Machine Translation and the Disruption of Foreign Language Learning Activities

This study examines the question of how language teachers in a highly technologyfriendly university environment view machine translation and the implications that this has for the personal learning environments of students. It brings an activity-theory perspective to the question, examining the ways that the introduction of new tools can disrupt the relationship between different elements in an activity system. This perspective opens up for an investigation of the ways that new tools have the potential to fundamentally alter traditional learning activities. In questionnaires and group discussions, respondents showed general agreement that although use of machine translation by students could be considered cheating, students are bound to use it anyway, and suggested that teachers focus on the kinds of skills students would need when using machine translation and design assignments and exams to practice and assess these skills. The results of the empirical study are used to reflect upon questions of what the roles of teachers and students are in a context where many of the skills that a person needs to be able to interact in a foreign language increasingly can be outsourced to laptops and smartphones.

Machine translation and the disruption of foreign language learning activities

This study examines the question of how language teachers in a highly technology-friendly university environment view machine translation and the implications that this has for the personal learning environments of students. It brings an activity-theory perspective to the question, examining the ways that the introduction of new tools can disrupt the relationship between different elements in an activity system. This perspective opens up for an investigation of the ways that new tools have the potential to fundamentally alter traditional learning activities. In questionnaires and group discussions, respondents showed general agreement that although use of machine translation by students could be considered cheating, students are bound to use it anyway, and suggested that teachers focus on the kinds of skills students would need when using machine translation and design assignments and exams to practice and assess these skills. The results of the empirical study are used to reflect upon questions of what the roles of teachers and students are in a context where many of the skills that a person needs to be able to interact in a foreign language increasingly can be outsourced to laptops and smartphones.

Design and use of mobile technology in distance language education : Matching learning practices with technologies-in-practice

This thesis focuses on the adaptation of formal education to people’s technology- use patterns, theirtechnology-in-practice, where the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies is central. The research question is: How can language learning practices occuring in informal learning environments be effectively integrated with formal education through the use of mobile technology? The study investigates the technical, pedagogical, social and cultural challenges involved in a design science approach. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study systematises MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research. The second investigates Swedish and Chinese students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in education. The third examines students’ use of technology in an online language course, with a specific focus on their learning practices in informal learning contexts and their understanding of how this use guides their learning. Based on the findings, a specifically designed MALL application was built and used in two courses. Study four analyses the app use in terms of students’ perceived level of self-regulation and structuration. The studies show that technology itself plays a very important role in reshaping peoples’ attitudes and that new learning methods are coconstructed in a sociotechnical system. Technology’s influence on student practices is equally strong across borders. Students’ established technologies-in-practice guide the ways they approach learning. Hence, designing effective online distance education involves three interrelated elements: technology, information, and social arrangements. This thesis contributes to mobile learning research by offering empirically and theoretically grounded insights that shift the focus from technology design to design of information systems.

Constructive alignment in Computer Engineering and Informatics departments at Dalarna University : An empirical investigation

Background: Constructive alignment (CA) is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the alignment between the intended learning outcomes (ILOs), teaching and learning activities (TLAs) and assessment tasks (ATs) as well as creation of a teaching/learning environment where students will be able to actively create their knowledge. Objectives: This paper aims at investigating the extent of constructively-aligned courses in Computer Engineering and Informatics department at Dalarna University, Sweden. This study is based on empirical observations of teacher’s perceptions of implementation of CA in their courses. Methods: Ten teachers (5 from each department) were asked to fill a paper-based questionnaire, which included a number of questions related to issues of implementing CA in courses. Results: Responses to the items of the questionnaire were mixed. Teachers clearly state the ILOs in their courses and try to align the TLAs and ATs to the ILOs. Computer Engineering teachers do not explicitly communicate the ILOs to the students as compared to Informatics teachers. In addition, Computer Engineering teachers stated that their students are less active in learning activities as compared to Informatics teachers. When asked about their subjective ratings of teaching methods all teachers stated that their current teaching is teacher-centered but they try to shift the focus of activity from them to the students. Conclusions: From teachers’ perspectives, the courses are partially constructively-aligned. Their courses are “aligned”, i.e. ILOs, TLAs and ATs are aligned to each other but they are not “constructive” since, according to them, there was a low student engagement in learning activities, especially in Computer Engineering department.

