Journal articles on the topic 'TV Open Learning'

This paper gives an introduction to "Interculture TV", an educational videocast project initiated by the Department of "Intercultural Studies and Business Communications" at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. The project provides open access to audio-visual teaching/learning materials produced by intercultural student work groups and offers opportunities for cooperation. Starting from a definition of the term "educast", the article analyses the videocast episodes on Interculture TV and discusses their potential for inter-cultural instruction and learning.

Background: Learning media do have an important role in facilitating learning for medical students, especially in Problem Based Learning (PBL) curriculum. TV-LEDs, LCDs and whiteboards are currently popular to be used as the learning media for PBL tutorial discussions. TV-LEDs and LCDs are digital technologies which are considered more sophisticated when compared to whiteboards. Undergraduate medical students in Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FM UGM), Yogyakarta-Indonesia attend PBL tutorials every week and use those learning media to facilitate their tutorial discussions. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of TV-LEDs/LCDs and whiteboards as learning media in PBL tutorial discussion.Methods: A cross-sectional study using both qualitative and quantitative (mixed method) survey approaches. A total of 398 third and fourth year undergraduate medical students of FM UGM participated the survey. Data were collected using a questionnaire that incorporated close-ended questions using likert-scale (quantitative) and open-ended questions (qualitative). Quantitative data were analysed based in ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) grouping method and qualitative data were analysed using deductive qualitative analysis.Results: The survey found based on ARCS groups that A = 3,68; R = 3,63; C = 3,69; S = 3,71. These results indicate that students are eager and enthusiastic in using the technology of TV-LEDs/LCDs as learning media. The qualitative responses describe the benefits and limitations of both TV-LEDs/LCDs and whiteboards as learning media in PBL tutorial. Students also provide some suggestions to optimise the benefits of both learning medias in facilitating learning in PBL tutorial.Conclusion: The use of TV-LEDs/LCDs as learning media in PBL tutorial received a positive response overall. TV-LEDs/LCDs are considered more effective and interactive rather than whiteboard. Students suggested that TV-LEDs/LCDs should be used side-by-side with whiteboard.Keywords: TV-LED/LCD, whiteboard, tutorial, learning media, effectiveness, medical student

Utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) in open and distance education is very important. Universitas Terbuka (UT-The Indonesia Open University) gradually began developing and using ICT applications for a variety of purposes, both academic and administrative. In the academic services, UT provides learning materials specifically designed for independent learning. The students can using learning materials provided by UT through the internet such as online tutorial (tuton), web supplement, internet television (I-TV), and online exercise independent (LM-Online). The objectives of the research were: (i) to describe students attitude for using information and communication technology in open and distance learning, and (ii) to describe the relationship between the students characteristics with their attitude for using information and communication technology in open and distance learning. This research was conducted with the survey methods and observations in the Regional Office (UPBJJ-UT) in Serang dan Bengkulu. The 52 students samples were randomly selected as respondents. The data were analyzed through Spearman rank correlation test. The result showed students attitude for using information and communication technology in open and distance learning is pretty good. The result showed educational students background were significantly correlated with their attitude for using web supplement and I-TV. A student region of residence were significantly correlated with their attitude for using I-TV. There was also a significant correlation between the availability of internet facilities and computer ownership with their attitudes for using tuton, web supplement and I-TV. Pemanfaatan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi ( TIK ) dalam pendidikan terbuka dan jarak jauh sangat penting. Universitas Terbuka (UT) secara bertahap mulai mengembangkan dan menggunakan aplikasi ICT untuk berbagai keperluan, baik akademik dan administratif. Dalam pelayanan akademik, UT menyediakan bahan ajar yang dirancang khusus untuk belajar mandiri. Para mahasiswa dapat menggunakan bahan pembelajaran yang diberikan oleh UT melalui internet seperti tutorial secara online (Tuton), suplemen web , televisi internet (I- TV), dan latihan mandiri online (LM - Online). Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah: (1) untuk menggambarkan sikap mahasiswa untuk menggunakan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi dalam pembelajaran terbuka dan jarak jauh, dan (2) untuk menggambarkan hubungan antara karakteristik mahasiswa dengan sikap mereka dalam menggunakan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi pada media pembelajaran terbuka dan jarak jauh. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode survei dan pengamatan di Kantor Wilayah (UPBJJ-UT) di Serang dan Bengkulu. Sampel sebanyak 52 mahasiswa dipilih secara acak sebagai responden. Data dianalisis melalui uji korelasi Rank Spearman. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan sikap mahasiswa menggunakan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi dalam pembelajaran terbuka dan jarak cukup bagus. Selanjutnya hasil penelitian menunjukkan latar belakang pendidikan mahasiswa secara signifikan berkorelasi dengan sikap mereka untuk menggunakan suplemen web dan I-TV. Tempat tinggal mahasiswa secara signifikan berkorelasi dengan sikap mereka untuk menggunakan I- TV. Ada juga hubungan yang signifikan antara ketersediaan fasilitas internet dan kepemilikan komputer dengan sikap mereka untuk menggunakan Tuton , suplemen web dan I- TV .

Nowadays, information technologies play an important role in education. In education, mobile and TV applications can be considered a support tool in the teaching - learning process, however, relevant and appropriate mobile and TV applications are not always available; teachers can only judge applications by reviews or anecdotes instead of testing them. These reasons lead to the needs and benefits for creating one?s own mobile application for teaching and learning. In this work, we present a cloud-based platform for multi-device educational software generation (smartphones, tablets, Web, Android-based TV boxes, and smart TV devices) called AthenaCloud. It is important to mention that an open cloud-based platform allows teachers to create their own multi-device software by using a personal computer with Internet access. The goal of this platform is to provide a software tool to help educators upload their electronic contents - or use existing contents in an open repository - and package them in the desired setup file for one of the supported devices and operating systems.

This article explains the typology of instructional video styles in Universitas Terbuka TV (UT TV) as a learning medium in open and distance higher education. Instructional video styles are an essential aspect of learning media because they relate to student involvement in the learning process. This research used a descriptive content analysis method to obtain and determine the style of communication in each video studied. The result indicates that the instructional video style on UT TV tends to be consistent across subjects and disciplines. The style used by most instructional videos on UT TV is slide style, both as the main style and as a secondary style. The slide style is identical to the presentation format in conventional lectures, where slides are positioned as teaching aids so learning material can easily be understood. Artikel ini berusaha memaparkan tipologi gaya video instruksional di Universitas Terbuka TV (UT TV) sebagai media pembelajaran di Pendidikan Tinggi Terbuka dan Jarak Jauh (PTTJJ). Gaya video instruksional merupakan aspek penting dalam media pembelajaran sebab berkaitan dengan tingkat keterlibatan mahasiswa dalam proses pembelajaran. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis isi deskriptif untuk mengidentifikasi gaya komunikasi pada setiap video yang diteliti. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa video instruksional di UT TV memiliki gaya komunikasi yang cenderung seragam di seluruh mata pelajaran dan disiplin ilmu. Gaya yang digunakan di sebagian besar video instruksional di UT TV adalah gaya slide, baik sebagai gaya utama maupun gaya pendukung. Gaya slide sangat identik dengan format presentasi pada perkuliahan konvensional, di mana slide diposisikan sebagai alat bantu pengajar saat menyampaikan materi agar mudah dipahami oleh mahasiswa.

A large-scale description of men and women speaking-time in media is presented, based on the analysis of about 700.000 hours of French audiovisual documents, broadcasted from 2001 to 2018 on 22 TV channels and 21 radio stations. Speaking-time is described using Women Speaking Time Percentage (WSTP), which is estimated using automatic speaker gender detection algorithms, based on acoustic machine learning models. WSTP variations are presented across channels, years, hours, and regions. Results show that men speak twice as much as women on TV and on radio in 2018, and that they used to speak three times longer than women in 2004. We also show only one radio station out of the 43 channels considered is associated to a WSTP larger than 50%. Lastly, we show that WSTP is lower during high-audience time-slots on private channels. This work constitutes a massive gender equality study based on the automatic analysis of audiovisual material and offers concrete perspectives for monitoring gender equality in media.The software used for the analysis has been released in open-source, and the detailed results obtained have been released in open-data.

TV educational programs mushroomed in China in the 1990s and beyond. They combined education and entertainment, and for the first time in Communist Chinese history, used TV ratings to determine the continued existence of these programs. This article addresses the predominant focus on history and traditional learning in the lectures at the most famous of these programs, China Central Television’s Lecture Room (baijiajiangtan) since its inception in 2001. Borrowing Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, it studies how a confluence of state policies, TV station decisions, market imperatives, and educators who presided over the programs created, through storytelling, a modern, open yet culturally conservative world, to keep the audience oriented to modern ideas and practices while deterring excessive individualism or freedom, and a vibrant social milieu favorable to these ideas and practices through audience input via TV program ratings.

Several published solutions exist for the automatization of seismic facies labeling. We suggest an approach that applies tools from deep learning and semantic image segmentation, such as specific UNet-based neural network structure, total variation (TV) loss, pseudolabels, as well as domain-specific attributes and a novel image-warping augmentation technique. We use a patch-based training and prediction approach, and at the prediction stage, the facies labels for the test cube are collected with the patch overlap and with the averaging of the predictions. When applied to two open-source labeled seismic cubes, the algorithm demonstrates superior performance compared with the published results with regard to several metrics computed, such as accuracy, intersection-over-union, and F1 score. We compare the model predictions with and without the domain-specific augmentation and the pseudolabel approach with the metrics suggesting that the augmentation and the pseudolabels provide an increase in the model’s performance. Our method provides smoother labels due to the use of TV loss and pseudolabels, which is proved by the visual observation of the predictions of the final model in comparison with the baseline raw UNet model results.

The article deals with the issue of facilitating learning the specific features of spoken professional communication for International Relations through discourse analysis. The authors present an EFL methodology solution to the problem of teaching ESP to International Relations students based on a strong determination to use the latest advancements in linguistics, i.e. discourse analysis for the purposes of ESP teaching at the university level of education, namely the bulk of linguistic research into the rhetoric of discourse strategies. The paper considers the very concept of discourse and discourse strategies, provides examples of discourse strategies used by IR VIP persons in publicly open interviews on TV and outlines the methodology applied to structure the educational process to help students use their linguistic knowledge to achieve efficiency in spoken professional intercultural communication.

Open and distance learning (ODL) connects learners across geographical boundaries. Through the support of the Internet and Learning Management Systems (LMS), learners nowadays are conveniently learning and communicating via the online mode. Nevertheless, will the cultural diversity of learners affect their learning and interaction behavior in the web-based environment? This is viewed as one of the relatively unexplored scope of research areas worthy investigating via a comparative analysis of two countries from Asia but with different contexts of society. This article investigates the learners' online interaction of two open universities, namely Shanghai TV University in China and Wawasan Open University in Malaysia. Based on the findings of this comparative study, the authors are of the opinion that national cultural diversity of learners affects and influences their learning and interaction behavior in the online platform. The effect of cultural diversity of learners is in fact prominent in several aspects in their online learning and interaction behavior as observed in the synchronous chat sessions and asynchronous forum board discussions. In order to better guide the learners as well as to eliminate the negative impact of national cultural diversity on learning outcome, several suggestions and recommendations are proposed.

