Towards Developing Grid-based Portals for E-Commerce on-Demand Services on a Utility Computing Platform

Trends and current practices in the design and development of grid-enabled portals(GeP) reveal the need to identify and fulfill certain additional relevant requirements in order to build applicable and usable grid-enabled portals for evolving computing platforms such as the utility computing (UC). This paper reports an investigation of the minimum relevant additional requirements that must be fulfilled to attain effective GeP design for UC. A GeP prototype for the Grid-based Utility Infrastructure for Small, Micro, and Medium Enterprises (SMME) Enabling Technology (GUISET) initiative – a UC platform was developed, and an analytic evaluation experiment undertaken in the study to elicit these additional requirements using a set of benchmark requirements (standards) revealed that it fulfilled the minimum requirements to be suitable for UC context. The result of the study underlines the need for more controlled experiments in portal prototyping in order to foster the practice of GeP design for UC

Going on-line on a shoestring: An experiment in concurrent development of requirements and architecture

A number of on-line applications were built for a small university using a micro-sized development team. Four ideas were tested during the project: the Twin Peaks development model, using fully functional prototypes in the requirements elicitation process, some core practices of Extreme Programming, and the use of open-source software in a production environment. Certain project management techniques and their application to a micro-sized development effort were also explored. These ideas and techniques proved effective in developing many significant Internet and networked applications in a short time and at very low cost

Developing effective partnerships in reporting student achievement : making links between educative theory and schools reporting practices : a thesis presented as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Massey University, Albany

This thesis examines how three participant schools reported the achievement of students to parents and the extent to which reporting practices reflected current educative theories and effective partnership. The understanding of parents and teachers of the process of the reporting practices, and how practice promoted or hindered educative partnerships between teachers and parents were examined. Over the past ten years schools, in New Zealand, have spent much time realigning their reporting practices to New Zealand national requirements, and the expectations of their school communities. This research examined what led schools to make their decisions about their reporting practices, comments on the effectiveness of current practices and draws conclusions based on the findings of the research. Evaluative case study was selected as the methodology for this study. The study is located within three school contexts and involves in-depth examination and analysis of teachers' and parents' perceptions about educative theory, partnership and reporting student achievement. The methodology used provided an opportunity to evaluate current practice, provide feedback to each participant school and allowed the cooperative development of recommendations for improving reporting processes. Issues and themes were identified as data were gathered. Exploration of emerging themes occurred throughout the data gathering phase. Data gathering strategies included parent and teacher questionnaires, individual interviews with senior leaders, teachers and parents and document analysis. That data revealed a number of themes in relation to educative theory, reporting and partnership. Initial themes included: important educational outcomes identified by parents and teachers, the purpose of reporting identified by parents and teachers, the type of information parents found helpful, the role of teacher-parent interviews, the desire of parents to be actively involved in their children's' learning, and the frequency and timing of personal contact between parents and teachers. This thesis concludes that each school had not directly linked their practices to educative theory or conditions for effective partnerships with parents. A key purpose identified by both parents and teachers was the support of parents in helping their children achieve, yet this key purpose was omitted from any documentation identifying purposes and, in many cases, from the implementation of reporting processes by teachers. A further conclusion is that the link between educative theories, the relationship of those theories to the reporting process and how effective links could be made to develop effective partnerships between teachers, parents and students is a significant area for future research

Mentoring for effective teaching of writing in the primary school

Effective mentoring in English is considered paramount to a preservice teacher’s development as it presents real-life contexts for pedagogical understandings. This study provided qualitative data (questionnaire) and quantitative data (survey) on 24 mentors’ perceptions of their mentoring for teaching English and in particular teaching writing. These mentors are cooperating teachers who had mentored second-year preservice teachers (mentees) from one Australian university. Qualitative data indicated that developing a good rapport in a mentor-mentee relationship keeps lines of communication open in order to assist the mentee’s learning. In addition, the mentor’s modelling of teaching writing, demonstrating specific writing strategies, and providing positive yet constructive feedback were considered successful mentoring strategies, while a mentee’s lack of content knowledge, inadequate personal writing skills, and not knowing how to multi-task with many students may contribute towards a mentee feeling unsuccessful as a writing teacher. Mentors advocated methods for enhancing mentoring practices, which included university-facilitated professional development, linking syllabus content and teaching approaches, and sharing pedagogical content knowledge with colleagues. The quantitative data presented mentors’ perceptions of their attributes and practices across five factors for mentoring (i.e., Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback) with 67% or more of these mentors (n=24) agreeing or strongly agreeing they provided all the 34 items associated with the survey. The factor System Requirements had the lowest percentage range (67-71%) while Feedback had the highest range (83-100%). However, mentees may not agree with their mentors’ perspectives, hence, further research comparing the two perspectives may lead towards targeting more effective approaches for mentoring the teaching of writing

NITRATE REDUCTION PROGRAM AT THE LINE CREEK OPERATION

Blasting activities at the Line Creek operation are releasing oxides of nitrogen and arecontributing to chemical changes in the surrounding watersheds. Through analysis of themechanisms of nitrogen release, history of explosive usage, historical nitrate release, changingregulatory requirements, strategy analysis and social impacts associated with the release ofnitrates a nitrate reduction plan will be established.The paper develops the framework for engineering groups, operations groups andmanagers to make decisions around the development of a sustainable and achievablecommunication and monitoring plan for nitrate release while working to meeting the regulatory,social, and stakeholder requirements to continue efficient and effective mining operations.The strategy recommended within this document is to develop practices around nitratemanagement through effective operational practices, introduction of high stability emulsion andemulsion contact with water. The effective operational controls will provide the mechanisms forreduction of oxides of nitrogen rather than through capital projects

