|
|
Learning Technology publication
of IEEE Computer Society's |
|
|
Volume 7 Issue 4 |
ISSN 1438-0625 |
October 2005 |
Guest Editorial:
Information Technologies in Education – An East European Perspective
Social
Pre-requisites of Establishing Information Society in Armenia
New Method of
Teaching Ecological Disciplines in Institutions of Higher Education of Armenia
Information
Technologies for Psychological Services
Information
Technologies in Education
Innovative
Programs in the Education System of Secondary Schools of the Republic of
Armenia
Developing
e-Learning Environment
Distance Learning
for Armenian Language
A Development on
Control Problems in Online University.
e-Learning:
Technical and Pedagogic Issues
A “Moodle” Course
Management Systems and a Web Presentation Tool
Swedish SPIDER Project: Life Long Learning Pilot
Course for Armenian Specialists.
Ontology-based International Degree Recognition
New Information
Technologies and Resources for e-Education and e-Democracy
Basic Concepts of
Creation of Virtual Chemical Laboratory
Welcome to the October 2005 issue of Learning Technology.
This issue contains special section on the East European Perspective on Information Technologies in Education, guest edited by Prof. Samvel Shoukourian, Head, Department of Algorithmic Languages, Yerevan State University, Armenia. Prof. Shoukourian is also an Academician of National Academy of Sciences of Republic of Armenia. The articles in this issue are based on the International Workshop on Information Technologies in Education, that took place in Yerevan, Armenia during 13-17 June 2005.
Preparations for The IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT2006) are now on the track. The ICALT2006 will take place in Kerkrade, The Netherlands during July 5-7, 2006. Please visit the website of the conference for further details:
http://lttf.ieee.org/icalt2006/
or
http://www.ask.iti.gr/icalt/2006/
You are also welcome to complete the FREE MEMBERSHIP FORM for Technical Committee on Learning Technology. Please complete the form at: http://lttf.ieee.org/join.htm.
Besides, if you are involved in research and/or implementation of any aspect of advanced learning technologies, I invite you to contribute your own work in progress, project reports, case studies, and events announcements in this newsletter. For more details, please refer author guidelines at http://www.ieeetclt.org/content/authors-guidelines.
|
Kinshuk |
Guest Editorial: Information Technologies in Education – An East European Perspective
Distance learning has become a key technology for many disciplines during the past several years. It has evolved remarkably during the same time, but its utility is still lacking in many respects in comparison with traditional learning. Due to likely stagnation in the increase of traditional learning activities and, meantime, emergence of totally new education related concepts like continuous/life-long education, distance learning seems to become a necessity for building ever smarter advanced learning technologies in the future.
In the late 90’s, integrated computerized frameworks supporting traditional learning reached maturity and became the commodity on the market. The variety of applications and environments such as e-content development automation, desktop publishing, data visualization, office and management automation became widely available and impressively easy to use. On the other hand, distance learning nowadays already offered a variety of infrastructural/architectural concepts, each requiring complex computerized frameworks. Thorough performance studies of these concepts are difficult and rare and, therefore, the understanding of delivered performance is poor. As a consequence, framework development is platform dependent and expensive, and just few vendors currently offer applications and problem solving environments for distance learning systems.
At this moment, there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty about the future of distance learning. The essential increase of framework prices in the distance learning market has engaged a lot of criticism which often ignores the achievements of distance learning research over the last years. There is a real danger of the “bandwagon effect” of making mistakes in managing distance learning technology. According to it, a large propagandistic effort was made to show the need and support for this technology in order to get further public acceptance and budgets. The bandwagon’s four flat tires are caused by the lack of: frameworks software, skilled developers, guideposts (heuristics about design and use), and applications which can be softly moved on the distance learning track. We share the view that the evolution of scalable distance learning systems will be defined and limited by one factor, the ease of development and use. The ease of development and use is a consequence of using a high-level developer and user languages which should not resemble the architectural properties of the underlying platforms.
Almost half of software in systems being developed today and thirty-seven to fifty percent of efforts throughout the software life cycle are related to the system’s user interface. The same seems to be here in framework’s user interface.
For this reason issues and methods from the field of user-framework interaction (UFI) affect the overall process of framework development (FD) tremendously. Yet despite strong motivation amongst organizations to practice and apply effective FD and UFI methods there still exist major gaps of understanding both between suggested practice, and how framework is actually developed, and between the best practices of each of the fields. There are major gaps of communication between the UFI and FD fields: the methods and vocabulary being used in each community are often foreign to the other community. As a result, product quality is not as high as it could be, and (avoidable) rework is often necessary. In addition, FD methods and techniques are often perceived by UFI specialists as tools that are only re-served to computer scientists and of little or no relevance to UFI. And vice versa: UFI contents are often perceived by framework developers as after-thoughts or side-tools that do not necessarily affect the quality of framework.
This is the reason we tried to gather in one conference-room
developers of
The theme of this first workshop sponsored by
The bridge should be built from two sites simultaneously. For instance, FD frequently employs requirements elicitation techniques that involve framework goals, procedures, and operators. UFI typically uses task modeling involving task, sub-tasks, and temporal operators between. While these two techniques are different in purpose, they are surprising close to each other and this feeling arises during the common work.
This workshop can improve framework development and UFI education and practice by raising awareness of UFI concerns among FD researchers, educators, and practitioners, and vice-versa. It can also show the places where an attention to concerns from one field can inform the other field’s processes, and showing how methods and tools can be augmented to address both FD and UFI concerns.
We hope that will have an opportunity to make the workshop regular.
|
Samvel Shoukourian Head, Department of Algorithmic Languages Yerevan State University samshouk@sci.am |
1. Introduction
Integration of blinds into society is one of major goals of any civilized country. In Information Age there is a possibility to achieve this goal by using Text-to-Speech (TTS) Synthesizers, systems and special equipment. Absence of an Armenian TTS and high cost of existing foreign language TTS licenses virtually leaves out of reach such technologies for blind Armenians. There are 4000 blinds and much more persons with poor eyesight which are excluded from processes of Information Society.
YCRDI has developed a system for persons with impaired
vision in Armenian. The system was developed, tested and implemented in some
specialized organizations in
Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesizers are essential part of any CSB, but operations carried out by a blind person to read any text, to enter data, to edit them etc, are something which should be developed and made accessible for a blind person.
One of such widely known systems is JAWS developed by Henter
Joyce. The major restriction of this system is the high cost, English language
and Windows knowledge as a must. These factors makes its usage for Armenian
blinds unacceptable and until now there are no known examples of its usage in
2. Principles of AREV development
Some basic principles were used during AREV development, which are considered essential for a success of such systems.
1. The system should not depend on age and education level of persons with impaired vision.
2. The system should be able to work in stand-alone, group or distant modes of operation.
3. The cost of a system should be affordable for blind persons, which usually have limited financial resources. Technical and software means ought to be off-the-shelf.
4. The system should be open for incorporating new functions and should not depend on progress of technology.
5. The system should be user friendly bearing in mind the limitations of blind persons.
6. After short initial training a blind should be able to perform all functions without assistance.
7. The system should be developed by phases according to priorities of functions (on the principle: the most important function – first).
Investigations carried out by YCRDI specialists in boarding school for children with impaired vision and with Association of Blinds of Armenia showed great interest and expectations with such development.
Based
on these principles, TTS synthesizer for Armenian language was developed and
tested on several groups of blinds and its quality was considered corresponding
to the internationally achieved results for other languages.
In AREV system operations are performed by a specially designed software package. Here a user needs to press a certain key to perform the necessary function. The function is automatically performed by the existing software without further user intervention. This principle called “any program from AREV command set without intervention” proved very effective. The package, being open, if necessary, may include new functions.
The keyboard training which is an essential part of the system, is working in self-training mode making the training process independent of abilities, education and age of the trainee.
The system is expandable and new functions are included as soon as such demand arises. Thus, possibilities of Russian and English languages inclusion, writing and playing music, playing chess, etc were investigated and became part of the system.
3. AREV main functions
The system fulfills the following functions:
· Keyboard self training
· Creation of textual, graphic and voice personal libraries
· Forming of documents and textual materials. All known edit functions are possible (Font, Style, Size, Copy, Paste, Find, Select, etc)
· Carrying out scanning and archiving of documents, books and texts in personal library. As a package for OCR Fine Reader 5.0 Arm is used
·
· Navigating in arbitrary Web sites, reading page content and, if necessary, to store it in user’s personal library
· Search of necessary information in Internet
· Send/get textual, voice and graphic information via e-mail
· Input/Output textual information by Floppy and Flash devices
· Write down music and print out notes
· Making records, inputting, outputting voice on CD
· Enter graphic images by scanners
· Print texts and graphic images
· Carry out calculations
· Chess player
· General library (school subjects, Fiction Omnibus, Laws of RoA, Holy Bible etc).
· Diary (calendar, clock, e-secretary, planner etc)
AREV system may work in several modes of operation. It may be installed on a separate computer and used at home or in office. In group mode several computers share the same printer and scanner via LAN. In distant mode they are tied-up to the YCRDI center.
All functions described above are available in Armenian, English and Russian. To read texts in Russian it is necessary to have Digalo TTS package. For entry of English and Russian documents by scanner it is necessary to have Fine Reader 6.0 package.
For AREV implementation off-the-shelf personal computer, scanner and AREV software package are needed.
4. AREV implementation
Testing
and implementation of AREV system was carried out in parallel with enhancements
of the system. More than 40 blinds were trained. Some of them have acquired
necessary equipment and now work at home or at office using the system. A class
of AREV based computers was created at boarding school N14 of children with
visual impairments and groups of children were trained. In the
Experience
shows that because the self-training and user-friendly approach no variations
of training abilities were observed and 40 hours for basic package and 60 hours
for a full package are enough for mastering the system at YCRDI training
center. A master plan for widespread use of the system is developed with
assistance of Committee for Disabled of National Assembly of Armenia and a
number of proposals are aimed to assist the blinds is moving to this new
Information technology application.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to IIZ / DVV Armenian
branch, All Armenian Fund, Union of Blinds of Armenia, Committee for Disabled
of National Assembly and to all individuals and organizations that assisted the
implementation of AREV system.
|
A. Kuchukyan and S. Karapetyan Yerevan Computer Research & Development Institute (YCRDI) E-mail: edulik2706@ycrdi.am URL: www.ycrdi.am |
Social Pre-requisites of
Establishing Information Society in
1. Social technical basis
1.1. Availability of computer technologies
1.2. The level of computer technologies
2. Information resources
2.1. Availability of computer specialists
2.2. Computer literacy of
3. Subjective pre-requisites of establishment of information society
3.1. Attitude of citizens to the process of being informed
3.2. Expectations of citizens
3.3. Demands of citizens
There were the following hypotheses:
1. There is a significant correlation between the attitude towards the process of being informed and social-demographic descriptions of citizens
2. The young generation is an information resource itself
3. Usage of computer technologies is more connected with the organization of free time than with a professional progress.
