Innovations in Simulation: Experiences with Cloud-based Simulation Experimentation

The amount of simulation experimentation that can be performed in a project can be restricted by time, especially if a model takes a long time to simulate and many replications are required. Cloud Computing presents an attractive proposition to speeding up, or extending, simulation experimentation as computing resources can be hired on demand rather than having to invest in costly infrastructure. However, it is not common practice for simulation users to take advantage of this and, arguably, rather than speeding up simulation experimentation users tend to make compromises by using unnecessary model simplification techniques. This may be due to a lack of awareness of what Cloud Computing can offer. Based on several years’ experience of innovation in this area, this article presents our experiences in developing Cloud Computing applications for simulation experimentation and discusses what future innovations might be created for the widespread benefit of our simulation community

Attack of the Fake Geek Girls: Challenging Gendered Harassment and Marginalization in Online Spaces

abstract: Attack of the Fake Geek Girls: Challenging Gendered Harassment and Marginalization in Online Spaces applies feminist, gender, and rhetorical theories and methods, along with critical discourse analysis, to case studies of the popular online social media platforms of Jezebel, Pinterest, and Facebook. This project makes visible the structural inequities that underpin the design and development of internet technologies, as well as commonplace assumptions about who is an online user, who is an active maker of internet technologies, and who is a passive consumer of internet technologies. Applying these critical lenses to these inequities and assumptions enables a re-seeing of commonplace understandings of the relationship between gender performativity and digital cultures and practices. Together, these lenses provide a useful set of tools for methodically resisting the mystique of technologies that are, simultaneously, represented as so highly technical as to be opaque to scrutiny, and as ubiquitous to everyday life as to be beneath critical examination. Through a close reading of the discourses surrounding these popular social media platforms and a rhetorical analysis of their technological affordances, I documented the transference of gender-biased assumptions about women's roles, interests, and competencies, which have historically been found in face-to-face contexts, to these digital spaces. For example, cultural assumptions about the frivolity of women's interests, endeavors, issues, and labors make their way into digital discourse that situates the online practices of women as those of passive consumers who use the internet only to shop and socialize, rather than to go about the serious, masculine business of making original digital content. This project expands on existing digital identity and performativity research, while applying a sorely needed feminist critique to online discourses and discursive practices that assume maleness and masculinity as the default positionality. These methods are one approach to addressing the pressing problems of online harassment, the gender gap in the technology sector, and the gender gap in digital literacies that have pedagogical, political, and structural implications for the classroom, workplace, economic markets, and civic sphere.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation English 201

“Why Has She Stopped Reading?” The Case for Supporting Reading for Pleasure in Secondary Schools.

The aim of this study was to investigate why some children, who engage in reading for pleasure at primary school, stop reading once they have transitioned to secondary school. The study followed eight students from their last term of Year 6 primary education (10 to 11 year-olds) through to the end of their first term of Year 8 secondary education (12 to 13 year-olds). In this ethnographic interpretivist study I used a variety of methods including: observation, questionnaires and group conversations to discover the reasons why some students engage in less reading for pleasure once they begin their secondary school education. I employed thematic analysis to allow flexibility to my research and to provide a detailed and rich account. Some of the eight students involved in this study dramatically reduced the amount of reading which they engaged in and some continued to spend a similar amount of time engaging in reading for pleasure. Some students continued with familiar, safe, readerly texts and some students branched out to explore new genres and text types. This study provides insight into how the child as a reader changes once they move to secondary school and identifies what teachers need to know about the child to be able to facilitate reading for pleasure. New Year 7 students are concerned about perceived negative peer perceptions of readers and suggestions are made about the ways in which teachers and librarians can work with students to encourage reading for pleasure. A key finding of this study was that a precise understanding of Year 7 students as readers by secondary school English teachers is required for them to be able to facilitate students’ reading for pleasure. Suggestions are offered about how teachers can gain a greater understanding of their students as readers and suggestions are also offered about how to develop the child as a reader

Alternative Modes for Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving: An Overview

Various modes are proffered as alternatives for teaching mathematical problem solving. Each mode is described briefly, along with general purposes, advantages and disadvantages. Combinations of modes are suggested; general issues identified; recommendations offered; and feedback from teachers summarized

The theatrical physicist

Theatre arts department enjoys benefits of \u27guru in residence\u2

Faculty Development in a Flexible Learning Context

AbstractIt is an acknowledged fact that universities must ensure the provision of supportive mechanisms to assist faculty members to remain updated and to be as productive as possible in order to maintain the quality of learning. Recognizing this essential reality, institutions world-wide have responded to the challenge by establishing a range of faculty development programmes with the common goal being the development and growth of the potential of their teaching resources by using them in creative ways. The provision of faculty development in flexible learning contexts for working adults which rely largely upon associate or part-time faculty members represents an even bigger challenge. A flexible learning mode, combined with a comprehensive integration of IT and aspects of virtual learning, sets a high premium on the exploitation and expansion of media and technology to strengthen the teaching/learning experience and to help students to learn at their own pace. Hence, a crucial function of the faculty support mechanisms set up in such institutions is to help academic staff members to provide quality learning by utilizing technology to facilitate delivery and to integrate appropriate and productive forms of communication with their students. Using the Singapore SIM University (UniSIM) as a backdrop for this study in faculty development, this paper aims to explore how institutional faculty support mechanisms have been and are being developed to ensure a rewarding teaching-learning context