Learning power and language expressiveness

The topic of the present work is to study the relationship between the power of the learning algorithms on the one hand, and the expressive power of the logical language which is used to represent the problems to be learned on the other hand. The central question is whether enriching the language results in more learning power. In order to make the question relevant and nontrivial, it is required that both texts (sequences of data) and hypotheses (guesses) be translatable from the “rich” language into the “poor” one. The issue is considered for several logical languages suitable to describe structures whose domain is the set of natural numbers. It is shown that enriching the language does not give any advantage for those languages which define a monadic second-order language being decidable in the following sense: there is a fixed interpretation in the structure of natural numbers such that the set of sentences of this extended language true in that structure is decidable. But enriching the original language even by only one constant gives an advantage if this language contains a binary function symbol (which will be interpreted as addition). Furthermore, it is shown that behaviourally correct learning has exactly the same power as learning in the limit for those languages which define a monadic second-order language with the property given above, but has more power in case of languages containing a binary function symbol. Adding the natural requirement that the set of all structures to be learned is recursively enumerable, it is shown that it pays o6 to enrich the language of arithmetics for both finite learning and learning in the limit, but it does not pay off to enrich the language for behaviourally correct learning.

Mind change complexity of learning logic programs

The present paper motivates the study of mind change complexity for learning minimal models of length-bounded logic programs. It establishes ordinal mind change complexity bounds for learnability of these classes both from positive facts and from positive and negative facts. Building on Angluin’s notion of finite thickness and Wright’s work on finite elasticity, Shinohara defined the property of bounded finite thickness to give a sufficient condition for learnability of indexed families of computable languages from positive data. This paper shows that an effective version of Shinohara’s notion of bounded finite thickness gives sufficient conditions for learnability with ordinal mind change bound, both in the context of learnability from positive data and for learnability from complete (both positive and negative) data. Let Omega be a notation for the first limit ordinal. Then, it is shown that if a language defining framework yields a uniformly decidable family of languages and has effective bounded finite thickness, then for each natural number m >0, the class of languages defined by formal systems of length <= m: • is identifiable in the limit from positive data with a mind change bound of Omega (power)m; • is identifiable in the limit from both positive and negative data with an ordinal mind change bound of Omega × m. The above sufficient conditions are employed to give an ordinal mind change bound for learnability of minimal models of various classes of length-bounded Prolog programs, including Shapiro’s linear programs, Arimura and Shinohara’s depth-bounded linearly covering programs, and Krishna Rao’s depth-bounded linearly moded programs. It is also noted that the bound for learning from positive data is tight for the example classes considered.

Learning to win process-control games watching game-masters

The present paper focuses on some interesting classes of process-control games, where winning essentially means successfully controlling the process. A master for one of these games is an agent who plays a winning strategy. In this paper we investigate situations in which even a complete model (given by a program) of a particular game does not provide enough information to synthesize—even incrementally—a winning strategy. However, if in addition to getting a program, a machine may also watch masters play winning strategies, then the machine is able to incrementally learn a winning strategy for the given game. Studied are successful learning from arbitrary masters and from pedagogically useful selected masters. It is shown that selected masters are strictly more helpful for learning than are arbitrary masters. Both for learning from arbitrary masters and for learning from selected masters, though, there are cases where one can learn programs for winning strategies from masters but not if one is required to learn a program for the master's strategy itself. Both for learning from arbitrary masters and for learning from selected masters, one can learn strictly more by watching m+1 masters than one can learn by watching only m. Last, a simulation result is presented where the presence of a selected master reduces the complexity from infinitely many semantic mind changes to finitely many syntactic ones.