Rapid development of communication technologies has brought revolutionary changes to language teaching and learning. The use of computer technology has become an integral aspect of language learning. A diverse array of technologies, such as online learning platform, CD-ROMs, Multimedia Network Courseware, write site and videoconferencing etc. have been used to enhance distance language teaching, but they don’t provide opportunities for oral output since most of the communication tools are text-based. This poses great impediment to language learning, so, this research strongly recommends that voice interactive technology, such as Wimba Voice, should be applied to distance language teaching especially in Radio & TV Universities—China’s largest provider of open and distance education.

Android is a open source operating system with more than a billion of users, including all kind of devices (cell phones, TV, smart watch, etc). The amount of sensitive data “using” this technologies has increased the cyber criminals interest to develop tools and techniques to acquire that information or to disrupt the device's smooth operation. Despite several solutions are able to guarantee an adequate level of security, day by day the hackers skills grows up (because of their growing experience), what means a permanent challenge for security tools developers. As a response, several members of the research community are using artificial intelligence tools for Android security, particularly machine learning techniques to classify between healthy and malicious apps; from an analytic review of those works, this paper propose a static analysis framework and machine learning to do that classification.

<p>This article describes the rationale for pedagogical, technological and organizational choices in the design of a web-based and open virtual learning environment (VLE) promoting and sustaining self-directed language learning. Based on the last forty years of research on learner autonomy at the CRAPEL according to Holec's definition (1988), we designed a global VLE for researchers working on language learning autonomy, teachers with various degrees of practice and experience in self-directed learning, and language learners. The VLE is thus divided into three spaces for the different types of participant, each offering dedicated social networking possibilities and resources to enrich the others.</p><p>Our study focuses on the space dedicated to teacher training, the main objective being to help them build knowledge and skills for a new educational role in the paradigm of language learning autonomy (LLA). This space contains specially created Web-TV resources and audio podcasts of self-directed learning advising sessions, is based on reflective analysis and relies on a professional social network, following the principles of the “community of practice” (Wenger, 1998). In line with the principles of self-directed learning, teachers acting as trainers in the VLE mainly enact supportive and facilitative functions as advisers do in face-to-face interactions. We explore how training for advisers is organized in this online environment characterized by a high degree of openness (Jézégou, 2010). We report on findings from the way teachers within their dedicated space, using quantitative and qualitative data collected from interviews, questionnaires and analysis of logs. We look at the tensions that emerge as teachers conceive their new role and engage in new training practices given the opportunities afforded by the environment. The data provide insights to how the VLE can support training practices based on reflection, participation and collaboration.</p>

Based on the currently developing trend of so called Massive Open Online Courses it is obvious that learning videos are more in use nowadays. This is some kind of comeback because due to the maxim “TV is easy, book is hard” [1][2] videos were used rarely for teaching. A further reason for this rare usage is that it is widely known that a key factor for human learning is a mechanism called selective attention [3][4]. This suggests that managing this attention is from high importance. Such a management could be achieved by providing different forms of interaction and communication in all directions. It has been shown that interaction and communication is crucial for the learning process [6]. Because of these remarks this research study introduces an algorithm which schedules interactions in learning videos and live broadcastings. The algorithm is implemented by a web application and it is based on the concept of a state machine. Finally, the evaluation of the algorithm points out that it is generally working after the improvement of some drawbacks regarding the distribution of interactions in the video.

Abstract: The friendship between Pakistan-China is deeply rooted in the hearts of people of the two countries. The exchanges and mutual learning through the film, television and drama playeda significance role to strengthen the bond among the people of both countries. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the exchange of film and television products have gone through ups and downs, and the dissemination of Pakistani film and television products have also experienced twists and turns. In 2020, the Pakistani film " Parwaaz Hai Junoon " was released in China, which aroused some response and gave impetus to cultural exchanges. It also open doors for Pakistani films and drama in China. Despite the improvement of the quantity and quality of Pakistani film and television products, these could not spread in China mainland at greater extent, with the advent of the era of "mixed war", the conflict of values has become a problem that should be addressed in film and television communication. The bilateral political trust, ideological security demand at present, ask for promotion of cross-cultural communication through film and television products. There should be mechanisms, which can help to overcome obstacles actively, expand new path, clever use of all kinds of social and short video platform. Pakistani film in China should also ensure communication quality at all level and at the same time boost the cooperation between two countries field of film and television products. The in-depth exchanges and high-level mutual learning in the fields of film and television between China and Pakistan are worth looking forward to.

AimsThis reel analysis identifies quotes and actions of fictional characters from TV shows, namely: Hercules Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and House who can demonstrate learning points for clinical students to use within real psychiatric practice, using scientific theories such as the Hypothetico-deductive model, Empirical falsification and Occam's razor. This analysis explores what an ideal psychiatric interview consists of and what can be learnt from these characters and implemented within medical education.MethodEach show was watched by one researcher over the period of March to August 2020. The researcher noted insightful quotes which were relevant to one of the three philosophical theories. Quotes were included if they demonstrated deduction skills, revealed a character's ethos and supported the Calgary-Cambridge model of interviewing such as building rapport. 32 quotations were collected in total and narrowed to 6 quotations. These were then analysed, learning points were made and linked to the Calgary Cambridge model.ResultDr House demonstrates objectivity when taking a patient's history. He utilises empirical falsification when diagnosing to avoid missing a differential diagnosis. Detective Poirot displays how empathic listening allows disclosure of details in the history, which would have otherwise been omitted. Additionally, he illustrates the importance of collateral interviewing which allows one to identify misinterpretations and inconsistencies. Sherlock teaches us the importance of perception regarding mismatching information which can help to gather new facts. All three characters interview beginning with open questions to more closed questions, supplementing with deductive reasoning in order to solve cases. Objectivity, empirical falsification, empathetic listening and deductive reasoning are the key skills displayed by these characters, that medical students can most use in their own practices.ConclusionThe perfect interview discovers new information through synchronised collaboration, whilst adhering to the Hypothetico-deductive model of thought. A combination of the Calgary-Cambridge model of interviewing and skillset of the TV characters should be considered for implementation in some aspects of psychiatric interviewing. Medical education can utilise these TV shows to teach students how to conduct history-taking.

Perkembangan teknologi informasi begitu cepat seperti sekarang telah banyak mengubah sudut pandang banyak orang, antara lain sudut pandang orang untuk mengubah dunia pendidikan menjadi lebih baik. Salah satu contohnya pembelajaran berbasis Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) yaitu pembelajaran menggunakan video streaming. Dengan instalasi software open source Wirecast dan Desktop presenter digunakan untuk membuat video pembelajaran Streaming, disiarkan secara real time melalui media broadcast justin.tv (internet TV Channel), diharapkan dapat lebih mendukung konsep pembelajaran kapan dan dimana saja. Masalah terbesar dari teknologi ini adalah keterbatasan bandwidth. Bandwidth adalah parameter penting untuk melakukan streaming dalam jaringan. Sedangkan proses komunikasi menggunakan video digital ini menghabiskan resource yang cukup besar. Sehingga penggunaan wireshark di sini sangat diperlukan untuk menganalisis bandwidth pada paket yang diterima oleh client. Dari hasil pengukuran video dengan standar H.264 resolusi (720 x 540), dengan rata-rata 20 menit dalam pengambilan sampel, sebanyak 30 pengujian sampel streaming video menggunakan wireshark, diperoleh rata-rata throughput keseluruhan 0,343 Mbps, rata-rata throughput terendah 0,309 Mbps dan throughput tertinggi 0,372 Mbps. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa jika dihasilkan throughput yang lebih besar maka kualitas video streaming akan lebih baik, tetapi jika throughput dihasilkan semakin kecil maka kualitas video streaming akan menurun

Nowadays, the construction of lifelong education system has become the common trend of educational development in many countries. In China, credit accumulation and transfer as one of the effective measures to promote the lifelong education system was proposed in the National Medium and Long-term Educational Reform and Development Plan (2010 – 2020). It certainly poses a new opportunity and challenge to open universities in China, most of which are in transition from TV and radio universities and expected to play more important roles in the construction of lifelong education system in China. The paper presents the initial research and practice of Shanghai Academic Credit Transfer and Accumulation Bank for Lifelong Education (SHCB), which is led by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and operated by Shanghai Open University as one of the initiatives of open universities in China since 2010. Focusing on continuing education for Shanghai citizens and cooperating with other universities and related institutions, SHCB has been established with the organisational structure, accreditation criteria for credits, credit accumulation and transfer system, learners' learning portfolios, technology service platform, and the detailed operating mode. By now, accreditation criteria of learner's credits of 166 courses and 139 non-degree certificates, and recognition of 541 non-degree certificates and 1549 leisure courses have been completed. SHCB has been open to the public from 24 July, 2002 to promote the exchange and transfer among the academic education, even between academic education and non-academic education, and ultimately promote the construction of the lifelong education system in Shanghai.

This research was to figure out the students’ ways of increasing vocabularies to support language skills of fifth semester students of Radya Binatama Broadcasting Academy Yogyakarta. Class activities were insufficient for each student to learn maximally. This hindrance made some students to be more creative in learning vocabularies to support their language skills of English. The study was categorized as descriptive qualitative research. The writer used documentation, observation, in-depth interview, data triangulation and open-questionnaire methods. To analyze the data, the writer used constant comparative study. The results were as follows: first, the students increased vocabularies through listening from news and interview programs on TV and radio, music and films from their private collections such as CD, DVD, cassette or learning from the family member. Second, they increased vocabularies through reading from text, book, novel, newspaper and film/ song text. Third, they increased vocabularies through speaking by oral repeating from song and film, taking part in debating activities or competitions, making conversation in working place or in the organization, and delivering speech. Fourth, they developed vocabularies from writing via emails, composing story, writing articles and diary. Fifth, in translation, they used both internet because of the time efficiency and also dictionary. Keywords: increasing vocabularies, students, language skills

This research was to figure out the students’ ways of increasing vocabularies to support language skills of fifth semester students of Radya Binatama Broadcasting Academy Yogyakarta. Class activities were insufficient for each student to learn maximally. This hindrance made some students to be more creative in learning vocabularies to support their language skills of English. The study was categorized as descriptive qualitative research. The writer used documentation, observation, in-depth interview, data triangulation and open-questionnaire methods. To analyze the data, the writer used constant comparative study. The results were as follows: first, the students increased vocabularies through listening from news and interview programs on TV and radio, music and films from their private collections such as CD, DVD, cassette or learning from the family member. Second, they increased vocabularies through reading from text, book, novel, newspaper and film/ song text. Third, they increased vocabularies through speaking by oral repeating from song and film, taking part in debating activities or competitions, making conversation in working place or in the organization, and delivering speech. Fourth, they developed vocabularies from writing via emails, composing story, writing articles and diary. Fifth, in translation, they used both internet because of the time efficiency and also dictionary. Keywords: increasing vocabularies, students, language skills