To reveal the correspondence of the population to the
requirements of information society a survey was organized in
One of the results of the survey is the availability of computer technologies. Only 39% respondents have individual computers. If a household doesn’t have a computer its members are trying to find alternative ways of access to computers and Internet. They use their workplaces, internet clubs, friends’ or relatives’ computers, educational institutions.
Only 2% of respondents were IT professionals. It demonstrated the fact that there is no need to be IT professional to actively use computers. 15% of respondents know necessary application programs, 11% were using computer as a means of communication, 7% were using computers for entertainment, 6% have knowledge to work on a computer as operators and the major part of respondents were using computers without having a deep knowledge in the field. We call them users and they form 30% of respondents. 2% of respondents have enough technical background for repairing computers
Availability of information resources and computer literacy are necessary conditions for developing the IT and education is the best way to train specialists. It is also very important to provide enough computer literacy among the society.
Data from IT companies shows that there are 5-7 thousand
specialists in IT field. As all spheres of human activity are interconnected
they must be developing simultaneously.
It means that more specialists should be trained to respond to the
increasing demand. The major problem is the quality of education and not the
number of graduates. After graduating from the university a person should have
the possibility to continue education as the educational system of
As the profession of a programmer
has a good reputation and considered very attractive in Armenian families there
is an opinion that the profession provides good prospects for young people.
Other surveyed specialties are designers and economists. The survey showed that
10 % of respondents are economists and 57% of them have computer knowledge
although the computer literacy is not at the proper level. Another conclusion
from the survey is that there is no direct link between education and IT
sphere.
|
A.Duztapanyan and K.
Deghoyan Yerevan, Armenia selena_degh@rambler.ru arm_duzdab@mail.ru |
Preamble
While in 1998 cutting-edge universities were only at the
very beginning of their online delivery offering nowadays about 90 percent of
universities in the
Web-based technologies are widely deployed throughout learning communities worldwide becoming an indispensable mean for the quality education, especially in engineering and technological fields.
Challenges, Constraints, Prerequisites
Online teaching is a complex venture related to multifaceted activities such as creation of IT communication infrastructure, development of appropriate instrumental tools, building of technical capabilities, as well as faculty training, courseware development, and coherent administration.
Online teaching deployment constraints are mainly related to the shortage and inadequacy of financial and human resources.
Along with that there are some experience helping the online teaching venture – such as IT literate faculty trained in IT basics at the Faculty Development Courses, experience in distance courses got from running the Cisco Networking Academy distance learning courses, capacities to develop virtual labs based on Mat lab and Lab View instrumental tools studied by faculty, as well as broadening international partnerships and cooperation.
Basic principles
Deployment of online teaching is based on the following approaches:
- Online teaching is considered as stepwise venture with activities driving its further expansion and broadening.
- Online teaching is not considered a substitute to the traditional classroom education. Rather, at its current initial stage, it is an addition to the traditional educational services.
- Courseware available on the Web is assumed to be free of charge. Such a model, which prototypes MIT venture, will help to lead to fundamental changes in existing educational services and provide free access to users.
- Online teaching is supposed to be developed with the maximal usage of SEUA’s infrastructural, technological, and human resources as well as broadening cooperation with international institutions and organizations.
Foremost activities
At the current initial stage of online teaching venture the necessary instrumental tools, appropriate teaching materials and basic facilities were identified.
Instrumental tools
To introduce elements of online teaching an electronic library, a repository of teaching material case-packages, a repository of virtual labs, and electronic assessment system were developed. These applications provide access to storages of electronic textbooks, courseware, programs and tutorials of virtual labs, sets of knowledge assessment quizzes as well as their maintenance and functionality.
Denoted instrumental tools are coherent in design, functionally transparent, user-friendly and flexible enough to accommodate different types of teaching and learning demands. Case-packages include such components as syllabus, lecture notes, assignments and power-point presentation. A glossary helps independent learning, support in classroom offerings and increase of the teaching efficiency. Virtual labs are built with the usage of Mat Lab and Lab View tools, provide the possibility of virtual experiments, and enable the virtual performance of technologically complex laboratory experiments. Electronic assessment system provides knowledge assessment through sets of test quizzes according to any grading system – Letter Grading (A-F), 5 Point Grading Scale, 100 Point Grading Scale, and Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) threshold assessment.
Applications are designed as three-tier structures providing end-users, instructors/authors, and administrators a corresponding access to courseware, its maintenance, and a comprehensive control of the system.
Search capabilities of the applications help users locate materials by discipline and subject areas, type of materials, name of the author, and type of instruction.
Online teaching instrumental tools are developed by the usage of such instrumental tools as MySQL server database management system, PHP programming language, HTML technology and Linux operating system.
Courseware for online teaching instructors / authors
Textbooks on online pedagogy and distance learning technology, tutorials on web-based assessment issues, and articles on active learning, and materials of seminars and papers on online teaching are developed and offered to learners.
Online teaching facilities
Special classrooms to enable online teaching equipped with computers, LCD projectors with access to the Internet and SEUA online teaching server are under construction.
Faculty training
A number of special courses to train faculty online and develop online courseware are designed and offered. Among such courses are online teachings for engineer-researchers, online teaching courseware development, efficient teaching in technologically enhanced educational environments, and online teaching for faculty instructing subjects in English language.
Web Portal
A special “New Educational Technologies” portal incorporating online teaching instrumental tools, courseware, and methodological materials is placed at the SEUA web site (www.seua.am) and used for online teaching.
References
Ko, S. & Rossen, S., (2002) ”Teaching Online. A
practical guide”,
Palloff, M. R. & Pratt, K., (2003) “The Virtual Student”, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lynch, M., (2002) “The Online Educator”,
Hanna, D. & Glowacki-Dudka, M., (2000) Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups, Atwood Publishing
|
Benjamin
Janpoladyan State Engineering University of Armenia Faculty Development Center 105 Terian street, Yerevan, 375009, Armenia Tel: +374 1 565-815 Fax: +374 1 565-843 |
New Method of Teaching Ecological
Disciplines in Institutions of Higher Education of
Teaching of ecological and geoecological disciplines
(ecological expertise, environmental problems, ecology, geomorphology,
geography, etc.) are out-of-date in institutions of higher education of
One of the aims of the proposed methods is the involvement
of students and trainees in the process of solving scientific problems with the
use of new technologies, particularly, a small-scale receiver of satellite
images “Cosmos-M1” developed in Federal center of science and high technology
in VNII GO
The methods imply the individualization of a learning process. Students feel themselves as starting naturalists. During the study process students develop creative thinking. They are tasked to analyze and select initial conditions for assessing the obtained results, develop hypothesis and forecasts. The usage and processing of empirical data allows introducing the idea of spatial and timing changeability of the environment. Along with the development of creative activities a global thinking is being shaped. It helps to analyze natural processes and phenomena that occurs in the world and separate regions and reveals interrelations between components of the nature and anthropogenic activities.
Students educating process is considered as a response to tasks presented by the teacher. With teacher’s help students learn traditional methods of working with geographic sources – books, maps, tables and graphs. In order to stimulate the learning process students are offered to use remotely sensed data as an alternative learning method.
Data obtained from satellites provide clear image of earth surface and describe processes occurring in oceans and in the atmosphere. Students have a chance to watch qualitative changes in geodynamic processes occurring in the environment of the region where they live. For instance, to monitor dynamics of landslides the water level changes of Lake Sevan, avalanches, glaciers and clouds, stone falls, cyclones and anticyclones, determination of scales deforestation, oil contamination of territories, etc are considered.
A schedule of practice exercises has been developed. During
those exercises the teacher has to explain to students basic methods of
learning, i.e. the activity schedule. Different types of exercises have been
included for practice (new publications in this area were used). There are
traditional questions like “what kind of information can we get from the
satellite image?” and tasks that require combination of imagination and
knowledge (e.g. “What was the reason of weather change in
Purpose and main functions of the program attachment to “Cosmos-M1”
The attachment is intended for viewing, initial assessment and fragmentation of images, received from meteorological satellites of earth.
The attachment has been developed in MS Windows environment and has the following functions:
Ø viewing the images on a display in color, defining its scale and size,
Ø geographic link, application of a grid layer and geographic map,
Ø selection of an image fragment and saving it as a file,
Ø printing the image with application of geographic link.
Practice exercise 1. A geographical binding of a satellite image on a map.
The purpose is:
to execute a binding of a satellite image,
to familiarize with features of the image of a district on a satellite image.
• A work with satellite
images begins with their "binding", i.e. the identification of the
territory represented on an image. A binding of images is carried out by
direct comparison of the image of a district on a satellite image and on a map.
• To compare the image with a map it is necessary to find general reference points. Coastal lines of seas, lakes, a river network and roads usually serve as such reference points.
• After binding a scale of the image is calculated by measuring the length of the same piece on the image and on the map. Calculations are carried out by the formula:
Lk
Мс=--- Мк,
Lc
where Мс and Мк – are denominators of a scale on the image and the map; Lc and Lk -
length of a piece the image and on the
map. For obtaining the average value of scale of the image it is recommended to
choose two, three pieces in different
parts of the image.
The order of work:
1. Identify on a map a territory marked on the satellite image
2.
Identify and
put borders of the image on the map
3. Determine with the help of the map the average scale of the image
|
Khoetsyan, A. V., Gaginyan, R. Kh., and Aleksanyan, G. M. Yerevan, 375025, Republic of Armenia Tel: +37410 55-91-36 gurgenal@ysu.am |
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) [1] is a non-profit educational telecommunication network created to assist youth to engage in collaborative projects that explore their humanity, identify common values in cross-cultural milieu, recognize the interdependence of their lives and lifestyle. School projects are designed by teachers and students to be action-oriented, community-service projects on the learning gains through the telecommunication initiatives and local inquiry.
iEARN is the largest and most experienced educational telecommunication network for structured program in the world, having trained educators in more than 100 countries on how to effectively use the Internet to support online collaborative projects that promote active learning. iEARN further the formation of networks of schools and youth service organizations through conferences, training programs as well as on-going collaboration on educational and humanitarian projects.
The dynamic combination of iEARN`s educators and students exchanges, online projects, local and regional workshops, international conferences and training workshops has produced and proven to be a durable and scalable model for educators worldwide The use of new telecommunications technology is increasingly recognized as a deepening and broadening factor in the learning process.
iEARN was established in
Participating in these program Armenian students together with their teachers gained a wonderful opportunity to communicate with colleagues from other countries, to become familiar with different cultures, customs and traditions of both far and close countries not only from books, but also by using modern means of telecommunication during the educational process.
Till recent time the interests and individual passions were the main criteria on choosing the projects that teachers and students were working on. There was no goal to connect the accomplished projects with curriculum, to integrate them into classroom. But now a new important significance of iEARN projects is that they are extremely useful in teaching a subject as they can make the school curriculum more interesting and understandable.
Project-based education is not a new concept. In the article “The Project Method” [2] William Kilpatrick describes the idea of building curriculum around a project. Project-based education organizes the learning instead of, or in addition to, textbook, reading, lectures etc.
Project-based education in general and diverse iEARN projects in particular:
Ø engages students in complex, real-world issues and problems; where possible, the students select and define issues or problems that are meaningful to them.
Ø requires students to use inquiry, research, planning skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills as they complete the project
Ø requires students to learn and apply content-specific skills and knowledge in a variety of contexts as they work on the project
Ø gives students experience in using modern telecommunication means, particularly, interactive e-forums, e-mail, newsgroups and others
Ø includes expectations regarding accomplishments or learning outcomes of iEARN project
Ø gives students a practice in using the array of skills needed for their adult lives and careers (e.g. how to allocate their time and resources; individual responsibility; interpersonal skills; learning through experience etc)
Ø ends with a presentation or a product that demonstrates learning and outcomes
The main and integral part of iEARN-projects implementation is the assessment. Assessment provides information about what students are learning, doing and demonstrating; gives the teacher critical information about how to modify an iEARN project or when to give coaching and directed assistance; ties the concrete iEARN project activity directly to the intended learning outcomes. Very often the criteria of assessment could be decided upon by the students
The easiest way for teachers to get started on iEARN projects-based education is to be involved in workshops or training. Training allows teachers to understand the philosophy, value and basic components of iEARN project-based learning. Undoubtedly such kind of education requires several fundamental changes in the roles of teachers and students.
For effective integration of iEARN collaborative projects
into the classroom the professional development of iEARN online courses on
social studies have been organized for 24 teachers from
In contrast to traditional classroom instructions, iEARN projects give students substantial input in the learning process by encouraging them to negotiate with teachers and coevals not only from their own school but all over the world.
It is also very important, that working with iEARN projects teachers find themselves surrounded with the peaceful atmosphere of a kind family, have a chance to develop professionally, broaden their students’ worldview and particularly participate in the discussions of such global issues as peace, environmental protection, social problems, natural and industrial disasters, wars, hunger, incurable diseases, etc.
Interactive forums, e-mail, online courses, newsgroups, etc. serve as the main tools of communication in the iEARN program. At the same time meetings, face to face discussions, workshops and, of course, iEARN annual international conferences are significantly important
.
iEARN ensures that Armenian educators and students find
tools they seek to participate in rapidly evolving
References:
Gragert, E., “It Takes Many Villages to Make a World: The International Education and Resource Network (iEARN)”. The George Lucas Educational Foundation Newsletter, 2000.
Kilpatrick, W. H. (1918). The Project Method. Teachers College Record. Vol. 29, No.4. 319-335.
iEARN. Project Description Book, 2003-2004 (in Armenian).
Ed. Durgaryan, K. -
|
Karine S. Durgaryan Head of Computer Department, iEARN-Armenia coordinator National Children’s Library of Armenia Teryan str. 42/1, karine@childlib.am |
Information Technologies for Psychological Services
It is obvious that the modern education needs psychological assistance. The article reviews the ways of using information technologies for educational psychological services.
A psychologist is using information technologies for:
Ø Organizing psychologist’s work place
Ø Professional activity for servicing clients.
With a computer at a work place a psychologist usually use it for information search, filling forms, processing and analysis of results, information exchange and professional contacts. While working with clients a psychologist is using diagnostic, correcting and development as well as remote psychological assistance software.
Computerized work place is widely used by psychologists as there is no need for special software. Standard text processors, databases and Internet browsers are used for routine jobs.
Information technologies are less used for servicing clients but with the advance of e-learning they are becoming more important and promising. Currently there are many computerized psychological diagnostic systems but only some of them can be used as professional tools as the majority is just popular scientific or entertaining software. As for correcting and development as well as distant psychological assistance they are very important but insufficiently developed.
This paper is focused on using the information technologies for psychologists’ work with correction and development. Currently we have only separate uncoordinated programs but haven’t got any specialized software packages.
We finished the analysis of the existent correction and development techniques
and the ways of using them in a direct work with children. It confirms that
specialized software packages could be used for correctional and developmental
cognitive processes, especially attention. The latter is because that activity needs to be performed every day (10-15
minutes 5-6 day per week). Taking into account a specific of a correctional
psychological work there is a need for software packages that a psychologist
could work with (not fully automated exercises). It is also necessary to
include a diagnostic module in the software package since the correctional work
requires a constant feedback. Hence the structure of the software package for
correctional and developmental cognitive processes was developed.
Diagnostic module consists of
tests for evaluation of the level of developmental cognitive processes. Every
client starts and finishes the work with the software package with Diagnostic
module. Diagnostic module is also used from time to time when a psychologist
plans diagnostics.
Correction module consists of programs for correctional cognitive processes and also can be used for developing a normal level of cognitive processes. These two modules are used by clients according to the individual program developed by the psychologist.
The database saves information about clients’ work (from diagnostic and correcting modules).
Planning and analytical module is another tool. Each week a psychologist can analyze data from the database and compile individual plan of correctional and development work. Subprogram from both correction and diagnostic modules could be included in the plan. Also a psychologist can control implementation of the individual plan and correct it if necessary using this module.
The software package is under development now and is planned for work on a PC as well as local network and Internet.
Currently the analysis of psychological theories and techniques as well as means of IT for psychological practice is finished. The same concerns the modeling of the system and developing scenarios for subprograms of modules. The programming of the system is now started with plans to finish the work within the next two years if there is enough financial assistance.
Optimal results can be achieved when using a professional software, when clients are ready to use PC, and all processes are conducted under the supervision of a psychologist. In this case using PC and IT by a psychologist can improve psychological assistance by:
Ø Giving a client an individual psychological correction
Ø Developing additional motivation for clients, especially children
Ø Providing clients with distant psychological assistance.
IT is very valuable and effective tools for psychologists
and we plan to continue and expand
our work in this direction.
|
Maryna Narovlyanska "Bamby" Children Club Non Governmental Organization ri_ki@mail.ru |
Information Technologies in Education
Why use Information Technology in education? For many of us, the potential is self-evident, such that it wouldn’t occur to even ask the question. But it should be asked, especially with so many false starts over the years.
For example, how effective was it really to teach seven
year-old students keyboarding skills, using an input device that was designed
originally to make typing harder, not easier!
Or instructing teachers how to program in BASIC, presuming that they
would then write their own classroom applications, on machines that could
barely manage word processing and simple databases? Both of these were at one time well
intentioned but perhaps misdirected trends in the
IT in education can be effective if used well. The hardware is better, the interfaces are improving, and the software is more robust, such that administering students and managing course content are fairly routine exercises. The systems are now good enough (not perfect) that they can begin to deliver on some of the vision put forth decades ago. We can experiment with various pedagogical models for the use of technology to deliver curricula, and really interesting innovations with adaptive, reactive, self-paced learning are tantalizingly feasible.
It seems clear that IT has become an important element of education; the challenge is how to effectively and efficiently integrate IT so as to automate what is tedious and mechanical in the administration of educational systems, reinforce and complement the best of the student-teacher relationship, and explore ways to key the students engaged and challenged. In ways that we have yet to fully implement or appreciate, technology is changing the way we conduct teaching and evaluate learning.
The use of on-line learning environments has become quite common at the university level. The content of an on-line course can be readily refined, extended, and corrected, evolving much faster than a textbook, with much richer and deeper resources such as hyperlinked text, audio, video. Further, the environment can provide a substantially greater set of educational tools, such as chat rooms for technical support and on-line office hours, electronic drop-boxes, “collaboration spaces”, and faster assessment cycles of student work. The best tools are interesting, useful, and pedagogically sound.
Students have come to expect the existence of a course web page as something of a default. While it is possible for individual teachers to create their own course web pages, it leads to tremendous variation in quality, content, features, and navigation.
The advantages to using a packaged system for the development and management of on-line courses is that such a system provides standard methods for course creation, it requires less technical skill to create courses, and the courses will have a reasonably consistent look-and-feel.
The utility of commercial on-line courseware has led to a substantial installed base, with enormous numbers of courses and users. However, the results have not been universally heralded as an unqualified success. By this, I mean that heavy users are aware of the limitations of the systems, are discouraged by the relatively sluggish pace of system development, and are often uncomfortable that such a big part of their enterprise is essentially out of their hands.
In commercial systems, new features emerge based upon the capabilities of the vendor and its business plan, not so much on the individual (and varying) priorities of the clients. Given the proprietary nature of commercial systems, the clients are left with little recourse – wait for the desired feature(s) or build from scratch.
A further consideration is the licensing costs associated with using a commercial system: even for US universities the cost is non-trivial, while for developing countries, where the use of such systems can provide tremendous benefits in the modernization of curricula, the packaging of the curricula, the improved quality of educational resources, and the geographic range over which they can be delivered, the cost is, relatively, much greater and can result in a full dead-stop for related initiatives.
Given the sizable amount of money spent on university IT applications, the similarity of requirements, the long experience with “home-grown” systems, and the remarkable talent pool available, the university environment seems uniquely well-suited for the design and development of an open-source, open-standard platform for on-line learning.
Rather than build many variations of essentially the same systems, at enormous cost to develop and maintain, it would be useful for the most experienced to work together to generate a broadly based and widely supported system. The participants must first establish the requirements, choose the protocols, design a core, and provide a framework for the elaboration of ancillary tools.
Upon establishing the initial foundation and tools framework, the system can emerge rapidly and more robustly than the commercial version, through collaboration and competition. Collaboration is beneficial, as it is no longer necessary for each participant to write the same code, individually; contributors can coordinate and focus their development efforts. And, as shown in the early example of Linux, competition will result in a much stronger and more resilient system over time. If a feature is missing, someone who needs it will write it. If it doesn’t work well, someone else will write a better one. In this way, the system constantly improves through (dare I say it) a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest model where the weak code is replaced by better implementations.
An acknowledged problem of open-source solutions is that technical support can be weak if there is no financial incentive to provide support – who do you turn to when things go wrong? The higher education community is better situated than most, as the members have a long history of working together, often have dedicated teams of professionals working on similar problems, and have a mutual and generally non-antagonistic interest in seeing the problems solved.
The remarkable potential of open source in higher education
was recognized several years ago, and this insight accounts for the emergence
of the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment.
I teach at
Working with the NYU Department of Information Technology
Services, we are piloting a small test project with
But the more interesting element of our current use of
The University Consortium (UC) of
The initial work of the UC began in 2001 with the installation of Computer Learning Centers (CLCs) at each of the participating universities. The CLC stage of the project was completed in 2003; the labs are now used extensively in the education and technical training of university students at each of the three universities.
The second stage of the UC program was to organize
activities within its mandate for the development of programs in graduate
education, continuing education, professional certification, and executive
training. The first example was the new
Master’s of Science in Information Systems, which combines the study of
business and technology. Based upon the
model of
The UC MSIS program is unique in the Armenian experience in that it is the first such program that allows students to take courses at any of the participating institutions, thus serving as a pilot project for the educational reform transition to the “credit based” system.
Another major activity of the UC was the initiation of the executive training program. The inaugural event was conducted in June of 2005, on the topic of Global Sourcing. A second event is planned, on the topic of IT & Entrepreneurship, for 2006.
The new programs have been designed with a specific goal to establish links between the public and (emerging) private sectors, and help train a new generation of technology-savvy knowledge-economy workers who are also educated in the essentials of modern business issues and strategies.
The consortium is an open model, with a specific interest in
establishing joint research and exchange programs with international
partners. In this context, the presence
of a framework for collaboration becomes essential. The utilization of
The advantages from the Armenian perspective are
substantial. They can use the
Thus,
And this is what brings us here, to the conference of the
Central and Eastern European Networking Associations. With the support of the Open Society
Institute of Armenia, who have sponsored this conference on Information
Technologies in Education, and the United States Agency for International
Development, who have sponsored a series of
You will hear from several
We will each provide a general introduction to the topics, in the context of this conference, and then continue more detailed workshops sessions in the days following the conference, going further into the details with each day.
I have provided a context for the workshops; you will hear
next from Jim Farmer, of the
|
Michael Lewis Visiting Scientist Software Engineering Institute undinger@yahoo.com |
Innovative Programs in the Education System of Secondary Schools of the Republic of Armenia
ABSTRACT
The goal of this sociological survey was revealing the
attitude of Armenian students towards integration of Information Technologies
(IT) into Education system in the Republic of Armenia (RA). This survey was
conducted by Siranush Vardanyan (a post graduate student at the
For conducting the sociological survey or the public opinion
of 9-10th grade students a questionnaire was elaborated and
distributed in 11 regions of
Main conclusions from the conducted survey are: first, the majority of students consider that the integration of Internet technologies into the education system develops a positive attitude, even though not all the respondents had used Internet at school before; second, about half of the respondents give priority to the usage of Internet as a huge information resource. It shows that schoolchildren are currently in an information vacuum, since school libraries are extremely old, while Internet if provided could satisfy their needs in information.
The schoolchildren of this age group strive to communicate with their peers while the chances of that are very limited in small environments like theirs. That’s why children try to compensate the lack of communication with virtual interaction. Thanks to the Internet the schoolchildren have a chance to make acquaintances from all over the world and learn from other cultures.
The survey demonstrated that 27.2 percent of the questioned stressed the necessity for the improvement of the education level and computer literacy was considered a major factor for improving it. It should be mentioned that the current secondary education is far behind the international standards, and modern technologies provides an opportunity to improve the situation. It is not accidental that such a high percentage of the respondents stressed the importance of the improvement of the education system.
While the secondary education system provides basic education there is also a need for self-education. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) give good chances for personal education. The overwhelming majority of respondents realize the importance of Internet technologies in the development of the education system. This proves that in future secondary schools the Internet will be extensively used for educational purposes. A special attention should be paid to exploring educational websites, taking part in online projects, as well as providing information about distance learning.
The survey demonstrated that the situation can be improved by increasing the number of computers in schools or upgrading the power of existing computers, by increasing the number of training hours and by improving the quality of Internet channel and access, as well as by adding the number of hours allocated for subjects, that can be taught in the computer centers. Adding of Armenian language resources for studying computers, organizing different online competitions and similar events should be considered for future effective work of computer centers.
References
Poghosyan, G., Professor of Sociology,
Aleksanyan, H., Ph.D in Historical Science, "Davit
Anhakht"
|
Siranush Vardanyan Project Harmony Armenian Branch 45 Sevastopolyan Str., siranush@projectharmony.am |
Developing e-Learning Environment
The abstract presents a toolset for supporting e-learning in national language (TeachArm system) developed in the Department of Algorithmic Languages of Yerevan State University. The teaching is organized as a scenario-driven process. TeachArm also supports learners’ assessment with tests covering the material being learned.
E-learning becomes an inherent part of the education, and its effective organization requires both e-course development methods and the development of teaching supporting toolset. Of course, e-learning does not substitute a real teacher but helps them to organize teaching by using modern information technologies.
Users can interactively learn, test their knowledge via self-tests and be tested during the e-course. Different courses developed by subject specialist can be integrated within a course.
The following problems are solved during the development of TeachArm:
Ø identification of teaching scenarios;
Ø formatting of teaching material according to the pedagogical and methodological experience of the author of the course.
Ø creating a user friendly interface;
Ø taking into account the psychological researches related to the specific of working on the computer (for example, diminishing the amount of texts and increasing the number of animations);
Ø development of testing and certification methods of e-learning;
Ø creating multiple-mode testing system providing checking of student knowledge in given discipline ;
Ø quiz-making system development.
TeachArm system supports two modes (scenarios) of e-learning: slide show mode and slide-by-slide mode. In the slide-by-slide mode the learning of separate paragraphs are supported. A student can turn over the slides within the limit of one paragraph paying special attention to separate slides of the paragraph and listen to the media files. Students can go back to the beginning of the paragraph from any slide. The access to a paragraph is actualized by choosing a chapter from the contents and then a paragraph. In this way the chapter material can be learned consequently or by the choice of a paragraph. After learning the paragraph students are suggested quizzes for self-testing. Both learning modes are passive. Students can go back to course learning mode after answering all questions.
Testing and certification system provides testing by e-course and evaluating acquisition of learned material by a student. Testing by e-courses can be done in different modes characterized by the quantity of exam questions and the time for the answer. Students can choose the mode themselves. The quiz consists of multiple choice questions and tasks equally divided between paragraphs that are randomly chosen from the data base.
Before starting learning and testing the student is recommended to register in the TeachArm system via entering the name. The name is added to the registration file in which the results of the current testing are saved. In case of re-entering into the system the student is informed about the results of his/her last testing by choosing his/her registry name from the provided list. The student and/or the tutor can delete all the information about the student from that file. The registry file is updated during the current testing.
Help files of each course include index and navigation tools. The index contains the national (Armenian) alphabet, basic keywords of a discipline being learned and numbers of those paragraphs and slides in which the desired keywords are explained.
The TeachArm system is successfully used in secondary
schools of
|
S. Sargsyan, A.Hovakimyan, K.Darbinyan, N.Ispiryan and E.Petrosyan alglan@ysu.am |
Distance Learning for Armenian
Language
Information technologies provide greater opportunities in teaching languages, which is important for the development of the intercultural and interethnic communications.
There is some experience in
An electronic multimedia manual "Self-taught of the Armenian language" (authors S. Iskandaryan, G. Vahanyan, http://www.iatp.am/eduarmenian/east) was used as a basis of courses. The course is functioning under the Moodle course management system.
For structuring lessons it was necessary first of all to provide students with corresponding teaching materials. Programs for calendaring and scheduling of lessons with definition of sequence and duration of lessons, goals pursued by students and skills possessed by them were developed.
Students perform their tasks and transfer results to the teacher by Internet. The latter checks written texts, analyzes them and draws attention of students to mistakes. The teacher supervises and estimates each step executed by students during training. In online mode (in real time) it is possible to estimate the oral skills too. "Chats", "forums", interactive teleconferences and videoconferences can serve that purpose when there is a direct dialogue between the teacher and students.
The results received from the teaching testify that remote
teaching of Armenian language has a big future in
New functionalities are now added to the system (electronic
libraries, online dictionaries, search subsystems, etc.). A uniform educational
portal for remote teaching of East and West-Armenian languages is planned to be
developed. As a basic teaching material on training of West-Armenian language
the electronic multimedia manual "Hayeren Khosinq" of professors Hayr
Levon Zekiyan (
|
Iskandaryan S. and Vahanyan G. "ArcaLer" Project gregor@concoutr.am http://www.iatp.am |
A Development on Control Problems in Online University
While the delivery of online instructional courses in higher education institutions is flourishing, students and educators in general recognize the advantages of the new technology. Problems and concerns about online education are touched in various articles and papers but limited researches were conducted to examine in depth the technical and social problems that accompany this new technology.
