Concept mapping and other formalisms as mindtools for representing knowledge

We seek to provide an alternative theoretical perspective on concept mapping (a formalism for representing structural knowledge) to that provided by Ray McAleese in this issue of ALT-J (auto-monitoring). We begin with an overview of concept maps as a means of describing a learner's knowledge constructs, and then discuss a broader class of tools, Mindtools, of which concept maps are a member. We proceed by defining Mindtools as formalisms for representing knowledge, and further elaborate on concept maps as a formalism for representing a particular kind of knowledge: structural knowledge. We then address McAleese's use of the term auto-monitoring and some of the steps in his model of concept maps. Finally, we describe some limitations of concept mapping as a formalism and as a cognitive learning strategy

Design Problems for Secondary Students

Are there different kinds of design problems? According to Brown and Chandrasekaran (1989), Class 1 design problems are open-ended, non-routine creative activities where the goals are ill-structured, and there is no effective design plan specifying the sequence of actions to take in producing a design model. Class 2 problems use existing, well-developed design and decomposition plans (e.g. designing a new automobile). Class 3 designs are routine where design and decomposition plans are known as well as customary actions taken to deal with failures (e.g., writing a computer program). Jonassen (2011) argued that problems vary in terms of structuredness, complexity, and context. On the structuredness and complexity continua, design problems tend to be the most ill-structured and complex. Brown and Chandrasekaran suggest that design problems may vary along a continuum from well-structured to ill-structured, depending upon the context in which they are solved. In formal, school contexts, design problems are often more constrained, allowing many fewer degrees of freedom in their representations, processes, or solutions and are therefore more well-structured

Effects of semantically structured hypertextual knowledge bases on user knowledge structures

Some hypertext researchers and designers believe that hypertext information structures should reflect the structures of human memory and that by empirically deriving and then mapping the semantic structure of information onto hypertext and explicitly illustrating that structure in the hypertext interface will result in greater changes in the knowledge structures of the users (Jonassen, 1990, 1991b; Lambiotte et al., 1989; McAleese, 1990; McDonald, Paap and McDonald, 1990). This chapter introduces techniques for ascertaining an expert’s knowledge structure and mapping it onto hypertext. It then reviews the results of an ongoing series of studies that test these ideas. The studies show that merely illustrating content structures in the interface is not sufficient for helping learners acquire that structure. Rather, it is the nature of the processing task and goals for learning whilst interacting with a hypertext that determines the effects of its use on learners’ knowledge structures

Electronic Payment Systems: Payment Gateways and Data Security Standards

The use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops allow electronic transactions to be made anytime, anywhere, and by anyone. This version of commerce, known as e-commerce or digital commerce, has become a mainstay in the way consumers shop. Online payments have essentially made cash payment systems virtually obsolete. Also, the Internet has made it possible for businesses to expand their reach across the globe. More importantly, due to the proliferation of social media as a guiding agent for purchasing decisions, e-commerce has evolved into one of the most significant driving forces into how businesses generate revenue (Wong 2018). According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2019), the year’s retail e-commerce sales reached 154.7 billion, and the data indicated that sales would continue to grow. Coexisting with the steady rise of sales is the need for skilled and knowledgeable workers. Torpey (2018) shared a Bureau of Labor and Statistics report which revealed that e-commerce employment is expected to reach approximately 450,000 by 2026. Many of these jobs require advanced knowledge of credit card standards and acceptance procedures. Aligned to these expectations, the purpose of this project was to garner an understanding of payment gateways (PGs) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) to develop material to enhance an undergraduate e-commerce curriculum. The outcome of this research will be three-fold. First, it will offer qualitative outcomes on how students and teachers collaborated on gathering appropriate learning material to be used in the classroom. Second, the results of a quantitative student survey, administered near the end of the semester, will provide supporting evidence of the need to add this material into the curriculum. Third, using a scholarly practitioner model, the outcomes will bridge the gap between academia and real-world applications to equip students with the necessary knowledge to enter the workforce

From classroom reality to virtual classroom: the role of teacher-created scripts in the development of classroom simulation technology