Non-challenging education and teacher control as factors for marginalization of students in diverse settings

This article discusses teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students in poor settings and the effect these attitudes have on organization of education on classroom level. It draws on results from two ethnographic studies where some primary school classes in Sweden were followed with participant observation and interviews as main research methods. The article focuses on classroom activities and teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students and students with low socio-economic status. In the article is argued for the importance of presenting students in poor settings with demanding tasks and challenging education. In these cases, intellectually undemanding tasks in combination with little room for students’ own initiatives resulted in low enthusiasm among students regarding schoolwork and accordingly low learning, while classroom work that demanded active involvement by students in combination with high level of students’ influence on what took place in classrooms resulted in high level of students’ engagement and high outcome.

Students’ Role in Distance Learning

1. IntroductionMuch of the support that students have in a traditional classroom is absent in a distance learning course. In the traditional classroom, the learner is together with his or her classmates and the teacher; learning is socially embedded. Students can talk to each other and may learn from each other as they go through the learning process together. They also witness the teacher’s expression of the knowledge firsthand. The class participants communicate to each other not only through their words, but also through their gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice, and the teacher can observe the students’ progress and provide guidance and feedback in an as-needed basis. Further, through the habit of meeting in a regular place at a regular time, the participants reinforce their own and each other’s commitment to the course. A distance course must somehow provide learners other kinds of supports so that the distance learner also has a sense of connection with a learning community; can benefit from interaction with peers who are going through a similar learning process; receives feedback that allows him or her to know how he or she is progressing; and is guided enough so that he or she continues to progress towards the learning objectives. This cannot be accomplished if the distance course does not simultaneously promote student autonomy, for the distance course format requires students to take greater responsibility for their own learning. This chapter presents one distance learning course that was able to address all of these goals. The English Department at Högskolan Dalarna, Sweden, participates in a distance learning program with Vietnam National University. Students enrolled in this program study half-time for two years to complete a Master’s degree in English Linguistics. The distance courses in this program all contain two types of regular class meetings: one type is student-only seminars conducted through text chat, during which students discuss and complete assignments that prepare them for the other type of class meeting, also conducted through text chat, where the teacher is present and is the one to lead the discussion of seminar issues and assignments. The inclusion of student-only seminars in the course design allows for student independence while at the same time it encourages co-operation and solidarity. The teacher-led seminars offer the advantages of a class led by an expert.In this chapter, we present chatlog data from Vietnamese students in one distance course in English linguistics, comparing the role of the student in both student-only and teacher-led seminars. We discuss how students navigate their participation roles, through computer-mediated communication (CMC), according to seminar type, and we consider the emerging role of the autonomous student in the foreign-language medium, distance learning environment. We close by considering aspects of effective design of distance learning courses from the perspective of a foreign language (FL) environment.

Machine Learning Algorithms in Heavy Process Manufacturing

In a global economy, manufacturers mainly compete with cost efficiency of production, as the price of raw materials are similar worldwide. Heavy industry has two big issues to deal with. On the one hand there is lots of data which needs to be analyzed in an effective manner, and on the other hand making big improvements via investments in cooperate structure or new machinery is neither economically nor physically viable. Machine learning offers a promising way for manufacturers to address both these problems as they are in an excellent position to employ learning techniques with their massive resource of historical production data. However, choosing modelling a strategy in this setting is far from trivial and this is the objective of this article. The article investigates characteristics of the most popular classifiers used in industry today. Support Vector Machines, Multilayer Perceptron, Decision Trees, Random Forests, and the meta-algorithms Bagging and Boosting are mainly investigated in this work. Lessons from real-world implementations of these learners are also provided together with future directions when different learners are expected to perform well. The importance of feature selection and relevant selection methods in an industrial setting are further investigated. Performance metrics have also been discussed for the sake of completion.

