Development of a new mindset for eLearning Pedagogy: for the Teacher and the Learner

Teaching, like learning, involves a personal journey. This researched narrative records the role of technology integration in one instructor’s teaching practice, and examines how literature in the field accounts for ways eLearning technologies have kept the author and her students engaged in the process of learning. Dr. Tara Ashok of the University of Massachusetts Boston chronicles the personal eLearning tool kit she has selected for effective delivery of contents in different teaching formats. She posits the importance of developing a new mindset to adapt to emerging technologies and examines the literature and her own experiences suggesting how and why, eLearning pedagogy must include a focus on the development of a flexible / growth mindset

Improved fisheries technologies and approaches for their dissemination: a case study of Niger State

Technology generation and dissemination are important components of rural transformation programmes. Nigerian fisheries sub-sector is still hampered by low productivity (especially in aquaculture) and low output (capture fisheries and post-harvest technologies). Research institutions and the Universities have made efforts in developing improved technologies to find solution to these problems, yet the level of adoption of the technologies remain low. This is due to a combination of various factors among which are faulty agricultural policies; institutional framework and unfavourable socio-economic environment. Niger State plays an important role in production in Nigeria and host the only research institute with the mandate in inland fisheries. It is important therefore to know the effectiveness of various extension approaches used in disseminating the technologies developed and their impact on adopters. Forty fishers were randomly selected in Shiroro L.G.A. of the Niger State and interviewed. The study probed into their socio-economic characteristics, traditional practices, extent of awareness and adoption for fisheries technologies and the effectiveness and impact of various approaches used by the extension organizations to disseminate the technologies. The results show that the economically active age group of the fishers was in the range of 20-50 years (87.5%). Males (95%) dominate the fisher population. 47.5% of the respondents have average household size of 6-10 and 57.5% were below primary school in educational attainment. Only 57.5% belonged to cooperative societies, while 90.0% of the fishers have no access to credit other than personal finance. Majority of fish-farmers (60%) operate at homestead level with pond size less than 50 square meter, stock under polyculture fishing methods are at subsistence level, while 67.5% of processors use mud-oven to cure, by smoking, freshly caught fish. Disseminated aquaculture technologies have low level of awareness (5-20%) and adoption (2.5-22.5%). For capture fisheries and post-harvest technologies awareness levels of 47.5-72.5% and adoption levels of 27.5-50.0% were recorded. Method demonstration (87.5%), result demonstration (75.0%) and field days (47.5%) are the major approaches used by the ADP. Respondents were of the opinion that method demonstration (65%), result demonstration (57.5%) and field day (30.0%) are effective. 62.5% of respondents had enhanced income due impact of extension activitie

Anticipated environmental sustainability of personal fabrication

Distributed manufacturing is rapidly proliferating to citizen level via the use of digital fabrication equipment, especially in dedicated “makerspaces”. The sustainability benefits of citizens’ personal fabrication are commonly endorsed. However, to assess how these maker practitioners actually deal with environmental issues, these practitioners and their practices need to be studied. Moreover research on the environmental issues in personal fabrication is nascent despite the common perception that the digital technologies can become disruptive. The present paper is the first to report on how practitioners assess the environmental sustainability of future practices in this rapidly changing field. It does so through an envisioning workshop with leading-edge makers. The findings show that these makers are well able to envision the future of their field. Roughly 25% of the issues covered had clear environmental implications. Within these, issues of energy use, recycling, reusing and reducing materials were covered widely by environmentally- oriented participants. In contrast, issues related to emerging technologies, materials and practices were covered by other participants, but their environmental implications remained unaddressed. The authors concluded there is a gap between different maker subcultures in their sustainability orientations and competences. Further research on the environmental aspects of real-life maker practices and personal fabrication technologies now could help avert negative impacts later, as the maker phenomenon spreads. This knowledge should also be directed to developing targeted environmental guidelines and solutions for personal fabrication users, which are currently lacking. Potential also lies in seeking to enhance dialogue between pro-environmental and new-technology-oriented practitioners through shared spaces, workshops and conferences.Peer reviewe

