Online tutorial support in open distance learning through audio-graphic SCMC: tutor impressions

The adoption of audio-graphic conferencing brings with it changes to the learning experience for tutors and students alike. These need to be researched to gain an insight into the learning experience of those teaching and being taught through the medium. One of the conferencing tools that has been utilised for much of the documented research on audio-graphic conferencing is the Lyceum software, used at the UK Open University since 2002 to provide tutorial support for higher level language learners. The use of the software has been reported at different stages, from the pilot projects since 1997 (Hauck & Haezewindt, 1999, Shield 2000, Kötter 2001, Hewer and Shield 2001), to reports of the mainstream use (Hampel 2003, Hampel & Hauck 2004). It seems logical that the next step should be to research into the tutors’ experiences of the audio-graphic tool, which is a key element in the CALL research agenda (Warschauer, 1997; Debski & Levy, 1999). As the Open University prepares to phase out the software and replace it with a Moodle-based open-content audio-graphic synchronous conferencing tool, the insight into teaching with such tools becomes more valuable to other language learning professionals and institutions. In this paper we will report on a study of data collected from 18 tutors after spending a year teaching a new beginners’ course online. We will examine their perceptions of the audio-graphic tool and challenge some of the results from the initial research into audio-graphic conferencing. Most tutors found the teaching experience very positive and liked using the tool; however some experienced technical problems and believe that these affect the learning experience. In addition we will report on the first and successful use of the environment for assessment purposes

Electronic literacy with and attitudes towards the web as a resource for foreign language learning

About the book: This collection of papers aims at being the connecting link between their knowledge base and language as the main tool for achieving their aims and objectives. Internet in LSP and Foreign Language Teaching contains stimulating practical examples to achieve both academic and professional success, and it raises issues of concern in the field of English for Professional and Academic Purposes

Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers

This article shows how a group of language teachers use Twitter as a tool for continuous professional development through the #MFLtwitterati hashtag. Based on data collected through a survey (n=116) and interviews (n=11), it describes how this collective of teachers use the hashtag and evaluates the impact of their Twitter network on their teaching practices. The results show that most users try the suggestions and ideas that they find on this network, which have a positive impact on their teaching. Finally, the article assesses whether the hashtag users can be described as a community of practice

Design and user evaluation of a mobile app to teach Chinese characters.

This paper presents both the pedagogical design principles and the challenges faced during the development of a mobile app, Chinese Characters First Steps, to support recognising, learning and practising writing Chinese characters at beginners’ level, including the difficult balance between pedagogy and technical affordances. We also present the results of a research study which collected quantitative data from over 130 users of the app as well as qualitative data from interviews with four users. The results offer a profile of language learning app users and very positive attitudes towards learning with apps. They also reveal users' reasons for learning Chinese, patterns of learning, expectations of the app, and evaluation of the different features for their own personal learning. Finally, the paper concludes that the chosen design principles for the app were appropriate for its purpose

Estimating Upper Extremity Joint Contributions in Functional Motions to Create a Metric for Injury Prevention Using OpenSim

Functional movements have the potential to predict risk of injury based on the frequency of these movements on a daily basis. In order for a metric to be established, a variety of healthy subjects must be recorded performing these motions. It was predicted that motions covering a large three-dimensional workspace will require greater contributions from the shoulder joint, while motions with more of a planar workspace will require greater contributions from the elbow joint. Ten subjects, five male and five female, performed two different functional tasks involving the upper extremity. Pointing and drinking tasks were selected based on the frequency that these tasks are performed on a daily basis. Each subject was affixed with passive reflective markers according to a previously developed OpenSim upper extremity model. The subject performed each task eight times while being recording with a Vicon camera system. The five trials with the least amount of marker exclusion were chosen for analysis. The inverse kinematics and dynamics for each trial were determined using OpenSim and then filtered through a low pass filter. The resulting ranges of motion for shoulder elevation and elbow flexion for both the drinking and pointing tasks were as expected. For the drinking task, the majority of subjects flexed their elbow 60° and their shoulder elevation fluctuated between 30-50°. For the pointing task, the majority of the subjects elbow flexion varied no more than 10°, and their shoulder elevation fluctuated between 70-95°. Figure 1 shows the results of one of the subjects. From this preliminary study, it is observed that most of the subjects use similar kinematics to accomplish each task; however, several of the subjects displayed irregular kinematics during some of their trials. Overall, these results are consistent with previous studies [1]. This preliminary study provides a foundation for future studies focusing on injury prevention and performance enhancement for athletes. A range of functional movements will be recorded and analyzed to develop quantitative metrics that will serve as indicators for potential injuries and will also be used to inform training protocols aimed at reducing the overall risk of injuries for athletes

