A Software Engineering Schema for Data Intensive Applications

The features developed by a software engineer (system specification) for a software system may significantly differ from the features required by a user (user requirements) for their envisioned system. These discrepancies are generally resulted from the complexity of the system, the vagueness of the user requirements, or the lack of knowledge and experience of the software engineer. The principles of software engineering and the recommendations of the ACM's Software Engineering Education Knowledge (SEEK) document can provide solutions to minimize these discrepancies; in turn, improve the quality of a software system and increase user satisfaction. In this paper, a software development framework, called SETh, is presented. The SETh framework consists of a set of visual models that support software engineering education and practices in a systematic manner. It also enables backward tracking/tracing and forward tracking/tracing capabilities - two important concepts that can facilitate the greenfield and evolutionary type software engineering projects. The SETh framework connects every step of the development of a software system tightly; hence, the learners and the experienced software engineers can study, understand, and build efficient software systems for emerging data science applications

Supporting Collaborative Learning in Computer-Enhanced Environments

As computers have expanded into almost every aspect of our lives, the ever-present graphical user interface (GUI) has begun facing its limitations. Demanding its own share of attention, GUIs move some of the users\u27 focus away from the task, particularly when the task is 3D in nature or requires collaboration. Researchers are therefore exploring other means of human-computer interaction. Individually, some of these new techniques show promise, but it is the combination of multiple approaches into larger systems that will allow us to more fully replicate our natural behavior within a computing environment. As computers become more capable of understanding our varied natural behavior (speech, gesture, etc.), the less we need to adjust our behavior to conform to computers\u27 requirements. Such capabilities are particularly useful where children are involved, and make using computers in education all the more appealing. Herein are described two approaches and implementations of educational computer systems that work not by user manipulation of virtual objects, but rather, by user manipulation of physical objects within their environment. These systems demonstrate how new technologies can promote collaborative learning among students, thereby enhancing both the students\u27 knowledge and their ability to work together to achieve even greater learning. With these systems, the horizon of computer-facilitated collaborative learning has been expanded. Included among this expansion is identification of issues for general and special education students, and applications in a variety of domains, which have been suggested

An SDI for the GIS-education at the UGent Geography Department

The UGent Geography Department (GD) (ca. 200 students; 10 professors) has been teaching GIS since the mid 90’s. Ever since, GIS has evolved from Geographic Information Systems, to GIScience, to GIServices; implying that a GIS specialist nowadays has to deal with more than just desktop GIS. Knowledge about the interaction between different components of an SDI (spatial data, technologies, laws and policies, people and standards) is crucial for a graduated Master student. For its GIS education, the GD has until recently been using different sources of datasets, which were stored in a non-centralized system. In conformity with the INSPIRE Directive and the Flemish SDI Decree, the GD aims to set-up its own SDI using free and open source software components, to improve the management, user-friendliness, copyright protection and centralization of datasets and the knowledge of state of the art SDI structure and technology. The central part of the system is a PostGIS-database in which both staff and students can create and share information stored in a multitude of tables and schemas. A web-based application facilitates upper-level management of the database for administrators and staff members. Exercises in various courses not only focus on accessing and handling data from the SDI through common GIS-applications as QuantumGIS or GRASS, but also aim at familiarizing students with the set-up of widely used SDI-elements as WMS, WFS and WCS services. The (dis)advantages of the new SDI will be tested in a case study in which the workflow of a typical ‘GIS Applications’ exercise is elaborated. By solving a problem of optimal location, students interact in various ways with geographic data. A comparison is made between the situation before and after the implementation of the SDI

Identity management and e-learning standards for promoting the sharing of contents and services in higher education