En beskrivning av manuellt test : Svagheter och styrkor med och utan stöd avett testverktyg

Test is an area in system development. Test can be performed manually or automated. Test activities can be supported by Word documents and Excel sheets for documenting and executing test cases and as well for follow up, but there are also new test tools designed to support and facilitate the testing process and the activities of the test. This study has described manual test and identified strengths and weaknesses of manual testing with a testing tool called Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) and of manual testing using test cases and test log templates developed by the testers at Sogeti. The result that emerged from the problem and strength analysis and the analysis of literature studies and firsthand experiences (in terms of creating, documenting and executing test cases) addresses the issue of the following weaknesses and strengths. Strengths of the test tool is that it contains needed functionality all in one place and it is available when needed without having to open up other programs which saves many steps of activity. Strengths with test without the support of test tools is mainly that it is easy to learn and gives a good overview, easy to format text as desired and flexible to changes during execution of a test case. Weaknesses in test with the support of test tools include that it is difficult to get a good overview of the entire test case, that it is not possible to format the text in the test steps. It is as well not possible to modify the test steps during execution. It is also difficult to use some of the test design techniques of TMap, for example a checklist, when using the test tool MTM. Weaknesses with test without the support of the testing tool MTM is that the tester gets many more steps of activities to do compared to doing the same activities with the support of the testing tool MTM. There is more to remember because the documents the tester use are not directly linked. Altogether the strengths of the test tool stands out when it comes to supporting the testing process.

Sjuksköterskestudenters skattade upplevelser av lärandemiljön före och efter inrättandet av Kompetenscentrum

Bakgrund: Under senare år har allt fler kliniska träningscentra för färdighetsträning etablerats för att möjliggöra en trygg och säker lärandemiljö med simuleringsmöjligheter för studerande och personal. Klinisk färdighetsträning är en viktig del i sjuksköterskeutbildningen vid Högskolan Dalarna (HDa) där lärandemiljön på Kompetenscentrum (KC) kan bidra till en förbättring av lärandemiljön i den kliniska färdighetsutbildningen. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka sjuksköterskestudenters upplevelser via skattning av lärandemiljön för klinisk färdighetsutbildning före och efter inrättandet av Kompetenscentrum. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en enkätundersökning med kvasiexperimentell design. Enkätens baserades på Saarikoski och Leino-Kilpis mätinstrument CLES där frågeställningar om lärandemiljön modifierades med hjälp av Delphimetoden utifrån de tre olika dimensionerna: utbildningsmiljö, relation och lärarens roll. Mätningen före inrättandet genomfördes under hösten 2010 och mätningen efter inrättandet genomfördes hösten 2011. Totalt ingick 266 sjuksköterskestudenter i studien varav 198 (74 %) besvarade enkäten. Resultat: Sjuksköterskestudenter skattade upplevelsen av lärandemiljön mer positiv efter inrättandet av Kompetenscentrum där resultatet visar en signifikant högre skattning i 8 de av de 16 frågorna. Sjuksköterskestudenterna skattade att de upplever att utbildningsmiljön är mer verklighetstrogen, de är mer nöjda med färdighetsträningen samt att den inspirerar dem till att arbeta som sjuksköterska. Att relationen mellan dem och läraren bygger på respekt och att det är en mer positiv atmosfären under färdighetsträningen. Däremot påvisades ingen signifikant skillnad i studenternas upplevelse av den kliniska lärarens roll. Slutsats: Det är uppenbart att lärandemiljö har betydelse för sjuksköterskestudentens integration av såväl teoretiska som praktiska kunskaper vilket medför att färdigheterna förbättras och ger en bra grund för arbetet som sjuksköterska. Strategier bör vidtas för att vidmakthålla och utveckla lärandemiljön på KC samt fokusera ytterligare på integrering av teori och praktik.

MLCMS actual use, perceived use, and experiences of use

Mobile learning involves use of mobile devices to participate in learning activities. Most elearning activities are available to participants through learning systems such as learning content management systems (LCMS). Due to certain challenges, LCMS are not equally accessible on all mobile devices. This study investigates actual use, perceived usefulness and user experiences of LCMS use on mobile phones at Makerere University in Uganda. The study identifies challenges pertaining to use and discusses how to improve LCMS use on mobile phones. Such solutions are a cornerstone in enabling and improving mobile learning. Data was collected by means of focus group discussions, an online survey designed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and LCMS log files of user activities. Data was collected from two courses where Moodle was used as a learning platform. The results indicate positive attitudes towards use of LCMS on phones but also huge challenges whichare content related and technical in nature.