Object-Based Greenhouse Classification from GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 Stereo Imagery

Remote sensing technologies have been commonly used to perform greenhouse detection and mapping. In this research, stereo pairs acquired by very high-resolution optical satellites GeoEye-1 (GE1) and WorldView-2 (WV2) have been utilized to carry out the land cover classification of an agricultural area through an object-based image analysis approach, paying special attention to greenhouses extraction. The main novelty of this work lies in the joint use of single-source stereo-photogrammetrically derived heights and multispectral information from both panchromatic and pan-sharpened orthoimages. The main features tested in this research can be grouped into different categories, such as basic spectral information, elevation data (normalized digital surface model; nDSM), band indexes and ratios, texture and shape geometry. Furthermore, spectral information was based on both single orthoimages and multiangle orthoimages. The overall accuracy attained by applying nearest neighbor and support vector machine classifiers to the four multispectral bands of GE1 were very similar to those computed from WV2, for either four or eight multispectral bands. Height data, in the form of nDSM, were the most important feature for greenhouse classification. The best overall accuracy values were close to 90%, and they were not improved by using multiangle orthoimages

Developing Allometric Equations for Teak Plantations Located in the Coastal Region of Ecuador from Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data

Traditional studies aimed at developing allometric models to estimate dry above-ground biomass (AGB) and other tree-level variables, such as tree stem commercial volume (TSCV) or tree stem volume (TSV), usually involves cutting down the trees. Although this method has low uncertainty, it is quite costly and inefficient since it requires a very time-consuming field work. In order to assist in data collection and processing, remote sensing is allowing the application of non-destructive sampling methods such as that based on terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). In this work, TLS-derived point clouds were used to digitally reconstruct the tree stem of a set of teak trees (Tectona grandis Linn. F.) from 58 circular reference plots of 18 m radius belonging to three different plantations located in the Coastal Region of Ecuador. After manually selecting the appropriate trees from the entire sample, semi-automatic data processing was performed to provide measurements of TSCV and TSV, together with estimates of AGB values at tree level. These observed values were used to develop allometric models, based on diameter at breast height (DBH), total tree height (h), or the metric DBH2 × h, by applying a robust regression method to remove likely outliers. Results showed that the developed allometric models performed reasonably well, especially those based on the metric DBH2 × h, providing low bias estimates and relative RMSE values of 21.60% and 16.41% for TSCV and TSV, respectively. Allometric models only based on tree height were derived from replacing DBH by h in the expression DBH2 x h, according to adjusted expressions depending on DBH classes (ranges of DBH). This finding can facilitate the obtaining of variables such as AGB (carbon stock) and commercial volume of wood over teak plantations in the Coastal Region of Ecuador from only knowing the tree height, constituting a promising method to address large-scale teak plantations monitoring from the canopy height models derived from digital aerial stereophotogrammetry

Jupyter Notebooks as scientific gateways to access cloud computing and distributed storage

Trabajo presentado a la International Conference on Advanced Scientific Computing (ICASC), celebrada en Sinaia (Rumania) del 12 al 14 de septiembre de 2019

Object-Based Greenhouse Mapping Using Very High Resolution Satellite Data and Landsat 8 Time Series

Greenhouse mapping through remote sensing has received extensive attention over the last decades. In this article, the innovative goal relies on mapping greenhouses through the combined use of very high resolution satellite data (WorldView-2) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) time series within a context of an object-based image analysis (OBIA) and decision tree classification. Thus, WorldView-2 was mainly used to segment the study area focusing on individual greenhouses. Basic spectral information, spectral and vegetation indices, textural features, seasonal statistics and a spectral metric (Moment Distance Index, MDI) derived from Landsat 8 time series and/or WorldView-2 imagery were computed on previously segmented image objects. In order to test its temporal stability, the same approach was applied for two different years, 2014 and 2015. In both years, MDI was pointed out as the most important feature to detect greenhouses. Moreover, the threshold value of this spectral metric turned to be extremely stable for both Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 imagery. A simple decision tree always using the same threshold values for features from Landsat 8 time series and WorldView-2 was finally proposed. Overall accuracies of 93.0% and 93.3% and kappa coefficients of 0.856 and 0.861 were attained for 2014 and 2015 datasets, respectively

