Desktop multimedia environments to support collaborative distance learning

Desktop multimedia conferencing, when two or more persons can communicate among themselves via personal computers with the opportunity to see and hear one another as well as communicate via text messages while working with commonly available stored resources, appears to have important applications to the support of collaborative learning. In this paper we explore this potential in three ways: (a) through an analysis of particular learner needs when learning and working collaboratively with others outside of face-to-face situations; (b) through an analysis of different forms of conferencing environments, including desktop multimedia environments, relative to their effectiveness in terms of meeting learner needs for distributed collaboration; and (c) through reporting the results of a formative evaluation of a prototype desktop multimedia conferencing system developed especially for the support of collaborative learning. Via these analyses, suggestions are offered relating to the functionalities of desktop multimedia conferencing systems for the support of collaborative learning, reflecting new developments in both the technologies available for such systems and in our awareness of learner needs when working collaboratively with one other outside of face-to-face situations

Growing a Green Economy for All: From Green Jobs to Green Ownership

This Democracy Collaborative report provides the first comprehensive survey of community wealth building institutions in the green economy. Featuring ten cases, the report identifies how policy and philanthropy can build on these examples to create "green jobs you can own.

A Kosambi-Karhunen–Loève Learning Approach to Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

This paper focuses on the issues of cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) in a large cognitive radio network (CRN) where cognitive radio (CR) nodes can cooperative with neighboring nodes using spatial cooperation. A novel optimal global primary user (PU) detection framework with geographical cooperation using a deflection coefficient metric measure to characterize detection performance is proposed. It is assumed that only a small fraction of CR nodes communicate with the fusion center (FC). Optimal cooperative techniques which are global for class deterministic PU signals are proposed. By establishing the relationship between the CSS technique design issues and Kosambi-Karhunen–Loève transform (KLT) the problem is solved efficiently and the impact on detection performance is evaluated using simulation.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The language teacher’s development

This paper provides a commentary on recent contributions to the subject of teacher development and growth, focusing particularly on our understanding of some of the processes and tools that have been identified as instrumental and supportive in teacher development. Implicit in the notions of ‘reflective practice’, ‘exploratory teaching’, and ‘practitioner inquiry’ is the view that teachers develop by studying their own practice, collecting data and using reflective processes as the basis for evaluation and change. Such processes have a reflexive relationship with the construction of teacher knowledge and beliefs. Collaborative and co-operative processes can help sustain individual reflection and development

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience describes the cyber safety issues emerging from a range of technology trends, how different populations are using technologies and the risks they face, and how we can effectively respond to each group’s unique cyber safety needs. Written by the University of Western Sydney for Telstra Corporation Ltd, the report advocates for continuing to move cyber safety from a ‘risk and protection’ framework to one that focuses on building digital resilience, as well as fostering trust and confidence in the online environment. To do this we need to: Address the needs of populations often neglected by current policies and programs – including adults, seniors, parents, and small to medium enterprises Continue to build the digital literacy skills of all populations, because digital literacy strongly influences users’ ability to engage safely online – this is best achieved by a hands-on learning approach Keep risk in perspective – the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand Broaden the focus from awareness-raising to long-term behaviour change. As digital technologies become further integrated into the everyday lives of Australians, users are potentially exposed to greater risks. However, the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand. The challenge, therefore, is to support users to minimise the risks without limiting their digital participation and their capacity to derive the full benefits of connectivity. If Australians are to benefit as either consumers or providers of online services and products in the e-commerce environment, consumer safety and trust need to be improved. Cyber safety needs to be considered against a transforming backdrop of technology trends, products and practices. While the rise of social media has tended to dominate recent debate and developments in cyber safety, particularly in relation to young people, a range of other trends is also shaping how users engage online, the risks they potentially face in the new media landscape, and the strategies used to address them. These trends include the rise of user generated content and content sharing platforms; the uptake of mobile technologies and, in particular, the adoption of smartphones; cloud computing; platform integration and single sign-on mechanisms; and the rise of GPS and location based services

Design of a group oriented, virtual learning environment

This paper presents the design and implementation of a group oriented, decentralised, virtual learning settings where students meet in groups of 3 –5 people at different locations all over the world and communicate via the internet. After presenting the objective of such a didactical design the paper gives an insight into the technical implementation. It presents the advantages and disadvantages of several internet services in such a virtual setting and a way of combining these internet applications according to their special characteristics. While the role of teachers change to those of coordinators the communication process within and between the groups becomes more important – as discussed in the following chapter. The paper concludes with the presentation of two practical applications as offered by the Institute for Didactics and Economics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main (Germany) and some evaluating remarks

Symmetric Synchronous Collaborative Navigation

Synchronous collaborative navigation is a form of social navigation where users virtually share a web browser. In this paper, we present a symmetric, proxy-based architecture where each user can take the lead and guide others in visiting web sites, without the need for a special browser or other software. We show how we have applied this scheme to a problem-solving-oriented e-learning system

Sharing learning experiences through correspondence on the WWW

Asynchronous learning networks are facilities and procedures to allow members of learning communities to be more effective and efficient in their learning. One approach is to see how the `sharing' of knowledge can be augmented through meta-data descriptions attached to portfolios and project work. Another approach is to facilitate the reflection upon individual or collaborative learning experiences (Okamoto, Cristea, Matsui, & Miwata, 2000). The position that I defend in this paper is that both the meta-data approach and the attempts to capture the students' meta-knowledge are rather complicated because of social and emotional reason

Web Environments for Group-Based Project Work in Higher Education

We discuss problems confronting the use of group-based project work as an instructional strategy in higher education and describe two courses in which course-specific World Wide Web (Web) environments have evolved over a series of course sequences and are used both as tool environments for group-process support and as the product environment of the project work itself. In particular we describe the use of specific Web-embedded shared workspace, communication-management and evaluation tools and their contribution to the management and educational value of group-based project work. The integration of instructional principles and strategies with the Web-based tools is also of particular importance. The 1996-97 versions of the courses analysed in this article can be found at http://www.to.utwente.nl/ism/ism1-96/home.htm for the first-year course in educational media design, and at www.edu.cs.utwente.nl/~aitnlpbg/, for the first-year course in applications of information technology. Both courses, at the University of Twente, use group-based project work as a major organizational form, but integrate all aspects of the courses within cohesive Web environments

Design of a group oriented, decentralised learning environment

The paper presents the design of a group oriented virtual learning setting where learning takes place in three levels: individual learning, group learning and inter-group communication processes. This communication takes place via standard internet services