37,940 research outputs found
Online communication and information technology education
Blended Learning, a learning facilitation that incorporates different modes of delivery, models of teaching, and learning styles, introduces multiple media to the dialog between the learner and the facilitator. This paper examines online communication as the link between established theory of learning and literature on e-learning in order to better understand the appropriate use of blended learning in an actual Information Technology course. First, previously defined theoretical constructs that utilize communication as a facilitator for learning are considered. Then, using the Interpretivist standpoint, we examine data gathered from focus groups and interviews to gauge the experience of staff and students who were participants in a Blended Learning course.
There are four previously defined theoretical constructs of greatest relevance to blended learning. Vygotskyâs Zone of Proximal Development highlights the importance of communication with capable peers who can provide stimuli and feedback to a learning individual. Wegnerâs Communities
of Practice are groups of individuals who share a common practice interest and rely on a dialogue to facilitate learning. Laurillardâs Conversational Framework includes a pragmatic 12- step model that teachers can use to structure their learning facilitation. Finally, Salmonâs EModeration considers five stages of online communication in terms of how the moderator might facilitate dialogue among learners. These four theoretical models form the basis for understanding the implementation of blended learning discussed here.
The course studied was a part-time Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology (IT), delivered using Blended Learning. Students were required to attend one evening per week and make substantial use of Web based learning over a period of five years. Students were mature,
some already working in the IT field. Forty students in a first cohort and eighteen students in a second cohort were studied during the first year of their course. While students in the first cohort who succeeded in the course often found the discussion boards to be of considerable value in discussing assignments and sharing learning, the boards also could discourage those with less technical
backgrounds. There is data to suggest that a high rate of dropouts and failures among the first cohort after just one year may have been influenced by discouragement felt by those who could not keep up with the technical level of the discussion board posts. As a result of this data, for the second cohort, the number of online communications was reduced to one assessed online discussion that was closely monitored. As a result, discussions were more on-topic; however students reported significantly less sense of community. Again, a high dropout rate resulted.
Our results suggest that communication is both a challenge and an enabler for facilitating a successful blended learning course. Blended learning is not simply a matter of the combination of face-to-face and online instruction, but it has to have elements of social interaction. It appears to be important to allow students to bond together and to socialize. Knowing each other eases the communication barriers and reduces the fear of posting messages into an open forum. At its best, online communication can provide study help, social interaction, and a sense of community. We have evidence that when students are required more frequently to cooperate online, they share a common problem and on some level create their own âproblem solvingâ community. However, our data from the first cohort indicates that unguided communication of a Community of Practice can lead to undesirable effects. At the same time, our data from the second cohort indicates that a very structured approach is also undesirable. The ideal situation, it seems, is somewhere in the middle. However, the middle is not easily defined. Because the community depends on the individuals who are the main components of it, it is difficult to predict how the same environment would influence different individuals or different cohorts. Thus, the ultimate responsibility is on the lecturer to listen to the students and engage in continuous dialogue
Pseudospin-1 Physics of Photonic Crystals.
We review some recent progress in the exploration of pseudospin-1 physics using dielectric photonic crystals (PCs). We show some physical implications of the PCs exhibiting an accidental degeneracy induced conical dispersion at the Î point, such as the realization of zero refractive index medium and the zero Berry phase of a loop around the nodal point. The photonic states of such PCs near the Dirac-like point can be described by an effective spin-orbit Hamiltonian of pseudospin-1. The wave propagation in the positive, negative, and zero index media can be unified within a framework of pseudospin-1 description. A scale change in PCs results in a rigid band shift of the Dirac-like cone, allowing for the manipulation of waves in pseudospin-1 systems in much the same way as applying a gate voltage in pseudospin-1/2 graphene. The transport of waves in pseudospin-1 systems exhibits many interesting phenomena, including super Klein tunneling, robust supercollimation, and unconventional Anderson localization. The transport properties of pseudospin-1 systems are distinct from their counterparts in pseudospin-1/2 systems, which will also be presented for comparison
Topological Interactions in Warped Extra Dimensions
Topological interactions will be generated in theories with compact extra
dimensions where fermionic chiral zero modes have different localizations. This
is the case in many warped extra dimension models where the right-handed top
quark is typically localized away from the left-handed one. Using
deconstruction techniques, we study the topological interactions in these
models. These interactions appear as trilinear and quadrilinear gauge boson
couplings in low energy effective theories with three or more sites, as well as
in the continuum limit. We derive the form of these interactions for various
cases, including examples of Abelian, non-Abelian and product gauge groups of
phenomenological interest. The topological interactions provide a window into
the more fundamental aspects of these theories and could result in unique
signatures at the Large Hadron Collider, some of which we explore.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; modifications in the KK parity
discussion, final version at JHE
Two-dimensional spectroscopy for the study of ion coulomb crystals.
Ion Coulomb crystals are currently establishing themselves as a highly controllable test bed for mesoscopic systems of statistical mechanics. The detailed experimental interrogation of the dynamics of these crystals, however, remains an experimental challenge. In this work, we show how to extend the concepts of multidimensional nonlinear spectroscopy to the study of the dynamics of ion Coulomb crystals. The scheme we present can be realized with state-of-the-art technology and gives direct access to the dynamics, revealing nonlinear couplings even in the presence of thermal excitations. We illustrate the advantages of our proposal showing how two-dimensional spectroscopy can be used to detect signatures of a structural phase transition of the ion crystal, as well as resonant energy exchange between modes. Furthermore, we demonstrate in these examples how different decoherence mechanisms can be identified
Identifying and measuring patients' preferences and priorities for information in chronic kidney disease
Approximate Hermitian-Yang-Mills structures and semistability for Higgs bundles. II: Higgs sheaves and admissible structures
We study the basic properties of Higgs sheaves over compact K\"ahler
manifolds and we establish some results concerning the notion of semistability;
in particular, we show that any extension of semistable Higgs sheaves with
equal slopes is semistable. Then, we use the flattening theorem to construct a
regularization of any torsion-free Higgs sheaf and we show that it is in fact a
Higgs bundle. Using this, we prove that any Hermitian metric on a
regularization of a torsion-free Higgs sheaf induces an admissible structure on
the Higgs sheaf. Finally, using admissible structures we proved some properties
of semistable Higgs sheaves.Comment: 18 pages; some typos correcte
Studying social media communities : blending methods with netnography
In his work âNetnography Redefinedâ, Kozinets (2015), highlights the massive growth of online communities, calling for new ways of conducting research online. This research explains an application of this approach providing a valuable methodological framework for contemporary Internet based ethnographical research. This case example is derived from an empirical research study of the online communities of a UK football club. This involves the blend of the three qualitative research methods: interview, social network analysis (SNA), and online participant observation. Interviews and participant observation are usual features of ethnographical work but evolving digital tools and social media networks present new research opportunities. The application of netnography and blending of social network analysis therefore presents new opportunities for research. In this case, we describe the tools, techniques and practicalities of applying netnography using blended methods in the digital age. This approach provides a complementary blend for those researchers wishing to study contemporary social media communities. The research application aimed to make an academic and practical contribution to digital marketing, Information Systems (IS) and sport business
Bounds and Inequalities Relating h-Index, g-Index, e-Index and Generalized Impact Factor
Finding relationships among different indices such as h-index, g-index,
e-index, and generalized impact factor is a challenging task. In this paper, we
describe some bounds and inequalities relating h-index, g-index, e-index, and
generalized impact factor. We derive the bounds and inequalities relating these
indexing parameters from their basic definitions and without assuming any
continuous model to be followed by any of them.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 5 table
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