This study examines these problems and concerns regarding
online distance education. Hopefully, the information that is provided here
will update decision-makers of the current needs and concerns of online
students and instructors so that an effective distance-learning program can be
fostered in an
Because of the rapid development in recent years, the
Internet and the World Wide Web is becoming a popular approach for information
delivery. As an upcoming technology, it has the potential to strengthen and
enhance learning and teaching in higher education. Now many universities and colleges are placing an emphasis on
web-based distance education to seek innovative ways to provide flexible course
offerings through new media. In fact, the use of Internet to create online
learning opportunities for students at a distance has become extremely popular
in higher educational institutions. Gubernick and Ebeling documented this trend
towards an expanded role for higher education: “…55% of the
There are studies about the student and instructor incentives to go online. These studies reveal a commonality of advantages. The advantages cited most frequently in the literature include: convenience, flexibility increased interaction with instructor, less travel concerns, the ability to reach varied audiences, positive learning experience, single source for course and program materials and increased computer proficiency. The advantages and benefits of the use of this technology for distance education are obvious and multiple. There are many elaborate discussions in the literature. Hiltz (Hiltz, 1997) regarded online distance delivery not just as a “different” way of doing the same thing but a possible change in the nature and structure of higher education. If such change is about to take place, are there any problems? In fact application of Internet as an instruction media to reach the student at large is not an easy and simple task. There are concerns, barriers, and problems for both students and instructors.
In order to fully tap the potential of this new technology, an exploration into these obstacles is of great practical importance. The ideal of online distance education involves building learning environments that immerse students in the same learning situation across several network locations. To recognize such conceptions, networks should be made transparent to the learning situation. Problems arise whenever technology is not transparent. Lack of technical support, system failures and computer glitches are legitimate concerns in an online environment. Lack of technical support is experienced both by instructors and students.
For an instructor, the problem can arise from the use of software or a particular hardware. The sophistication and variation of multimedia and online delivery are such that it is unrealistic and unreasonable to require an instructor to be fully knowledgeable of the software chosen for the virtual environment. Faculty Time Commitment is necessarily increased in the development stage when the traditional course is transformed into an online course. Many people noticed the increase of workload at the development stage of a course preparation. McKenzie et al. (McKenzie, Mims, Bennett and Waugh, 2000) indicated 76% of online instructors felt they spent more time preparing and delivering WebCT courses compared to traditional face-to-face courses. Most of the online instructors come from the traditional face-to-face classroom environment without any additional pedagogical training.
What is the difference between online mode and traditional mode? What is the most effective method for an instructor to deliver a class over the Internet? Questions of this nature should be explored before an instructor goes into a virtual classroom to teach. In some ways, the need for careful instructional design is greater in web-based courses.
Intellectual Property
This ongoing
issue relates to intellectual property: who owns the rights to the materials
created for the online class by a professor? Intellectual ownership issues
related to material ranging from journal articles to faculty member’s course
notes created barricades for remote users wanting online digital access to
information and educational resources.
Logistical Support
There are concerns over logistical support to online distance education. Hiltz reported in a study that 52% of virtual students felt that it was easier to fall behind in online classes due to the ease of postponing or procrastinating.
Social Impact
These are other issues that are closely related to the nature
of online distance education. These include what is the measurement of being
successful in education. Humans are social beings. Social interaction is needed.
The
unprecedented development of personal computers and Internet technology was lead to the growth of online distance education.
Because of the unique features
of web-based courses, it is becoming part of the education delivery method as a supplement for the traditional education mode.
The trend of putting courses
online will continue to attract more institutions to join the effort of distance education. Nevertheless, concerns and problems, (some
of which are becoming less
prominent, as a result of technology advancement), need to be addressed so that it is utilized effectively for educational
purposes.
This includes a
cooperative
effort from all technical,
administrative,
and educational professionals. Technical support is needed to guarantee
the communication
channel of instruction is effective. Administrative and logistical support is
needed to provide incentive
and regulatory measures. Instructional and pedagogical researches on the other hand are a constant process to find an
appropriate, socially acceptable,
and most effective pedagogy for the online distance education.
|
Yerevan State University elena@ysu.am Vardan Mkrttchian All Armenian Internet
University hhhuniversity@hotmail.com |
e-Learning: Technical and Pedagogic Issues
ABSTRACT
E-learning becomes more and more popular in the world as
well as in CIS-countries. It is also rapidly developing in
Technologies of e-learning are technologies of active communication between students and tutors with the use of telecommunication and methodology of students’ individual work with structured teacher’s materials represented in electronic form. A part of teacher’s materials can be provided as practical training, laboratory tasks, exams, etc. Different types of e-activity are very important for effective spreading of the knowledge. During e-training a student receives teacher’s materials, fulfills tasks and takes tests. A student can ask questions and get an up-to-date guidance from his/her tutor. [1]
E-learning can be both an independent form of study and a part of internal form of education. Technologies of e-learning can be used in a traditional form of education, instruction by correspondence and external studies as well. Moreover they can be used in some subjects or blocks of subjects aimed to raise the level of professional skills and general educational level of separate groups of students.
E-learning has many advantages but also disadvantages, which concern two main pedagogical issues:
1. A dependence of tutors from a pedagogical conception they use in F2F lectures because many tutors are at the same time university lecturers. In case of usual F2F lectures a teacher has many possibilities and professional “tricks” helping him to keep up the interest of students during a lecture. Any lecturer knows how to encourage students and help them to get knowledge.
2. Students and tutors are in a virtual environment. Some students feel psychological inconvenience in being tête-à-tête with a PC because it differs from the study in a usual classroom with a professor and classmates who can help in case of necessity.
There is a difference between traditional and on-line studies. In the case of traditional education the main task of a student is to study the subject. But in the case of e-learning this task goes to the second place. The first task of a student is to adapt to an e-course environment. Many e-students need a special adaptation period and the task of a tutor is to help students in that. A tutor should be ready to be a little of a psychologist. He/she has to be aware of pedagogical peculiarity of e-teaching. That is why special trainings for tutors on the methodology of e-teaching are very important and useful. Participation in conferences and trainings allows tutors to exchange experience, get knowledge on both new pedagogic methods and modern computer technologies in e-learning.
E-training is possible in different fields of knowledge; humanitarian subjects, economics, technical sciences etc. However there is a difference in approaches to e-teaching of a technical subject and for example a humanitarian subject. The latter is more abstract while in case of studying a technical device or a process it is very important for a student to “touch” an object of learning. New computer technologies can help to develop an e-course with special technical means built-in into the e-course environment.
E-teaching is based on both pedagogical approaches and modern information technologies. An e-subject is an aggregate of knowledge representation and examination means. The process of creating of an electronic form of a subject includes several stages. They concern the development of a subject structure, creation of e-lectures, instructions, didactic materials, practical tasks and tests.
An e-course can include three main components:
1) Teacher’s materials;
2) Tests;
3) Special technical means to support practice exercises.
The third component is especially important in case of e-study of technical disciplines.
There are three categories of technical means for e-learning:
1) Platforms for technical support of e-learning
This category is necessary for representing teacher’s materials and tests in electronic form and for supporting “electronic dean’s office”. There are many platforms; some of them are WebCT, BlackBoard and Lotus LearningSpace. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
2) Programming tools for providing interactive e-courses
Interactivity is very important for raising quality of e-study. From psychology it is known that a student remembers 25% of information given in audio form, 33% of video information, 50% information represented as both audio and video, and 75% of information got as a result of active interaction with a PC. Interactivity can be included in e-courses by using programming tools like ASP, PHP, JAVA, FLASH and so on. For instance the use of FLASH interactive animation helps to enliven e-materials and raise the quality of perception of knowledge by e-students.
3) Remote laboratories
This category is very important for e-study of physics, electronics, robotics and other technical disciplines. The use of a remove laboratory gives an e-student the opportunity to measure parameters of a process or an object, to study its behavior, to practice with it in reality. Such possibility raises understanding of theoretical computations and formulas in teacher’s materials by students.
E-learning allows studying different technical subjects including modern computer technologies. Thus, in National Technical University of Ukraine “Kiev Polytechnic Institute” the basic training for future computer specialists includes the study of programming languages including Pascal, C++, Java, Prolog, Modula, etc. To support the study of Pascal an e-course with built-in interactive means has been developed [2] including:
1) Teacher’s materials;
2) Tests;
3) JAVA-applets for emulation of program codes given in teacher’s materials;
4) AlgoMaster and ProgramMaster (developed as JAVA-applets) for executing algorithms and programs.
A demo version of the course is given in [3].
To provide an e-student with high-quality education it is necessary to take into account both aspects of e-learning: pedagogical and technical. E-learning demands to renovate methods of teaching and use modern information technologies.
REFERENCES
Littlejohn, A., Reusing ONLINE RESOURCES: a sustainable approach to e-learning,
Kogan Page Limited,
Sulema, T., Algorithmic and Program Languages Distant Learning, the Proceedings of the Workshop ICL2003 (Interactive Computer Aided Learning), CD-ROM. Villach, Austria, 2003. http://sulema.kiev.ua.
|
Yevgeniya Sulema Center of E-Education “Kiev Polytechnic Institute” sulema@scs.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua |
The Armenia School Connectivity Program (ASCP) of the US
Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs implemented by
Project Harmony (PH) undertook the task of spreading ICT literacy in
Nowadays computers were introduced into secondary schools
throughout the country; however, a few realized how they could serve the
learning and teaching process. Project Harmony initiated educational projects
which became a kickoff for the
educational application of Internet technologies and methodologies. The
projects have resulted in the creation of websites and continue to develop
state curriculum-based resources. Some of the resources are listed below:
Teacher’s Guide on Integration of Information and Communication Technologies in Secondary Schools - http://www.ascp.am/en/resources.html#t_guide
Student Guidebook to the Use of Computer Applications in the Learning
Process This web page is created to enable middle school students to get
acquainted with computer software and hardware, as well as principles and
details of their functioning. http://projects.ascp.am/guidebook/.