Developing positive attitudes by upgrading the environmental literacy level is very important to protect nature from anthropogenic pressures. This study evaluates existing knowledge, awareness, attitude and behavior, perceived issues, and solutions of undergraduates on major environmental issues of two national universities with different teaching methods of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL: open distance learning) and the University of Peradeniya (UP: conventional). A questionnaire survey (29 structured and 04 open-ended items) was adapted with 800 undergraduates of engineering, science, management, law, and arts/ social sciences disciplines. We computerized descriptive statistics, such as frequency and cross-tabulation, and mean comparison using the SPSS software. The results showed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) of existing environmental knowledge in undergraduates of two universities. However, there was a significant difference in undergraduates’ family income (F = 5.387, p < 0.001) and family educational background (p < 0.05) with environmental knowledge. School education played a main role in building environmental concepts for undergraduates. The environmental attitude and behavior of both student groups showed a fairly favorable status. The majority of respondents suggested that TV and radio were the most effective media for environmental awareness. Undergraduates of the OUSL and UP were more interested in “tree planting”/ “gardening” (22.7%) and “hiking (mountain climbing)” (25.7%), respectively. Both OUSL and UP groups recognized “global warming” as the major global environmental issue and air pollution as the local issue. This study highlights the importance of building environmental knowledge among undergraduates, mainly on global and local environmental issues, to improve sustainable environment management.

У статті представлено результати дослідження соціально-педагогічного та технологічного аспектів розвитку відкритої освіти у вищих навчальних закладах України та Великої Британії. Встановлено, що в результаті інформатизації суспільства постають нові вимоги до навчання майбутніх фахівців. Вирішення вимог полягає у створенні вдосконаленого відкритого (комп’ютерно-орієтованого) середовища навчальних закладів, лабораторій, бібліотек; оновленням методичного забезпечення, педагогічних технологій та змісту дистанційного й електронного навчання на основі використання ІКТ; запровадженням нових форм і методів організації освітнього процесу; упровадженням відкритих навчальних систем; використанням методики формування інформаційно-комунікаційних компетентностей науково-педагогічних працівників, методики оцінювання якості відкритих електронних систем та вільного доступу до відкритих освітніх ресурсів; а також у дослідженні стану, тенденцій і моніторингу розвитку відкритої освіти. Представлено основні технології, що застосовуються у відкритій освіті, а саме: а) кейс-технологія, яка є близьким аналогом технологій заочного навчання; б) TV-технологія; в) мережна технологія. Наведено найбільш детальну в українській науці класифікацію технологій відкритої освіти: 1) науково-освітні інформаційні мережі; 2) технології підтримки віртуального навчання (зокрема, web 2.0 та ін.); 3) всесвітня мережа «Партнерство в навчанні» (Partners in Learning Network); 4) технології електронного проєктування педагогічних систем; 5) технології мережного е-дистанційного навчання; 6) електронні бібліотеки; 7) технології комунікацій близької зони, зокрема, мобільні електронні технології і спеціальні засоби; 8) електронні технології управління проєктами. Доведено, що головними перевагами відкритої освіти є доступність, гнучкість, паралельність, модульність, економічність, інтернаціональність та координованість, які надають можливість кожній людини отримувати освіту. Використання елементів відкритої освіти забезпечує не тільки доступ до цифрового контенту, а й сприяє вдосконаленню системи управління освітою та контролю її якості. Ключові слова: відкрита освіта, соціально-педагогічний та технологічний аспекти, інноваційні технології, інформаційно-комунікаційні компетентності, індивідуалізація навчання, навчальні ресурси.

Thyroid nodule is a clinical disorder with a high incidence rate, with large number of cases being detected every year globally. Early analysis of a benign or malignant thyroid nodule using ultrasound imaging is of great importance in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Although the b-mode ultrasound can be used to find the presence of a nodule in the thyroid, there is no existing method for an accurate and automatic diagnosis of the ultrasound image. In this pursuit, the present study envisaged the development of an ultrasound diagnosis method for the accurate and efficient identification of thyroid nodules, based on transfer learning and deep convolutional neural network. Initially, the Total Variation- (TV-) based self-adaptive image restoration method was adopted to preprocess the thyroid ultrasound image and remove the boarder and marks. With data augmentation as a training set, transfer learning with the trained GoogLeNet convolutional neural network was performed to extract image features. Finally, joint training and secondary transfer learning were performed to improve the classification accuracy, based on the thyroid images from open source data sets and the thyroid images collected from local hospitals. The GoogLeNet model was established for the experiments on thyroid ultrasound image data sets. Compared with the network established with LeNet5, VGG16, GoogLeNet, and GoogLeNet (Improved), the results showed that using GoogLeNet (Improved) model enhanced the accuracy for the nodule classification. The joint training of different data sets and the secondary transfer learning further improved its accuracy. The results of experiments on the medical image data sets of various types of diseased and normal thyroids showed that the accuracy rate of classification and diagnosis of this method was 96.04%, with a significant clinical application value.

<p class="Default"> </p><p class="Default"> Towards the end of the 20th century, especially development of science and technology brought some innovation to some conceptual area such as education. In society, to build a quality and civilized life, education emerges as a one of the most important actors. Unfortunately, the rights in education of the every person in society may be delayed due to financial problems, physical disabilities, time pressure, geographical distances or any other reasons. Distance learning is a one of the method that provides education for people by eliminating these disadvantages. Since end of the 19th century, distance education has been provided with some methods such as TV, radio, mail and etc. Especially, in the beginning of 21th century; internet is widely used by everybody. New technological environment has brought a new opportunity for distance education.</p><p class="Default">Learning Management System (LMS) is the most important actor of the internet based distance learning that brings together educators and students for training. LMS allows to deliver materials, having assignment and quizzes and other educational activities. Whether educational institutions or organizations that are emphasis on the training of employees can use LMS platform. Every organization has to decide which LMS is suitable for them. Decision makers face to solve this kind of problems because every LMS has different characteristics and different learning process.</p><p>This study is focused on choosing suitable LMS for organizations by using AHP methods. Two groups of LMS, open source software’s (Moodle and Sakai) and commercial software’s (BlackBoard and Sharepoint LMS), are compared by using selecting criteria’s. These criteria’s are license costs, flexibility, security, user interface and prevalence of use. In the decision process, different weight ratios are used depending on their priority. The findings of this AHP Process are discussed.</p>

Background and objective: Classroom response systems (CRS) have been used in higher education since the 1990s to enhance student learning and engagement. It began with portable “TV remote control-looking” devices that students used in class to answer questions posed by the professor. Aggregated responses are available instantaneously and projected on the screen to serve as a feedback mechanism for the professor and students to gauge learning, potentially prompt further review of the topics, or inspire further discussion. Companies which produce CRS tools are beginning to develop apps to allow students to use their own technology mobile devices during similar learning activities. Many educational institutions are increasingly offering distance education courses and programs, yet little is currently known about the effectiveness of CRS integration into online courses. This usability study was conducted to determine whether a technology enhanced learning tool, specifically a CRS that can be downloaded to one’s smartphone, would be suitable for adoption in online classes in one particular suburban university in New York.Methods: The study is a mixed method, one group, pretest/posttest descriptive design. Convenience sampling (n = 48) was used to engage students enrolled in an online nursing course during their first semester in a master’s degree program. A five-point Likert scale was designed for respondents to rate 21 statements in terms of their degree of agreement (with 5 being “strongly agree” and 1 being “strongly disagree”). The statements included descriptors of the three usability domains (functionality, support and effectiveness) selected to evaluate the smartphone-based CRS app. Open-ended questions were included to provide contextual perspectives on these criteria.Results: T-tests demonstrated an improvement in student ratings of agreement with the evaluative criteria for this CRS smartphone app when comparing pre- and post-implementation survey data. This includes agreement with the CRS’s functionality (p = .001), support (p = .004) and effectiveness (p = .189) at α = 0.05, as well as overall usability across criteria domains (p = .000 at α = 0.05). Respondents additionally suggested that specific features be changed or added to the current design to make it easier to navigate.Conclusions: For educational apps to achieve optimal use and effectiveness, iterative design assessments should continue until the end-users truly benefit from the technology enhanced learning tool. This smartphone-downloadable CRS app proved to be a useful adjunctive tool for enhancing student learning in an online class. Yet there were numerous design recommendations provided by students that could further improve its usability.

This study assesses the social and economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the Gambia. The data used in this paper was generated from online survey questionnaire, in which the participants were asked about certain questions in which coronavirus affect social and economic in the Gambia. The questionnaire was designed to help Gambia to understand covid-19 impacts on their social and economic situation. The results of this study reveal that coronavirus pandemic affected the people in the Gambia in a number of ways; 1) 84 percent said they should not open borders to more countries while only 16 percent said they should open borders. 2) In the Gambia, 61 percent of the respondents said the environmental factor that is serious hit due to covid-19 outbreak is the energy sector. 3) 44.2 percent of the respondent said that covid-19 will have fluctuation in growing on the GDP and trade in the Gambia. 4) Due the serious impact of covid-19 on the societies, 48.8 percent of the respondent in the Gambia said they are very worried that they or someone in their family will be exposed to the coronavirus outbreak. 5) 70.5 percent of the respondent said the outbreak will have negative impact in the economy of the Gambia. 6) As the result generated from the survey, 58 percent of the respondent said in the Gambia, due to covid-19 the recession will happen over the next year. 7) 65.4 percent of the respondents said government implemented an education response for continue of learning in the Gambia while educational institutions are closed.8) 55.1 percent of the respondent said their enterprise used online learning programmes and resources and 32. 1 percent said their enterprise used video conferencing tools and 15.4 percent said their organization used printed materials such as new papers or posters and 9 percent said multimedia including podcasts and YouTube and 6.4 percent, which is the least said TV are used for staff development and training during covid-19 pandemic.9) 50 percent of the respondent to this question of the survey said their organization had planned new training programmes or activities in response to the covid-19 e.g University of the Gambia training their staffs for quality teaching and learning for their students. The implication of the results from this online survey is that it has serious impacts in the Gambia especially in economic situation, employment, consumption, investment and energy. Another policy implication is that, high co2 emission will affect national parks, wildlife and forests’, and poverty, food insecurity and hunger will rises and poor agriculture, the domestic and international migration will be reduces, remittances reduces and those left behind will be seriously affected in terms of health, food security, education, energy and so on especially women, children, elderly and disable that are left behind.

