Integrating social software into course design and tracking student engagement : early results and research perspectives

The uptake of social software is becoming more widespread in many sectors of education and organizational development. However, there is little empirical research on the impacts of adopting these technologies, and so it is difficult to determine appropriate pedagogic models and whether or not the desired learning outcomes are being realized. This paper reports early findings of an ongoing pilot study which is based on the concept of collaborative learning and supported by means of social software. It describes the educational philosophy behind the study and the teaching techniques used. The application of various features of social software, including blogs, file management and personalization, are discussed, as well as the different techniques for facilitating and measuring the level of student engagement with social software. The results indicate that student engagement with social software can be shaped by course design and activities that integrate educational technology into the course structure

Laboratory experiments on testate amoebae preservation in peats: Implications for palaeoecology and future studies

Testate amoebae analysis has been shown to be a valuable technique to reconstruct peatland palaeohydrology and thereby past climate change. However there is cause for concern over the potential impact of differential preservation on the record. To investigate the impact of various environmental factors a sequence of Sphagnum samples were subjected to treatment with weak acid, nutrient enrichment and desiccation over 28-months and shorter-term experiments with stronger acids. Changes were subtle but statistically signifi cant with three treatments: long-term dessication and short-term acid treatment at two different concentrations. Results suggest that in dry periods the palaeoecological record may be skewed by differential preservation of tests, potentially leading to over-estimation of water table depths

Announcement effects and seasonality in the intra-day foreign exchange market

This paper examines two aspects of spot FX volatility. Using intra-daily quotation data on the Deutsche Mark/Dollar we simultaneously estimate the deterministic intra-daily seasonal pattern inherent in volatility and the effects of US macroeconomic announcements. The empirical specification and estimation technique is based on the Stochastic Volatility methodology contained in Harvey, Ruiz and Shephard (1994). Results conform with previous work, in that 'news' effects are strong and persistent, being felt for over one hour after the initial release time. Inclusion of an explicit seasonal is shown to be essential for the accurate estimation of other volatility components. Further estimations allow us to examine which particular pieces of US data move the markets. These result show that the most important statistics are those associated with the Employment and Mercantile Trade reports

Ecology of Testate Amoebae from Mires in the Central Rhodope Mountains, Greece and Development of a Transfer Function for Palaeohydrological Reconstruction

Testate amoebae are useful environmental indicators in ecological and palaeoecological studies from peatlands. Previous quantitative studies have focused on the peatlands of Northern and Central Europe, North America, and New Zealand and have considered a relatively restricted variety of peatland types, mostly ombrotrophic or Sphagnum-dominated while more minerotrophic fens have been less studied. Here we present the first quantitative ecological study of testate amoebae from four small mesotrophic fens (pH 5.5-8.1) in the Elatia Forest, northern Macedonia province, Greece. Relationships with the environmental data were investigated using redundancy analysis and mantel tests. Transfer function models were derived using a variety of techniques. Results demonstrate that as for Sphagnum-dominated mires hydrology is the most important control on amoebae community composition. Transfer function models should enable water tables to be predicted within 2.5 cm, when data selection is used this is reduced to less than 2 cm. pH is also an important environmental control on testate amoebae communities, a transfer function model enables pH prediction within 0.4 pH units. The hydrological transfer function is the best performing such model yet produced in terms of prediction error. This study provides new data on the ecology of testate amoebae in fens, and the transfer function models should allow quantitative palaeohydrological reconstruction

Trials of a new relative humidity sensor

A new relative humidity and air temperature sensor, the Sensirion Model SHTl, has been thoroughly tested by the Upper Ocean Processes (UOP) group at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. One-minute averages from two of the sensors, as well as a Väisälä HMP4SA, were recorded for over a year. A third Sensirion sensor was kept in the laboratory and calibrated at monthly intervals with the other three sensors. The standard deviation of the difference in relative humidity between the Sensirion sensors and the Väisälä was about 2% RH. The difference in air temperature was about 0.2°C. Drift rates in relative humidity for the two Sensirion sensors were 2.7% RH/yr and -0.3% RH/yr, and in air temperature, O.1°C/yr and 0/3°C/yr. Because one of the two Sensirion sensors deployed outside had significant variations in its calibration, the UOP group will not adopt these sensors. However, their very small size, low-cost, and low-power requirements may make them desirable for other uses.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant Number NA17RJ1223