An architecture for user configurable mobile collaborative geographic applications

Geographic information is increasingly being touted for use in research and industrial projects. While the technology is now available and affordable, there is a lack of easy to use software that takes advantage of geographic information. This is an important problem because users are often researchers or scientists who have insufficient software skills, and by providing applications that are easier to use, time and financial resources can be taken from training and be better applied to the actual research and development work. A solution for this problem must cater for the user and research needs. In particular it must allow for mobile operation for fieldwork, flexibility or customisability of data input, sharing of data with other tools and collaborative capabilities for the usual teamwork environment. This thesis has developed a new architecture and data model to achieve the solution. The result is the Mobile Collaborative Annotation framework providing an implementation of the new architecture and data model. Mobile Collaborative Mapping implements the framework as a Web 2.0 mashup rich internet application and has proven to be an effective solution through its positive application to a case study with fieldwork scientists. This thesis has contributed to research into mobile computing, collaborative computing and geospatial systems by creating a simpler entry point to mobile geospatial applications, enabling simplified collaboration and providing tangible time savings.

Assessment for learning as a participative pedagogy

AfL practices observed in case studies in a North Queensland school were analysed from a sociocultural theoretical perspective. AfL practices of feedback, dialogue and peer assessment were viewed as an opportunity for students to learn the social expectations about being an autonomous learner, or central participant within the classroom community of practice. This process of becoming more expert and belonging within the community of practice involved students negotiating identities of participation that included knowing both academic skills and social expectations within the classroom. This paper argues that when AfL practices are viewed as ways of enhancing participation, there is potential for learners to negotiate identities as autonomous learners. AfL practices within the daily classroom interactions and pedagogy that enabled students to develop a shared repertoire, joint enterprise and mutual engagement in the classroom communities of practice are described. The challenges for teachers in shifting their gaze to patterns of participation are also briefly discussed.

Contextualising the teaching and learning of measurement within Torres Strait Islander schools

A one year mathematics project that focused on measurement was conducted with six Torres Strait Islander schools and communities. Its key focus was to contextualise the teaching and learning of measurement within the students’ culture, communities and home languages. There were six teachers and two teacher aides who participated in the project. This paper reports on the findings from the teachers’ and teacher aides’ survey questionnaire used in the first Professional Development session to identify: a) teachers’ experience of teaching in Torres Strait Islands, b) teachers’ beliefs about effective ways to teach Torres Strait Islander students, and c) contexualising measurement within Torres Strait Islander culture, Communities and home languages. A wide range of differing levels of knowledge and understanding about how to contextualise measurement to support student learning were identified and analysed. For example, an Indigenous teacher claimed that mathematics and the environment are relational, that is, they are not discrete and in isolation from one another, rather they interconnect with mathematical ideas emerging from the environment of the Torres Strait Communities.

Changing pedagogic codes in a class of landscape architects learning 'ecologically sustainable development'

Professional discourse in education has been the focus of research conducted mostly with teachers and professional practitioners but the work of students in the built environment has largely been ignored. This article presents an analysis of students’ visual discourse in the final professional year of a landscape architecture course in Brisbane, Australia. The study has a multi-method design and includes drawings, interviews and documentary materials, but focuses on the drawings in this paper. Using the theory of Bernstein, the analysis considers student representations as interrelations between professional identity and discretionary space for legitimate knowledge formation in landscape planning. It shows a shift in how students persuade the teacher of their expanding views of this field. The discussion of this shift centres on the professional knowledge that students choose rather than need to learn. It points to the differences within a class that a teacher must address in curriculum design in a contemporary professional course.

The mobile phone as a multi OTP device using trusted computing

The rapid growth in the number of online services leads to an increasing number of different digital identities each user needs to manage. As a result, many people feel overloaded with credentials, which in turn negatively impact their ability to manage them securely. Passwords are perhaps the most common type of credential used today. To avoid the tedious task of remembering difficult passwords, users often behave less securely by using low entropy and weak passwords. Weak passwords and bad password habits represent security threats to online services. Some solutions have been developed to eliminate the need for users to create and manage passwords. A typical solution is based on giving the user a hardware token that generates one-time-passwords, i.e. passwords for single session or transaction usage. Unfortunately, most of these solutions do not satisfy scalability and/or usability requirements, or they are simply insecure. In this paper, we propose a scalable OTP solution using mobile phones and based on trusted computing technology that combines enhanced usability with strong security.