Mentors’ Views about Developing Effective English Teaching Practices

Effective mentoring in English is considered paramount to a preservice teacher’s development. What are mentors’ views about developing effective English teaching practices in their mentees? This study used quantitative data (survey) and qualitative data (questionnaire) on 24 mentors’ perceptions of mentoring second-year preservice teachers for teaching English and, in particular, the teaching of writing. Quantitative data measured mentors’ perceptions of their attributes and practices across five factors for mentoring (i.e., Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback) with 67% or more of these mentors (n=24) agreeing or strongly agreeing they provided all of the advocated attributes and practices to their mentees. The System Requirements factor had the lowest percentage range (67-71%) while Feedback had the highest range. Qualitative data indicated that developing a good rapport in a mentor-mentee relationship keeps lines of communication open in order to assist the mentee’s learning. Mentors advocated methods for enhancing mentoring practices, however, mentees may not agree with their mentors’ perspectives; hence further research comparing the two perspectives may lead towards understanding effective approaches for mentoring.eaching and/or rationalising their workload with, they perceive, a decrease in the quality of teaching

Requirements Engineering Practices in UUMIT Centre: An Assessment Based on the Perceptions of In-House Software Developers

Requirements Engineering (RE) is a systematic procedure that entails and encompasses the elicitation, elaboration, documentation, negotiation, validation and management of the system’s requirements in a software engineering project. Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) is been supported by several systems, engineered by the UUM Information Technology (UUMIT) Centre. The objective of this paper was to investigate the requirements engineering practices at UUMIT Centre. The major issue that led to this study was the absence of studies that support software development efforts at the UUMIT Centre. This research is aimed at assisting UUMIT Centre in developing quality, and as well, time and cost saving software systems through the employment of state of the art requirements engineering practices. Furthermore, the paper, as a contribution to UUM, identifies the activities that are needed for software construction to enable the University management allocate budget for the provision of adequate and cutting edge training for the in-house software developers. Three variables were assessed: Requirement Description, Requirements Development (consisting of: Requirements Elicitation, Requirements Analysis and Negotiation, Requirements Validation), and Requirement Management. The results from this research revealed that the current practices of requirement engineering in UUMIT is good and commendable, however there is need and room for more improvement in a few RE practices that were rarely practiced. In addition, recommendations were also proffered for effective training programs for UUMIT staff on RE practices to build the capacity of in-house developers and other associated staff. The training will increase their understanding on system requirements using RE practices to enable them develops better systems for the university. Further investigation is required in the future to understand the effect of RE practices on software development. In addition, also as a future work, the researchers aim to extend the scope of this study to other government and non-educational organization

Benchmarking Mentoring Practices for Effective Teaching of Mathematics and Science

Pre-service mathematics and science teachers’ perceptions of their mentoring experiences were investigated using the five factor model of mentoring practices as a lens through which mentoring practices can be benchmarked for improvement. The Mentoring for Effective Teaching instrument was used to collect data from 68 preservice mathematics and science teachers on school placements in two Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the South East region of England. The results of the data analysis indicate that mentors in the two LEAs overwhelmingly exhibit personal attributes for effective mentoring, provide adequate mentoring in pedagogical knowledge development, model effective teaching and professional practices and provide effective feedback to pre-service teachers. Yet, the results also indicate mentors did not provide adequate mentoring on systems requirements in relation to the national curriculum and school policies

EFFECT OF INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE WORKING PRACTICES AND RESULTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL LEARNING INTEREST IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP ONLINE CLASS XII NETWORK COMPUTER ENGINEERING ENTIRE SMK NEGERI REGENCY KULON PROGO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

This study aimed to determine the effect of industry experience working practices and learning outcomes of entrepreneurship either individually or jointly to the online student interest in entrepreneurship class XII network computer engineering entire SMK Negeri regency Kulon Progo academic year 2012/2013. This research is Ex-post facto. The subject class XII student of Computer Engineering Network SMK 2 and SMK Negeri 2 Compassionate Nanggulan number of 64 students. Data retrieved using the method of documentation and questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaire instrument conducted by professional judgment through rational analysis and reliability testing using Cronbach Alpha formula. Testing the hypothesis with the Product Moment Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, which previously conducted test requirements analysis includes tests of normality, linearity, heteroskedastitas test, autocorrelation and multicollinearity test. The results showed that: (1). There is positive and significant correlation between experience of industrial work practices to students' interest in entrepreneurship class XII network computer engineering entire SMK Negeri regency Kulon Progo academic year 2012/2013, evidenced by the correlation coefficient rhitung> rtabel (0.258> 0.246) with the effective contribution of 2, 2% and Y = 39.708 +0.329 X1. (2). There is positive and significant correlation between entrepreneurship learning outcomes of the students' interest in entrepreneurship class XII network computer engineering entire SMK Negeri regency Kulon Progo academic year 2012/2013, with a correlation coefficient rhitung> rtabel (0.510> 0.246) with a contribution of 24.5% effective and Y = -50.155 +1.418 X2 (3). There is positive and significant correlation between experience of industrial work practices and entrepreneurial learning outcomes together toward student interest in entrepreneurship class XII network computer engineering entire SMK Negeri regency Kulon Progo academic year 2012/2013, with a correlation coefficient rhitung> rtabel (0.517> 0.246 ) with the effective contribution of 26.7% and Y = -51.516 +0.111 X1 +1.331 X2. Keywords : Experience indusrti Work Practice, Learning Outcomes Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Interests Onlin