Brands and movie making: using storyboards to develop spatial design students' understanding of narrative

Spatial designers use sketch perspectives as a design development tool because they can offer a powerful means of representing physical form on a flat surface. However, whilst perspectives can depict the appearance of a building, they do not describe it as a narrative sequence of events and experiences. Storyboards can do this because they enable a scheme to be investigated and represented in a multi-sensory and dynamic way, but students can find them difficult to use effectively. The University of Bedfordshire's innovative 'Brands and Movie-Making' project addresses this by requiring its spatial design undergraduates to make experimental movies, providing a powerful vehicle for the development of storyboard-drawing skills and a firm base for the discipline-specific work-to-come. But its effectiveness is limited because the students appear reluctant to draw by hand, and this will be investigated further

Tertiary ICT enrolments and job vacancies: Reflecting on trends

Tertiary enrolments in ICT diploma and degree programmes are increasing from the 2007 lows, but at a rate insufficient to meet an increasing global demand. This impending shortage of knowledge and skills, which threatens the viability of the industry, is acknowledged by both industry leaders and by governments. The ICT monthly trend series, established in September 2010 on the CITRENZ (Computing & Information Technology Research & Education NZ) website, highlights NZ ICT education and job advert trends. Brief excerpts from selected news items are also included each month. These help give some insights into the reasons for the current and impending ICT skills shortages and suggest strategies for addressing the problem. This poster features selected extracts from the monthly trend series, with commentary, over the last 12 months

Key competency development and students use of digital learning objects

The inclusion of key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) has presented challenges for teachers in their efforts to gather evidence and detail student progress for reporting purposes. Research identifies the need to adopt different evaluation processes and systems, as outcomes and progression in key competencies is fundamentally different from those associated with more conventional learning. It also suggests the use of digital tools may assist in this process, but offers few suggestions as to how this might take place. This article introduces and describes a current research project utilising a thinking skills framework and screen-recording software to map students’ interaction with digital learning objects, and explore the extent to which they provide opportunities to develop thinking and relating to others competencies. It suggests the approach offers potential to make explicit for reporting purposes the nature and quality of students’ thinking, and how their interaction with others in groups, influences their ability to solve problems presented by the objects. However, it also suggests the approach may suffer from manageability challenges, and that student-led administration systems need to be developed to ensure its viability in whole class context

Quantum Feedback Channels

In Shannon information theory the capacity of a memoryless communication channel cannot be increased by the use of feedback. In quantum information theory the no-cloning theorem means that noiseless copying and feedback of quantum information cannot be achieved. In this paper, quantum feedback is defined as the unlimited use of a noiseless quantum channel from receiver to sender. Given such quantum feedback, it is shown to provide no increase in the entanglement--assisted capacities of a memoryless quantum channel, in direct analogy to the classical case. It is also shown that in various cases of non-assisted capacities, feedback may increase the capacity of memoryless quantum channels.Comment: 5 pages, requires IEEEtran.cls, expanded, proofs added, references adde

Classical information capacity of superdense coding

Classical communication through quantum channels may be enhanced by sharing entanglement. Superdense coding allows the encoding, and transmission, of up to two classical bits of information in a single qubit. In this paper, the maximum classical channel capacity for states that are not maximally entangled is derived. Particular schemes are then shown to attain this capacity, first for pairs of qubits, and second for pairs of qutrits

The Science-for-Life Partnerships: Does size really matter, and can ICT help?

This study introduces findings of an initial pilot from a New Zealand government-funded initiative known as Science-for-Life, which aims to enhance the quality of science teaching through the formation of face-to-face and virtual learning partnerships involving crown research institutes (CRIs) and primary and secondary schools. Using a case study methodology, it describes and analyses a trial partnership between the CRI, Scion Research, and teachers of Seadown Primary School in Hamilton. The study uses Grobe's (1990) typology of industry-education partnerships as an analytical "lens" through which to evaluate the characteristics of the partnership, and explores the role that ICT played in establishing and sustaining it, well beyond its anticipated conclusion. Findings indicate that while in terms of Grobe's framework a genuine partnership label may not have been appropriate in this case, the interaction nonetheless proved to be extremely valuable in supporting learning goals, and that while ICT played a significant role in this, it was not fundamental to the partnership's success

Making the Connection: Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance and Its Relevance to the Use of a Virtual Classroom in Postgraduate Online Teacher Education

This study explored the use of the Web-based virtual environment, Adobe Connect Pro, in a postgraduate online teacher education programme at the University of Waikato. It applied the tenets of Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance (Moore, 1997) in examining the efficacy of using the virtual classroom to promote quality dialogue and explored how both internal and external structural elements related to the purpose and use of the classroom affected the sense of learner autonomy. The study provides an illustration of the complexity of the relationship that exists between the elements of Moore’s theory, and how the implementation of an external structuring technology such as the virtual classroom, can have both positive impacts (dialogue creation) and negative impacts (diminished sense of learner autonomy). It also suggests that, although Moore’s theory provides a useful conceptual “lens” through which to analyse online learning practices, its tenets may need revisiting to reflect the move toward the use of synchronous communication tools in online distance learning