Revisiting 'how we learn' in academia : practice-based learning exchanges in three Australian universities

Ideas of 'how we learn' in formal academic settings have changed markedly in recent decades. The primary position that universities once held on shaping what constitutes learning has come into question from a range of experience-led and situated learning models. Drawing on findings from a study conducted across three Australian universities, the article focuses on the multifarious learning experiences indicative of practice-based learning exchanges such as student placements. Building on both experiential and situated learning theories, the authors found that students can experience transformative and emotional elucidations of learning, that can challenge tacit assumptions and transform the ways they understand the world. It was found that all participants (hosts, students, academics) both teach and learn in these educative scenarios and that, contrary to common (mis)perceptions that academics live in 'ivory towers', they play a crucial role in contributing to learning that takes place in the so-called 'real world'.

Role and purpose of standards in the context of national curriculum and assessment reform for accountability, improvement and equity in student learning

In this article our starting point is the current context of national curriculum change and intense speculation about the assessment, standards and reporting. It is written against a background of accountability measures and improvement imperatives, and focuses attention on standards as offering representations of quality. We understand standards to be constructs that aim to achieve public credibility and utility. Further, they can be examined for the purposes they seek to serve and also their expected functions. Fitness for purpose is therefore a useful notion in considering the nature of standards. Our interest in the discussion is the ‘fit’ between how standards are formulated and how they are used in practice, by whom and for what purposes. A related interest is in the matter of how standards can be harnessed to realise improvement.

Geekdom for Grrrls health : Australian undergraduate experiences developing and promoting women’s health in cyberspace

There is an increasing global reliance on the Internet for retrieving information on health, illness, and recovery (Sillence et al, 2007; Laurent et al, 2009; Adams, 2010). People suffering from a vast array of illnesses, conditions, and complaints, as well as healthy travelers seeking advice about safe practices abroad, and teens seeking information about safe sexual practices are all now more likely to go to the internet for information than they are to rely solely on a general practitioner or physician (Santor et al, 2007; Moreno et al, 2009; Bartlett et al, 2010). Women in particular seek advice and support online for a number of health-related concerns regarding issues such as puberty, conception, pregnancy, postnatal depression, mothering, breast-cancer recovery, and ageing healthily (van Zutphen, 2008; Raymond et al, 2005). In keeping with this increasing socio-technological trend, the Women’s Health Unit at the Queensland University of Technology (Q.U.T), Brisbane, Australia, introduced the research, design, and development of online information resources for issues affecting the health of Australian women as an assessment item for students in the undergraduate Public Health curriculum. Students were required to research a particular health issue affecting Australian women, including pregnancy, pregnancy terminations, postnatal depression, returning to the work force after having a baby, breast cancer recovery, chronic disease prevention, health and safety for sex-workers, and ageing healthily. Students were required to design and develop websites that supported people living with these conditions, or who were in these situations. The websites were designed for communicating effectively with both women seeking information about their health, and their health practitioners. The pedagogical challenge inherent in this exercise was twofold: firstly, to encourage students to develop the skills to design and maintain software for online health forums; and secondly, to challenge public health students to go beyond generating ‘awareness’ and imparting health information to developing a nuanced understanding of the worlds and perspectives of their audiences, who require supportive networks and options that resonate with their restrictions, capabilities, and dispositions. This latter challenge spanned the realms of research, communication, and aesthetic design. This paper firstly, discusses an increasing reliance on the Internet by women seeking health-related information and the potential health risks and benefits of this trend. Secondly, it applies a post-structural analysis of the de-centred and mobile female self, as online social ‘spaces’ and networks supersede geographical ‘places’ and hierarchies, with implications for democracy, equality, power, and ultimately women’s health. Thirdly, it depicts the processes (learning reflections) and products (developed websites) created within this Women’s Health Unit by the students. Finally, we review this development in the undergraduate curriculum in terms of the importance of providing students with skills in research, communication, and technology in order to share and implement improved health care and social marketing for women as both recipients and providers of health care in the Internet Age.

