Introducing Electronic Information Services to First-Year Composition Students: Pedagogical and Practical Concerns

More and more of the college and university library\u27s resources are becoming computerized. As first year students enter the library, they are often confronted with an overwhelming array of computer terminals and workstations. While some students are avid computer users, others are fearful or intimidated. Regardless of one\u27s proclivity towards electronic resources and services, the first year student must learn how to evaluate the relevancy of each of the various systems to their own research needs and make a selection that is best suited to their particular tasks. This presentation will review general considerations and guidelines for including electronic library resources into the research component of first year composition classes. Introducing computerized databases into the research process presents numerous challenges to the composition instructor. Parting from the traditional research strategies often presented in the published research guides may lead the instructor into uncharted territories. Yet, the availability of electronic sources has become so prolific that ignoring them or minimizing their use would be an extreme disservice to the students. CD-ROM technology and locally mounted databases have brought sophisticated searching capabilities into the hands of the entire university community, including first year undergraduates. A strong research component in the first year writing course can provide a firm foundation on which advanced thinking and writing skills can develop. While the vast array of electronic resources may present exciting or intriguing possibilities, instructors must be careful not to overwhelm the students with too much or to present online systems as the best answer for every research need. Putting these electronic resources into an appropriate context for the beginning researcher is paramount to teaching their effective utilization. A thorough presentation of the research process, with its conceptual underpinnings and strategies, provides the broad framework within which these resources may be most effectively utilized. In this presentation I will discuss selecting databases and using electronic resources in the introductory level composition course. A close working relationship with the instruction librarian will help to ensure adequate coverage of electronic services for the novice researcher and maintain an appropriate balance with print sources as well. While taking advantage of the improved access to information through electronic means, educators must integrate critical thinking and evaluative skills throughout the students\u27 research and writing processes. The many options available in our information-rich society force us to make choices, and we must help the first year students realize that computer, though it may provide opportunity, does not always mean best

Big data analytics:Computational intelligence techniques and application areas

Big Data has significant impact in developing functional smart cities and supporting modern societies. In this paper, we investigate the importance of Big Data in modern life and economy, and discuss challenges arising from Big Data utilization. Different computational intelligence techniques have been considered as tools for Big Data analytics. We also explore the powerful combination of Big Data and Computational Intelligence (CI) and identify a number of areas, where novel applications in real world smart city problems can be developed by utilizing these powerful tools and techniques. We present a case study for intelligent transportation in the context of a smart city, and a novel data modelling methodology based on a biologically inspired universal generative modelling approach called Hierarchical Spatial-Temporal State Machine (HSTSM). We further discuss various implications of policy, protection, valuation and commercialization related to Big Data, its applications and deployment

Factors Affecting Application of ICT by Managers in the Nigerian Public Sector

The global revolution in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experienced in the last two decades paved way for massive improvements in the manner management functions are executed worldwide. This study evaluates the impact and impediments to maximum utilization of ICT in enhancing management functions in the Nigerian Public Sector. With the aid of a questionnaire survey covering senior civil servants in the public sector and analysis of their responses, the paper empirically investigated causes of the officers’ inabilities to adopt ICT adequately in performing their functions.Among the findings one should mention that poor state of infrastructure, lack of technical know-how and non-availability of latest technology hinder the use of ICT in performing managerial functions in the Nigerian Public Secto

Comparative Study Of Congestion Control Techniques In High Speed Networks

Congestion in network occurs due to exceed in aggregate demand as compared to the accessible capacity of the resources. Network congestion will increase as network speed increases and new effective congestion control methods are needed, especially to handle bursty traffic of todays very high speed networks. Since late 90s numerous schemes i.e. [1]...[10] etc. have been proposed. This paper concentrates on comparative study of the different congestion control schemes based on some key performance metrics. An effort has been made to judge the performance of Maximum Entropy (ME) based solution for a steady state GE/GE/1/N censored queues with partial buffer sharing scheme against these key performance metrics.Comment: 10 pages IEEE format, International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, IJCSIS November 2009, ISSN 1947 5500, http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis