The differences in the social competence of children who attend integrated junior infant classes and children who attend segregated learning environments

There are a number of reasons why this researcher has decided to undertake this study into the differences in the social competence of children who attend integrated Junior Infant classes and children who attend segregated learning environments. Theses reasons are both personal and professional. My personal reasons stem from having grown up in a family which included both an aunt who presented with Down Syndrome and an uncle who presented with hearing impairment. Both of these relatives' experiences in our education system are interesting. My aunt was considered ineducable while her brother - my uncle - was sent to Dublin (from Cork) at six years of age to be educated by a religious order. My professional reasons, on the other hand, stemmed from my teaching experience. Having taught in both special and integrated classrooms it became evident to me that there was somewhat 'suspicion' attached to integration. Parents of children without disabilities questioned whether this process would have a negative impact on their children's education. While parents of children with disabilities debated whether integrated settings met the specific needs of their children. On the other hand, I always questioned whether integration and inclusiveness meant the same thing. My research has enabled me to find many answers. Increasingly, children with special educational needs (SEN) are attending a variety of integrated and inclusive childcare and education settings. This contemporary practice of educating children who present with disabilities in mainstream classrooms has stimulated vast interest on the impact of such practices on children with identified disabilities. Indeed, children who present with disabilities "fare far better in mainstream education than in special schools" (Buckley, cited in Siggins, 2001,p.25). However, educators and practitioners in the field of early years education and care are concerned with meeting the needs of all children in their learning environments, while also upholding high academic standards (Putman, 1993). Fundamentally, therefore, integrated education must also produce questions about the impact of this practice on children without identified special educational needs. While these questions can be addressed from the various areas of child development (i.e. cognitive, physical, linguistic, emotional, moral, spiritual and creative), this research focused on the social domain. It investigates the development of social competence in junior infant class children without identified disabilities as they experience different educational settings.

Supporting students with learning disabilities to explore linear relationships using online learning objects

The study of linear relationships is foundational for mathematics teaching and learning. However, students’ abilities connect different representations of linear relationships have proven to be challenging. In response, a computer-based instructional sequence was designed to support students’ understanding of the connections among representations. In this paper we report on the affordances of this dynamic mode of representation specifically for students with learning disabilities. We outline four results identified by teachers as they implemented the online lessons.

Use of Web Logs (Blogs) in Learning Environments: Blogs for Student Support

Innovation in technology and communications and particularly the advent of the Web is changing the structure of teaching and learning today. While there is much debate about the use of technology in learning and how e-learning is creating new approaches to delivery of learning there is been very little if any work on the use of of the emerging technologies in providing student support through their learning process. This paper reports on research and development undertaken by the eCentre based at the University of Greenwich School Of Computing in designing and developing a "Project Blog System" in order to address some long standing issues related to supervision of final year degree student projects. The paper will report on the methodology used to design the system and will discuss some of the results from students and staff evaluation of the system developed.

Robust visual tracking based on online learning sparse representation

Handling appearance variations is a very challenging problem for visual tracking. Existing methods usually solve this problem by relying on an effective appearance model with two features: (1) being capable of discriminating the tracked target from its background, (2) being robust to the target's appearance variations during tracking. Instead of integrating the two requirements into the appearance model, in this paper, we propose a tracking method that deals with these problems separately based on sparse representation in a particle filter framework. Each target candidate defined by a particle is linearly represented by the target and background templates with an additive representation error. Discriminating the target from its background is achieved by activating the target templates or the background templates in the linear system in a competitive manner. The target's appearance variations are directly modeled as the representation error. An online algorithm is used to learn the basis functions that sparsely span the representation error. The linear system is solved via ℓ1 minimization. The candidate with the smallest reconstruction error using the target templates is selected as the tracking result. We test the proposed approach using four sequences with heavy occlusions, large pose variations, drastic illumination changes and low foreground-background contrast. The proposed approach shows excellent performance in comparison with two latest state-of-the-art trackers.

A systematic review protocol on the use of online learning and blended learning for teaching clinical skills to undergraduate health professional students

Aim: This paper is a review protocol that will be used to identify, critically appraise and synthesize the best current evidence relating to the use of online learning and blended learning approaches in teaching clinical skills in undergraduate nursing.

Background: Although previous systematic reviews on online learning versus face to face learning have been undertaken (Cavanaugh et al. 2010, Cook et al. 2010), a systematic review on the impact of online learning and blended learning for teaching clinical skills has yet to be considered in undergraduate nursing. By reviewing nursing students’ online learning experiences, systems can potentially be designed to ensure all students’ are supported appropriately to meet their learning needs.

Methods/Design: The key objectives of the review are to evaluate how online-learning teaching strategies assist nursing students learn; to evaluate the students satisfaction with this form of teaching; to explore the variety of online-learning strategies used; to determine what online-learning strategies are more effective and to determine if supplementary face to face instruction enhances learning. A search of the following databases will be made MEDLINE, CINAHL, BREI, ERIC and AUEI. This review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute guidance for systematic reviews of quantitative and qualitative research.

Conclusion: This review intends to report on a combination of student experience and learning outcomes therefore increasing its utility for educators and curriculum developers involved in healthcare education.

Designing personalized video-based crossmedia informal learning environments beyond iTV

Tese de doutoramento, Informática (Engenharia Informática), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014

Promoting self-regulated learning in technology enhanced learning environments : keeping a digital track of the learning process

Tese de doutoramento (co-tutela), Psicologia (Psicologia da Educação), Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra, Technial University of Darmstadt, 2014