Break it! till you Make it!

Break it till you Make it explores the democratization of digital project-based learning with children ages 7-11. Using elementary schools and community centers in Toronto as a case study, this project looks at how we can dramatically lower the cost of digital project-based learning when classes sizes of 30 are commonplace. The research investigated the current trends in digital education, and how digital project-based education fosters the 4 Cs: creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. Finally, the research documented the process of building a low-cost mobile makerspace, cost-effective workshops and participant feedback. The result showed the dramatic reduction of cost per child for digital learning and the scalability of the workshops. The overarching methodology used was action-based and incorporated mixed methods to design the workshops. Staff and volunteers participated as facilitators and co-participants. Lastly, the project provides a new lens by which to look at digital making, by using accessible materials and crafting tools

Translating cyberculture : an analysis of American and Brazilian cultural differences evidenced in the translation of a popular computer text

This thesis examines the translation of a popular American computer book and its translation into Brazilian Portuguese to determine whether current discourses on computers and technology are being literally translated or culturally adapted for their target audience. The selected text adopts a humorous approach to learning new software applications and replaces complicated technical explanations with culturally-bound examples that are inextricably tied to American attitudes toward technology. An analysis of the translation reveals that the ideologies and social codes at work in the book threaten to impede the Brazilian reader\u27s understanding due to the translator\u27s failure to adapt the text for the target audience

Bias-Free Joint Simulation of Multi-Factor Short Rate Models and Discount Factor

This dissertation explores the use of single- and multi-factor Gaussian short rate models for the valuation of interest rate sensitive European options. Specifically, the focus is on deriving the joint distribution of the short rate and the discount factor, so that an exact and unbiased simulation scheme can be derived for risk-neutral valuation. We see that the derivation of the joint distribution remains tractable when working with the class of Gaussian short rate models. The dissertation compares three joint and exact simulation schemes for the short rate and the discount factor in the single-factor case; and two schemes in the multifactor case. We price European floor options and European swaptions using a twofactor Gaussian short rate model and explore the use of variance reduction techniques. We compare the exact and unbiased schemes to other solutions available in the literature: simulating the short rate under the forward measure and approximating the discount factor using quadrature