Next generation e-learning platform: virtual laboratory simulations

Bioscience subjects require a significant amount of training in laboratory techniques to produce highly skilled science graduates. Many techniques which are currently used in diagnostic, research and industrial laboratories require expensive equipment for single users; examples of which include next generation sequencing, quantitative PCR, mass spectrometry and other analytical techniques. The cost of the machines, reagents and limited access frequently preclude undergraduate students from using such cutting edge techniques. In addition to cost and availability, the time taken for analytical runs on equipment such as High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) does not necessarily fit with the limitations of timetabling. Understanding the theory underlying these techniques without the accompanying practical classes can be unexciting for students. One alternative from wet laboratory provision is to use virtual simulations of such practical which enable students to see the machines and interact with them to generate data. The Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Westminster has provided all second and third year undergraduate students with iPads so that these students all have access to a mobile device to assist with learning. We have purchased licences from Labster to access a range of virtual laboratory simulations. These virtual laboratories are fully equipped and require student responses to multiple answer questions in order to progress through the experiment. In a pilot study to look at the feasibility of the Labster virtual laboratory simulations with the iPad devices; second year Biological Science students (n=36) worked through the Labster HPLC simulation on iPads. The virtual HPLC simulation enabled students to optimise the conditions for the separation of drugs. Answers to Multiple choice questions were necessary to progress through the simulation, these focussed on the underlying principles of the HPLC technique. Following the virtual laboratory simulation students went to a real HPLC in the analytical suite in order to separate of asprin, caffeine and paracetamol. In a survey 100% of students (n=36) in this cohort agreed that the Labster virtual simulation had helped them to understand HPLC. In free text responses one student commented that "The terminology is very clear and I enjoyed using Labster very much”. One member of staff commented that “there was a very good knowledge interaction with the virtual practical”.

El consumo tradicional de los nuevos medios. Análisis de la usabilidad de las publicaciones autóctonas para tableta en el contexto universitario español y brasileño

Esta investigación aborda el consumo que los jóvenes universitarios de España y Brasil realizan de las publicaciones para tabletas. A través del estudio de seis casos –las revistas españolas Don, VisàVis y Quality Sport, y los vespertinos brasileños O Globo a Mais, de Río de Janeiro; Estadão Noite, de Sao Paulo; y Diário do Nordeste Plus, de Fortaleza– se aplica una metodología cualitativa, el test de usabilidad, para detectar qué aspectos ralentizan y entorpecen la navegación en las nuevas generaciones de usuarios de medios móviles. A pesar de la influencia de las revistas impresas en la configuración de las publicaciones para tableta, los datos muestran que el usuario necesita “entrenarse” para conocer unas opciones de interacción a veces poco intuitivas o para las que carece de la madurez visual necesaria. Por ello las publicaciones más sencillas obtienen los mejores resultados de usabilidad.

MatteLEKtion : En studie i fem lärares tankar om att använda lek vid matematikundervisning utanför matematikboken

Syftet med min studie var att undersöka hur leken används som verktyg i matematikundervisningen och hur fem lärare ser på lekens roll i den tidiga matematikinlärningen. Jag har även tittat på hur leken har förändrats genom tiderna och tagit del av aktuell forskning som behandlar lek och matematikundervisning.   Jag har kommit fram till att styrd lek används i den tidiga matematik-undervisningen med goda resultat. Däremot finns det ett flertal faktorer att ta hänsyn till där val av läromedel, elevgrupp, lärarens arbetssituation samt tillgång till resurser påverkar hur fördelningen sker mellan bokstyrda matematiklektioner och lektioner utanför matematikboken. Styrd lek som verktyg i matematikundervisningen är överlag mer förekommande i de tidiga åren i skolan men ersätts av laborationer och elektroniska hjälpmedel som till exempel IPad för färdighetsträning allt eftersom eleverna blir äldre. 

