Monitor for ICT Integration in Flemish Education (MICTIVO) : research set-up and some preliminaries

MICTIVO is a monitoring tool to evaluate ICT integration in the formal Flemish education. It was first conducted in 2008, based on a literature review of several European monitors for mapping the adoption and diffusion of technology for teaching and learning purposes to evaluate the return on investment and effects of ICT on educational practice. The tool consists of different aspects concerning ICT: infrastructure and policy, perceptions, competences and integration at micro-level. In 2008, MICTIVO was tested a first time, the indicators for the different components were validated and empirically tested. In 2013 and 2018 a follow up study was conducted to monitor the current state of ICT integration. The scale and breadth of MICTIVO makes it possible to get representative information on the status of ICT integration in Flanders and the evolution of trends through time

Integration of environmental data in BIM tool & linked building data

Environmental assessment is a critical need to ensure building sustainability. In order to enhance the sustainability of building, involved actors should be able to access and share not only information about the building but also data about products and especially their environmental assessment. Among several approaches that have been proposed to achieve that, semantic web technologies stand out from the crowd by their capabilities to share data and enhance interoperability in between the most heterogeneous systems. This paper presents the implementation of a method in which semantic web technologies and particularly Linked Data have been combined with Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools to foster building sustainability by introducing products with their environmental assessment in building data during the modelling phase. Based on Linked Building Data (LBD) vocabularies and environmental data, several ontologies have been generated in order to make both of them available as Resource Description Framework (RDF) graphs. A database access plugin has been developed and installed in a BIM tool. In that way, the LBD generated from the BIM tool contains, for each product a reference to its environmental assessment which is contained in a triplestore

Developing a computer aided design tool for inclusive design

The purpose of this study was to investigate age-related changes in the performance of a range of movement tasks for integration into a computer aided design (CAD) tool for use in inclusive design

Grid tool integration within the eMinerals Project

In this article we describe the eMinerals mini grid, which is now running in production mode. Thisis an integration of both compute and data components, the former build upon Condor, PBS and thefunctionality of Globus v2, and the latter being based on the combined use of the Storage ResourceBroker and the CCLRC data portal. We describe how we have integrated the middleware components,and the different facilities provided to the users for submitting jobs within such an environment. We willalso describe additional functionality we found it necessary to provide ourselves

Affordances of Historic Urban Landscapes: an Ecological Understanding of Human Interaction with the Past

Heritage has been defined differently in European contexts. Despite differences, a common challenge for historic urban landscape management is the integration of tangible and intangible heritage. Integration demands an active view of perception and human-landscape interaction where intangible values are linked to specific places and meanings are attached to particular cultural practices and socio-spatial organisation. Tangible and intangible values can be examined as part of a system of affordances (potentialities) a place, artefact or cultural practice has to offer. This paper discusses how an ‘affordance analysis’ may serve as a useful tool for the management of historic urban landscapes

Conversations in Education Reform: Socioeconomic Integration as a Tool for Student Success

Background Since the U.S. Supreme Court deemed racially segregated schooling unconstitutional in 1954, education reformers have strived to find the most effective methods to ensure that students of all socioeconomic backgrounds have access to an effective and equitable education. Despite many efforts to address this challenge, exemplified by the highly decentralized U.S. education system, the achievement gap between students of ranging socioeconomic backgrounds persists. Mounting research, beginning with the foundational Coleman Report of 1966, demonstrates that the socioeconomic make-up of a student’s classroom is the most influential factor on his or her success. Consequently, this paper seeks to determine if socioeconomic integration plans are in fact an effective tool to boost success among students of all socioeconomic backgrounds. Methods This essay will provide a review of the current discussion on socioeconomic integration plans. After revealing the primary established perspectives on this issue of education reform, the discussion will raise and respond to major concerns surrounding socioeconomic integration. Lastly, this paper will synthesize findings from the current body of literature to reveal one possible method of addressing common concerns to ensure the effectiveness of socioeconomic integration reform in schools. Results and Discussion Current research shows that students of socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds see tremendous gains in achievement when placed in socioeconomically integrated schools. This is largely a result of positive peer influences, strong parent communities, and strong teachers who are held accountable by parents. However, reports favoring socioeconomic integration plans frequently overlook the potential risks to students. Such risks include a decrease in achievement outcomes among advantaged students and an increase in stigmatization and marginalization among disadvantaged students. Further research, however, indicates that by ensuring adequate social integration within socioeconomically integrated schools, such risks can be modified. Conclusion Students of diverse backgrounds are likely to experience significant cognitive and non-cognitive benefits when learning in schools that are successfully socioeconomically, as well as socially, integrated. Consequently, socioeconomic integration plans are an effective tool for improving student outcomes among students of all socioeconomic backgrounds

Embedding agents in business applications using enterprise integration patterns

This paper addresses the issue of integrating agents with a variety of external resources and services, as found in enterprise computing environments. We propose an approach for interfacing agents and existing message routing and mediation engines based on the endpoint concept from the enterprise integration patterns of Hohpe and Woolf. A design for agent endpoints is presented, and an architecture for connecting the Jason agent platform to the Apache Camel enterprise integration framework using this type of endpoint is described. The approach is illustrated by means of a business process use case, and a number of Camel routes are presented. These demonstrate the benefits of interfacing agents to external services via a specialised message routing tool that supports enterprise integration patterns