This paper describes a specific kind of teacher narrative (the teacher created script) to support the design of a classroom simulation to be used in pre-service teacher education. We intend to share our experiences in exploring and developing the kind of narrative text which can be developed from a large reservoir of ethnographically generated data collected from the teachers and classrooms we have closely observed and documented over the last two decades. In particular, we explore the role which these narratives play within the development of the kind of classroom simulation we have produced. Reflection has long been acknowledged as a useful process for teachers to engage with. Also, the notion of formalising such reflections through writing has been acknowledged as a way to share, refine and articulate teaching practice. As stated by Barth (2001:66) “…with written words come the innermost secrets of schools”. This prototype simulation allows the user to adopt the role of a Kindergarten teacher using a daily literacy teaching episode we refer to as “days of the week” and encourages the user to reflect upon the decisions they make about the organisation and implementation of this recurring teaching experience. The range of options that occur in this simulation stem from the teacher-created script we developed drawing from our own teaching experiences and classroom-based research to shape this virtual classroom

Why Do We Fall? Using Experiences of Failure to Design Case Libraries

Instructional designers can support ill-structured problem solving through case libraries that detail domain-specific principles. In this design project, case libraries were employed in an undergraduate sales management course to contextualize knowledge and describe the ill-structured nature of how solutions are derived to solve authentic problems. Whereas many learning environments employ examples of model behavior (Jonassen, 2011), this instructional design was innovative in that the case libraries consisted of sales management failure experiences as the means to facilitate learning. The failure cases embedded within the learning environment engendered design tensions on multiple levels throughout the instructional design. Specifically, this article discusses the issues of engaging the subject matter expert (SME) to talk about failure cases and subsequent challenges to translate the experiences into meaningful learning resources for ill-structured problem solving. Other challenges included how to strategically design the learning environment so that the case library was available at the optimal time for the learners. The design case concludes with a reflection upon the process

Residents Report on the Importance of an Undergraduate End of Life Interclerkship

Does the perceived value of a third year End of Life (EOL) Interclerkship change after medical students complete their first year of residency? Several research studies indicate students’ perceptions about specific learning experiences change after graduating from medical school. The value that medical students put on their education of end of life issues increases after they leave medical school. This finding highlights the importance of teaching end of life issues to undergraduate medical students. Presented at the AAMC (Association of American Colleges) Annual Meeting, RIME (Research in Medical Education) Program, November 2006

The EMBRACE web service collection

The EMBRACE (European Model for Bioinformatics Research and Community Education) web service collection is the culmination of a 5-year project that set out to investigate issues involved in developing and deploying web services for use in the life sciences. The project concluded that in order for web services to achieve widespread adoption, standards must be defined for the choice of web service technology, for semantically annotating both service function and the data exchanged, and a mechanism for discovering services must be provided. Building on this, the project developed: EDAM, an ontology for describing life science web services; BioXSD, a schema for exchanging data between services; and a centralized registry (http://www.embraceregistry.net) that collects together around 1000 services developed by the consortium partners. This article presents the current status of the collection and its associated recommendations and standards definition

The Structure of a Rigorously Conserved RNA Element within the SARS Virus Genome

We have solved the three-dimensional crystal structure of the stem-loop II motif (s2m) RNA element of the SARS virus genome to 2.7-Å resolution. SARS and related coronaviruses and astroviruses all possess a motif at the 3′ end of their RNA genomes, called the s2m, whose pathogenic importance is inferred from its rigorous sequence conservation in an otherwise rapidly mutable RNA genome. We find that this extreme conservation is clearly explained by the requirement to form a highly structured RNA whose unique tertiary structure includes a sharp 90° kink of the helix axis and several novel longer-range tertiary interactions. The tertiary base interactions create a tunnel that runs perpendicular to the main helical axis whose interior is negatively charged and binds two magnesium ions. These unusual features likely form interaction surfaces with conserved host cell components or other reactive sites required for virus function. Based on its conservation in viral pathogen genomes and its absence in the human genome, we suggest that these unusual structural features in the s2m RNA element are attractive targets for the design of anti-viral therapeutic agents. Structural genomics has sought to deduce protein function based on three-dimensional homology. Here we have extended this approach to RNA by proposing potential functions for a rigorously conserved set of RNA tertiary structural interactions that occur within the SARS RNA genome itself. Based on tertiary structural comparisons, we propose the s2m RNA binds one or more proteins possessing an oligomer-binding-like fold, and we suggest a possible mechanism for SARS viral RNA hijacking of host protein synthesis, both based upon observed s2m RNA macromolecular mimicry of a relevant ribosomal RNA fold