A series of performances in 'Translating Reviews from 1990: Art Forum'

Participation in group exhibition themed around the 25th anniversary of the Elba Benitez Gallery in Madrid. My work comprised a series of performances in which I translated reviews from the magazine Art Forum from 1990. The performances took place in various locations in London, throughout the run of the exhibition, and were streamed live to an iPad in the gallery in Madrid. I made audio visual recordings of the performances via the streaming media, which located me as the performer alongside the viewers in a single split image. These recordings were then archived in a shared folder held between the gallery and me, and which visitors to the exhibition could access when a performance was not taking place. The work extends my concerns with translation and performance, and with a consideration of how the mechanism of the gallery and the exhibition might be used to generate innovative viewing engagements facilitated by technology. The work also attempts to develop thinking and practice around the relationship between art works and their documentation - in this case the documentation and even its potential for distribution is generated as the work comes into being. The exhibition included works by Ignasi Aballí, Armando Andrade Tudela,Lothar Baumgarten, Carlos Bunga, Cabello/Carceller, Juan Cruz, Gintaras Didžiapetris, Fernanda Fragateiro, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Carlos Garaicoa,Mario García Torres, David Goldblatt, Cristina Iglesias,Ana Mendieta, Vik Muniz, Ernesto Neto, Francisco Ruiz de Infante,Alexander Sokurov, Francesc Torres and Valentín Vallhonrat.

Comunicador Táctil ONCE: premio de investigación en deficiencias auditivas FIAPAS 2014, Área Accesibilidad

Las personas sordociegas se encuentran con dificultades para la comunicación presencial debidas a la imposibilidad de compartir información con interlocutores desconocidos o semidesconocidos que, en general, no saben o no dominan las formas y sistemas alternativos de comunicación utilizados por ellas. La tecnología actual y, en particular, los dispositivos móviles, ha permitido el desarrollo de este proyecto, cuya finalidad es la de ofrecer una nueva vía de comunicación en las citadas situaciones. Se han utilizado teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas (iPhone, iPad y dispositivos con Android) como canal para el proceso comunicativo que se produce entre dos personas. La aplicación desarrollada pretende recrear la comunicación entre dos personas, una de las cuales es sordociega. Para el interlocutor sordociego se han tenido en cuenta dos perfiles de usuario: personas sordociegas que son sordas pero que tienen visión limitada que les permite leer los mensajes del teléfono aunque sea ampliando el tamaño de los mismos, y otro perfil de personas sordociegas que son igualmente sordas pero también ciegas totales y que utilizarán un revisor de pantallas para acceder a la información que muestre la aplicación.

UNPROVEN INNOVATION: IPADS IN K-12 ENVIRONMENTS

Nationally, the education sector spends more than 5 billion dollars annually on digital tools, “yet seldom are technology solutions factored into any viable equation for improving student academic achievement” (Moersch, 2014, p. ix). Consider the following case in point: In July 2014, Apple announced that in just 3 years, the company had sold more than13 million iPads to educational institutions worldwide (Cavanagh, 2014). Put into perspective, that represents more than 5.2 billion dollars spent by the education industry to purchase iPads, which is the equivalent of the annual salaries of 89,655 teachers (“High School Teacher: Salary,” 2014). Despite such vast expenditures, there have been very few attempts to evaluate the efficacy of these digital tools on improving academic achievement. This research involved a quantitative data review of participant (student and teacher) survey data to explore one of the country’s largest K-12 iPad implementation undertakings in an effort to identify (a) best practices and (b) lessons learned from implementing the iPad into K-12 educational environments. It should be noted that the school system forming the basis of this research already had administered and collated the surveys used in this study.

ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION OF TITLE I TEACHERS IN A LARGE URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICT

By law, Title I schools employ teachers who are both competent in their subject knowledge and State certified. In addition, Title I teachers receive ongoing professional development in technology integration and are equipped with the latest innovative resources to integrate technology in the classroom. The aim is higher academic achievement and the effective use of technology in the classroom. The investment to implement technology in this large urban school district to improve student achievement has continued to increase. In order to infuse current and emerging technology throughout the curriculum, this school district needs to know where teachers have, and have not, integrated technology. Yet the level of how technology is integrated in Title I schools is unknown. This study used the Digital-Age Survey Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) to assess 508 Title I teachers’ technology integration levels using three major initiatives purchased by Title I— the iPads program, the Chromebook initiative, and the interactive whiteboards program. The study used a quantitative approach. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and statistical correlations were used to examine the relationship between the level of technology integration and the following dependent variables: personal computer use (PCU), current instructional practices (CIP), and levels of teaching innovation (LoTi). With this information, budgetary decisions and professional development can be tailored to the meet the technology implementation needs of this district. The result of this study determined a significant relationship between the level of teaching innovation, personal computer use, and current instructional practices with teachers who teach with iPad, Chromebook, and/or interactive whiteboard. There was an increase in LoTi, PCU, and CIP scores with increasing years of experience of Title I teachers. There was also a significant relationship between teachers with 20 years or more teaching experience and their LoTi score.

