EU accession and Poland's external trade policy

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The role of chunking and schemas in learning and drawing

Learning by drawing raises questions related to the organization and internal processing involved during graphical production. This thesis explores how and to what extent, spatial and semantic information influences learning through drawings. It investigates the roles of chunking and schemas in learning through drawings by manipulating the spatial and semantic content of the presented stimuli, which participants reproduced using different methods over repeated sessions. Over three experiments with adult participants, multiple measures were used, including: pause durations between drawn elements, numbers of reproduced objects, error rates, sequences of element production, and transitions among chunk patterns. The first exploratory study investigated the effects of chunking in the drawing of a complex abstract diagram. Five participants reproduced a single stimulus in four types of tasks, which involved delayed recall, tracing, copying and immediate recall across 10 sessions. It was found that participants learned the diagram surprisingly quickly. They used chunking in order to aid the learning processes. This effect was most obvious in the delayed recall task and least so in the tracing. The analysis of the participants' sequence of chunk production revealed that they used a spatial schema to organise the chunks. This appears to explain their rapid learning. The second study investigated the effects of semantic and spatial schemas in learning. Twelve participants drew four types of stimuli (i.e. no-structure, semantic, spatial and spatial-semantic) across six sessions. Learning was easiest in the presence of both spatial and semantic coding, followed by semantic coding alone. By contrast, it was most difficult when the stimuli had neither semantic nor spatial information. Contrary to the predictions, the spatial stimulus was far worse to learn than the semantic. The third study manipulated the strength of the spatial and semantic information in the stimulus to investigate the effects on learning of the weak and strong organisation of information in the two types of schemas. Twelve participants performed four drawings (i.e. strong-semantic, weak-semantic, strong-spatial, weak-spatial) in four sessions. In line with the hypothesis, the findings revealed that the strong semantic stimulus is a better type of stimulus for learning than the weak semantic one. The opposite applies, however, to the strong and weak spatial stimuli. A detailed analysis of the performance of these two stimuli showed that the weak stimulus had evoked a stronger schema than the strong stimulus, which reveals that spatial properties may contribute to the strength of a schema. The concluding results of these studies proposed that even purely diagrammatic stimuli are likely to be encoded semantically, as well as spatially. Furthermore, learning based on spatial coding alone may be difficult to achieve, in contrast to learning based on semantic coding alone. The combined spatial and semantic coding, however, facilitates learning better than either coding alone. These findings suggest key features that need to be considered for diagrammatic presentations used for learning in scientific and technical domains

Information scraps: how and why information eludes our personal information management tools

In this paper we describe information scraps -- a class of personal information whose content is scribbled on Post-it notes, scrawled on corners of random sheets of paper, buried inside the bodies of e-mail messages sent to ourselves, or typed haphazardly into text files. Information scraps hold our great ideas, sketches, notes, reminders, driving directions, and even our poetry. We define information scraps to be the body of personal information that is held outside of its natural or We have much still to learn about these loose forms of information capture. Why are they so often held outside of our traditional PIM locations and instead on Post-its or in text files? Why must we sometimes go around our traditional PIM applications to hold on to our scraps, such as by e-mailing ourselves? What are information scraps' role in the larger space of personal information management, and what do they uniquely offer that we find so appealing? If these unorganized bits truly indicate the failure of our PIM tools, how might we begin to build better tools? We have pursued these questions by undertaking a study of 27 knowledge workers. In our findings we describe information scraps from several angles: their content, their location, and the factors that lead to their use, which we identify as ease of capture, flexibility of content and organization, and avilability at the time of need. We also consider the personal emotive responses around scrap management. We present a set of design considerations that we have derived from the analysis of our study results. We present our work on an application platform, jourknow, to test some of these design and usability findings

Interactive learning in biology with PhotoCD and associated software

This paper describes the pioneering development of flexible‐learning courseware in the teaching and learning of cell biology using a novel optical disk‐based technology — PhotoCD — and its associated computer software. The use of this format in an educational context for the manipulation of, and interaction with, photographic images in electronic form is presented for the first time. Examples of courseware which use PhotoCD, image‐enhancement and image‐management software in biology education are given, and an evaluation by undergraduates in biology education (student teachers) of these teaching and learning strategies is presente

Exploring perceptions and attitudes towards teaching and learning manual technical drawing in a digital age

This paper examines the place of manual technical drawing in the 21st century by discussing the perceived value and relevance of teaching school students how to draw using traditional instruments, in a world of computer aided drafting (CAD). Views were obtained through an e-survey, questionnaires and structured interviews. The sample groups represent professional CAD users (e.g. engineers, architects); university lecturers; Technology Education teachers and student teachers; and school students taking Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) Graphic Communication courses. An analysis of these personal views and attitudes indicates some common values between the various groups canvassed of what instruction in traditional manual technical drafting contributes towards learning. Themes emerge such as problem solving, visualisation, accuracy, co-ordination, use of standard conventions, personal discipline and artistry. In contrast to the assumptions of Prensky's thesis (2001a&b) of digital natives, the study reported in this paper indicate that the school students apparently appreciate the experience of traditional drafting. In conclusion, the paper illustrates the perceived value of such learning in terms of transferable skills, personal achievement and enjoyment

Past, present and future of information and knowledge sharing in the construction industry: Towards semantic service-based e-construction

The paper reviews product data technology initiatives in the construction sector and provides a synthesis of related ICT industry needs. A comparison between (a) the data centric characteristics of Product Data Technology (PDT) and (b) ontology with a focus on semantics, is given, highlighting the pros and cons of each approach. The paper advocates the migration from data-centric application integration to ontology-based business process support, and proposes inter-enterprise collaboration architectures and frameworks based on semantic services, underpinned by ontology-based knowledge structures. The paper discusses the main reasons behind the low industry take up of product data technology, and proposes a preliminary roadmap for the wide industry diffusion of the proposed approach. In this respect, the paper stresses the value of adopting alliance-based modes of operation

Elicitation of requirements for innovative visual patent retrieval based on interviews with experts

Patent searching is a complex task and is mainly performed by experts in the field. Research shows that the integration of drawings into the search process is considered useful by experts and should therefore play a more important role in patent retrieval. In this study, experts were interviewed to find out when and in what form patent drawings should be integrated into the search process. The study combines qualitative data analysis and techniques from requirements engineering resulting in the context sensitive method called Q-rEx.Analysis. The interviews were analysed with a mixed form of deductive and inductive category formation and combined with standards of patent retrieval systems. Experts want patent drawings to be more integrated in the search process to better analyse the relevance of patents. Therefore, in this study, requirements for innovative visual patent retrieval have been derived from actual user needs. The method presented in this study contributes to transparent and comprehensible user-centred elicitation of requirements regarding innovative visual patent retrieval. Not only the method needs further testing but also the integration of the requirements must be evaluated in additional user research.Peer Reviewe

Digital information support for concept design

This paper outlines the issues in effective utilisation of digital resources in conceptual design. Access to appropriate information acts as stimuli and can lead to better substantiated concepts. This paper addresses the issues of presenting such information in a digital form for effective use, exploring digital libraries and groupware as relevant literature areas, and argues that improved integration of these two technologies is necessary to better support the concept generation task. The development of the LauLima learning environment and digital library is consequently outlined. Despite its attempts to integrate the designers' working space and digital resources, continuing issues in library utilisation and migration of information to design concepts are highlighted through a class study. In light of this, new models of interaction to increase information use are explored

A comparative study of design teaching in undergraduate mechanical engineering degree courses.

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