What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? Almost Anything!

One and a half billion people, all over the world, are walking around with powerful computers in their pockets and purses. The fact is they often do not realize it, because they call them something else. But today's high-end cell phones have the computing power of a mid-1990s personal computer (PC)—while consuming only one one-hundredth of the energy. Even the simplest, voice-only phones have more complex and powerful chips than the 1969 on-board computer that landed a spaceship on the moon. In the United States, it is almost universally acknowledged that computers are essential for 21st-century students. To most educators "computer " means a PC, a laptop, or, in some instances, a personal digital assistant (PDA); cell phones, on the other hand, are more often regarded as bothersome distractions to the learning process. However, it is time to begin thinking of our cell phones as computers—even more powerful in some ways than their bigger cousins. Both have microchips and perform logical functions. The main difference is that the phones began with, and still have, small size, radio transmission, and communication as their core features, expanding out toward calculation and other functions. This has happened at precisely the same time as the calculation machines we call computers have expanded into communication and other areas. Clearly the two are headed toward meeting in the middle; when all the miniaturization problems have been solved, the result will be tiny, fully featured devices that we carry around (or perhaps have implanted i

Applications Technology Satellite ATS-6 experiment checkout and continuing spacecraft evaluation report

The activities of the ATS-6 spacecraft are reviewed. The following subsystems and experiments are summarized: (1) radio beacon experiments; (2) spacecraft attitude precision pointing and slewing adaptive control experiment; (3) satellite instruction television experiment; (4) thermal control subsystem; (5) spacecraft propulsion subsystem; (6) telemetry and control subsystem; (7) millimeter wave experiment; and (8) communications subsystem. The results of performance evaluation of its subsystems and experiments are presented

Game play in vocational training and engineering education

Educational games may create a new and improved learning culture by drawing advantage of the new knowledge and skills of today’s students obtained from extensive use of interactive game software. This paper presents a design basis and online learning resources taking advantage of game-related features like a high degree of interactivity, attractive graphics, a dynamical virtual universe, and an incentive system to promote prolonged and more advanced use. The educational resources, denoted PIDstop, are targeted towards the engineering domain. Feedback from over 2000 users clearly indicates that PIDstop has a positive learning effect. Training packages for vocational training of Automation Technicians is emphasized in this paper. Such learning resources must have a limited mathematical complexity; hence, the representation should be rather descriptive. Evaluation of learning resources to assess the actual learning effect is important, and a two-step procedure based on formative and summative evaluation is proposed for this purpose

Digital library economics : aspects and prospects

A review of the issues surrounding the economics of and economic justification for, digital libraries

Students as designers and creators of educational computer games: Who else

Abstract In the companion article, Spirit of the Game: Empowering Students as Designers in Schools?, author Cher Ping Lim puts forth strong arguments supporting the creation and use of curricular, educational games in our schools and education. His essay ends with the question 'Can students build such games?' This paper responses to this question and provides examples of how students can design and build games within the school curriculum to enhance engagement in the classrooms. Two approaches are suggested: Mini-game-based curriculum and complex game for entire course

Por qué los defensores del “aprendizaje a lo largo la vida” están en lo cierto solo a medias

Many currently promote a new need for Life-Long Learning in the future distinguishing it from the older model of learn once and then work. We argue that while life-long learning may indeed happen for many, it is not a useful goal. A far better goal is Life-Long Accomplishment, since, outside of academia, humans learn in order to accomplish. Too many assume that if people learn things, accomplishment will automatically follow, but this is false. Although learning new things is certainly a piece of what is needed in a changing world, it is far better to focus people on why, for instance, what do they want to accomplish?  Focusing on the continuation of learning throughout life, and not on the accomplishments it leads to is, in many cases, self-serving for those who see themselves in the learning business. Life-Long Learning leaves unasked and unanswered the question of to what end. The world does not need life-long learners, however the world needs people who can get things done and learn whatever they need as they do. Focusing people only (or even primarily) on the goal of learning gives a false idea of what is truly needed for in the 21st century, and therefore deserves only partial credit as a useful solution.Actualmente se habla con frecuencia de una nueva necesidad de aprendizaje permanente, distinguiéndolo del modelo precedente basado en primero aprender y luego trabajar. Argumentamos que, si bien el aprendizaje permanente puede desarrollarse, no es un objetivo útil. Una meta mucho mejor es el logro de por vida, ya que, fuera de la academia, los humanos aprenden para lograr. Demasiados asumen que si las personas aprenden cosas, el logro seguirá automáticamente, y esto argumentamos que es falso. Aunque aprender cosas nuevas es ciertamente una parte de lo que se necesita en un mundo cambiante, es mucho mejor enfocar a las personas en por qué, por ejemplo, ¿qué quieren lograr? Enfocarse en la continuación del aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida, y no en los logros a los que conduce es, en muchos casos, egoísta para aquellos que se ven a sí mismos en el negocio del aprendizaje. El aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida deja sin plantear y sin respuesta la pregunta de con qué fin. El mundo no necesita aprendices de por vida, sino que el mundo necesita personas que puedan hacer las cosas y aprender todo lo que necesitan mientras lo hacen. Centrar a las personas solo (o incluso principalmente) en el objetivo de aprender da una idea falsa de lo que realmente se necesita en el siglo XXI, por lo que esta idea solo merece un crédito parcial como solución útil