P5 eHealth: An Agenda for the Health Technologies of the Future

This open access volume focuses on the development of a P5 eHealth, or better, a methodological resource for developing the health technologies of the future, based on patients’ personal characteristics and needs as the fundamental guidelines for design. It provides practical guidelines and evidence based examples on how to design, implement, use and elevate new technologies for healthcare to support the management of incurable, chronic conditions. The volume further discusses the criticalities of eHealth, why it is difficult to employ eHealth from an organizational point of view or why patients do not always accept the technology, and how eHealth interventions can be improved in the future. By dealing with the state-of-the-art in eHealth technologies, this volume is of great interest to researchers in the field of physical and mental healthcare, psychologists, stakeholders and policymakers as well as technology developers working in the healthcare sector

THE IMPORTANCEOF QUANTUM AND DNA COMPUTERS IN THE AGE OF DATA SCIENCE

The IT landscape is continuously changing based on the needs of large enterprises and also the needs of individuals who use technology for their personal undertakings. The change derives from the fact that people want to do things faster and in a more reliable way, so they can achieve better results more rapidly, thus IT developers, be it on the software or hardware field, are always in search for developing and providing better tools. Data Science is probably the most important development in the field of Data Analytics, which in return, is the most important aspect of a successful enterprise. To make things more qualitatively, we are entering a new age of computer hardware such as Quantum and DNA computers. Our paper will deal particularly with the importance of these developments in this age of IT, by bringing forward examples of how these technologies can help in the betterment of data management.Keywords:  Quantum, DNA Computers, data science, data management

Design Methodology for Mobile Information Systems

Mobile information systems (MISs) are having a major impact on businesses and individuals. No longer confined to the office or home, people can use devices that they carry with them, along with wireless communication networks, to access the systems and data that they need. In many cases MISs do not just replace traditional wired information systems or even provide similar functionality. Instead, they are planned, designed, and implemented with the unique characteristics of wireless communication and mobile client use in mind. These unique characteristics feature the need for specific design and development methodologies for MISs. Design methods allow considering systems independently of the existing information technologies, and thus enable the development of lasting solutions. Among the characteristics that a MIS design method needs to consider, we cite: unrestricted mobility of persons, scarcity of mobile devices\u27 power-source, and frequent disconnections of these devices. The field of MISs is the result of the convergence of high-speed wireless networks and personal mobile devices. The aim of MISs is to provide the ability to compute, communicate, and collaborate anywhere, anytime. Wireless technologies for communication are the link between mobile clients and other system components. Mobile client devices include various types, for example, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and laptops. Samples of MIS applications are mobile commerce (Andreou et al., 2002), inventory systems in which stock clerks use special-purpose mobile devices to check inventory, police systems that allow officers to access criminal databases from laptops in their patrol cars, and tracking information systems with which truck drivers can check information on their loads, destinations, and revenues using mobile phones. MISs can be used in different domains and target different categories of people. In this article, we report on the rationale of having a method for designing and developing mobile information systems. This method includes a conceptual model, a set of requirements, and different steps for developing the system. The development of a method for MISs is an appropriate response to the need of professionals in the field of MISs. Indeed, this need is motivated by the increased demand that is emerging from multiple bodies: wireless service providers, wireless equipment manufacturers, companies developing applications over wireless systems, and businesses for which MISs are offered. Besides all these bodies, high-speed wireless data services are emerging (e.g., GPRS, UMTS), requiring some sort of new expertise. A design and development method for MISs should support professionals in their work

Critical Thinking on Technology Use: Higher Education Course Design to Promote Personal, Professional and Societal Change