Abstract: The spread of pandemic Covid-19 has definitely upset each part of human life including training. It has made an extraordinary test on training. In numerous instructive organizations around the globe, grounds are shut and educating learning has moved on the web. Internationalization has eased back down significantly. In India, around 32 crore students halted to move schools/universities and every instructive action finished. Regardless of every one of these difficulties, the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have responded emphatically and figured out how to guarantee the congruity of instructing learning, exploration and administration to the general public with certain devices and methods during the pandemic. A few estimates taken by HEIs and instructive specialists of India to offer consistent instructive types of assistance during the emergency are examined. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, numerous new methods of learning, new points of view, new patterns rise and the equivalent may proceed as we proceed to another tomorrow. The Covid-19 pandemic encouraged the whole society on how need is the mother of development by permitting instructive organizations to embrace internet learning and present a virtual learning society. The pandemic has been guiding the instruction area forward with mechanical development and headways. The pandemic has essentially upset the advanced education segment. An enormous number of Indian understudies who have tried out numerous Universities abroad, particularly in most noticeably awful influenced nations are currently leaving those nations and if the circumstance continues, over the long haul, there will be a critical decrease in the interest for worldwide advanced education moreover. The ongoing pandemic made an open door for change in instructive methodologies and presentation of virtual training in all degrees of training. As we don’t have a clue how long the pandemic circumstance will proceed, a steady move towards the on the web/virtual training is the interest of the current emergency. UGC and MHRD have eaten numerous virtual stages with online vaults, digital books and other web-based educating/learning materials. A mix of the conventional innovations (radio, TV, landline telephones) with portable/web advancements to a solitary stage with all vaults would upgrade better openness and adaptability to training. Virtual training is the most favoured method of instruction during this season of emergency because of the flare-up of Covid-19. The post-Covid-19 instruction is by all accounts training with broadly The COVID-19 scare is giving sleepless nights to students who were to appear in entrance examslike JEE for B. Tech admissions and/ or to class 12 students appearing for Board exams. KCET, GUJCET & MHT CET (supposed to be conducted in April) are expected to be postponed to May tentatively. CBSE has also postponed its exam for now and will release the revised dates on March 31, 2020. It is not incorrect to assume that we will soon see many other organisations follow suit and a whole lot of entrance exams in India be further postponed due to Coronavirus. Looking at the state of affairs, it is a matter of concern what the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will have on the higher education system in India.

Employment is a core plank of independent living for people with disabilities and a key part of their identity and self-esteem. Nevertheless, it is widely recorded that people with disabilities have lower employment rates than the non-disabled, and continue to experience workplace discrimination. Workers with disabilities are generally found to have greater loyalty to the company, punctuality to the job, dependability, greater levels of cooperation and dedication, and lower turnover rates and absenteeism. Representing an estimated 10–19 percent of the general population worldwide, people with disabilities are seen as an untapped source of workers for hospitality labour [1]. Yet evidence shows that the hospitality industry has, so far, been a follower rather than a leader with respect to training and employment practices for people with disabilities compared to other industries [2]. Viewing disability as a product of the disabling wider social and attitudinal barriers around disability (known as the social model of disability [3]), there is an opportunity for the hospitality industry to contribute toward positive social change. Given the need to change negative societal attitudes before there can be an increase in the employment of people with disabilities, there is an important need to examine representations of disability in hospitality training and employment. Representations are important because they set expectations around behavioural norms and can help break down barriers by influencing the perceptions of those who receive them. Applying a constructionist approach [4], this research examined how hospitality work and training is represented in the popular television documentary series The Special Needs Hotel as it relates to training for young adults with learning disabilities1 – a group who are rendered more marginalised in employment than any other group of young people with disabilities. The three-part TV series, which aired on TVNZ in 2017, followed the experiences of young people with learning disabilities as they received hands-on hospitality training at the Foxes Hotel and Academy – a specialist catering college and residential training hotel in Somerset, U.K., that is also a fully operating hotel with paying guests (http://foxesacademy.ac.uk/). Over their three years of study, learners are trained in three vocational departments – house-keeping, food preparation and food service – before being prepared to apply for and seek hospitality employment. The research found that the series positively presents hospitality training as a means of enjoyment and of ‘achieving independence’ for the young adults with learning disabilities, with coping strategies and accommodations used to ensure the learners meet the necessary ‘realistic expectations’ and requirements of hospitality work. Through the intensive hands-on training, the learners are found to successfully acquire life skills, gain independence, find hospitality employment, and make plans for the future. However, this positive representation contrasts with the fear and realities of independence and struggles with the pressures of hospitality work for the trainees themselves (struggles that are both emotional and physical due to the nature of their disability). Our research highlighted that not all learners wanted independence, and often struggled with the training; for example, the stress and speed of service delivery, difficulties in communicating with customers, and having to work alone. Lessons from this research provide the opportunity to review and vary what is expected of the ‘look and feel’ of hospitality work and service delivery in order to increase employment for people with disabilities. In particular, if left unchallenged, the stereotyping of the ‘professionalism’ expected in hospitality work and training can render people with learning disabilities as being and looking unprofessional as hospitality workers and requiring accommodation to meet the standards of ‘doing hospitality’. There is a need to give greater attention to disability awareness training, including information geared toward working alongside employees with disabilities, and HR practices. There are challenges to employers about their attitudes toward employing people with disabilities and management of the physical and service environment with regards to how they can render it welcoming or unwelcoming for employees with disabilities. Above all, this understanding can open opportunities to review and realign hospitality employment and training with ethical and non-discriminatory principles and guidelines, which are essential if the employment of people with disabilities is to be improved. As this research concluded, the inclusion of people with disabilities can make the hospitality experience more diverse, personal, meaningful, unique and memorable. The full research article can be accessed here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431917307351 Note We use the terminology of the documentary series and recognise the varied, unique and highly complex nature of learning disabilities. Corresponding author Alison McIntosh can be contacted at: alison.mcintosh@aut.ac.nz References (1) Poria, Y.; Reichel, A.; Brandt, Y. Dimensions of Hotel Experience of People with Disabilities: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 2011, 23(5), 571–591. (2) Groschl, S. Current Human Resources Practices Affecting the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Selected Toronto Hotels. International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration 2004, 5(3), 15–30. (3) Oliver, M. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice; Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, U.K., 1996. (4) Hall, S. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices; Sage: London, U.K., 1997.

English for specific purposes (ESP) is suggested here as one possible direction in English education programmes for prospective nursery school teachers. ESP refers to the teaching of English as it relates to a particular field of study as needed by a specific group of students. In Japan, several studies on ESP (e.g., Terauchi, 2005; Hashimoto, 2000; Miyama, 2000; Yamazaki, 2000; Yoshida, 2000; Sasajima, 2000) have been conducted. This paper further contributes to the ESP literature by focusing on the specific English language needs of students studying to become nursery teachers. Because the number of foreign children at Japanese nursery schools is increasing, nursery school teachers are more likely to be placed in situations where they have to communicate with foreign children and their parents using English (Osuka, 2006). Therefore, as part of this study, a needs analysis was carried out in order to develop a curriculum introducing ESP into the study of early-childhood education. The participants in this study were 52 freshmen majoring in early-childhood education at a private college. The materials used in this study were four questionnaires on preferred English learning styles, based on Kikuchi (2005), desired English skills at college, based on Hayasaka (1995), desired English lessons at college (Carreira, in press), and desired English lessons concerning children (Carreira, in press). Also, open-ended questions were asked. This paper explored the following research questions: 1. What are the preferred English learning styles of students in early-childhood education? How many clusters can be found? 2. What are the desired English skills of students preparing for a career in early-childhood education? Among the clusters, how different are these desired English skills? 3. What kinds of English lessons do students in early-childhood education programmes want to get? Among the clusters, how different are the English lessons they want to get? 4. What kinds of English lessons concerning the teaching of children do the students in early-childhood education programmes want to get? Among the clusters, how different are these English lessons which students want? The results revealed that the participants (a) want teachers to use Japanese in English classes, (b) want teachers to correct all their mistakes immediately, (c) want to learn daily conversation in English, (d) want to understand English in movies and television and radio programs and (e) want to get lessons using English movies and English songs for children. The results can be divided into two groups using cluster analysis; one representing negative attitudes towards English learning and the other representing positive attitudes towards English learning. A t-test was conducted to compare the scores on all the items between the negative attitudes group and the positive attitudes group. The results showed there were significant differences between the two groups. Whereas the negative attitudes group tended to want to learn English using movies and TV programs, the positive attitudes group tended to want to communicate with native English speakers and practice-teach at nursery schools abroad. Therefore, considering students’ needs ESP courses can be introduced in early-childhood education. Suggestions include lessons using movies and TV programs for children and daily English conversation as required subjects, increased communication with native English speakers and practice-teaching at nursery schools abroad as elective subjects. As a future consideration, we should analyze needs for discourse communities and reveal what kinds of English they need in nursery schools after graduation. 本研究では保育士養成課程におけるESPを取り入れたカリキュラムを開発するために，特に，学習者のニーズに焦点をあて，保育士養成課程の学生が英語教育に対してどのような要望や態度を持っているのかを調査した。調査協力者は，私立大学に属する保育士養成課程52名の1年生である。その結果，本研究に参加した学生は日本語での授業を望んでおり，学生同士で英語を話すようなコミュニケーション活動をあまり好まない傾向にあった。また，誤りをすぐに直してくれることを望んでいるが，一方で，厳しい授業や課題が多い授業は望んでいないことが明らかになった。身につけたいと思っている英語の能力においては，多くの学生が海外に行ったときに困らない英語力を身につけたいと思っており，映画やテレビ番組などを使った授業や読解やリスニングのコツを教えてくれる授業を受講したいと思っているようである。さらに，子どもに関係する映画や歌などに興味があることも明らかになった。 また，「消極的」群と「積極的」群の2つのグループに分けた結果，受講したいと思う英語の授業において2つのグループ間にかなりの差がみられた。特に，英語母語話者と英語でコミュニケーションを行う授業や海外での保育園実習，また試験対策の授業などでその差が顕著であった。

