Case-Based Reasoning on E-Community Knowledge

International audienceThis paper presents MKM, a meta-knowledge model to manage knowledge reliability, in order to extend a CBR system so that it can reason on partially reliable, non expert, knowledge from the Web. Knowledge reliability is considered from the point of view of the decision maker using the CBR system. It is captured by the MKM model including notions such as belief, trust, reputation and quality, as well as their relationships and rules to evaluate knowledge reliability. We detail both the model and the associated approach to extend CBR. Given a problem to solve for a specific user, reliability estimation is used to filter knowledge with high reliability as well as to rank the results produced by the CBR system, ensuring the quality of results

Reviewing the Impact of the National Strategies Design and Technology Framework for Key Stage Three: A small-­‐scale evaluation of the Design and Technology Framework in England

Since the beginning of Design and Technology (D&T) in the English secondary school curriculum, the teaching of design has been identified as less effective than that of making. Research Questions: What are the experiences of pupils between the ages of 12 and 14 of design learning? Purpose of Study: In 2004 as part of the National Strategies, the D&T framework was launched, aiming to support the teaching of design skills. This is a small-­‐scale study, which begins to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers in four schools in the Northwest of England. Research Methods: The study used a mixed methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data in a questionnaire with a convenience sample of school pupils. The questionnaire responses are analysed alongside qualitative interviews with D&T teachers from the schools. Findings: The findings indicate that many pupils had a clear understanding of the role of designing. However, some common assumptions of the nature of design activity centering on the act of sketching or drawing were evident. The majority of pupils were unable to accurately identify the names of many of the design activities introduced as part of the framework. Conclusions: Whilst some progress has been made in the teaching of design, through the use of design activities introduced in the D&T Framework, the support experienced by teachers was limited and were not sustained beyond the initial training. There are implications for initial teacher educators in supporting beginning teachers and balancing the tensions trainees experience whilst on placements in school. Key Words: Design, designing, pedagogy, teacher educatio

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Open Innovation in Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This book unveils the importance of micro, small, medium, and large firms for fostering open innovation, using methodological designs based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Several dimensions of the inbound and outbound open innovation strategies and practices are explored, in the scope of University–University, University–Industry, and University–Society relations

Examining adoption of mobile internet in Saudi Arabia: Extending TAM with perceived enjoyment, innovativeness and trust

YesMobile internet represents a breakthrough technology that has derived much attention from mobile organizations and services providers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).1 However, the level of acceptance of mobile internet in the KSA is still below the level of ambition. This is in addition to the fact that there is a considerable need to discover the main factors shaping Saudi customers' intention and adoption of such a mobile system. For this reason, this study is conducted in the hope of providing further understanding about the adoption of mobile internet in the KSA. The extension version of Technology Acceptance Model TAM2 with perceived enjoyment was adopted as a theoretical foundation of the current study model. This was expanded by considering two additional factors: innovativeness and trust. The main empirical data collected through questionnaires was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).3 Perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, trust, and innovativeness are statistically supported to have a significant impact on the Saudi customer intention to adopt mobile internet. Further discussion regarding the main contribution as well as research limitations and future directions are presented at the end of this paper

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse