Sensory Preferences of Teachers in the Context of Computer Educational Tools Using

Artykuł stanowi próbę ukazania zależności zachodzących pomiędzy preferencjami sensorycznymi nauczycieli (reprezentowanymi przez model VAK), a stopniem akceptacji, poziomem zastosowania oraz formą pracy z nowymi mediami. W artykule zaprezentowane zostały wyniki badań pilotażowych, jak również wyniki badań właściwych przeprowadzonych w 2019 roku na grupie 367 pedagogów. Prezentowane badania zostały zrealizowane na terenie województwa kujawsko-pomorskiego (Polska). Dobór grupy badawczej był losowy. Badania miały charakter ilościowy, wsparty dodatkowo analizą jakościową. Zaprezentowane statystyki zostały wyznaczone za pomocą testu Chi2, jak również przy użyciu współczynnika V Cramera. Przeprowadzone analizy wykazują, że preferencje sensoryczne badanych nie pozostają obojętne w kontekście procesu nauczania oraz uczenia się. Określają działania nauczycieli i bezpośrednio tworzą środowisko pracy dla uczniów.The article is an attempt to show the relationship between teachers’ sensory preferences (represented by the VAK model) and the degree of acceptance, level of application, and form of work with new media. The article presents the results of pilot studies, as well as the results of the proper research conducted in 2019 in a group of 367 teachers. The research referred to was carried out in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship (Poland). The selection of the research group was random. The research was quantitative, and additionally supported by qualitative analysis. The statistics presented were determined using the χ2 test, as well as using the Cramer V coefficient. The conducted research shows, that sensory preferences of respondents do not remain indifferent to the learning process. They determine the activities of teachers and directly create a working environment for students

Action in Mind: Neural Models for Action and Intention Perception

To notice, recognize, and ultimately perceive the others’ actions and to discern the intention behind those observed actions is an essential skill for social communications and improves markedly the chances of survival. Encountering dangerous behavior, for instance, from a person or an animal requires an immediate and suitable reaction. In addition, as social creatures, we need to perceive, interpret, and judge correctly the other individual’s actions as a fundamental skill for our social life. In other words, our survival and success in adaptive social behavior and nonverbal communication depends heavily on our ability to thrive in complex social situations. However, it has been shown that humans spontaneously can decode animacy and social interactions even from strongly impoverished stimuli and this is a fundamental part of human experience that develops early in infancy and is shared with other primates. In addition, it is well established that perceptual and motor representations of actions are tightly coupled and both share common mechanisms. This coupling between action perception and action execution plays a critical role in action understanding as postulated in various studies and they are potentially important for our social cognition. This interaction likely is mediated by action-selective neurons in the superior temporal sulcus (STS), premotor and parietal cortex. STS and TPJ have been identified also as coarse neural substrate for the processing of social interactions stimuli. Despite this localization, the underlying exact neural circuits of this processing remain unclear. The aim of this thesis is to understand the neural mechanisms behind the action perception coupling and to investigate further how human brain perceive different classes of social interactions. To achieve this goal, first we introduce a neural model that provides a unifying account for multiple experiments on the interaction between action execution and action perception. The model reproduces correctly the interactions between action observation and execution in several experiments and provides a link towards electrophysiological detailed models of relevant circuits. This model might thus provide a starting point for the detailed quantitative investigation how motor plans interact with perceptual action representations at the level of single-cell mechanisms. Second we present a simple neural model that reproduces some of the key observations in psychophysical experiments about the perception of animacy and social interactions from stimuli. Even in its simple form the model proves that animacy and social interaction judgments partly might be derived by very elementary operations in hierarchical neural vision systems, without a need of sophisticated or accurate probabilistic inference

Observation of sonified movements engages a basal ganglia frontocortical network

Background: Producing sounds by a musical instrument can lead to audiomotor coupling, i.e. the joint activation of the auditory and motor system, even when only one modality is probed. The sonification of otherwise mute movements by sounds based on kinematic parameters of the movement has been shown to improve motor performance and perception of movements.Results: Here we demonstrate in a group of healthy young non-athletes that congruently (sounds match visual movement kinematics) vs. incongruently (no match) sonified breaststroke movements of a human avatar lead to better perceptual judgement of small differences in movement velocity. Moreover, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed enhanced activity in superior and medial posterior temporal regions including the superior temporal sulcus, known as an important multisensory integration site, as well as the insula bilaterally and the precentral gyrus on the right side. Functional connectivity analysis revealed pronounced connectivity of the STS with the basal ganglia and thalamus as well as frontal motor regions for the congruent stimuli. This was not seen to the same extent for the incongruent stimuli.Conclusions: We conclude that sonification of movements amplifies the activity of the human action observation system including subcortical structures of the motor loop. Sonification may thus be an important method to enhance training and therapy effects in sports science and neurological rehabilitation.DFG/SFB/TR31/EUDFG/TP/A7/E

