level. This view of mathematics is essential for designing learning environments and curricula, for conducting empirical studies on truly mathematical processes and also for implementing the findings of mathematics education in teacher education, where it is crucial to take systemic constraints into account

UTB/TSC Undergraduate Catalog 2007-2008

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/brownsvillelegacycatalogs/1033/thumbnail.jp

Understanding The Use and Impact of Social Media Features on The Educational Experiences of Higher-Education Students in Blended and Distance-Learning Environments

Students are increasingly expecting social media to be a component of their educational experiences both outside and inside of the classroom. The phenomenon of interest in this dissertation is understanding how the educational experiences of students are affected when social media are incorporated into online and blended course activities. Qualitative case studies are undertaken toward this end from a Human-Computer Interaction perspective by proposing 4 research questions: (1) How does the use of social media in blended-learning courses impact students\u27 educational experience? (2) How does the use of social media in online courses impact students\u27 educational experience? (3) How do specific features of social media impact student experiences inside the physical classroom? (4) How do specific features of social media impact student experiences outside of the physical classroom? This work is rooted in the theoretical foundations of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to conceptualize educational experience as defined by the intersection of social, cognitive, and teaching presences. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) is also integrated here to conceptualize social media features as technical objects defined through the relationship of functional affordances and symbolic expressions between students and social media. The findings are based on a total of 9 case studies (5 within a blended context and 4 within an online context) bound by students in Masters-level library science classes at Syracuse University. The results suggest that social presence is clearly the most salient type of presence in social media within blended course contexts, while cognitive and social presences are relatively salient in social media within online course contexts. Two main categories of affordances, timeliness and information curation, emerged as pertinent to students\u27 educational experiences in blended courses; while both of these, plus multimedia engagement, were identified as relevant to online courses. Technical objects (general features of social media) were identified which facilitate these affordances, and implications based on these are provided in respect to practice (for educators and information technology designers) and theory

Connecting Mathematics and Mathematics Education

This open access book features a selection of articles written by Erich Ch. Wittmann between 1984 to 2019, which shows how the “design science conception” has been continuously developed over a number of decades. The articles not only describe this conception in general terms, but also demonstrate various substantial learning environments that serve as typical examples. In terms of teacher education, the book provides clear information on how to combine (well-understood) mathematics and methods courses to benefit of teachers. The role of mathematics in mathematics education is often explicitly and implicitly reduced to the delivery of subject matter that then has to be selected and made palpable for students using methods imported from psychology, sociology, educational research and related disciplines. While these fields have made significant contributions to mathematics education in recent decades, it cannot be ignored that mathematics itself, if well understood, provides essential knowledge for teaching mathematics beyond the pure delivery of subject matter. For this purpose, mathematics has to be conceived of as an organism that is deeply rooted in elementary operations of the human mind, which can be seamlessly developed to higher and higher levels so that the full richness of problems of various degrees of difficulty, and different means of representation, problem-solving strategies, and forms of proof can be used in ways that are appropriate for the respective level. This view of mathematics is essential for designing learning environments and curricula, for conducting empirical studies on truly mathematical processes and also for implementing the findings of mathematics education in teacher education, where it is crucial to take systemic constraints into account