TICs como herramientas de apoyo para estudiantes con TDAH

La enseñanza universitaria se encuentra sumergida en un proceso de cambios impulsados por la implantación de las TIC, que ha supuesto una revolución del concepto de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Con la llegada de dicha tecnología se superan barreras, haciendo más accesible el completo desarrollo, tanto personal como académico, del alumno con TDAH en el entorno universitario. Mediante el uso del iPad en el aula utilizando la conexión Airserver, que permite la proyección del contenido que se está visionando en dicho dispositivo a través de un cañón, así como la proyección simultánea del mismo en otro dispositivo personal, y acompañado de dos herramientas potentes, como son el iAnnotate y uPAD, se pretende mejorar y facilitar la vida académica no sólo de las personas con TDAH, sino de la población universitaria en general, ya que éste su uso permitirá una mayor organización de la información, así como una captación y remarcación más exhaustiva de los conceptos más importantes.

The impact of gender differences on consumer-brand relationships

Dissertação de Mestrado, Marketing, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2016

Affirming emergent practices in educational technology: the politics of usage

Drawing on de Certeau's characterisation of everyday practice as reuse, this paper focuses on the micropolitics of mobile touch-screen devices (MTSD) usage, and how emergent practices - appropriations and (re)deployments - interface with institutionalised notions of learning. The recontextualisation of technological artefacts into formal education settings can (and often does) result in a 'domestication' or 'schooling' of technology, bringing with it familiar power relations and patterns of success. However, the indeterminacy of technology allows for potentially subversive practices, for surreptitious appropriation and re-deployment of devices, processes and texts, and for 'counterplay' that challenges the ways that schooling is traditionally done. This paper discusses three examples of MTSD usage that highlight the productive role of users as creators of their own contexts for learning. The examples include young children's home usage of iPads, an early year teacher's use of iPads in her classroom, and a young child's account of his use of an iPad app at school. The paper is framed by a discussion of the possibilities opened up by practice-based approaches (such as that of de Certeau) for change-oriented research that seeks to affirm emergent and/or marginalised practices; to trouble tacit assumptions about schooling; and, to understand the relation between everyday practices and the institutionalised ground that they transform.

The usefulness metrics of the most popular eReader used by higher education students

In the digital technology era, mobile devices have an important rule to deploy a copy of data and information through the network. An electronic reader (eReader) allows readers to read written materials in an electronic manner that is available in many models. The objective of this study is to evaluate the usage of eReader by higher education students. We firstly identified the most frequently used eReader by surveying higher education students. The survey results showed that Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, and Samsung Tablet are the most popular eReader devices used by higher education students. We presented these results, and then we analyzed the surveyed results in detail in order to develop an evaluation metric of the eReader in a mobile platform that clearly allows the selection of the most suitable eReader for higher education students. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a set of criteria that can be used by students in the selection of an eReader that matches their specific needs and requirements.

Patient participation in postoperative care activities in patients undergoing total knee replacement surgery: multimedia intervention for managing patient experience (MIME). Study protocol for a cluster randomised crossover trial

BACKGROUND: Patient participation is an important indicator of quality care. Currently, there is little evidence to support the belief that participation in care is possible for patients during the acute postoperative period. Previous work indicates that there is very little opportunity for patients to participate in care in the acute context. Patients require both capability, in terms of having the required knowledge and understanding of how they can be involved in their care, and the opportunity, facilitated by clinicians, to engage in their acute postoperative care. This cluster randomised crossover trial aims to test whether a multimedia intervention improves patient participation in the acute postoperative context, as determined by pain intensity and recovery outcomes.

