Blackboard Rules for Coordinating Context-aware Applications in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Thanks to improvements in wireless communication technologies and increasing computing power in hand-held devices, mobile ad hoc networks are becoming an ever-more present reality. Coordination languages are expected to become important means in supporting this type of interaction. To this extent we argue the interest of the Bach coordination language as a middleware that can handle and react to context changes as well as cope with unpredictable physical interruptions that occur in opportunistic network connections. More concretely, our proposal is based on blackboard rules that model declaratively the actions to be taken once the blackboard content reaches a predefined state, but also that manage the engagement and disengagement of hosts and transient sharing of blackboards. The idea of reactiveness has already been introduced in previous work, but as will be appreciated by the reader, this article presents a new perspective, more focused on a declarative setting.Comment: In Proceedings FOCLASA 2012, arXiv:1208.432

The WorkPlace distributed processing environment

Real time control problems require robust, high performance solutions. Distributed computing can offer high performance through parallelism and robustness through redundancy. Unfortunately, implementing distributed systems with these characteristics places a significant burden on the applications programmers. Goddard Code 522 has developed WorkPlace to alleviate this burden. WorkPlace is a small, portable, embeddable network interface which automates message routing, failure detection, and re-configuration in response to failures in distributed systems. This paper describes the design and use of WorkPlace, and its application in the construction of a distributed blackboard system

Design Of Ubiquitous Information Systems For Digital Natives

This paper focuses on how we can design Ubiquitous Information Systems (UIS) for digital natives. Digital natives are those who have grown up in a digital world, where the use of information and communications technologies is pervasive and ubiquitous, and where these technologies are used in organisational and personal contexts. Digital natives, unlike digital immigrants, like new technologies and they like change. This paper suggests that the rise of the digital native has profound implications for the design of information systems, and particularly UIS. Since many of our previous theories and models assume most users to be digital immigrants (who tend to resist new technology), a new set of design principles are needed for digital natives. We propose four key dimensions of UIS design for this new audience, namely, the system, the activity, the user, and the context that the system is designed to support. We conclude with a roadmap for the design and implementation of UIS for digital natives

How Do Teachers and Students Perceive The Utility of Blackboard as a Distance Learning Platform? (Case Study from Taibah University, Saudi Arabia)

This research explores the role of Knowledge Management within the education field with a specific focus on the use of Learning Management Systems in the Distance Learning (e-learning) process. The aim of this study is to thoroughly examine how teachers and students perceive the utility of the Blackboard system as a distance learning platform. To achieve this, the study conducted qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire surveys with the teachers and students of Taibah University, Saudi Arabia. Questions in both data collection tools were geared towards gaining insight about how these two groups of Blackboard users view its usefulness as a distance learning tool. The results of the research revealed that Blackboard is viewed as a positive influence on distance learning, and that students view this application as an opportunity to avoid traditional, classroom learning activities. Also, the research discovered that teachers generally have a positive viewpoint about Blackboard, and believe it makes teaching a lot easier. Nevertheless, few issues were also mentioned by both groups of users, particularly the challenge of slow internet connections and difficulty of creating exams (teachers) or accessing and completing exams in a time-effective manner (students). To address these challenges, and any other as well, this research recommended that universities or learning institutions that decide to adopt LMS systems such as Blackboard for distance learning have to conduct a thorough analysis of their current structure, and determine how this new method of teaching/learning can be integrated into existing learning activities in a seamless manner. A thorough investigation will aid in forestalling any future challenges such as poor internet connections, as the school would have implemented measures to ensure this does not occur

Comparative Analysis of Teacher Performance in the Teaching and Learning Process

This study aims to determine the comparison of teacher performance in the teaching and learning process. Teacher performance is seen from three indicators, namely the stage of planning learning activities, the stage of implementing learning activities and the evaluation / assessment stage of learning. This type of research is a qualitative descriptive approach using observation data collection techniques, interviews, and documentation and the subject of this research is the social studies subject teacher at SMP Negeri A and MTS B. The results showed that the performance of teachers in the teaching and learning process (case studies of social studies subject teachers at SMP Negeri A and Mts B was in a good category for Mts B and good enough for SMP Negeri A which can be seen from the stage planning learning activities and the evaluation / assessment stage of learning. At the planning stage, social studies teacher learning activities do not experience obstacles and have been implemented properly according to the first indicator where the social studies teacher already has the ability to arrange learning tool activities (called RPP)

Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ experiences with coping with emergency remote teaching (ERT) – emerging pedagogical issues in pandemic times

Acknowledgements and funding This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council [No. 2014-1762].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Environment Orientation : a structured simulation approach for agent-based complex systems

Complex systems are collections of independent agents interacting with each other and with their environment to produce emergent behaviour. Agent-based computer simulation is one of the main ways of studying complex systems. A naive approach to such simulation can fare poorly, due to large communication overhead, and due to the scope for deadlock between the interacting agents sharing a computational platform. Agent interaction can instead be considered entirely from the point of view of the environment(s) within which the agents interact. Structuring a simulation using such Environment Orientation leads to a simulation that reduces communication overhead, that is effectively deadlock-free, and yet still behaves in the manner required. Additionally the Environment Orientation architecture eases the development of more sophisticated large-scale simulations, with multiple kinds of complex agents, situated in and interacting with multiple kinds of environments. We describe the Environment Orientation simulation architecture. We report on a number of experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of the Environment Orientation approach: a simple flocking system, a flocking system with multiple sensory environments, and a flocking system in an external environment