496 research outputs found
Electronic portfoilios for design and technology
This paper concentrates on the work of students studying
design and technology education (DTE) in initial teacher
education (ITE) at Sheffield Hallam University. As an
early part of their course they study a module that develops
their ability to design and manufacture products using a
range of skills and processes. This involves the origination,
collation and presentation of a portfolio of evidence to
support a number of physical product outcomes design and
manufactured during the semester. The submission
requirements associated with this course component raise a
number of teaching and learning issues relating to the
generation and use of portfolios of evidence, commonly
associated with the assessment of design and technology
activity. These issues include:
⢠the use of reflective processes by students in the
evaluation of their own outcomes and learning is
underdeveloped both specifically within DTE
⢠submissions do not necessarily encourage active student
reflection or the articulation of thought processes
⢠the contents tend to be entirely two dimensional and do
not encourage recording of three dimensional
development work undertaken
⢠they are bulky and do not easily lend themselves to
display, storage and handling
⢠maintaining the order of contents is difficult and liable
to change when accessed
⢠for security reasons, general availability and access to
their contents is restricted to a few (usually only tutors)
and does not easily facilitate peer scrutiny
⢠presentation can often incur unnecessary cost for
students.
Electronic portfolios are becoming common in the
commercial world and in some areas of education. This
project examines the potential enhancement of the teaching
and learning opportunities brought about by the use of elearning
in ITE as an instrument for developing student
capability.
This small-scale study attempts to evaluate the experiences
of a group of 41 students in their first year of a two year
route into teaching. They were required to submit for
assessment an electronic record of their design work. This
made use of commonly available software uploaded to their
Blackboard e-learning âsiteâ. Minimum support was given
to students in the use of the technology for e-portfolio
production. Subsequently the project seeks to examine the
contribution to the learning process of students completing
this module. The methodology used by the researcher to
collect data includes the use of observation, semi-structured
interviews and a questionnaire. Evidence is examined to
identify occurrence and use of the following:
⢠simple annotation of media to improve clarity and
emphasis thus enabling reflection
⢠generation of critical dialogue recording the iterative
process between thinking and doing associated with
designing and making
⢠distillation of thinking and its affect on refining decision
making
⢠inclusion of animation techniques
⢠opportunity taken by students to view the work of others
made available through the associated Blackboard
course
⢠streamlining of submissions alleviating the need for the
generation and storage of paper based portfolios
Universality of Entanglement and Quantum Computation Complexity
We study the universality of scaling of entanglement in Shor's factoring
algorithm and in adiabatic quantum algorithms across a quantum phase transition
for both the NP-complete Exact Cover problem as well as the Grover's problem.
The analytic result for Shor's algorithm shows a linear scaling of the entropy
in terms of the number of qubits, therefore difficulting the possibility of an
efficient classical simulation protocol. A similar result is obtained
numerically for the quantum adiabatic evolution Exact Cover algorithm, which
also shows universality of the quantum phase transition the system evolves
nearby. On the other hand, entanglement in Grover's adiabatic algorithm remains
a bounded quantity even at the critical point. A classification of scaling of
entanglement appears as a natural grading of the computational complexity of
simulating quantum phase transitions.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in PR
The Technology Enhancement Programme (TEP) millennium research - a positive intervention to change the D&T curriculum
OfSTED reports published at the start of the
millennium indicated significant weaknesses in the
Key Stage 3 design and technology (D&T)
curriculum. In 2002 HMI said:
'- - the choice of project, with contexts that
are pertinent to pupilsâ experience,
is crucial to successful learning in design and
technology. Far too many projects
are based on contexts that are seen as
irrelevant or boring by pupils. Tasks need
to encourage creative and innovative
responses.'
(OfSTED 2002b 7)
The previous year's report highlighted possible
reasons for this weakness. HMI said:
' - - many teachers are failing to keep up
with new developments in the subject
because there are few opportunities for
appropriate INSET - - .'
(OfSTED 2001c 5)
The Technology Enhancement Programme (TEP)
has a remit to develop the D&T curriculum
therefore it was appropriate they instigated a
development programme to facilitate change in
the Key Stage 3 curriculum. This became known
as the TEP Millennium Project
Approaches to teaching pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties in design and technology
The DfES defines pupils with Behavioural,
Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESDs) as people
who are:
âWithdrawn or isolated, disruptive and disturbing,
hyperactive and lack concentration; those with
immature social skills; and those presenting
challenging behaviours arising from other complex
special needs.â (DfES 2001: 58).
This definition encompasses a very broad range of
children with diverse needs. However, there are
common approaches that can be used to meet the
needs of these children in design and technology
(D&T). Traditionally design and technology has been
a particularly popular subject for pupils displaying
BESDs. There has been little research as to why
this should be. This paper explores practice in D&T
by making reference to case study material collected
from four schools. The case studies were
commissioned by the Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority (QCA) for dissemination via the NCaction
website (a searchable resource for schools that
illustrates how the National Curriculum works in
practice). The case studies considered activity
undertaken by pupils working in resistant materials,
food technology and CAD/CAM. The case studies
highlighted the use, by teachers of pupils with
BESDs, of common approaches including group
work, raising self esteem, the use of rewards and
challenge, relevance and using IC
Cyclic networks of quantum gates
In this article initial steps in an analysis of cyclic networks of quantum
logic gates is given. Cyclic networks are those in which the qubit lines are
loops. Here we have studied one and two qubit systems plus two qubit cyclic
systems connected to another qubit on an acyclic line. The analysis includes
the group classification of networks and studies of the dynamics of the qubits
in the cyclic network and of the perturbation effects of an acyclic qubit
acting on a cyclic network. This is followed by a discussion of quantum
algorithms and quantum information processing with cyclic networks of quantum
gates, and a novel implementation of a cyclic network quantum memory. Quantum
sensors via cyclic networks are also discussed.Comment: 14 pages including 11 figures, References adde
QuickSNP: an automated web server for selection of tagSNPs
Although large-scale genetic association studies involving hundreds to thousands of SNPs have become feasible, the associated cost is substantial. Even with the increased efficiency introduced by the use of tagSNPs, researchers are often seeking ways to maximize resource utilization given a set of SNP-based gene-mapping goals. We have developed a web server named QuickSNP in order to provide cost-effective selection of SNPs, and to fill in some of the gaps in existing SNP selection tools. One useful feature of QuickSNP is the option to select only gene-centric SNPs from a chromosomal region in an automated fashion. Other useful features include automated selection of coding non-synonymous SNPs, SNP filtering based on inter-SNP distances and information regarding the availability of genotyping assays for SNPs and whether they are present on whole genome chips. The program produces user-friendly summary tables and results, and a link to a UCSC Genome Browser track illustrating the position of the selected tagSNPs in relation to genes and other genomic features. We hope the unique combination of features of this server will be useful for researchers aiming to select markers for their genotyping studies. The server is freely available and can be accessed at the URL http://bioinformoodics.jhmi.edu/quickSNP.pl
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