METHODS/DESIGN: A total of 240 patients admitted for primary total knee replacement surgery will be invited to participate in a cluster randomised, crossover trial and concurrent process evaluation in at least two wards at a major non-profit private hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Patients admitted to the intervention ward will receive the multimedia intervention daily from Day 1 to Day 5 (or day of discharge, if prior). The intervention will be delivered by nurses via an iPad™, comprising information on the goals of care for each day following surgery. Patients admitted to the control ward will receive usual care as determined by care pathways currently in use across the organization. The primary endpoint is the "worst pain experienced in the past 24 h" on Day 3 following TKR surgery. Pain intensity will be measured using the numerical rating scale. Secondary outcomes are interference of pain on activities of daily living, length of stay in hospital, function and pain following TKR surgery, overall satisfaction with hospitalisation, postoperative complications and hospital readmission.

DISCUSSION: The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the effectiveness of interventions that provide knowledge and opportunity for patient participation during postoperative in-hospital care in actually increasing participation, and the impact of participation on patient outcomes. The results of this study will also provide data about the barriers and enablers to participation in the acute care context.

Modern screen-use behaviors: the effects of single- and multi-screen use on energy intake

PURPOSE: The effects of using multiple screens at once on energy intake (EI) are unknown. This study compared EI of participants with access to multiple screens (television + iPad + smartphone) versus a single screen (television). METHODS: A laboratory-based, randomized, two-arm parallel (multi-screen vs. single-screen) trial was conducted in 78 adolescents (ages, 13-18 years). Food and drink were available during a 1-hour exposure period. Total EI was the primary outcome. Linear regression analyses were conducted to test the treatment difference, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and appetite at baseline. RESULTS: Total EI did not differ significantly between the two groups (multi-screen, 758 kcal [standard error = 75] vs. single-screen, 681 kcal [standard error = 75]; difference, +77 kcal; 95% confidence interval, -166 to +320). CONCLUSIONS: EI did not differ between adolescents with access to multiple screens and those with access to a single screen; however, limitations in the study design may have decreased the power of the study.

The effect of mobile technology as an active student response system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of secondary students with specific learning disabilities

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) typically learn less history content than their peers without disabilities and show fewer learning gains. Even when they are provided with the same instructional strategies, many students with SLD struggle to grasp complex historical concepts and content area vocabulary. Many strategies involving technology have been used in the past to enhance learning for students with SLD in history classrooms. However, very few studies have explored the effectiveness of emerging mobile technology in K-12 history classrooms. ^ This study investigated the effects of mobile devices (iPads) as an active student response (ASR) system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of middle school students with SLD. An alternating treatments single subject design was used to compare the effects of two interventions. There were two conditions and a series of pretest probesin this study. The conditions were: (a) direct instruction and studying from handwritten notes using the interactive notebook strategy and (b) direct instruction and studying using the Quizlet App on the iPad. There were three dependent variables in this study: (a) percent correct on tests, (b) rate of correct responses per minute, and (c) rate of errors per minute. ^ A comparative analysis suggested that both interventions (studying from interactive notes and studying using Quizlet on the iPad) had varying degrees of effectiveness in increasing the learning gains of students with SLD. In most cases, both interventions were equally effective. During both interventions, all of the participants increased their percentage correct and increased their rate of correct responses. Most of the participants decreased their rate of errors. ^ The results of this study suggest that teachers of students with SLD should consider a post lesson review in the form of mobile devices as an ASR system or studying from handwritten notes paired with existing evidence-based practices to facilitate students’ knowledge in U.S. history. Future research should focus on the use of other interactive applications on various mobile operating platforms, on other social studies subjects, and should explore various testing formats such as oral question-answer and multiple choice. ^

Effects of the Use of the Educreations Application in the Reading Comprehension of an Adolescent with Autism and Speech Delay

Comprehension is one of the most challenging aspects of reading for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present paper describes an action research that intends to investigate the effect of the use of the Educreations application in the reading comprehension of a 19-year-old boy with ASD and speech delay.