This paper presents various methods of computer aided experiments in science education and their integration in Web environment as HTML documents. The concept of the virtual laboratory suitable for science teaching at the secondary school level is described. Some essentials and advantages of this approach are presented in the paper. They are illustrated with a concrete example of the course Integrated Science through Experiments that has been developed as a product of the European funded project Computerised Laboratory in Science and Technology Teaching within the Leonardo da Vinci II programme. The paper outlines the structure of the course accessible to the user via a tabular system of links.
In the project ``Self-guided Learning in Teaching Mathematics - SEC II'' (SelMa), five authoring schools are working out scenarios, media and materials for phases of self-guided learning, which will be tested systematically by 10 trial schools with regard to their everyday suitability. In this paper three approaches to such learning arrangements (independent learning centre, jigsaw classroom and learning at stations) are being outlined and relevant experiences are being made available. Learning diaries prove to be useful for the learners' reflection of their learning process. The development as well as the management of such learning arrangements does place new demands on the teachers.
Computer-based instruction, online or offline, which we will be referring at as e-instruction, provides for the development of new flexible pedagogical frameworks that will offer opportunities for open worldwide lifelong instruction. We claim that these are to be stored in instructional digital libraries in order to be accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere. While many advances have been made in the creation of digital libraries, there is considerable room both for improving how learning objects are accessed/re-used by educators and learners, and for enhanced support for instruction design and for implementation of sound instructional systems.
We present here our ongoing work that aims to build a core instructional design digital library for reflective, learner-centered, e-instruction and to make it available to its potential users. Firstly, we describe our model for e-instruction design and its support tool. We present further on a construction scheme for storing this evolving model into a digital library, using the services provided by an open digital library service system, OpenDLib, which has been built at ISTI-CNR Pisa, Italy. We have chosen OpenDLib as a ``constructor'' for our digital library because it has a powerful document model, it is open, dinamically expandable, and open source. Finally, our research plan that approaches instructional design that facilitates reflective, learner-centered, e-instruction is shown.
I present and solve several problems related to the settling of multiple debts. The solutions are documented in much detail, with (bright) high-school students in mind. One of the variants has a simple solution, though it is not so easy to code concisely. Another variant is an elegant NP-hard problem.
The problem leads into important areas of mathematics and computing science, making it suitable as an invitation to these subjects.
The new electronic relations have brought as much benefits as duties. The society uses more often computers in every day life than ever. Unfortunately, cyberspace bounds are huge and its regulation is very complicated. In many cases the users are responsible for his security. That is why Electronic Law knowledge is useful and important for the new society.
The most powerful computer and net users are those who are educated in Computer Science. Various authorities in the field of Computer Science education are urging the necessity of topics on legal regulation of the electronic society. Several universities in Latvia starting from the 2002/2003 study year have implemented a new course on ``IT Industry Standards, Legislation, Labour Protection and Ergonomics''. The topic is extended considering the students being programmers, computer users and hired workers.
This paper describes the demand for teaching the legal regulation of electronic processes to Computer Science students, gives and overview of the course preparation, teaching and findings received from the first year experience.
This article analyzes the possibilities of neural nets composed of neurons - the summators of continuously varied impulse frequencies characterized by non-linearity {N}, when informational operations of fuzzy logic are performed. According to the facts of neurobiological research the neurons are divided into stellate and pyramidal ones, and their functional-static characteristics are presented. The operations performed by stellate neurons are characterized as qualitative (not quantitative) informational estimations ``more'', ``less'', ``equal'', i.e., they function according to ``more-equal-less'' (M-E-L) logic. Pyramidal neurons with suppressing entries perform algebraic signal operations and as a result of them the output signals are controlled by means of universal logical function ``NON disjunction'' (Pierce arrow or Dagger function). It is demonstrated how stellate and pyramidal neurons can be used to synthesize the neural nets functioning in parallel and realizing all logical and elementary algebraic functions as well as to perform the conditional controlled operations of information processing. Such neural nets functioning by principles of M-E-L and suppression logic can perform signals' classification, filtration and other informational procedures by non-quantitative assessment, and their informational possibilities (the amount of qualitative states), depending on the number n of analyzing elements-neurons, are proportional to n! or even to (2^{n})* n!, i.e., much bigger than the possibilities of traditional informational automats functioning by binary principle. In summary it is stated that neural nets are informational subsystems of parallel functioning and analogical neurocomputers of hybrid action.
Research for the evaluation of web-sites has already begun, however it is proceeding at a very slow rate. The main reasons for this are, in our opinion, the attempt to adapt existing methodologies to the particularities of the web, the individual structure of web-sites and the issue of finding the appropriate evaluators. This study copes exactly with these points and suggests a heuristic approach for the evaluation of web-sites.
In our study we tried primarily to train the evaluators in the particularities of the heuristic evaluation; in its classic form as well as in its web-adapted form. By doing this we try to answer the core question if we can augment the evaluators' expertise with a kind of training prior to the conduction of the evaluation itself. Next we used web-adapted heuristics, found in relative literature and tried to clarify them to the evaluators as well. Finally the evaluators were involved in a real evaluation of five web sites and they wrote down their comments on appropriately prepared questionnaires.
The results from this study confirm firstly two known conclusions, that the method is applicable to the Web and that the prior evaluators' expertise is of great importance. Yet, in addition to these, we concluded that it is possible to augment, under conditions, this expertise in a short way so they have an increased performance during the evaluation as well. Our main conclusion is, however, that the used heuristic list performed inadequately, but we noted the trend of the evaluators following a somewhat similar mode of thinking, thus providing us with the way to adapt these heuristics in a more holistic approach to the web.
This article analyses the informatics exam of secondary education in Lithuania. The research evaluates the correspondence of examination tasks to the exam program and its aims. Then, it studies the equality of examination variants. The article also discusses the clarity of the exam questions and instructions as well as the organization of the exam and the objectivity of evaluation criteria.
Computer science undergraduate (bachelor) curriculum of the University of Latvia was developed in late 80th based on curricula of several US universities while keeping strong practical setting. The very core of the curriculum comprises Software Engineering lectures and related information system development course project in the second year. Thus every undergraduate (even theoretical computer science major) is prepared to start professional career of computer programmer by the second study year. It is amazing to realize how well this rather old curriculum conforms to the new ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2001.
A project is being developed with the main goal of creating an application of web server which allows students to use Mathematica software from their computers without the necessity of installing this software and of programming the necessary algorithms. The project consists of a set of mathematical models programmed with Mathematica and stored in a web server, which has been installed in a computer of our department. At the moment, it is possible to access to the web pages of the application from any computer of the intranet of our School.