The Aplusix-Editor: A New Kind of Software for the Learning of Algebra
The first part of the paper presents our conception of a new kind of software for helping students to learn algebra. Such software has three main characteristics. First it includes an advanced editor that allows the student to build easily algebraic expressions. Second it reifies the student's reasoning as a tree. Third it verifies the student's calculations. In the second part, we present the Aplusix-Editor, a system of that kind that we have realised, and we describe the first tests of this sy
Keep Spreading the News
In this lesson, students develop an understanding of the critical role communication plays in an engineer’s life. Students create products to communicate their learning about the engineering role in the environment.
Got Dirty Air?
This lesson introduces students to the concepts of air pollution and technologies that have been developed by engineers to reduce air pollution. Students develop an understanding of visible air pollutants with an incomplete combustion demonstration, a “smog in a jar” demonstration, construction of simple particulate matter collectors and by exploring engineering roles related to air pollution. Next, students develop awareness and understanding of the daily air quality and trends in air quali
3RC (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Compost)
In this lesson, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC (reduce, reuse, recycle and compost). They will look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Also, they will observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting).
Development of Adaptive e-Learning System Based on Learning Objects
This paper discusses Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH),
which is at present a hot topic of research and an important aim
for e-Learning systems. The presented approach is knowledgebased.
The domain ontology and the learning objects play a central
role as resources structuring the learning content and supporting
flexible adaptive strategies for navigation through this content.
Knowledge management and learning in the organizational context
In the last decades, learning and knowledge have become key success factors for international competitiveness with the result that intangible and immaterial resources have overtaken physical and tangible assets in order of importance. The introduction of knowledge management (KM) practices and initiatives has provided companies with new opportunities to maximize the value of the knowledge they possess. It has helped as well to increase their capacity to learn and adapt quicker to the environment
Bridges
Through a five-lesson series that includes numerous hands-on activities, students are introduced to the importance and pervasiveness of bridges for connecting people to resources, places and other people, with references to many historical and current-day examples. In learning about bridge types — arch, beam, truss and suspension — students explore the affect of tensile and compressive forces. Students investigate the calculations that go into designing bridges; they learn about loads and cr
How Hot Is It?
Students learn about the nature of thermal energy, temperature and how materials store thermal energy. They discuss the difference between conduction, convection and radiation of thermal energy, and complete activities in which they investigate the difference between temperature, thermal energy and the heat capacity of different materials. Students also learn how some engineering requires an understanding of thermal energy.
Choosing for learning objects: The possible deployment of learning objects with eight educational am
The Dutch six-part series Leerobjecten in de praktijk (Learning objects in practice) is about six divergent and difficult problems that occur frequently in working with learning objects. Based on research into existing practice, guidelines are offered to policy makers, educational technology consultants, teachers, educational designers and developers of digital learning materials who are struggling with these problems in higher education.
Choosing for learning objects discusses eight education
What is Energy?
With an introduction to the ideas of energy, students discuss specific types of energy and the practical sources of energy. Hands-on activities help them identify types of energy in their surroundings and enhance their understanding of energy.
Designer integration in training cycles : IEEE LTSA model adaptation
This paper describes an architecture centered on a component model for the course cycle. This
model guides a re-engineering process based on the observed use scenarii. It is applied in an
institutional framework and uses learning devices provided by the open source community. The
architecture integrates the latest works on learning technology standards.
A modelling challenge : untangling learner knowledge
For now about three decades, systematic research on students learning of science and mathematics has evidenced a great variety of the possible understanding for a given notion, as well as an important sensitivity of these understandings to contexts. Students' knowing appears as a tangle of local conceptions of which we have a very partial and unorganised picture. We present here the outlines of the modelling tool we have developed, and of its framework, in order to give account of learners' know
Cynergies: Technologies that Hybridize Physical and Cyberspaces
This paper presents ways in which cybrids depend for their technology upon three existing models of architectural hybrid: display space, environmental computing, and augmented/mixed reality. Cybrids bring these techniques together into a synergistic whole that depends as much on the observer for its consistency as it does on its comprising technologies. This synergy is a product of corroborative behavior between different modes, which provide cybrid users with a coherent social/spatial experienc
Pollution Solutions
To develop an understanding of modern industrial technologies that clean up and prevent air pollution, students build and observe a variety of simple models of engineering pollutant recovery methods: scrubber, electrostatic precipitator, cyclone and baghouse. In an associated literacy activity, students become more aware of global environmental problems and play a part in their solution by writing environmental action campaign letters.
Adaptive learning scenarios for detection of misconceptions about electricity and remediation
Our main objective is to model the knowledge used by learners in order to solve problems about electricity. We are searching means to do a diagnosis about student's activity based on a microworld of electric circuits. Once the diagnosis realized, we try to provide the learner with the most relevant remediation with regard to his/her misconceptions.
Exploring the mathematics of motion through construction and collaboration.
In this paper we give a detailed account of the design principles and construction of activities designed for learning about the relationships between position, velocity and acceleration, and corresponding kinematics graphs. Our approach is model-based, that is, it focuses attention on the idea that students constructed their own models – in the form of programs – to formalise and thus extend their existing knowledge. In these activities, students controlled the movement of objects in a prog
Soapy Stress
To experience the three types of material stress related to rocks — tensional, compressional and shear — students break bars of soap using only their hands. They apply force created by the muscles in their own hands to put pressure on the soap, a model for the larger scale, real-world phenomena that forms, shapes and moves the rocks of our planet. They also learn the real-life implications of understanding stress in rocks, both for predicting natural hazards and building safe structures.
Wind Power
In this activity, students develop an understanding of how engineers use wind to generate electricity. They will build a model anemometer to better understand and measure wind speed.
Surveying the scene: learning metaphors, survey design and the workplace context
The skills debate has for many years been preoccupied with the supply of qualified individuals and participation in training events. This emphasis is reflected in the sources of systematic data currently available. However, recent case study work suggests that qualifications and training are partial measures of skill development as most learning arises naturally out of the demands and challenges of everyday work experience and interactions with colleagues, clients and customers. This paper ar
Traveling Sound
Students explore how sound waves move through liquids, solids and gases in a series of simple sound energy experiments. Understanding the properties of sound and how sound waves travel helps engineers determine the best room shape and construction materials when designing sound recording studios, classrooms, libraries, concert halls and theatres.