Цифрові засоби підтримки інклюзивної освіти на різних рівнях

In the article, it is stated that the current level of ICT development significantly expands the opportunities for teachers and students in inclusive education. Using ICT, people with disability are able to overcome barriers to learning by accessing a variety of teaching materials in an accessible format. The authors stress that ICT in special and inclusive education can be used as a compensatory, communication, and didactic tool. The main areas in which it is advisable to provide ICT support for inclusive education, are described. The implementation of ICT provides access to alternative sources of information that can be selected and used by each student according to his / her individual capabilities. It is noted that ICT tools should be selected taking into account the specifics of various disability types. Pedagogically balanced and appropriate use of ICT will allow students with disability to participate in the educational process fully, to develop individual educational strategies acceptable for them.У статті зазначено, що нинішній рівень розвитку ІКТ значно розширює можливості для вчителів та учнів (студентів) інклюзивної освіти. Використовуючи ІКТ, особи з інвалідністю здатні подолати бар'єри для навчання, отримати доступ до різних навчальних матеріалів у доступному форматі. Автори підкреслюють, що ІКТ у спеціальній та інклюзивній освіті може бути використаний компенсаційний, комунікаційний та дидактичний інструмент. Описано основні сфери, в яких доцільно забезпечити підтримку ІКТ для інклюзивної освіти. Реалізація ІКТ забезпечує доступ до альтернативних джерел інформації, яку може використати кожний учень (студент) відповідно до його індивідуальних можливостей. Відзначено, що інструменти ІКТ слід обирати з урахуванням особливостей різних типів нозологій. Педагогічно виважене та доцільне використання ІКТ дозволить учням (студентам) з обмеженими можливостями повноцінно включитися у навчальний процес

Functional imaging studies of visual-auditory integration in man.

This thesis investigates the central nervous system's ability to integrate visual and auditory information from the sensory environment into unified conscious perception. It develops the possibility that the principle of functional specialisation may be applicable in the multisensory domain. The first aim was to establish the neuroanatomical location at which visual and auditory stimuli are integrated in sensory perception. The second was to investigate the neural correlates of visual-auditory synchronicity, which would be expected to play a vital role in establishing which visual and auditory stimuli should be perceptually integrated. Four functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies identified brain areas specialised for: the integration of dynamic visual and auditory cues derived from the same everyday environmental events (Experiment 1), discriminating relative synchronicity between dynamic, cyclic, abstract visual and auditory stimuli (Experiment 2 & 3) and the aesthetic evaluation of visually and acoustically perceived art (Experiment 4). Experiment 1 provided evidence to suggest that the posterior temporo-parietal junction may be an important site of crossmodal integration. Experiment 2 revealed for the first time significant activation of the right anterior frontal operculum (aFO) when visual and auditory stimuli cycled asynchronously. Experiment 3 confirmed and developed this observation as the right aFO was activated only during crossmodal (visual-auditory), but not intramodal (visual-visual, auditory-auditory) asynchrony. Experiment 3 also demonstrated activation of the amygdala bilaterally during crossmodal synchrony. Experiment 4 revealed the neural correlates of supramodal, contemplative, aesthetic evaluation within the medial fronto-polar cortex. Activity at this locus varied parametrically according to the degree of subjective aesthetic beauty, for both visual art and musical extracts. The most robust finding of this thesis is that activity in the right aFO increases when concurrently perceived visual and auditory sensory stimuli deviate from crossmodal synchrony, which may veto the crossmodal integration of unrelated stimuli into unified conscious perception

Development of Biological Movement Recognition by Interaction between Active Basis Model and Fuzzy Optical Flow Division

Following the study on computational neuroscience through functional magnetic resonance imaging claimed that human action recognition in the brain of mammalian pursues two separated streams, that is, dorsal and ventral streams. It follows up by two pathways in the bioinspired model, which are specialized for motion and form information analysis (Giese and Poggio 2003). Active basis model is used to form information which is different from orientations and scales of Gabor wavelets to form a dictionary regarding object recognition (human). Also biologically movement optic-flow patterns utilized. As motion information guides share sketch algorithm in form pathway for adjustment plus it helps to prevent wrong recognition. A synergetic neural network is utilized to generate prototype templates, representing general characteristic form of every class. Having predefined templates, classifying performs based on multitemplate matching. As every human action has one action prototype, there are some overlapping and consistency among these templates. Using fuzzy optical flow division scoring can prevent motivation for misrecognition. We successfully apply proposed model on the human action video obtained from KTH human action database. Proposed approach follows the interaction between dorsal and ventral processing streams in the original model of the biological movement recognition. The attained results indicate promising outcome and improvement in robustness using proposed approach

Analysis of communication in the educational process by means of e-learning

Purpose: The aim of the research is to analyse communication in the educational process by means of e-learning. Approach/Methodology/Design: An analysis of relevant foreign literature was conducted. A communication model and a comparative analysis of synchronous communication tools based on established criteria were indicated. For the comparative analysis normal distribution, descriptive analysis methodology and chi-quadrate distribution with T-student distribution were used. Findings: The analysis of the presented research results shows that most respondents prefer to solve tasks at a distance in any form. Students are satisfied with the adopted solutions, as well as with the offered methods of communication. The introduction of e-learning positively influences the acquisition and dysfunction of knowledge by students. Practical Implications: Distance communication is a very popular means of communication in the 21st century. The use of various tools does not create a barrier and is evidence of high technological progress. Originality/Value: An original literary approach from the most recent international positions was presented and authorial research was carried out on a representative group of respondents. It is shown that the transfer and acquisition of knowledge by means of information and communication technologies has contributed to changes at universities.peer-reviewe

The learning space: a study of the suggested principles and practices in designing the classroom environment

This study investigated learning space design and its suggested effect upon the learning process. The study also evaluated and compared existing classrooms in the southern New Jersey area by looking for the presence or absence of certain elements of design. Data were collected by reviewing previous research on the topic of classroom design and student achievement, and in field testing at eight educational facilities in southern New Jersey. Research has shown that the design of learning spaces has a direct influence upon students\u27 attitudes towards learning and positive outcomes are attributed to these designs. Field testing, using a sound level meter and a lux meter, measured frequencies and light levels and evaluated the percentages of loss or gain, confirming some findings regarding students\u27 abilities to properly hear and comprehend spoken material and to properly see visual images and text displayed at the front of the room. Other testing and research revealed that certain other elements in classroom design should be incorporated into the overall design and construction of educational facilities