Armenian Holidays Educational project: The web pages created by the 7th through 9th grade students within the scope of the "Armenian Holidays" educational project provide the origins, history, and traditions of Armenian holiday both secular and religious. They serve as online supplementary resources in teaching religion, history, arts, literature, etc. and target at different age groups. http://projects.ascp.am/holidays/
Civic Education Training Initiative Online Lesson Plans (in Armenian)
The site contains lesson plans created to supplement the state
curriculum for 8th, 9th and 10th grade civics classes. http://www.ac2k.am/civic/;
http://library.projectharmony.am
As a result of the Technology Curriculum Development Project (TCDP)
implemented in collaboration with
http://www.ascp.am/en/exchanges.html; http://www.ascp.am/en/resources.html#t_guide
Fun with English and Computers: A Resource Book for EFL Teachers
Project Harmony-Armenia created a multimedia educational resource for English teachers, “Fun with English and Computers: A Resource Book for EFL Teachers”. Unlike many other resource books, this is a supplement to the English textbook for the 9th grade. All of the activities included here are opportunities to further explore the topics included in this textbook. The resource book has been recommended as a supplementary teaching material by the National Institute of Education.
Project Harmony-Armenia accomplished the Student Assembly educational
initiative aimed at forming nationwide Student Parliament through local
elections at schools. Setting the main goal of developing high school students’
knowledge in the nuances and peculiarities of
PH has conducted
US-Armenian online collaborative projects which have brought teachers and
students from across both countries -
Project
Harmony-Armenia has conducted international exchanges, both to
The mobile lab project is a cutting-edge initiative
designed as a pilot program to create one traveling computer lab to serve 20
remote schools in one of the regions of
The Mobile Lab project is not only the first of its kind in the Transcaucasus but also in the Republics of the Former Soviet Union and provides connectivity to schools, which either cannot receive Internet because of their remote location. For many of these remote communities, the Mobile Lab provides an expanded world view and exposure to information and communication and allows students from rural communities a connection never possible before.
Through the ASCP, PH has also brought information technologies to various segments of society by encouraging community involvement in the Internet centers. It has provided community members opportunities to access and share information, to engage in online collaborative projects, and to develop technical skills marketable in a digital world, reaching out to more than 200 diverse communities. Numerous projects for minorities, refugees, single mothers, and other vulnerable layers of the population have been and will continue to be implemented to ensure everyone’s access to the kinds of learning opportunities they both want and need in the increasingly knowledge-dependent world in which we live. http://projects.ascp.am/community/
Project Harmony, through its Armenia School Connectivity Program, is providing access to all by Advancing Society and Connecting People.
|
Anush Shahverdyan Project Harmony- Armenia, Education Manager anush@projectharmony.am |
A “Moodle” Course Management Systems and a Web Presentation Tool
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a software
package designed to help educators create quality online courses. Such
e-learning systems are sometimes also called Learning Management Systems (LMS)
or Virtual Learning Environments (Moodle Official Web Site,
Nowadays, more and more local educational institutions start
employing means of e-learning. Wide functionality, free distribution, modular
structure and a large community make the Moodle course management system more
and more popular in
The project was directed to develop a user-friendly module for creating, editing, browsing and saving web presentations without additional software packages except for the Internet browser and Moodle content management system installed on a remote server. Usage of presentations in the system without additional software was the main goal to achieve. The idea was to make a presentation tool available for both teachers and students of Moodle CMS. The result of the project is a product - a web-based, web presentation tool which allows users to create a web presentation or modify an already existing one without worrying about acquiring necessary software licenses or dealing with platform dependency.
A web-based, web presentation tool is implemented and added to the system as a separate module. The presentation module provides the following functionality:
Ø fast slide creation/editing and browsing
Ø application and future addition of design templates
Ø insertion of graphics
Ø comfortable text editing
Ø full screen preview option
Ø saving web presentation files for transporting and detaching from the database
The flow of the Presentation Module development work is divided into the following phases:
Initial Phase
Ø Study and installation of platforms and Moodle CMS
Ø Research on web presentations, web presentation software comparison of existing tools (Microsoft Power Point, PPT2HTML converter)
Ø Setting objectives
Development Phase
Ø PPT2HTML converter research
Ø Use case design and initial planning
Ø Design and general structure of the module
Ø Relational Database Design
Implementation
Ø Creation of a simple presentation
Ø
Application of design templates
Ø
Implementation of the basic functionality
o
Add Presentation
o
Edit Presentation
o
Basic View
o
Save as HTML File
o
Full Screen Preview
Ø Conversion to PostgreSQL
Ø Enhancement of functionality
Testing and Documenting
Phase
Ø General Testing and Refinement
Ø Bug Fixing
Ø Documenting the Work
During the implementation of the project several challenges were faced, however the biggest one was the inconvenience of the existing structure for creating multi-page modules such as Presentation Module. Indeed, the implementation of multi-dialog module can become problematic because the usage of the common function (course/mod.php) with its library makes it impossible to flow the process back to where it started. The continuation of the project first of all depended on finding a solution for the integration of a multi-dialog module into Moodle System according to the developers’ guide. The solution used in the project has been found as the optimal one. Using proposed approach, the data is transformed to the core only when the user finishes his/her work on the presentation. At the same time the methods of adding labels to the required course sections are processed by the cores of the system. This means that system core is not changed and still does its basic actions.
The presentation module, developed in the context of Master’s project, has been developed in several stages:
Ø Study of the Moodle structure
Ø Creation of the simple Presentation module (the core)
Ø Development of the database
Ø Development of additional functionality and user friendly interfaces
Ø Testing and documenting
Proceeding through all these steps made it possible to create a final product - ready to use in an educational process. The user can create web presentations similar to MS Power Point ones without the usage of commercial software.
Presentation module offers the functionality of presentation creation/editing and presentation show generation. It is especially comfortable for users of Moodle system as it is implemented in the general GUI of the Moodle system. Therefore, the introduction of the presentation module to the users can be done smoothly and without extensive training. However, the presentation module is supplied with documentation and additional help files which describe the functionality of the module.
The module is designed to be used under MySQL and PostgreSQL
database systems. The system is fully tested on SFSU server (MySQL/PostgreSQL)
which is extensively customized and on local machines at AUA and Lycos
The Presentation Module is compatible with most of the well known browsers and fully tested for MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Mozilla FireFox.
Currently the system offers a presentation module with basic functionality. However, to provide efficient presentations the usage of streaming video and audio could be necessary. For future enhancements of the system an addition of video/audio support could be considered as a major improvement of the module. Other enhancements to be considered are:
Ø improvement of user interface for providing better access to saving options
Ø addition of an option for copying/downloading resources from the server or archiving the files required for the presentation.
It is also worth mentioning the implementation of slide editing options right from the preview screen. Immediate slide editing and database update would make module usage more comfortable. However it will be reasonable to implement these features when Moodle users approve and recognize the need and advantages of using this module.
|
American KarenStepanyan@hotmail.com |
Developing Tools in
The Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) seeks
to provide a sound platform that supports portable tool development, promote
data interoperability, create an integrated set of tools that are easy to use,
and support learning, teaching, research and learning-related activities.
To understand how to build tools for
Historically,
The
The new Sakai Common services introduce a hierarchically defined security model in which people are organized into groups, functions can be clustered into permission sets, and resources can be hierarchically organized with inheritance of grants. Resource structuring supports random access and path-based addressing. High-level services, such as Course Management and Content Hosting will populate and depend on this structure.
A variety of XML configuration and description files are
used define
The Maven tool (http://maven.apache.org/) manages site
configuration. A set of project files
define tool and service dependencies that are resolved by Maven and a special
Sakai reactor plug-ins. Maven draws on both local and remote repositories for
standard and locally compiled JARs and WARs.
Maven is used to deploy these application bundles into Tomcat from a
development or release bundle.
Currently,
Tool development in
Most schools, colleges, and universities are already using
various support systems and services.
Additional information is available on the
|
Mark J. Norton Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA markjnorton@earthlink.net |
Swedish SPIDER Project: Life Long Learning Pilot Course for Armenian Specialists
Evaluation of the Armenian activity in the SPIDER project ICT4ICT
The Armenian activity within the Mid Sweden University SPIDER
project ICT4ICT consists of creating and running a brief course in a Life Long
Learning (LLL) setting. This means that the target groups are professionals who
are already educated but may need specific professional skills to be added to their
competency profiles.
Needs analysis in terms of the present ICT-development in Armenia
In the field of implementation of ICT in
Ø Connectivity;
Ø Competency;
Ø Content.
The resulting situation in the above-mentioned directions could be formulated in the following way:
Connectivity
Starting from 1997, Project Harmony, World Bank, IREX, OSI,
Eurasia foundation, NATO, CRDF, UNDP, USAID have financed and successfully
implemented projects on connecting Armenian schools, universities, public
libraries to Internet, and equipping organizations with personal computers. Armenian
research and educational network of academic institutions (ARENA) connects
cultural and educational organizations to the world information space. UNDP has
established a free Internet access center in
Competency
During the last 10 years several local NGOs and donor organizations are actively involved in organizing and conducting training courses. Topics, covered during the training sessions could be divided into the following subjects:
1. System administrators;
2. Managers of regional telecenters;
3. Administrators of WebCT;
4. Basics of computer literacy (word-processing systems, spreadsheets, Internet, Windows, and Web design etc.) for:
Ø School teachers;
Ø Librarians, museum workers and archivists;
Ø Municipal workers;
Ø Students and pupils.
Since 1998, specialists from
Content
Although the Competency and Connectivity aspects are being
developed during a long period of time, the Content aspect is still in a stage of
formation. One of the significant projects in Content creation is
"Armenian Libraries Union Catalogue" - http://www.armunicat.am:4505/ALEPH
(financed by Open Society Institute). Today the catalogue contains more than
1,000,000 records in Armenian, Cyrillic and Latin scripts. During discussions
with local IT experts they mentioned the importance of the implementation of
e-learning platforms, creation of distance learning courses, and making them
accessible to students, specialists and residents from rural regions.
According to the suggestions within ICT4ICT project the work was focused on 3 directions:
1. Creation a web-based course “ICT and Official Statistics for Development”. WebCT has been selected for the course development.