[EN] Higher education is a venue for developing critical thinking skills, dispositions and actions (Davies, 2015). With the exponential growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the last thirty years, dynamic changes and societal impacts, and evolving research findings, intentional use for personal and professional well-being depends on emerging adults’ critical thinking abilities. This paper describes the design of an undergraduate course and elements of critical thinking deployed through content, learning activities and assessments. Thematic analysis of student qualitative responses at the end of the course indicate specific areas of growth that represent gains in cognitive skills, dispositions and action orientations. These validate the selected methods of instruction and underscore the course design, content and pedagogical framework as applicable to a wide range of content areas and field domains in higher education.Walker, S.; Brown, R. (2020). Critical Thinking on Technology Use: Higher Education Course Design to Promote Personal, Professional and Societal Change. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):1391-1398. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11300OCS1391139830-05-202

A future of living machines? International trends and prospects in biomimetic and biohybrid systems

Research in the fields of biomimetic and biohybrid systems is developing at an accelerating rate. Biomimetics can be understood as the development of new technologies using principles abstracted from the study of biological systems, however, biomimetics can also be viewed from an alternate perspective as an important methodology for improving our understanding of the world we live in and of ourselves as biological organisms. A biohybrid entity comprises at least one artificial (engineered) component combined with a biological one. With technologies such as microscale mobile computing, prosthetics and implants, humankind is moving towards a more biohybrid future in which biomimetics helps us to engineer biocompatible technologies. This paper reviews recent progress in the development of biomimetic and biohybrid systems focusing particularly on technologies that emulate living organisms—living machines. Based on our recent bibliographic analysis [1] we examine how biomimetics is already creating life-like robots and identify some key unresolved challenges that constitute bottlenecks for the field. Drawing on our recent research in biomimetic mammalian robots, including humanoids, we review the future prospects for such machines and consider some of their likely impacts on society, including the existential risk of creating artifacts with significant autonomy that could come to match or exceed humankind in intelligence. We conclude that living machines are more likely to be a benefit than a threat but that we should also ensure that progress in biomimetics and biohybrid systems is made with broad societal consent. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only

Early Depression Detection with Transformer Models: Analyzing the Relationship between Linguistic and Psychology-Based Features

Clinical depression is a serious mental disorder that poses challenges for both personal and public health. Millions of people struggle with depression each year, but for many, the disorder goes undiagnosed or untreated. Over the last decade, early depression detection on social media emerged as an interdisciplinary research field. However, there is still a gap in detecting hesitant, depression-susceptible individuals with minimal direct depressive signals at an early stage. We, therefore, take up this open point and leverage posts from Reddit to fill the addressed gap. Our results demonstrate the potential of contemporary Transformer architectures in yielding promising predictive capabilities for mental health research. Furthermore, we investigate the model’s interpretability using a surrogate and a topic modeling approach. Based on our findings, we consider this work as a further step towards developing a better understanding of mental eHealth and hope that our results can support the development of future technologies

LEGAL REGULATION OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND APPLICABLE RISKS

Cryptocurrencies – a new, but quickly developing concept within the sphere of finance. Opinions regarding it still differ, not only on a personal level, but also when it comes to governments.Overall the legal regulation regarding cryptocurrencies in the world is still in the formation stage. Currently the legal norms that do exist, are primarily directed towards the minimization of existing risks, especially in the field of money laundering. Though there is already no reason to doubt, that during the coming years the regulation will become stricter. In some countries cryptocurrencies are outright forbidden. For example, in China, in February 2018 additions to the legislation were issues, that broadened the cryptocurrencies ban.In other countries cryptocurrencies shall be strictly regulated. For example, in Estonia, a member of EU, cryptocurrencies are fully legal. Estonia can be reviewed as a country that independently developed its own regulation in this field. Though there is no guarantee that the legislators will keep up with the quickly developing technologies.One way or another cryptocurrencies exist and are not going anywhere. The legislation that regulates them shall be developed further and they shall become a important part of the modern financial system. The level of their influence is hard to predict, things are changing too quickly, but their existence is a fact. It is necessary to remember, that that cryptocurrencies are not a magical solution or means of profit. It is a financial instrument, new, in many ways unique, with its own special drawbacks and benefits. It is important to know and understand them, also to keep an eye on the developing technologies