In this paper, we present the status of identity management systems and e-learning standards across Europe, in order to promote the mobility and the sharing of contents and services in higher education institutions. With new requirements for authentication, authorization and identity management for Web applications, most higher education institutions implement several solutions to address these issues. At the first level, the adoption of directory Servers like LDAP, Active Directory and others, solve some problems of having multiple logins and passwords for authentication. The growing of Web applications like Learning management Systems, portals, Blogs, Wikis, and others, need a more effective way of identity management, providing security and accessibility. Web Single Sign-On (SSO) resolves some of these issues of identity management, because the authentication is managed centrally and the user can navigate through different Web applications using the same session. One example of a Web SSO system is the Central Authentication Systems (CAS). SSO systems provide an effective way to manage authentication and authorization inside institutions, but are restricted to the administrative domain of each institution. With the implementation of Bologna Process more students, lecturers and staff will be on mobility programs within European higher education institutions. The creation of identity management federations is mandatory to provide the mobility of users and to permit the exchange of contents and services between institutions. The creation of identities federations across Europe is been in discussion by TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) to provide a service federation like the EDUROAM WI-FI network that permits the mobility across Europe. This paper reports on some of the issues highlighted in the light of recent developments. To share contents and services within Europe, the adoption of standards is mandatory. IEEE LTSC (Learning Technology Standards Committee), IMS (IMS Global Learning, Inc) and ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) are standards organizations that publish a set of standards to promote the interoperability, reusability and integration of e-learning contents and services. The most important standards that promote the sharing of contents and services across Europe are Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), IMS Digital Repositories Interoperability and IMS Learning Design. This paper presents the main features of e-learning standards and how it can be used in conjunction with identity management systems to create collaborative learning objects repositories to promote a more effective learning experience and a more competitive European space for higher education, with respect to the requirements of knowledge based societies

Visualyzart Project – The role in education

The VisualYzARt project intends to develop research on mobile platforms, web and social scenarios in order to bring augmented reality and natural interaction for the general public, aiming to study and validate the adequacy of YVision platform in various fields of activity such as digital arts, design, education, culture and leisure. The VisualYzARt project members analysed the components available in YVision platform and are defining new ones that allow the creation of applications to a chosen activity, effectively adding a new language to the domain YVision. In this paper we will present the role of the InstitutoPolitécnico de Santarém which falls into the field of education.VisualYzART is funded by QREN – Sistema de Incentivos à Investigação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (SI I&DT), Project n. º 23201 - VisualYzARt (from January 2013 to December 2014). Partners: YDreams Portugal; Instituto Politécnico de Santarém - Gabinete de e-Learning; Universidade de Coimbra - Centro de Informática e Sistemas; Instituto Politécnico de Leiria - Centro de Investigação em Informática e Comunicações; Universidade Católica do Porto - Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Tecnologia das Artes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metadata and ontologies for organizing students’ memories and learning: standards and convergence models for context awareness

Este artículo trata de las ontologías que sirven para la comprensión en contexto y la Gestión de la Información Personal (PIM)y su aplicabilidad al proyecto Memex Metadata(M2). M2 es un proyecto de investigación de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill para mejorar la memoria digital de los alumnos utilizando tablet PC, la tecnología SenseCam de Microsoft y otras tecnologías móviles(p.ej. un dispositivo de GPS) para capturar el contexto del aprendizaje. Este artículo presenta el proyecto M2, dicute el concepto de los portafolios digitales en las actuales tendencias educativas, relacionándolos con las tecnologías emergentes, revisa las ontologías relevantes y su relación con el proyecto CAF (Context Awareness Framework), y concluye identificando las líneas de investigación futuras.This paper focuses on ontologies supporting context awareness and Personal Information Management (PIM) and their applicability in Memex Metadata (M2) project. M2 is a research project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to improve student digital memories using the tablet PC, Microsoft’s SenseCam technology, and other mobile technologies (e.g., a GPS device) to capture context. The M2 project offers new opportunities studying students’ learning with digital technologies. This paper introduces the M2 project; discusses E-portfolios and current educational trends related to pervasive computing; reviews relevant ontologies and their relationship to the projects’ CAF (context awareness framework), and concludes by identifying future research directions