2.
Pilot testing of a course with the help of experts from
National Assembly,
3. Advertising project results.
The structure of this evaluation and frame of reference
To be
valuable this kind of project activity should create a useful sustainable
product. Therefore, the evaluation basically will focus on these three concepts
– usefulness, sustainability and replicability.
Usefulness
Since this
project activity is aimed at creating a specific training course, the course
must be useful for a specific target
group for which the training is developed. So, the target group specification
together with the needs for training in that target group compose the first
item on the evaluation agenda. But to be useful the course has also to be accessible to the target group. This
will be the second item. If the course has a useful content and is accessible
to the target group, it was considered to fulfil the usefulness criteria. In
the specific case of the course discussed here, accessibility has another
aspect too. The course is about using official statistics, so these statistics
must obviously be accessible.
Sustainability
The
sustainability issues of an e-learning course are mainly on the institutional
level. One such issue in this kind of enterprises is the question of future delivery.
Another
issue is the maintenance of the course,
which goes for both course environment and content.
Replicability
For a
course as a product of a project to be replicable, it must be reusable without much extra work.
Replicability is also about lessons
learnt from experiences.
In the case of our pilot course participants were specialists from:
National Institute of Education – 7 participants;
National Assembly – 8 participants;
Deliver organizational matter
The course content has been delivered in an understandable and
easy-to-use way. After each example there was an exercise which was aimed at
acquiring skills how to get, retrieve and analyze data, construct diagrams and
tables, as well as draw relevant conclusion. Then, two assignments were
provided with the deadlines of the first draft, peer feedback and final report.
Participants were distributed within four subgroups, which made collaboration
among participants more organized and productive. For individual questions
e-mail was available for each participant. And for group-discussion questions
and/or problems chat rooms were available. After submitting each assignment,
all participants got comments on their works by tutors. By the end of the
course participants were offered to evaluate the productivity of the course and
make comments on further improvements. For this purpose, the tutors’ team
prepared an online questionnaire consisting of 45 questions, which were divided
to the following subsections:
Ø Course content and design;
Ø Course delivery process;
Ø
Course
outcomes.
Conclusions
Life Long Learning courses are very useful, productive and valuable for specialists who want to broaden their scope of professional knowledge, obtain and develop new competences and skills parallel with occupational activities. The success of the developed course is evident from the results of the evaluation made by the participants of the target group.
|
Rolf Dalin Mid Sweden University Sweden Rolf.Dalin@miun.se Tigran Zargaryan Yerevan State University Armenia Tigran@ysu.am Arevik Hakobyan National Institute of Education Armenia arevikhakobyan@yahoo.com Sona Martirosyan National Institute of Education Armenia Soniko2@yandex.ru |
Ontology-based International Degree Recognition
ABSTRACT
Mutual recognition of courses and degrees is one of the main goals of EU
universities according to the Bologna Declaration. International exchange of experience in the
training of specialists is one of the most actual problems in the modern open
society. None (even the best) of the European universities can provide students with
an optimal set of courses. This especially concerns Ukrainian (and other
post-USSR) universities because of poor financing of education, the lack of
funds for new equipment and facilities, limited mobility of teachers and
consequently impossibility to teach courses corresponding to the newest trends
and achievements in science.
Nowadays
the technology of obtaining the higher education with the best courses from
different universities around the world is becoming customary. Following that
scheme, a student composes an individual study plan including the most
interesting and modern courses from different universities. He can obtain a diploma
usually from one of those attended universities when he satisfies all demands
for a degree in that university. Most of European universities demand to obtain
a minimal amount of credits only. This method allows increasing the efficiency
of higher education. This is the way the problem of a transfer of courses,
diplomas and degrees is being solved in different foreign universities.
The
European Credit Transfer System has been developed in order to facilitate the
transfer of credits obtained in different European universities. Most of them
successfully use the system. It was developed to solve the problem of recognition
of obtained degrees in
Substantial
differences between Ukrainian (as well as other post-USSR) and EU standards in
higher education make the recognition of courses and degrees a hard, time-demanding
process involving valuable human resources. Ukrainian credits are mostly
recognized only by those EU universities, which have a long-term cooperation
with specific Ukrainian universities and the content of their curricula is
well-known due to joint activities.
The main
problems are “what can be recognised” and “how it can be transferred”. For
Transferred
courses/degrees should be determined not by the names (or few words annotation)
but by the content. For this purpose it is necessary to develop a new technology
providing automated determination of semantically similar courses/degrees.
The
research is devoted to the development of an intelligent mechanism of
management and integration of heterogeneous information based on standardized
models of knowledge – ontologies. Modern information systems (including
educational) raise essential questions related to the management of information
resources and tasks of knowledge accumulation. As statistical methods do not
provide the possibility of contextual information processing, tasks of search
and analysis in information sources are considerably complicated. The solution of
these problems completely depends on the possibility to carry out semantic
analysis.
The
proposed solution is the methodology and technology for semantic description of
different educational information resources (degree standards, curricular,
course descriptions, etc.) according to Semantic Web standards of W3C
Consortium (http://www.w3.org ). The proposed solution is universal in the
meaning that it can be used for presentation of educational resources for every
university in the world. The main phase of study recognition is the
understanding of the content of the study concerned. The automated recognition
(and automatic “understanding”) can be ensured only by analysing the entire
detailed semantic description (ontology) of the study domain, which is shared
by administrators of both home and host universities.
The core
element of the new information technology is the methodology for ontology-based
comparison of higher educational standards. It includes the general framework
for integration of higher educational standards (according to the international
knowledge management standards of ontology-based management of electronic
documents and resources on the Web) and the models of upper ontologies and
pilot ontologies to support standardization of educational resources. The
models of ontologies are in line with international educational standards and
tools being currently established to ensure a higher-level interoperability.
This technology will include:
Ø
ontology-based
descriptions of topics, courses and degrees;
Ø
methodology
of creation and comparison of ontology-based information resources in higher
education;
Ø
pilot
tool for ontology-based international degree recognition and individual study
plan generation;
It’s planned to develop a web service that will provide an ontology-based automatic
comparison of educational documents using semantic descriptions and determine
similarities and differences
between them. For instance a web service can provide a student planning to
continue the education in a
The offered technology will provide:
converting of national educational documents to those by European standards;
automatic recognition of courses and degrees of different universities;
generation of individual study plans for international mobility students;
semantic annotation of national information resources in education;
evaluation of correspondence of the educational content to the EU standards.
The development of Semantic Web technology is caused by “Information
burst” in Internet and necessity of automated data and knowledge processing in
the Web. The solution of these problems is the standardization of knowledge-sharing
technology and using intelligent tools for human knowledge processing. Semantic Web is the idea of having data on the
web defined and linked in a way that can be used by machines not just for
display purposes, but for automation, integration and reuse of data across
various applications. Following the Semantic Web ideas, all web resources
should be semantically annotated by formal machine-readable descriptions, which
refer to shared ontologies: Web documents/services/databases as well as Web
agents/Internet users and any external resources, especially educational
information resources are the subject for semantic. Ontology is a complete formalized specification
of a domain (description of objects, concepts, knowledge about them and links between
them, inference rules, etc). The goal of educational ontology development is
the possibility of total “understanding” of Ukrainian educational standards and
documents either by foreign specialists or by programs for their automatic
processing. The semantic description of courses, curricula and educational
standards should be generated with ontology-based method for correct
understanding and transferring in the universities of different countries.
Using this approach the problem of intelligent search of the educational
resources can be solved (in contrast with a search by keywords). The approach
allows also a semantic integration of heterogeneous educational resources if
necessary.
For
instance, using an automatic procedure of semantic identification one can facilitate the task of
internationalization of higher education by comparing semantically annotated
international demands and standards with national educational standards. It is
also possible to develop an automated system of degree recognition that will
compare semantically annotated diplomas of two (or more) universities.
The management and internationalization of education are specific fields, in
which advances of semantic web approach can bring essential effect. The work in
that direction has been started a few years ago and is actively ongoing as
research cooperation between Artificial Intelligence Department of Kharkov
National University of Radioelectronics (Ukraine), Industrial Ontologies Group
(http://www.cs.jyu.fi/ai/OntoGroup), and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland).
|
Vagan Terziyan Department of Mathematical Information
Technology P.O. Box 35 (Agora) FIN-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland vagan@it.jyu.fi Olena Kaykova Department of Mathematical Information
Technology P.O. Box 35 (Agora) FIN-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland helen@it.jyu.fi Oleksandra Vitko Department of Artificial Intelligence vitko@kture.kharkov.ua, Lyudmila Titova Department of Artificial Intelligence unishol@hit.kharkov.ua |
New Information Technologies and Resources for e-Education and e-Democracy
Cognitive legal technologies and resources are the main part of systems named "Electronic democracy". The basic motivation of e-democracy is the expectations to make the government, legislative bodies, constitutional courts, educational and political processes more open for members of a society and thus give everyone chances and opportunities of active participation in governance and establishment the rule of law. If the system does not provide information about its activities, it is difficult to expect from the society and its citizens the openness, activeness and reference to the system.
Therefore the best way to guarantee on-line training and involving of citizens in decision-making processes consists in introducing dialogue tools to work with official e-democracy sites and thus to provide citizens with a regular and full access to the legal public information, especially about constitutional laws and human rights documents. The constitutional information space includes the following: on-line dialogue, uniform information access to experts and citizens, services of the electronic constitutional court.
Services of Electronic Constitutional
Court
These services include: Internet, e-mail and other tools for greater efficiency, speed and improved access to professional information. An example of such service is an on-line access to decisions of the Constitutional Court of Armenia (CC of RA) where the parties participating in the process have an opportunity of free access to decisions of similar or close cases. The information on the web site (http://www.concourt.am (since 1997)) is presented in three languages: Armenian, Russian and English and also displays the structure of court and the spheres of its activity. On the first page it is possible to see the sitemap with the main sections, "Constitution of RA", the Law "On the Constitutional Court", "Members", "Decisions", "Books (e-library)", "International Relations", and also projects developed by the CC of RA.