Motivated by the importance of studying the relationship between habits of students and their academic performance, daily activities of undergraduate participants have been tracked with smartwatches and smartphones. Smartwatches collect data together with an Android application that interacts with the users who provide the labeling of their own activities. The tracked activities include eating, running, sleeping, classroom-session, exam, job, homework, transportation, watching TV-Series, and reading. The collected data were stored in a server for activity recognition with supervised machine learning algorithms. The methodology for the concept proof includes the extraction of features with the discrete wavelet transform from gyroscope and accelerometer signals to improve the classification accuracy. The results of activity recognition with Random Forest were satisfactory (86.9%) and support the relationship between smartwatch sensor signals and daily-living activities of students which opens the possibility for developing future experiments with automatic activity-labeling, and so forth to facilitate activity pattern recognition to propose a recommendation system to enhance the academic performance of each student.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To access obesity risk perceptions, knowledge and behaviors of Hispanic taxi cab drivers and develop a better understanding of the factors that influence health outcomes in this population. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Focus groups were conducted at NYC H+H/Lincoln, where subjects were screened and recruited from taxi bases with the help of the local Federation of Taxi Drivers. This was done by utilizing flyers, messages through taxi-base radios, and referrals from livery cab drivers. Approval from the local Institutional Review Board was obtained. The research investigators, developed a structured focus group procedural protocol of open-ended interview questions related to cardiovascular disease. Participants for the focus groups were older than 18 years old and working as livery cab drivers in NYC for at least 6 months. Three focus groups were held with informed consent obtained from each participant in their primary language before the start of each session. After completion of the focus group, participants received a gift voucher for attending the approximately 1-hour session. Focus groups were moderated by trained research staff members at Lincoln. Three main categories of questions were organized based on perception, knowledge, and behavior. Participants were questioned on topics about obesity, CVD and diabetes knowledge; knowledge about etiology, risk perception, possible prevention and interventions. Responses were recorded using audiotapes and transcribed verbatim. If participants did not elaborate on the initial question, a probing question was asked to clarify. The transcript was translated from Spanish by trained bilingual staff and analyzed using standard qualitative techniques with open code method. Four research investigators read the transcript separately and formulated concepts, which were then categorized and formulated into dominant themes. These themes were then compared and analyzed with a group consensus to ensure representative data. Once recurring themes emerged and the saturation point was reached, the study concluded, after enrolling 25 participants. The Health Believe Model (HBM) was employed to understand and explain the perceptions and behaviors of taxi drivers. HBM is one of the most widely recognized models and is used to understand, predict and modify health behavior. HBM helps to identify perception of risks of unhealthy behavior, barriers for having healthy behavior, actions taken by patients to stay healthy, self-efficacy and commitment to goals [12]. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Of the 25 Hispanic livery cab drivers, 92% were male. The majority of taxi drivers that participated in the study were immigrants (96%), with a mean age of 53 years (ranged 21–69), and 92%, were spoke Spanish. In total, 52% participants identified themselves as Hispanic, 20% White, 4% Black, and 20% did not identify their race. Mean body mass index (BMI) was 31 (22.8–38.7) kg/m2. In all, 56% were obese and another 40% were overweight. From this sample, 50% had been diagnosed with hypertension and 27% were living with diabetes. In all, 64% had a high school education or higher. Answers provided by the taxi drivers to focus group questions were recorded, reviewed and divided into 8 dominant themes based on concepts that emerged from the focus groups discussions. (a) Focus group study findings: Themes recorded during the focus group discussions, include poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, comorbidities/risk factors, stress, health not being a priority, discipline, education, and intervention. Participants shared their opinions in regards to these themes with minimal differences, making an emphasis on the fact that the nature of their profession was the root cause. Of the themes, the top 3 dominant themes include poor diet, sedentary/lifestyle and comorbidities/risk factors. (1) Diet: The theme “Poor diet” evolved from 151 related concepts that were described by participants. All 25 participants perceived their diet as bad due to eating high-fat meals associated with the cultural food and restaurant chains with lower food prices and ease of car parking. Drivers also reported that they did not have enough time to eat healthy foods based on their long working hours. They say: “comemos muy tarde por que preferimos montar un pasajero” … stating that they preferred to pick up passengers and delay their meals. However, they consider poor diet as the most decisive factor in their increased risk for obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. (2) Life Style: The theme “Sedentary lifestyle” was derived from 147 similar concepts described by participants. They believe that physical inactivity is another leading risk factor for obesity, diabetes, and CVD. The demands of the profession force them to drive more than 10 hours per day. They understand the importance of daily exercise but they admit that at the end of the workday they are too tired to exercise or “stop working” to participate in exercise as this means less money. They also understand that family history of obesity in addition to poor diet increases their risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risks. (3) Comorbidity: The theme “Comorbidities” developed from 143 concepts grouped together. Taxi-drivers perceived that obesity complications directly affects many vital organs, such as the kidneys, the heart, and vasculature. Participants perceive obesity as important risk factor for high blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Taxi drivers see an association between their health condition and their work as a taxi driver. However, taxi-drivers reported that they are more concerned about the economic well-being of their families than themselves. Taxi-drivers begin to intervene in their own health only when more serious health conditions related to obesity, diabetes, and hypertension developed. (4) Work Stress: The theme “Stress/other risk factors” was derived from 141 concepts. Taxi-drivers perceive their profession with lack of organization and high-stress levels as one of the leading risk factors contributing to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. They also attribute a combination of stressful lifestyle, poor diet, lack of exercise, consumption of alcohol and cigarettes as determining factors in developing negative health outcomes. “One participant says; Tenemos el paquete completo” … we have the entire package. (5) Health as a priority: The theme “Health is not a priority” was derived from 120 concepts based on the cab drivers’ responses. Taxi drivers prioritize their work while their health takes a back seat. They work long shifts as they feel the pressures of financial responsibilities of their family. They admitted lack of intentions to change their behavior and they consider themselves as “hard headed.” Drivers changed their behavior only when serious health conditions develop that require professional medical attention. Taxi drivers explain that the lack of time as being a big factor in pursuing preventative care. (6) Personal Discipline: The theme “Discipline” evolved from 80 concepts derived from the driver’s transcripts. Taxi drivers are aware of their lack of organizational skills in general, especially when it comes to the balance between work and a healthy lifestyle. Taxi drivers recognize that not being disciplined results in the development of their obesity and chronic health conditions. Drivers admit that they do not have a fixed schedule, with no direct supervision, and cannot find the time to go to the doctor or change their behavior. (7) Health Education: The theme “Education” was derived from79 concepts noted from the focus group discussion. Taxi drivers know that their lack of health education is affecting them. With little understanding about the severity of the disease process it is difficult to take proactive measures. They are interested in the development of programs that will educate them about obesity, diabetes and CVD prevention. They want to attend programs that can educate them about prevention of obesity, diabetes, and CVD prevention with strong focus on healthy eating. They understand that this would increase their ability to change their unhealthy behavior. (8) Health interventions: The last major theme “Intervention” was derived out of 71 concepts. When asked about possible interventions that might help them towards healthy behaviors, taxi drivers think that the use of technology as a means of education is very effective. They understand the most direct route to reach them is by cellphone, email, and social media such as Facebook. They also feel that it would be good to use this type of communication to not only to inform them about health issues, but to also educate them directly. (b) Application of Health Behavior Model: We employed the HBM, one of the most utilized and easy to understand health models (18, 20–22) to explain the knowledge, perception, and health behaviors of our study participants. The HBM consist of 6 posits: (1) risk susceptibility, (2) risk severity, (3) benefits of action, and (4) barriers to action, (5) self-efficacy, and (6) cues to action [23]. According to the HBM, people’s beliefs about their risk and their perception of the benefits of taking action to avoid it, influence their readiness to take action [15, 21–22, 24]. Using the HBM, health behavior can be modified positively if the 6 posits are perceived by the person [23]. According to the results of our study, taxi drivers that participated in our study, do not perceive the severity of their risk. Participants admitted that they go to the doctor and start paying attention to their health condition only when they get seriously sick. Another posit of the HBM, understanding benefit of actions, is also not perceived by taxi drivers. Participants understand that they should be involved in physical activity, but do not pursue physical activity. They stated that they are too busy and tired to exercise daily without realizing the benefits of having a healthy life style. Findings from the focus groups also demonstrate that taxi drivers do not possess self-efficacy, as they are not confident that they are able to change their own health behavior. They openly admitted to having poor discipline, lack of organizational skills, and lack of time management skills. But, they expressed their wish to get information about time management, healthy snacks, places where they can get affordable and healthy food, learn more about different physical activities, and places where they can exercise. The sixth posit of the HBM model is the cues for action which should trigger the action to change behavior. Cues such as physical pain or illness in them or family members of cab drivers, trigger a visit to the physician’s office. Cab drivers were open to receiving educational material provided by physicians or health information provided on TV/cellphone about disease prevention. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Obesity is steadily on the increase in the US population and has become a major public health concern [1–3]. Latinos are at the higher risk of heart diseases such as obesity, hypertension compared to other ethnical groups [3, 13]. There is a higher prevalence of obesity among particular occupational groups with cab drivers having one of the highest obesity prevalence among all professions [5, 7–9, 13]. Obesity risks therefore seem to affect NYC cab drivers who are of Latino background more than others. Surveys conducted in different countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa reported that taxi, truck, and bus show that drivers are at a higher risk of developing obesity, diabetes, and hypertension [5, 8–11]. This study is the first to evaluate the knowledge, perception, and behaviors of NYC Latino taxi cab drivers with respect to obesity. The study uncovers factors and barriers that contribute to their behavior, and identify possible ways that can modify their behavior and decrease their chances of developing obesity. The study results demonstrated that Latino immigrant taxi drivers perceive themselves at a high risk for obesity development. As the result of discussions with focus groups, the eight dominant themes were identified. Participants perceive their risk susceptibility and understand that working as a driver is a sedentary occupation with lack of physical activity significantly contributing to obesity development. Additionally, taxi drivers report that their unhealthy diet is a major factor that contributes to their weight gain. Taxi drivers perceive their poor diet as the result of the food they consume being high in fat content. Due to financial constraints and their cultural diet requirements, they feel limited to unhealthy food options. They acknowledge the risk that poor diet contributes to obesity, high cholesterol, obesity development. Participants also expressed that work stress is another important factor. Busy traffic, lack of organization, financial stress to support their families-push them to work prolonged hours. Participants also admitted that in their leisure time, they use alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and watch TV, instead of going to the gym, because they feel too tired to exercise. Taxi drivers perceive their barriers as a lack of education and knowledge about healthy food choices, places where they can buy healthy affordable snacks, information about physical activities, stress management skills, and organizational skills. Other perceived barriers that prevent them from leading healthy lifestyle include lack of discipline, lack of time for physical activity, economic uncertainty, financial responsibility and the perception that the wellbeing of their families is more important than themselves and their health. HBM is a widely used model that helps to identify perception of risks of unhealthy behavior, barriers to healthy behavior, actions taken by patients to stay healthy, self-efficacy, and commitment to goals. Based on the Glasgow theory, the core of health behavior models is the identification of the barriers and self-efficacy [25]. Our study is unique as it involves using the HBM to explain the basis of taxi cab drivers’ behavior. Results of our research study showed that our participants perceived barriers very well. However, lack of self-efficacy, lack of perceiving benefits of action, lack of cues to action, and lack of understanding the risk of disease severity explain why taxi drivers have greater risk for obesity among occupations, and are not ready to embrace health behavior modification. This qualitative study shows us where the window of opportunity for intervention lies, how we can intervene and modify the health behavior of the at-risk NYC Latino cab driver population. By Glasgow theory, self-efficacy is an important factor in behavior modification models [25]. If the barriers that are perceived by participants as too high, and self-efficacy is low, one can intervene by improving self-efficacy. Bandura has offered ways to increase patients’ self-efficacy by using three strategies: (a) setting small, incremental, and achievable goals; (b) using formalized behavioral contracting to establish goals and specify rewards; and (c) monitoring and reinforcement, including patient self-monitoring by keeping records [20]. We can also improve perception of the benefits of action by providing cues to action namely education during the office visits, by providing reading materials, and the use of modern technology (emails, interactive Web sites, apps, etc.). A study was conducted in South Asia, encouraging taxi drivers to exercise through the use of pedometers [7]. This study provides an example of ways to motivate taxi drivers, improve their self-efficacy, overcome barriers, and provide cues to action. As one of the theories that can explain and help in behavioral modification, the Health Belief model includes the impact of the environment and elements of social learning. Using this model, we were able to differentiate and identify the factors that influence their behavior that need to be addressed by health care workers and public health representatives to improve obesity related risks among inner city taxi cab drivers in NYC.