DESARROLLO INTEGRAL SUSTENTABLE DE LOS VALLES ALTOS DEL ESTADO CARABOBO DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA DEL CONSTRUCCIONISMO SOCIAL

Frente a cambios emergentes en el sector agr\uedcola, es necesario implementar directrices que promuevan la productividad en las organizaciones vinculas a la actividad agroproductiva en los ecos contributivos del desarrollo sustentable, impulsando un enfoque de creatividad hacia nuevos sistemas de viabilidad ecol\uf3gica, equidad social y rentabilidad econ\uf3mica, para exponer formas de agregado de valor mediante la identificaci\uf3n de efectos sin\ue9rgicos del entramado de interrelaciones. El prop\uf3sito del estudio fue formular lineamientos estrat\ue9gicos para desarrollar programas y proyectos en el marco de Seguridad Alimentaria y Desarrollo Agrario en los Valles Altos de Carabobo (municipios Bejuma, Miranda y Montalb\ue1n), a partir del diagn\uf3stico territorial empleando Evaluaci\uf3n Multicriterio y Sistema de Informaci\uf3n Geogr\ue1fica con apoyo de la Geom\ue1tica. Con un enfoque construccionista social, la investigaci\uf3n es fenomenol\uf3gica, apoyada en la hermen\ue9utica. Se obtuvo como resultado un conjunto de orientaciones para el dise\uf1o de programas y proyectos desde las dimensiones precisadas (educaci\uf3n ambiental, capacitaci\uf3n y agrogesti\uf3n, agroecolog\ueda, generaci\uf3n de valor agregado y actividades de apoyo desde la institucionalidad), como mecanismos articuladores de promoci\uf3n de la competitividad del sector agr\uedcola, con los r\ue9ditos en la organizaci\uf3n, capacitaci\uf3n de productores, diversificaci\uf3n agroproductiva, mejoras ambientales locales y calidad de vida. Desde esta perspectiva, destaca la relevancia observada en relaci\uf3n a procesos de organizaci\uf3n, capacitaci\uf3n y formaci\uf3n en el contexto del sector agr\uedcola, corresponsabilizando la participaci\uf3n de actores desde la institucionalidad y representatividad social, para extender los r\ue9ditos sobre el estado de competitividad sectorial derivados de la implementaci\uf3n de programas asociados a los lineamientos estrat\ue9gicos que se exponen. Palabras Clave: Construccionismo social, productividad agr\uedcola, Valles Altos de Carabobo. ABSTRACT To emerging changes in the agricultural sector, it is necessary to implement guidelines that promote productivity in organizations linked to commodity activity in the contributory echoes of sustainable development, promoting an approach of creativity towards new systems of ecological viability, social equity and economic profitability, to expose forms of value added through the identification of synergistic effects of the network of interrelations. The purpose of the study was to formulate strategic guidelines for developing programmes and projects in the context of food security and agricultural development in the Valleys High of Carabobo (municipalities Bejuma, Miranda and Montalb\ue1n), based on the diagnosis territorial using Multicriteria evaluation and GIS support of geomatics. A social constructionist approach, research is phenomenological, supported in hermeneutics. Resulted in a set of guidelines for the design of programmes and projects from the specified dimensions (environmental education, training and agrogestion, Agroecology, generating added value and support activities from the institutional framework), as articulators mechanisms for the promotion of the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, with revenues in the organization, training of producers, commodity diversification, local environmental improvements and quality of life. From this perspective, it highlights the importance observed in relation to processes of organization and training in the context of agriculture, fire the participation of actors from the institutional and social representation, to extend the revenues on the status of sectoral competitiveness arising from the implementation of programs associated with the strategic guidelines which are exposed. Keywords: Social constructionism, agricultural productivity, Carabobo's High Valleys. <br