Matching form with content

Successful computer-supported distance education requires that its enabling technologies are accessible and usable anywhere. They should work seamlessly inside and outside the information superhighway, wherever the target learners are located, without obtruding on the learning activity. It has long been recognised that the usability of interactive computer systems is inversely related to the visibility of the implementing technologies. Reducing the visibility of technology is especially challenging in the area of online language learning systems, which require high levels of interactivity and communication along multiple dimensions such as speaking, listening, reading and writing. In this article, the authors review the concept of invisibility as it applies to the design of interactive technologies and appliances. They describe a specialised appliance matched to the requirements for distance second language learning, and report on a successful multi-phase evaluation process, including initial field testing at a Thai open university.

Matching form with content

Successful computer-supported distance education requires that its enabling technologies are accessible and usable anywhere. They should work seamlessly inside and outside the information superhighway, wherever the target learners are located, without obtruding on the learning activity. It has long been recognised that the usability of interactive computer systems is inversely related to the visibility of the implementing technologies. Reducing the visibility of technology is especially challenging in the area of online language learning systems, which require high levels of interactivity and communication along multiple dimensions such as speaking, listening, reading and writing. In this article, the authors review the concept of invisibility as it applies to the design of interactive technologies and appliances. They describe a specialised appliance matched to the requirements for distance second language learning, and report on a successful multi-phase evaluation process, including initial field testing at a Thai open university.

Abstrahierendes Lernen durch aktive Modellbildung: Evaluation eines Prozesses und einer Lernumgebung

Die Fähigkeit zum Lernen durch Abstraktion aus Erfahrungen unterscheidet Experten von Novizen. Wir stellen einen Prozess für individuelles abstrahierendes Lernen und eine diesen Prozess unterstützende Lernumgebung vor. Die Ergebnisse einer Pilotstudie zeigen, dass Lernende unter Nutzung der Lernumgebung aus Fallbeispielen ein abstraktes Modell erstellen und über ihren Prozess reflektieren konnten. Dies fiel ihnen leichter, wenn die Fallbeispiele wenige gemeinsame Oberflächenmerkmale aufwiesen. Im Gegensatz zum intendierten Lernprozess wandten manche Lernende einen anderen Prozess an.

ARTHUR: A Collaborative Augmented Environment for Architectural Design and Urban Planning

Projects in the area of architectural design and urban planning typically engage several architects as well as experts from other professions. While the design and review meetings thus often involve a large number of cooperating participants, the actual design is still done by the individuals in the time in between those meetings using desktop PCs and CAD applications. A real collaborative approach to architectural design and urban planning is often limited to early paper-based sketches.In order to overcome these limitations, we designed and realized the ARTHUR system, an Augmented Reality (AR) enhanced round table to support complex design and planning decisions for architects. WhileAR has been applied to this area earlier, our approach does not try to replace the use of CAD systems but rather integrates them seamlessly into the collaborative AR environment. The approach is enhanced by intuitiveinteraction mechanisms that can be easily con-figured for different application scenarios.

Running Head: Social Work Developments in Lithuania

Following the end of a half-century of Soviet occupation, Lithuania, like other former Soviet republics, has been in socio-economic disorder. Now that Lithuania is free, the system of social welfare is characterized by under-funded health services and pensions, and a large number of institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and practitioners focusing on community development, using Lofland’s model of social setting analysis.Results indicate that the collaborative efforts successfully produced a revolutionary and successful social service program, a multi-generational living facility offering full-time social services to unwed mothers, infants, and elderly residents.This article is based upon the qualitative study of social work practitioners and social work students and chronicles the successes and difficulties encountered within the process of community development.

Social Work Skills in Working with Survivors of Earthquake: A Social Work Intervention - Iran

The Loss, grief and other problems are events that most of people experience them during their Life. The earthquake is a disaster that makes people experience loss, grief and problems simultaneously. This crisis affects on survivors as much as they face to dangers in their lives. Thus, most of them need to being supported until they can solve their problems, be relaxed and do their daily activities. We know that the profession of social workers is to assist individuals who are seeking help. But there is a Problem, how do they help the clients efficiently? Especially, those clients who have suffered earthquake. Generally, the role of social workers in helping the survivors of earthquake is significant. To this end, the present paper tries to describe the process of social casework and those skills required for social workers to help the survivors. These skills include: situational supporting, hopefulness making, consoling, assuring, concentrating, solutions developing and refer.

What is Practice Research in Social Work - Definitions, Barriers and Possibilities

Practice is subject to increasing pressure to demonstrate its ability to achieve outcomes required by public policy makers. As part of this process social work practice has to engage with issues around advancing knowledge-based learning processes in a close collaboration with education and research based perspectives. This has given rise to approaches seeking to combine research methodology, field research and practical experience. Practice research is connected to both “the science of the concrete” – a field of research oriented towards subjects more than objects and “mode 2 knowledge production” – an application-oriented research where frameworks and findings are discussed by a number of partners. Practice research is defined into two approaches: practice research – collaboration between practice and research – and practitioner research – processes controlled and accomplished by practitioners. The basic stakeholders in practice research are social workers, service users, administrators, management, organisations, politicians and researchers. Accordingly, practice research is necessarily collaborative, involving a meeting point for different views, interests and needs, where complexity and dilemmas are inherent. Instead of attempting to balance or reconcile these differences, it is important to respect the differences if collaboration is to be established. The strength of both practice and research in practice research is to address these difficult challenges. The danger for both fields is to avoid and reject them.

Method of collaborative detection of autonomous transport vehicles based on laser rangefinder data

To master changing performance demands, autonomous transport vehicles are deployed to make inhouse material flow applications more flexible. The socalled cellular transport system consists of a multitude of small scale transport vehicles which shall be able to form a swarm. Therefore the vehicles need to detect each other, exchange information amongst each other and sense their environment. By provision of peripherally acquired information of other transport entities, more convenient decisions can be made in terms of navigation and collision avoidance. This paper is a contribution to collective utilization of sensor data in the swarm of cellular transport vehicles.