Neste número 3, do 11º volume de 2018 da revista Texto Livre, contamos com artigos de cinco eixos temáticos ou trilhas: Linguística e Tecnologia, Educação e Tecnologia, Comunicação e Tecnologia, Tecnologia da Informação e Computação e, pela primeira vez, Robótica Pedagógica. Observamos, com este último número de 2018, em que passamos a periodicidade de dois para três números anuais, um crescimento nas demandas recebidas pela revista Texto Livre, que aumentou, consequentemente, sua equipe editorial. É importante frisar a importância dessa equipe na avaliação e edição dos artigos, buscando rigor nos seus trabalhos, para oferecer cada vez mais contribuições originais e de qualidade para a comunidade em geral. Ressaltamos ainda o crescimento de estudos na área de tecnologias, o que torna este periódico um espaço importante para circulação e difusão de questões variadas em torno dos eixos temáticos contemplados por ele. Consideramos, ainda, que temos reunido ao longo dos últimos anos diversos trabalhos que não só refletem a centralidade da temática abrangida na nossa sociedade, como também influenciam novas pesquisas que emergem em nível internacional.Abrindo o eixo Linguística e Tecnologia, Leonel Figueiredo de Alencar, Bruno Cuconato e Alexandre Rademaker, no artigo em inglês “MorphoBr: an open source large-coverage full-form lexicon for morphological analysis of Portuguese”, dedicam-se a apresentar o MorphoBr, um projeto em desenvolvimento voltado para a construção de um léxico de formas plenas para a análise morfológica do português. Emeli Borges Pereira Luz, em artigo também em inglês, “Pre-service language teacher training for distance education”, investiga se os cursos de ensino de inglês oferecidos por Universidades Públicas Brasileiras têm êxito na formação tecnológica dos professores, fornecendo habilidades necessárias para ensinar via educação a distância através de ambientes online. Em “AnoTex: rotina de filtragem de dados estruturados do gênero artigo científico como contribuição para o PLN”, Cláudia Aparecida Fonseca, Rafael Santiago de Souza Netto, Marcus Vinícius Carvalho Guelpeli e Adriana Nascimento Bodolay apresentam o AnoTex, um anotador textual capaz de executar a filtragem de dados estruturados do gênero artigo científico, coletados dos arquivos disponíveis na base de dados da Biblioteca Eletrônica SciELO. Luiz Henrique Mendes Brandão e Jesiel Soares Silva, em “Implicações docentes e discentes na utilização das novas TIC no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa”, analisam as implicações docentes e discentes no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa, avaliando a utilização de materiais em vídeo, músicas, entre outras mídias advindas dessas novas TIC por professores de educação básica. Vinícius Oliveira Braz Deprá, em “Sociedade da informação e linguagem: as novas tecnologias e o caminho para a construção de palavras e sentidos”, contextualiza a sociedade da informação e analisa o relativismo linguístico e ideias trabalhadas por George Orwell em seu livro “1984”. Em “Os objetos educacionais digitais em Linguagem e Interação: avanços, permanências ou retrocessos?”, Luciana Pereira Silva, Andreia Rutiquewiski e Juliana Benatti analisam os Objetos Educacionais Digitais que acompanham a coleção didática Linguagem e Interação, indicada ao ensino médio 2018-2020 via Plano Nacional do Livro Didático. No eixo Educação e Tecnologia, Wiselis Rosanna Sena Rivas, Francisco Javier Herrero Gutiérrez e Sonia Casillas Martín, no artigo em inglês “ICT-mediated education in youth and adult literacy programmes in the Dominican Republic: an approach to the state of the art”, a partir do contexto da educação básica em alfabetização em jovens e adultos na República Dominicana, analisam a relação entre Educação e TIC/Internet com o objetivo geral de compreender até que ponto as TIC são usadas na educação de adultos nesse país. Em artigo em espanhol, “Dispositivos móviles para el aprendizaje: análisis de la investigación doctoral sobre mobile learning en España”, Francisco Javier Hinojo Lucena, Inmaculada Aznar Díaz e José María Romero Rodríguez estudam a influência de dispositivos móveis na aprendizagem a partir da análise de teses de doutorado defendidas na Espanha sobre aprendizagem móvel. Silvia Alicia Martínez, Fabrícia Vieira de Araújo, Suelen Ribeiro de Souza, Evandro Vargas e Leandro Garcia Pinho, em “Relato de experiência: oficina pedagógica como objeto de aprendizagem na formação inicial do pedagogo no Consórcio CEDERJ”, discutem a experiência de ensino e aprendizagem adquirida em uma oficina pedagógica, no âmbito do Curso de Pedagogia da Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense (UENF), no Centro de Educação a Distância do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (CEDERJ). Em “Microvídeos e aplicativo móvel: estratégia comunicacional de apoio à implementação de legislação ambiental e florestal”, Marcia Izabel Fugisawa Souza, Tércia Zavaglia Torres, João dos Santos Vila da Silva, Nadir Rodrigues Pereria, Daniel Rodrigo Freitas Apolinário, Marcos Cezar Visoli e Silvio Roberto Medeiros Evangelista apresentam resultados de pesquisa realizada visando à definição de estratégia comunicacional para promover a divulgação de informações e conhecimentos gerados pela Embrapa sobre soluções tecnológicas, em especial, softwares e sistemas de informação, necessárias à adequação da paisagem rural ao Código Florestal brasileiro. Leonard Barreto Moreira, Annabell Del Real Tamariz e Joyce Vieira Fettermann, em “O uso da mineração de textos no suporte a correções de questões discursivas em uma instituição de educação superior”, relatam o desenvolvimento de um modelo computacional com uso de técnicas de Mineração de Textos para a tarefa de correção de questões dissertativas em ambientes online, o que possibilita a diminuição da subjetividade na avaliação das questões discursivas dos discentes. Gabriela Marques-Schäfer e Ana Angélica da Silva Orlando, em “Concepções de aprendizagem de línguas e o Duolingo: uma análise crítica sobre sua proposta e experiências de aprendizes”, investigam a concepção de aprendizagem de usuários no aplicativo Duolingo e suas propostas, buscando responder como aprendizes que usam ou já usaram o aplicativo Duolingo definem suas experiências com aprendizagem de línguas e com as ofertas do aplicativo. Por fim, Élida Paulina Ferreira e Daiane Conceição Simões Santos, em “Inovação no ensino: letramento crítico no smartphone em sala de aula de língua portuguesa”, apresentam resultados de pesquisa em sala de aula em que foi utilizado o smartphone como recurso tecnológico visando à leitura e à produção de memes, defendendo a importância de os jovens estudantes desenvolverem o letramento crítico na escola.No eixo Comunicação e Tecnologia, Cristine Fickelscherer Mattos, no artigo “Narrativa seriada e comunicação: meios, modos e tempos”, estuda as características comunicativas da narrativa seriada do ponto de vista dos estudos contemporâneos de narratologia, em diversos tempos, modos e meios, utilizando, para isso, o conceito de narrativas trasmidiáticas. E Iana Coimbra, em “Telejornalismo além da TV: uma discussão sobre os territórios contemporâneos da notícia”, discute como o telejornalismo contemporâneo passa por processos de convergência, não se limitando mais ao ambiente televisivo, mas inserido cada vez mais no ambiente digital. No eixo Tecnologia da Informação e Computação, Lucio Agostinho Rocha propõe no artigo “Gui Builder Mod: uma ferramenta para criação de aplicações gráficas móveis em Tcl/Tk” uma nova ferramenta para rápido desenvolvimento de apps Tcl/Tk para a plataforma Android. Estreando o eixo Robótica Pedagógica, temos três artigos científicos nesta edição. Thais Gabrielly Marques de Andrade, Zaíne Raquel Santos Vicente, Heryverton Araujo Lemos Leite, Ana Paula Chaves Cabral, Rodrigo Baldow, Nady Rocha e Marcelo Brito Carneiro Leão, em “A robótica livre e o ensino de física e de programação: desenvolvendo um teclado musical eletrônico”, relatam o desenvolvimento de um teclado musical elétrico por três estudantes do ensino médio/técnico em informática de uma escola pública, com a colaboração de uma discente da Universidade Federal da Paraíba. O objetivo foi proporcionar atividades educativas mais criativas e interativas, com o intuito de os alunos aprenderem mais alguns conhecimentos de Física e Programação relacionados ao protótipo. Fernando da Costa Barbosa, Crhistiane da Fonseca Souza, Arlindo José de Souza Junior e Deive Barbosa Alves apresentam um “Mapeamento das pesquisas sobre Robótica Educacional no Ensino Fundamental”, concentrando-se em produções online, tanto no banco da CAPES como na biblioteca nacional no período de pouco mais de dez anos. Finalmente, Heitor Felipe da Silva e Ana Beatriz Gomes Pimenta de Carvalho, em “A leitura do mundo através da tecnologia educacional: a adoção da Robótica Pedagógica nas práticas de democratização do conhecimento científico”, apresentam um Mapeamento Sistemático da Literatura (MSL) de 2010 a 2017 considerando trabalhos focados na democratização do conhecimento científico e das práticas de alfabetização e letramento científico com adoção da robótica pedagógica.Finalizamos este editorial desejando mais uma vez uma leitura produtiva para tod@s!

<p>Delegates at the <em>Access Through Open Learning</em> conference organised by UNE Northern Rivers at Byron Bay in early September this year participated in a survey aimed a prioritising the major issues in open learning. The conference took on a strongly political flavour, with the presence of Senator John Tierney speaking on behalf of the Federal Liberal Party, and Dr Di Bolton representing DEET.</p><p>Conference sessions dealt with a wide range of aspects of open learning, including the TV Open Learning Project, recognition of prior learning, use of technology to solve issues of access and equity, using national computer "networks to provide student access to tutors and information, and the establishment of open access centres by local councils. It was the political issues, however, that emerged from the survey as being dominant in the minds of most respondents.</p>

As the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the deep-learning (DL)-based Virtual Reality (VR) technology, and DL technology are applied in human-computer interaction (HCI), and their impacts on modern film and TV works production and audience psychology are analyzed. In film and TV production, audiences have a higher demand for the verisimilitude and immersion of the works, especially in film production. Based on this, a 2D image recognition system for human body motions and a 3D recognition system for human body motions based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm of DL are proposed, and an analysis framework is established. The proposed systems are simulated on practical and professional datasets, respectively. The results show that the algorithm's computing performance in 2D image recognition is 7–9 times higher than that of the Open Pose method. It runs at 44.3 ms in 3D motion recognition, significantly lower than the Open Pose method's 794.5 and 138.7 ms. Although the detection accuracy has dropped by 2.4%, it is more efficient and convenient without limitations of scenarios in practical applications. The AI-based VR and DL enriches and expands the role and application of computer graphics in film and TV production using HCI technology theoretically and practically.