The Passionate Combining Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are portrayed as salient drivers of regional development and for a number of years nascent entrepreneurs have been studied in a large number of countries as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project and the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics. Scholars have devoted much effort to investigating factors that determine how individuals engage in entrepreneurial activities, with most of the discussion limited to business start-ups. However, since this type of project does not follow identical nascent entrepreneurs over time, limited knowledge exists about their development and whether they stay in this nascent phase for a long time. In practice, it is common for entrepreneurs to run a business and at the same time work in wage work, so-called combining entrepreneurs. In Sweden, almost half of all business owners combine wage work with a business. However, not all combining entrepreneurs will eventually decide to leave the wage work and invest fully in the business. Consequently, much research has focused on the first step of entering entrepreneurship full time, but less has focused on the second step, the transition from the combining phase to full-time self-employment. The aim of this thesis is therefore to contribute to the theory of entrepreneurship by gaining a deeper understanding of combining entrepreneurs and their motives and intentions.   In the context of combining entrepreneurs, the theory of identity, resources and choice overload has been used to examine how entrepreneurs’ age (when starting the business), entrepreneurial tenure (the length of engagement in the side-business), hours spent (weekly involvement in the side-business), involvement in entrepreneurial teams (leading the business with one or more partners) and involvement in networks (business networks) influence their passion for engaging in entrepreneurship while sustaining wage work. Different categories of combining entrepreneurs and their intentions have also been examined.   A survey was administered to 1457 entrepreneurs within the creative sector in two counties in Sweden (Gävleborgs County and Jämtlands County). Since there were no separate mailing lists to only combining entrepreneurs, the survey was sent to all entrepreneurs within the chosen industry and counties. The total response rate was 33.5 percent and of them 57.6 percent combined, yielding 262 combining entrepreneurs who answered the questionnaire. The survey was then followed up with eight focus group interviews and two single interviews to validate the answers from the questionnaire.   The results indicate three types of combining entrepreneurs: nascent – with the intention to leave the combining phase for a transition into full-time self-employment, lifestyle – with the intention to stay in the combining phase, and occasional – with the intention to leave the combining phase for full-time wage work and close down the business. Transitioning fully to self-employment increases with the individual’s age. Also, a positive interactive effect exists with involvement in entrepreneurial networks. The results also indicate that the ability to work with something one is passionate about is the top motive for combining wage work with a side-business. Passion is also more likely to be the main motive behind the combining form among individuals who are older at business start-up, but passion is less likely to be the main motive behind the combining form among individuals who spend more time on the business. The longer the individual has had the side-business, the less likely passion is the main motive behind the combining form, and passion is less likely to be the main motive among those who are part of an entrepreneurial team.

DEN KOMMUNALA FÖRVALTNINGENSOM RATIONALISTISKT IDEAL- en fallstudie om styrning och handlingsutrymme inom skola,barnomsorg och miljö- och hälsoskydd

DEN KOMMUNALA FÖRVALTNINGEN SOM RATIONALISTISKT IDEAL - en fallstudie om styrning och handlingsutrymme inom skola, barnomsorg och miljö- och hälsoskydd.(The municipal authority as a rationalist ideal - a case-study on steering and scope for initiative within child-care, education and environmental departments.)A municipal authority is a considerable producer of services in the local community and iscommonly perceived as an important sector of the Swedish welfare system. One aspect of awell-functioning municipal organisation is that its administrative organs function efficiently.This study examines how activities in municipal administration are steered. The focus is on how different methods are used within a vertical hierarchical perspective to influence the actions of the participants and how the latter try to create space for action. To analyse the problem an ideal-type steering model is used.The study consists of three sections. In the first the research problem and the aims of the study are introduced as well as the methodological and theoretical approach. The result of the study is presented in the second section and in the third conclusions are drawn and discussed.The study shows that the perceptions of the participants involved regarding the possibilities of steering the everyday activities with the support of the methods studied differ on a number of points depending on the sector studied. When control of the various steering methods is distributed in different organisational units in the municipality a number of steering mechanisms operate side-by-side, sometimes in harmony and sometimes independently or in pure conflict with their goals. Steering leads to clear restrictions but there is clearlyroom for initiative, a ‘free-zone’ where the individual has room to act independently. Is it possible based on this study to state whether the ideal-type model functions in the way intended? On many accounts it would seem doubtful whether the effects of steering lead to beneficial effects for the activity. Rather it would seem that the effects of steeringsometimes function more or less randomly because the administration exists in a complexcontext in which the staff can be expected to have its own expectations and act in accordancewith them.