A number of e-books, monographs, cases, scientific magazines, clauses, "Constitutional Justice" bulletins and International Almanac “Constitutional Justice in the New Millennium” with the developed search system are presented on the web site. Since 1996 various documents of conferences are presented in the "Conference" section. Materials of annual republican "Constitution and Right" Olympiad for students are also presented there.
We consider for a society in transition the constitutional courts should become the center of new legal thinking and formation of new mentality, first of all for youth. The Constitutional Court of Armenia is acting through a public organization, the Center of the Constitutional Law, to organize the republican Olympiads for youth. Olympiads serve as a good example and the practical tool for youth on use of new information and web technologies. Pupils of schools and high schools, universities from various regions and cities of Armenia connected to Internet, visit the website of Olympiad, get acquainted with educational resources, rules and conditions of participating in Olympiad, download virtual laws, test questions and get responses, become participants of Olympiad, send answers by e-mail. As a result the increasing quantity of schools, schoolchildren and teachers with great enthusiasm and activity are involved in Olympiads which become an instrument of training of youth for the culture of e-democracy.
The important tendency in development of e-democracy consists in growing use of web portals. Users are often dissatisfied with growing complexity and inconvenience of accessing the information and find portals as a response to their needs. An impressive example is the portal of the Constitutional Court of Armenia providing good means of search of the multilingual information using the opportunities of such search systems as Google, Yandex, etc.
Technologies of processing and the analysis of multilingual information resources in solving legal and education problems
A unique computer system for the constitutional comparative
analysis "Voronum" has been created in the Constitutional court
Many international conferences on various problems of the constitutional justice were organized during the last years. Sometimes their efficiency was not so high (organizational or transport problems, loss of time). Today the possibilities of Internet permit to organize scientific e-discussions and e-workshops on different problems considered in the constitutional court. This new mechanism of electronic dialogue can be accessible to experts and other public organizations working on actual problems. It can also provide a feedback from citizens whose interests and rights should be protected.
References
Vahanyan, V. & Vahanyan, H. Virtual technologies in
management (management systomtechnic). Monograph.
Vahanyan, G. & Bleyan, V. Information technologies in
legal activities.
|
Vahanyan, G., Bleyan, V., Vahanyan, H., and Hartenyan, M. The Constitutional Court of Republic Armenia The Russian-Armenian State University 375019, Armenia gregor@concourt.am arthur@concourt.am http://www.concourt.am |
Basic Concepts of Creation of Virtual Chemical Laboratory
A Virtual Chemical Laboratory (VirtChemLab) was developed at the Department of Algorithmic Languages of Yerevan State University. The idea was very clear as the integral part of educational process are laboratory experiments and practice exercises in a discipline being learned. Laboratory exercises complete the interactive course and supplement electronic manuals providing deeper acquisition of the knowledge. There are two obvious advantages of virtual laboratories:
Ø Laboratory experiments and researches are supported by laboratory equipment and reagents that are often neither available nor complete;
Ø Even if the laboratory equipment is complete it is necessary and desirable to make the same experiment repeatedly with different substances in various proportions and by different sequence of actions;
Ø During laboratory experiments it’s necessary to keep the precautionary measures while in virtual conditions the student has been given some freedom of actions.
VirtChemLab is a virtual environment that gives learners an opportunity to make traditional laboratory experiments in organic chemistry virtually. The created environment allows a learner to carry out some experiments in absence of a real laboratory, equipment and reagents and to observe results of experiments visually in a form of chemical formulas and animated molecules.
A special pedagogical agent was included in the system that can prevent attempts of dangerous actions sending warnings about undesired reactions and effects. Colorful didactic materials, illustrations and different multimedia animations for chemical experiments make study more interesting, easy and more accessible for acquisition. Observation of experiments results accompanied by visual effects, chemical formulas and animated molecules contributes to the study process.
The system can be used for addition of new experiments by specialists in chemistry and creation of virtual laboratories in other disciplines.
During the development of Virtual Chemical Laboratory for simulating chemical experiments it is necessary to identify basic concepts and elements, operations and actions of chemical experiment in real conditions, to establish and identify main concepts and methods of virtual laboratory study, to develop scenarios of virtual experiments.
In virtual environment actions can be performed in any order under the surveillance of pedagogical agent. Learners can
Ø familiarize themselves with scenarios and theoretical basis of chemical experiments;
Ø interactively carry out chemical experiments with various collection of substances typical for the experiment;
Ø visualize the results of experiments;
Ø perceive the experiment on molecular level;
Ø understand chemical reactions between substances in the experiment;
Ø recognize properties of suggested substances in the experiment;
Ø organize practical laboratory research wherever and whenever is needed;
Ø find a correct scenario of the experiment by a try-and-fail method;
Ø perform a laboratory research monitored by pedagogical agent.
VirtChemLab has a gallery of necessary chemical equipments, glassware, tools and chemical reagents. There is the brief information about each substance and its chemical properties in the gallery. There are also rules for exploring the system.
An experiment can be executed many times by different substances in different proportions to learn more about chemical reagents being learned. Over thirty experiments on organic chemistry are included in VirtChemLab.
In the process of development of the described systems some other approaches were elaborated. They can be useful for the development of other virtual laboratories.
|
Sargsyan, S., Hovakimyan, A., Ispiryan, N., Darbinyan, K., Titanyan,
A., and Petrosyan, E. Yerevan State University (YSU) Yerevan, Armenia alglan@ysu.am |
uPortal Framework
Abstract
Nearly ubiquitous access to the Web among students, faculty
and staff of the higher education institutions has prompted numerous
instructional and administrative services to be made available on-line. Many
institutions are using web portals to deliver these services to the users in a
coordinated fashion. uPortal (http://uportal.org) is an enterprise portal
framework developed for that purpose by universities, colleges and companies
that comprise Java Architectures Special Interest Group (JA-SIG) [1]. The framework has been
designed to accommodate unique requirements of the higher education community,
providing high degree of flexibility and support of open standards. uPortal is
currently being used by several hundred institutions in US,
One of the major goals of the uPortal2 was to provide institutions with a straightforward way of customizing all aspects of the presentation design and navigation. To achieve that, uPortal2 presentation is generated from an abstract description of the content that is available to the user (user layout) by the means of two XSL transformations [4]. The first transformation is responsible for defining the navigational structure of the presentation, while the second transformation is tasked with rendering presentation in a desired markup language. Multiple stylesheet combinations can be configured concurrently on the same installation, and selected dynamically based on the user preferences or browser compatibility mapping. By modifying and adding framework stylesheets, institutions were able to implement a wide range of custom portal designs. The same approach can dynamically adapt portal rendering to match the accessibility preferences of the user, or capabilities of the client browser.
Educational institutions tend to maintain a wide variety of information systems that need to be supported and integrated with the portal installation. The efforts of many colleges and universities involved in the project have allowed uPortal to develop flexible capabilities for integration of various back-end services. uPortal framework incorporates Person Directory service, which is responsible for managing user-associated attributes, such as contact or affiliation information. The service can be configured to gather such information upon authentication from multiple back-end sources, such as LDAP servers and remote databases. The Groups service provides a general set of APIs, implementations and user interfaces for management of grouped entities. It is used for a variety of purposes, such as maintaining groups of users, or categories of channels available for subscription. The framework models relationships between groups as directed acyclic graphs, allowing representation of complex relationships typical to the academic environments. The Groups service is complemented by a flexible Permissions framework capable of resolving grouped entities, as well as a set of helper channels that can be leveraged by the framework or other channels to manage group membership and permissions. As in the case of the Person Directory service, Group service can incorporate and resolve group information obtained from multiple independent sources.
The content delivered to the user is initially described by user layout – an abstract structure of folders and channels. uPortal2 provides several strategies for managing user layouts. The Simple layout manager maintains separate layout structures for each user. The initial layout is based on a template chosen according to group affiliation, and can restrict user from modifying certain portions of the layout. Aggregated and Distributed layout managers assemble user layouts by combining predefined, published pieces of content, referred to as layout fragments. In an institutional environment, such fragments would be typically created and maintained by individual faculty members, department, library or school administration. Fragments can be either made available for subscription by the portal users, or automatically pushed into the layouts of specific user groups.
A wide selection of channels is available for the uPortal
framework through JA-SIG Clearinghouse [5]. Generic purpose channels,
such as CWebProxy, RSS viewer or CGenericXSTL allow for easy integration of
existing content into the portal. For example CWebProxy channel, developed by
Memorial University of Newfoundland, has been used to integrate dozens of
existing information services in
Portlet specifications released through Java Community Process (JSR168) in 2003 presented a standardized alternative to the uPortal channel interfaces [6]. The specification of the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) was also released the same year [7]. Support for JSR168 portlets in uPortal2 has been implemented through an adapter channel, and ability to consume WSRP content was provided by using a portlet from the WSRP4J project of the Apache foundation.
While the development of the current uPortal 2.4 and 2.5 releases is being actively moved forward, efforts to create the next major version, uPortal3, have been underway with support of the joint SAKAI-uPortal grant from Andrew W. Mellon foundation. uPortal3 aims to provide improved functional flexibility and serve as a solid foundation for long-term development of the uPortal framework.
The architecture of uPortal3 uses Spring application
framework [8] to create isolated components
that can be organized using Dependency Injection strategy [9]. This approach provides
significantly greater flexibility for individual installations, while at the
same time, allowing independent modification and improvement of various parts
of the framework. The design and granularity of individual framework components
aims to provide solutions to many of the custom requirements, modifications and
problems that have been identified throughout development and utilization of
previous uPortal versions. Among these are detailed requirements of the
References
Java Architectures Special Interest Group, http://www.ja-sig.org
SCT Luminis, http://www.sungardsct.com/Education/products/p_l_index.html
Academus by Unicon Inc., http://www.unicon.net/products_519.html
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
JA-SIG Clearinghouse, http://jasigch.princeton.edu/
JSR 168: Portlet Specification, http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=168
OASIS Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) Technical Committee, http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=wsrp
Spring application framework, http://www.springframework.org/
M. Fowler, "Inversion of Control Containers and the Dependency Injection pattern," 2004, http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/injection.html
|
Peter Kharchenko Unicon Inc. pkharchenko@unicon.net |