The Internet has become a natural communication platform for modern society. Web archives, which began in the 1990s to capture and preserve changing web content, have thus become key sources for research in the recent past. The analysis of their data is complicated by, for example, insufficient competencies of researchers, the need for computing resources or legislation. One way to meet the needs of users is to develop tools and research interfaces that allow to work with data without the need for technological knowledge of advanced extraction and thus open it to researchers. The study addresses the issue of access to archival web data, approaches efforts to formulate a theoretical and methodological framework and proposes a design for access and further data processing, which is applied in a unique research interface for extracting large data from web archives using advanced machine learning to generate and categorization of text outputs.

Education in the new normal is a challenging task in the Philippines in an attempt to push through education amidst the deadly pandemic caused by covid-19. The Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) adopted and implemented the flexible model of blended learning despite many oppositions because of the risk to open classes because of the virus. The different learning modalities are the following: Modular (Printed), Modular (Digitized), Online, Educational TV, Radio-Based Instruction, Home Schooling and Blended Learning. For the cities where modern living is adapted and students and learners have the privilege of having internet connection at home, Online learning is implemented especially for the high schools and colleges but for those living in rural areas or provinces where internet connection is only available for only few, Modular Distance Learning is implemented. Modular Distance Learning is the use of Modules made by teachers with different tasks and learning activities based from the essential learning competencies.

This paper presents Casual Learn, an application that proposes ubiquitous learning tasks about Cultural Heritage. Casual Learn exploits a dataset of 10,000 contextualized learning tasks that were semiautomatically generated out of open data from the Web. Casual Learn offers these tasks to learners according to their physical location. For example, it may suggest describing the characteristics of the Gothic style when passing by a Gothic Cathedral. Additionally, Casual Learn has an interactive mode where learners can geo-search the tasks available. Casual Learn has been successfully used to support three pilot studies in two secondary-school institutions. It has also been awarded by the regional government and an international research conference. This made Casual Learn to appear in several regional newspapers, radios, and TV channels.

<p class="3">This study aims to identify the priority of the roles and competencies of tutors working in the e-learning environments where the tutors are experiencing the changes brought by reforming traditional TV and broadcasting university to open universities. The mixed methods, DACUM, non-participatory observation, and questionnaires were used to identify the priority of the roles and competencies of tutors. The findings suggested that the priority of the roles and competencies has significantly changed accompanied to the shift of pedagogy from cognitive behaviorist to social-constructivist and connectivist. Changes in the roles of the instructional designer and instructor were highlighted. Significant differences in perceptions of the importance of the roles and competencies corresponding to learning management and technology use also merit further attention.</p>

During some of the most recent years, in Portugal there has been a public debate going on about the different roles of television near some of the youngest sectors of the population, either as a priority medium of entertainment, as a privileged medium of information, as a possible medium of learning experiences, or just as a simple (or rather complex) «baby sitter». This debate that seemed to become a promising one, especially at the time of the implementation of a new regulation entity (Regulation Entity for the Social Communication) faded away and did not contribute for any deeper knowledge of the problem. Let us see why. Nos últimos anos, em Portugal, tem-se desenvolvido algum debate público em torno dos diferentes papéis da televisão junto de alguns dos sectores mais jovens da população, seja enquanto meio prioritário de entretenimento, seja enquanto meio privilegiado de informação, seja enquanto possível meio de aprendizagens, ou mesmo enquanto simples (ou bastante complexa) «baby sitter». Este debate, que a seu tempo foi de certo modo promissor pelo facto de se ir estabelecer no panorama televisivo português uma nova entidade reguladora (Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social) acabou por se esvair e não contribuir grandemente para qualquer conhecimento mais aprofundado do problema. Vejamos porquê.

Japanese distance education has been slow to utilize the Internet, and mainly depends on the mail system and to a lesser extent TV broadcasting as its mode of delivery. However, since 2001 regulations have been relaxed to allow students to complete all course requirements for a university degree via online distance learning. This paper reports the results of a questionnaire study administered to the students (N=424) enrolled in one of Japan’s few online distance universities. Satisfaction with learning was explored by examining student opinions and learning preferences in regard to five aspects of distance learning identified as important: 1) teacher interaction, 2) content interaction, 3) student interaction, 4) computer interaction and 5) student autonomy. In addition, student responses to three open-ended questions were included in the analysis. The results indicated students were generally satisfied with their learning, and that specifically, learning satisfaction was higher for students who: 1) could persevere in the face of distance learning challenges, 2) found computers easy to use, 3) found it easy to interact with instructors, and 4) did not prefer social interaction with others when learning.

Open and distance education in Taiwan has evolved into the third phase – cyberlearning – conceptualized as teaching and learning interactions mediated entirely through the application of state-of-the-art information and communications technologies (ICT), such as the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). Socio-economic influences, the development of new technologies and a marked shift in learning paradigms have increased the utilization of ICT at all levels of the Taiwanese education system. Since the advent and provision of cyberlearning programs, well over half (56 percent) of the conventional universities and colleges have been upgraded to dual-mode higher educational institutions. They offer real-time multicast instructional systems using videoconferencing and cable TV technology, virtual classroom systems via network-based instructional management systems, and curriculum-on-demand systems utilizing video-on-demand technology. Critical success factors in the development of these cyber universities and the opportunities, challenges and implications inherent in these are analyzed. ICT and the provision of cyberlearning have gradually been changing the structure and vision of higher education institutions as well as the entire learning environment and educational systems. Because the Ministry of Education (MOE) has initiated a policy on credit-based degrees for cyberlearning courses/programs, the development of open and distance education is anticipated to hasten the transformation of Taiwan’s education system towards one which will create an ideal learning society in the 21st century.

AbstractOver the recent years, machine learning techniques have been employed to produce state-of-the-art results in several audio related tasks. The success of these approaches has been largely due to access to large amounts of open-source datasets and enhancement of computational resources. However, a shortcoming of these methods is that they often fail to generalize well to tasks from real life scenarios, due to domain mismatch. One such task is foreground speech detection from wearable audio devices. Several interfering factors such as dynamically varying environmental conditions, including background speakers, TV, or radio audio, render foreground speech detection to be a challenging task. Moreover, obtaining precise moment-to-moment annotations of audio streams for analysis and model training is also time-consuming and costly. In this work, we use multiple instance learning (MIL) to facilitate development of such models using annotations available at a lower time-resolution (coarsely labeled). We show how MIL can be applied to localize foreground speech in coarsely labeled audio and show both bag-level and instance-level results. We also study different pooling methods and how they can be adapted to densely distributed events as observed in our application. Finally, we show improvements using speech activity detection embeddings as features for foreground detection.

AbstractThe Entropic Associative Memory (EAM) holds declarative but distributed representations of remembered objects. These are characterized as functions from features to discrete values in an abstract amodal space. Memory objects are registered or remembered through a declarative operation; memory recognition is defined as a logical test and cues of objects not contained in the memory are rejected directly without search; and memory retrieval is a constructive operation. In its original formulation, the content of basic memory units or cells was either on or off, hence all stored objects had the same weight or strength. In the present weighted version (W-EAM) we introduce a basic learning mechanism to the effect that the values of the cells used in the representation of an object are reinforced by the memory register operation. As memory cells are shared by different representations, the corresponding associations are reinforced too. The memory system supports a second form of learning: the distributed representation generalizes and renders a large set of potential or latent units that can used for recognizing novel inputs, which can in turn be used for improving the performance of both the deep neural networks used for modelling perception and action, and of the memory operations. This process can be performed recurrently in open-ended fashion and can be used in long term learning. An experiment in the phonetic domain using the Mexican Spanish DIMEx100 Corpus was carried out. This corpus was collected in a controlled noise-free environment, and was transcribed manually by human trained phoneticians, but consists of a relatively small number of utterances. DIMEx100 was used to produced the initial state of the perceptual and motor modules, and for testing the performance of the memory system at such state. Then the incremental learning cycle was modelled using the Spanish CIEMPIESS Corpus, consisting of a very large number of noisy untagged speech utterances collected from radio and TV. The results support the viability of the Weighted Entropic Associative Memory for modelling cognitive processes, such as phonetic representation and learning, for the construction of applications, such as speech recognition and synthesis, and as a computational model of natural memory.