Assessment of the suitability of public mobile data networks for aircraft telemetry and control purposes

This paper provides a review of the state of the art relevant work on the use of public mobile data networks for aircraft telemetry and control proposes. Moreover, it describes the characterisation for airborne uses of the public mobile data communication systems known broadly as 3G. The motivation for this study was the explore how this mature public communication systems could be used for aviation purposes. An experimental system was fitted to a light aircraft to record communication latency, line speed, RF level, packet loss and cell tower identifier. Communications was established using internet protocols and connection was made to a local server. The aircraft was flown in both remote and populous areas at altitudes up to 8500 ft in a region located in South East Queensland, Australia. Results show that the average airborne RF levels are better than those on the ground by 21% and in the order of - 77dbm. Latencies were in the order of 500ms (1/2 the latency of Iridium), an average download speed of 0.48Mb/s, average uplink speed of 0.85Mb/s, a packet of information loss of 6.5%. The maximum communication range was also observed to be 70km from a single cell station. The paper also describes possible limitations and utility of using such communications architecture for both manned and unmanned aircraft systems.

Promoting student understanding through complex learning

The world’s increasing complexity, competitiveness, interconnectivity, and dependence on technology generate new challenges for nations and individuals that cannot be met by “continuing education as usual” (The National Academies, 2009). With the proliferation of complex systems have come new technologies for communication, collaboration, and conceptualization. These technologies have led to significant changes in the forms of mathematical thinking that are required beyond the classroom. This paper argues for the need to incorporate future-oriented understandings and competencies within the mathematics curriculum, through intellectually stimulating activities that draw upon multidisciplinary content and contexts. The paper also argues for greater recognition of children’s learning potential, as increasingly complex learners capable of dealing with cognitively demanding tasks.

Service learning in teacher education

If the student wellbeing pedagogy characterised by the troika metaphor is to become more widely adopted, beginning teachers need to be inducted into service learning. In this chapter, we discuss the implementation and outcomes of a service learning program in a Bachelor of Education course in Australia. The program provides pre-service teachers with insights into service learning practice. Pre-service teachers are given supported opportunities to examine and challenge traditional beliefs and values about student diversity and the role of schools in developing a more inclusive society. They are supported in developing ethics of care and concern for inclusive and equitable practices – characteristics necessary for quality teaching. Thus, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) service learning program is an ideal example of the troika effect in practice, in that the pedagogy fuses values education, quality teaching and service learning to develop within each student an inclusive ethical framework that will inform their classroom practice as beginning quality teachers.

Work integrated learning as a component of the capstone experience in undergraduate law

Background: The “Curriculum renewal in legal education” project has been funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council with the core objectives being the articulation of a set of final year curriculum design principles, and the development of a model of a transferable final year program. Through these principles and the development of the model, it is anticipated that the final year experience for law students will provide greater opportunity for them to understand the relevance of their learning, and will enhance their capacity to make decisions regarding their career path. Discussion / Argument: This paper reports on the project’s progress to date, and presents an argument for the inclusion of work integrated learning (WIL) as a component of the final year experience in undergraduate law programs. The project has identified that the two principal objectives of capstone experiences are to provide closure and to facilitate transition to post-university life. Reflective practice and Bruner’s spiral curriculum model are the central theoretical foundations by which these objectives can be achieved. Experiential learning is also increasingly seen as an essential element of a capstone experience. WIL is consistent with the objectives of capstones in focusing on the transition to professional practice and providing opportunities for reflection. However, the ability of WIL to meet all of the objectives of capstones, particularly closure and integration, may be limited. Conclusions / Implications: The paper posits that while WIL should be considered as a potential component of a capstone experience, educators should ensure that WIL is not equated with a capstone experience unless it is carefully designed to ensure that all of the objectives of capstones are met. Keywords: Work-integrated learning, capstone, final year experience, law