Promising Beginning? Evaluating Museum Mobile Phone Apps

Since 2009 museums have started introducing mobile apps in their range of interpretative media and visitor services. As mobile technology continues to develop and permeate all aspects of our life, and the capabilities of smart phones increase while they become more accessible and popular, new possibilities arise for cultural institutions to exploit these tools for communicating in new ways and promoting their exhibitions and programmes. The use of mobile apps opens up new channels of communication between the cultural institution and the user, which extent to his or her personal space and go beyond the boundaries of the museum’s walls. The paper presents a survey carried out of mobile apps designed by art or cultural historical museums and analyses the wider issues which are raised by the findings. It discusses, among others, the kind of use these apps were designed to fulfil (e.g. the majority are guided tours to the permanent collections or to temporary exhibitions), the layering of content,and the type of user interaction and involvement they support

The acquisition of morphology in a corpus of secondary school EFL learners: a focus on possessive ‘-s’

This paper consists of three separate studies. The principal one is a morpheme order study (MOS) based on our own learner corpus which contains learner language from secondary school students. For this study we were partly based on previous relevant projects, but our research is distinct in two core points. The first relates to the data elicitation instrument (learner corpus) which is a novel and promising approach in the field of second language acquisition research. The second regards the scoring method used in our project in order to establish the accuracy rates for each of the grammatical morphemes at issue. Regarding this, our study’s novelty relies on the combination of the most accurate relevant scoring models that have been previously suggested. Our second study focuses on a specific functor, namely the possessive –s. In this regard we have studied not only the accuracy rates of the aforementioned inflectional possession structure, but also its frequency of use in relation to the other possession forms in English. In keeping with the perceived importance of the data elicitation instrument, we have decided to use two different methods (a learner corpus and an experiment) with our L2 English learners and thus deliver more accurate results. Our final study accounts for the use of the various possession forms in L3 German. This study has two distinct focal points. The first refers to the learners’ preference for one of the possessive forms available in German as seen by our subjects’ corresponding choices. In this regard, we have also compared the frequency of use of each of the possession structures in both L2 English and L3 German. The other point of interest of our third study was the possible influence of our students’ L2 (English) on the acquisition of their L3 (German) as seen by our subjects’ use of the various possessive forms. In all our studies we have classified our subjects according to their proficiency level, which we determined by means of a corresponding test. This is a very distinctive feature of our study since most previous studies on this field have either not considered the subjects’ level of proficiency or they have determined it based on criteria other than an actual proficiency test.Trabajo fin de máster, Universidad de Granada, Departamento de Filologías Inglesa y Alemana. Curso académico 2011-201

An investigation of an ICT in-service teacher training programme in Greece : a case study

This thesis investigates an in-service teacher training programme for using ICT in subject teaching in Greek schools. The programme was aimed at teachers of Greek philology and lasted for an academic year. Its aim. was to enable teachers to use ICT in their teaching. The study begins with a literature review of both educational change and ICT in education. It reaches in conclusions on appropriate strategies of developing the use of ICT in schools. Next a methodology chapter reviews the nature of case studies and explains the mixed methods approach in this thesis. Findings are then reported. First the perceptions of teachers who took part in the training. Next, the perceptions of their teacher-trainers. Next, me perceptions of the head-teachers in the schools in which the teachers worked. Finally, the perceptions of the people who designed the training programme. The report shows both shortcomings and positive aspects of the training and in particular points to the very limited impact it had on teachers' practice. A concept map offers a clearer picture of the data while illustrating any causal relationships. A further investigation of the Greek educational culture is offered and this provides a new dimension for understanding the results

“He will see my drawing and we will play blindman’s bluff together” Overcoming communication barriers in a multicultural kindergarten classroom

Peer interactions and play have been highlighted as key factors for immigrant children’s smooth transition and participation in a new language and cultural context. Taking a sociocultural stance towards children’s participation in early childhood education (ECE) and considering that their communication acts are always multimodal, in this study, we sought to examine peer interactions during play in a Greek multicultural kindergarten with high concentrations of immigrant and refugee students. Data derived from systematic observation of free play activities, semi-structured interviews, and a drawing-telling activity aimed to figure out all children’s ways of acting and communicating. Findings provide further evidence on how material and embodied signs function as means that mediate play and contribute to sustained interactions between children with different linguistic backgrounds, while they reveal the potential of drawing to function as communicational means in multilingual settings.Peer interactions and play have been highlighted as key factors for immigrant children’s smooth transition and participation in a new language and cultural context. Taking a sociocultural stance towards children’s participation in early childhood education (ECE) and considering that their communication acts are always multimodal, in this study, we sought to examine peer interactions during play in a Greek multicultural kindergarten with high concentrations of immigrant and refugee students. Data derived from systematic observation of free play activities, semi-structured interviews, and a drawing-telling activity aimed to figure out all children’s ways of acting and communicating. Findings provide further evidence on how material and embodied signs function as means that mediate play and contribute to sustained interactions between children with different linguistic backgrounds, while they reveal the potential of drawing to function as communicational means in multilingual settings

Mechanisms and effects of acute stress on extinction learning: Two randomised-controlled trials of stress-enhanced CBT for spider phobia

This thesis investigated the application of stress as a pathway to reduce different relapse phenomena and the mechanisms by which this may occur. To address these aims, a systematic review, pilot and small randomised-control study (RCT) were conducted. The systematic review indicated stress generally leads to greater treatment outcomes in the short and long-term (4-6 weeks). An Integrated Model of Stress-Augmentation was used to synthesise findings and suggest mechanisms for investigation. The other studies extended previous findings by investigating the potential for stress to reduce relapse associated with a change in context (renewal) and following an extended period of time (spontaneous recovery) within clinical samples. The role of stress hormones (cortisol and noradrenaline), expectancy of harm and attention were explored as mediators of these effects. Study 1 and 2 included participants aged 18-60, with a fear of spiders, who were randomly allocated to receive a behavioural stress (socially evaluated cold presser task) or control task 25 minutes prior to two virtual-reality exposure sessions. Findings revealed stress improved treatment outcomes at posttreatment, 3-month and 7-month follow-up periods, as measured by spider phobic questionnaires. No effect of stress on renewal of fear was found following test in a novel context. During exposure, stress enhanced initial expectancy of harm, but had no effect on participants engagement with the spider. Mediation analysis revealed cortisol partially mediated the long-term, but not the short-term, benefits of stress on treatment outcomes, confirming previous studies on the memory-enhancing effect of stress. Together, results illustrate stress has the potential to reduce spontaneous recovery of fear, partially accounted for by cortisol, but does not affect renewal of fear assessed in the shortterm

Maize as Energy Crop

Maize is the predominant raw material (together with sugar cane) for the production of bioethanol, the most common and widespread biofuel, and at the same time the predominant raw material for biogas production, with the highest yields in Europe. The advantage of maize biomass over other energy plants is the fact that biomass occurs after harvesting the seed and does not require the use of a different area for its development. The main drawback of the use of maize biomass is the negative effects of removing crop residues on fertility and the physical properties of the soil. Bioethanol’s share of global biofuel production is over 94%, as many countries are replacing a portion of their fossil fuels with biofuels, according to international regulations. The choice of crops used as feedstock for the production of bioethanol is strongly associated with local climatic factors. About 60% of world bioethanol production is made with cane raw material in the Central and South American countries, with Brazil leading, while the remaining 40% from other crops with North America producing bioethanol almost exclusively from maize, and the EU uses as raw material raw starch (cereals and maize) as well as crops such as sugar beet and sweet sorghum