The newly opened Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) provides a flexible learning space catering to students from across the University of Manchester With over 1000 study spaces, ranging from informal to formal, enclosed to open, complimented by state of the art innovative technology, the AGLC is an attractive central hub for students to visit anytime of the day and night. However, the Library's vision for the AGLC travels far beyond the physical space and seeks to engage with students at a much deeper level enhancing and developing their learning. To this end, the AGLC was a driver for the library to deliver its own unique training programme and open learning materials in support of the learning and development needs of all students, irrespective of academic discipline. This is achieved through collaboration and partnership between the current providers across campus, with the Learning Commons providing a central focus for a wide range of activity, to exemplify the best of what the University of Manchester can offer to enhance the student learning experience. This paper describes the development of the Learning Commons, from planning to launch, in particular highlighting how ‘the learning' was put into the learning commons. It will illustrate some of the ways in which the Learning Commons joins up existing and newly developed activity from across the campus to proactively encourage and support engagement with learning as well as providing a physical space that students really want to learn in. It will describe the current open training programme and this is now being developed further from a pedagogic perspective and through partnerships with other skills providers across the University to enhance the AGLC offer and to ensure effective integration of student skills provision. The Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) is the newest library service at the University of Manchester and opened in October 2012. The £24 million investment in the space is part of a wider strategy at the University to invest in the student experience. The facility provides flexible learning space and caters for students from all parts of the university. There are over 1000 study spaces, ranging from informal to formal, enclosed to open, complimented by state of the art innovative technology. Learning has always been in mind when building the AGLC and the design encourages this through materials and technology in the space and flexible and formative furniture and learning opportunities. The infrastructure also supports learning, it is a 24/7 building 244 days of the year with excellent wifi coverage both indoors and in the outside garden space. There are power points wherever possible and room to put in more, 30 group rooms which encourage learning across distance with as well as in a specific PC cluster that encourages students to use that software as a collaboration tool. The furniture is flexible and reconfigurable, with whiteboards and digital screens integrated throughout the building. No spaces are labelled instead students have the flexibility to make them their own. Even the quiet areas are not labelled, but depend on the students to decide where and exactly how quiet an area might need to be. This allows the building to flexibly support the students with whatever their needs are at the time, serving them best as they shape the space around them. The building aims to inspire students; there are creative concepts commissioned throughout the building to inspire those studying and working in the space. Student's artwork adorns the walls and glass in the building, and there are distinguished alumni tiles in the entrance area which all show students they don't just learn in this space but stand on the shoulders of giants. There are quotes from the great and the good of Manchester engraved into the solid oak panels that adorn the stairwells. There are 25 bespoke Nobel Laureate chairs associated with the University of Manchester intended to enthuse and inspire students to aspire to equal greatness. There is also a dedicated flexible training room in the building with laptops, clickers, a touch screen TV, stackable chairs and tables and a coffee machine and biscuits to encourage our students to want to be in this environment. The AGLC is an attractive central hub for students to visit anytime of the day and night. It is at the heart of the campus, opposite the main library, students union and University visitors centre. However the learning part of the building goes beyond the physical. Students and staff from across the University acted as consultants to ensure that the University tapped into the needs of its students and it became clear that a key area was supporting academics and schools to help them with developing student skills. Academic support provision at the University was not consistent. This clear need led to the creation of a learning development team dedicated to developing an open training programme that would support these areas of learning. This team delivers its own unique training programme of open learning materials in support of the learning and development needs of all students, irrespective of academic discipline. In fact the idea of these not being subject aligned is extremely important to the programme, none of the training is school aligned and any student is able to come to any session, interdisciplinarity is encouraged and exploration into the thoughts of someone from a different mindset expected. The training offer is achieved through collaboration and partnership between the current providers across campus, with the AGLC providing a central focus for a wide range of activity, to exemplify the best of what the University of Manchester can offer to enhance the student learning experience. The programme develops and delivers training and workshops that are new ,innovative, and following a facilitative model, covering topics from Academic Writing to Presentation Skills to Interview and Job Searching. It brings together the expertise and best practices already available on campus with the library acting as a bridge between the students' needs and the wider university resources. The goal is not to duplicate already existing resources, or create a parallel programme, but to create training that links students to the resources they need, wherever they happen to be provided. Going forward, what is really exciting is that this is part of a wider context, a Manchester vision. At the University of Manchester there is clearly a skills agenda. The University of Manchester has recently announced its "vision" for 2020, a vision that includes the sort of skills development currently being created by the library. Students at the university will be expected and encouraged to investigate beyond the strict content of their degree programmes and invest time in developing a broader and more varied set of skills than is traditionally expected. To achieve this goal, the partnerships across the university become key, an opportunity to demonstrate both the resources available and the multitude of ways the skills and knowledge acquired at university can impact a student after they have left. The open training programme (My Learning Essentials) allows students to self-select workshops and resources they use. There are online learning resources, formal workshops and informal face-to-face components. The workshops are designed to give students the tools they need to be more successful learners, not answers. With this goal in mind, we can invite students from all degree programmes to attend the workshops and learn from each other, as the process is often broadly transferable no matter the specific content. It may be that our students don't suffer from a skills gap, where they don't know "how" to do something, but that they are not sure "what" to do. Given examples and guidance (but not answers), they will be able to use the skills they have to acquired during their time at University to attack problems far beyond their time in their degree programmes. This also changes the conversation around the skills agenda. It is not about identifying what is wrong; instead, it is about students' ability to self-evaluate and improve-whatever their starting point. Feedback is used from students and staff (and data gathered from registers) to understand which workshops should be offered and how the resources are being used. This helps develop the most appropriate resources and also works to target groups that appear to be under-served. One of the key components of student success with feedback (and, in fact, with the student experience) is understanding how to move forward and improve. These workshops, because they focus on process, allow students to answer the question of "what next?" that makes feedback (and other support resources) most useful. The offer during the Spring of 2013 was deliberately kept minimal in order to assess both student demand and the optimal timing and design of the programme. The workshops that were developed covered areas from academic writing to presentation skills and also included an employability emphasis led by a partnership with the careers division at the university, focusing on CVs, interview skills and job search techniques. In all, twenty one workshops were delivered to nearly 300 students in a twelve week period. This was a soft pilot, so minimal marketing was done, but attendance rates were generally very high, with, on average, over 60% of students signing up then attending a session. September 2013 saw a fuller launch, there are now 17 different titles delivered and take up has been considerable. In October 2013 My Learning Essentials saw 429 students, a significant increase and 97% of attendants found the sessions useful. The programme does not intend to replace skills support in schools (there is not enough resource in the library to help every student that needs this support), but will work to improve it across the University. In this sense, the workshops, online provision, work with faculties and work with other partners will add up to more than the sum of its parts. Expertise of the entire university will be drawn upon to deepen the student experience and create a unique and innovative programme that goes beyond skills support and actively impacts learning. Much of the work has involved seeking partnerships with other service providers across the university and inviting them to create workshops and become an active part of the open training programme. The courses delivered on this programme are open to all students at the university, regardless of year, degree programme or postgraduate or undergraduate designation. These workshops and training sessions allow the students to evaluate and self-select areas where they feel they need support or have an interest in improving or learning. This structure moves the focus from a top-down remedial model to one where students are encouraged to explore the options and resources available to them at university, providing pathways for success that go beyond the traditional content studied during a degree.

There is growing concern about the steep decline in language learning in the UK over the last 20 years. A simple, inexpensive way to boost children’s learning of other languages in the UK and indeed in other countries could be to increase their exposure to subtitled audiovisual (AV) content in other languages. There is considerable evidence that subtitled AV content can aid children’s acquisition of other languages, enhance their literacy skills, and foster intercultural awareness. However, little attention seems to have been paid thus far to eliciting the opinions and experiences of children themselves of watching subtitled films and television programmes in other languages. This study aims to contribute to filling the gap. A cohort of 17 children aged 8-9 years took part in interviews and participatory workshops and shared their views and experiences of viewing AV content with interlingual subtitles. Although the sample size is small, the findings of this study support the proposal of providing children with greater access to subtitled AV content in other languages, since the children’s responses to the idea were overwhelmingly positive, and many felt that this would help them to learn languages and about other cultures in a fun way. Lay summary In the UK, the number of children and young people studying languages has fallen sharply over the last 20 years. This is causing a lot of concern, because learning other languages is very beneficial, especially for children and young people. Studying languages can improve their communication skills and open up other cultures and job opportunities to them. Language skills are also important for inclusion and wellbeing in our increasingly multilingual societies and for international relations and trade. Many studies have shown that watching videos in other languages with subtitles can boost children’s language learning and help them learn to read in their home language. But few researchers have asked children themselves about their opinions on reading subtitles. To help fill this gap, I held interviews and workshops with 17 children aged 8–9 years about their views and experiences of watching subtitled videos in other languages. Their answers were very positive. Many felt it helps them learn languages and about other cultures in a fun way. As a result, I have concluded that a cheap, simple way we can help children to learn other languages is by making it easier for them to watch more TV programmes and films in other languages with subtitles.

<p class="Abstract"><span lang="IN">Perkembangan teknologi informasi begitu cepat seperti sekarang telah banyak mengubah sudut pandang banyak orang, antara lain sudut pandang orang untuk mengubah dunia pendidikan menjadi lebih baik. Salah satu contohnya pembelajaran berbasis <em>Information and Communication Technologies</em> (ICT) yaitu pembelajaran menggunakan video <em>streaming</em>. Dengan instalasi <em>software</em> <em>open</em> <em>source</em> <em>Wirecast</em> dan <em>Desktop</em> <em>presenter</em> digunakan untuk membuat video pembelajaran Streaming, disiarkan secara <em>real</em> <em>time</em> melalui media broadcast <em>justin.tv</em> (<em>internet TV Channel</em>), diharapkan dapat lebih mendukung konsep pembelajaran kapan dan dimana saja. Masalah terbesar dari teknologi ini adalah keterbatasan bandwidth. <em>Bandwidth</em> adalah parameter penting untuk melakukan <em>streaming</em> dalam jaringan. Sedangkan proses komunikasi menggunakan video digital ini menghabiskan <em>resource</em> yang cukup besar. Sehingga penggunaan <em>wireshark</em> di sini sangat diperlukan untuk menganalisis <em>bandwidth</em> pada paket yang diterima oleh client. Dari hasil pengukuran video dengan standar H.264 resolusi (720 x 540), dengan rata-rata 20 menit dalam pengambilan sampel, sebanyak 30 pengujian sampel <em>streaming</em> video menggunakan <em>wireshark</em>, diperoleh rata-rata <em>throughput</em> keseluruhan 0,343 Mbps, rata-rata <em>throughput</em> terendah 0,309 Mbps dan <em>throughput</em> tertinggi 0,372 Mbps. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa jika dihasilkan <em>throughput</em> yang lebih besar maka kualitas video <em>streaming</em> akan lebih baik, tetapi jika <em>throughput</em> dihasilkan semakin kecil maka kualitas video <em>streaming</em> akan menurun</span></p>

The ‘first wave’ of COVID-19 created many challenges. Our hospital was fortunate to have slightly longer than many others to prepare. One of our Emergency Department (ED) challenges was that, as part of a redesigned process, patients with respiratory failure (presumed COVID-19) were to be assessed in a very different clinical area (single rooms instead of ‘open plan’ resuscitation room), managed by a much larger team of clinicians, using Level 3 (airborne) PPE and a modified approach to Rapid Sequence Intubation (RSI) induction of anaesthesia. Rapid cycle simulation and debrief has subsequently been described as part of a system-based learning approach during the COVID-19 pandemic The aim of this programme was to rapidly familiarize a large team with the new clinical environment and RSI process, using the learning conversation after each simulation to make an immediate change, as required, to the clinical area and/or process.Each simulation was an identical clinical scenario, i.e. a patient with respiratory distress for whom the need for COVID-19 modified RSI had been identified. The simulation was delivered in the rooms that were subsequently to be used for direct clinical care of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients.A process testing approach was taken. During the simulation brief, the process was talked through in detail (all expected actions and sequence), the team then performed the simulation, followed by a learning conversation that was very focussed on the challenges in delivering this process. Using mobile cameras and large screen TV, all simulations were live streamed to an immediately adjacent area, such that a large number of other clinicians could observe the brief, the simulated clinical scenario and participate in the learning conversation. Agreed changes in equipment, ergonomics and process were immediately incorporated into the next simulation. Once this area was required for direct patient care, an identical room was set up in an adjacent (non-COVID-19 clinical area) to allow daily simulated training to continue. On one occasion, where there was advance notice of the arrival of a patient requiring RSI, the team who were to be involved in the RSI ‘drilled’ this scenario (‘just in time’ simulation) whilst awaiting the arrival of the patient. It was observed that participants who had previously been less comfortable with simulation were happier with this process testing approach (knowing what is expected and with no surprises).