3.4.1 A computer system is the combination of: the computer (with its processor and storage); other equipment such as a scanner or printer, the software programs that make it all work (software programs that are designed to help with some human task are often referred to as applications).
What is language?: an applied linguistic perspective
This free course, What is language?: an applied linguistic perspective, serves as an introduction to the discipline of applied linguistics. It examines what is meant by 'language', what its main characteristics are, and how human language differs from communication between other animals. It also asks whether theoretical knowledge about language can be applied to professional practice.Author(s):
1 Preamble The mathematical skills assumed by Open University courses in the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Technology, vary greatly from course to course. Students are strongly recommended to start by reading the Sciences Good Study Guide (ISBN 0Â 7492Â 341Â 1Â 3) as preparation for whichever course they are going to study. This guide is an excellent place to start but you may have found that the section on maths does not go far enough for you. Equally, y
4.2 Analysing the task This involves you in analysing both the learning task, (e.g. working through the text, other readings, calculations, experiments) as well as the assessed task (e.g. the assignment). It is important to work out from the start just what this part of the course requires you to do as well as to know. 4.1 Preparing In the preparation phase you should pause before starting a new section of work and think about it as a whole. What needs to be covered? What are the various components of this block of work? What are the learning objectives or outcomes? What will you need to know and be able to do at the end of it? What is required in the assignment? There are two main activities during this phase, both directly related to your course work and assignment: 3.1 Introduction to applying your learning In this part of the unit we invite you to apply some of the ideas we have introduced in a more structured way. One of the easiest ways to really understand learning how to learn as a process, rather than as a series of individual activities, is to apply it to a section of the course you are currently studying. Choose a section that is complete in itself - for example, a block of the course - and that leads to an assignment. We suggest that you read through the whole of this section and 4.1.1 Too much underlining and highlighting The challenge, especially when you are new to a subject, is to avoid underlining or highlighting everything. Everything seems important, so how do you know what to leave out?
If you make too many markings, you defeat your purpose; nothing stands out. The trick is to highlight or underline sparingly. 8.5.4 Manage each stage of the work effectively Effective management means putting your resources to work and monitoring your progress. For each stage of the work you will need to gather together the resources necessary in good time, and maintain the co-operation of other people working with you. Think about how you will keep the project moving forward for all those involved. Are the goals still clear, or have you become enmeshed in detail? Use milestones or review points to keep your plan up to date and, if necessary, modify your pl 8.1 Introduction to improving your skills in problem solving This key skill develops your problem-solving skills in your studies, work or other activities over a period of time. To tackle this key skill, you will need to plan your work over at least 3–4 months to give yourself enough time to practise and improve your skills, to seek feedback from others, and to monitor your progress and evaluate your strategy. Problem solving runs through many other activities and, rather like the key skill ‘Improving own learning and performance’, it can b 7.4 Evaluating your strategy and assessing your work Include a reflective summary that gives details of: a judgement of your own progress and performance in the information literacy skills you set out to improve, including an assessment of where you feel you have made the greatest progress; discuss how you used criteria and feedback comments to help you assess your progress; those factors that had the greatest effect on your achieving what you set out to do; include those that worked we 3 Key skills assessment units This section gives advice and guidance to help you compile and present a portfolio of selected work. You are strongly advised to read through this section so that you have an idea of what is expected. The key skills assessment units provide an opportunity for you to integrate your development of key skills with your work or study. You may choose to concentrate on skills that you need to develop and improve for your job, for a new course, or personally to help you keep abreast of new dev 1.2.4 Rounding It looks as if there was an extra 0.2 of a person in the last calculation – why was this? Probably because the figure of 85% that we used was not precise. In fact 809 people, as a percentage of 952, is very slightly less than 85%. Values are often rounded, and using these rounded numbers in calculations can give answers like 809.2 people. Here we can round the answer down to 809 people, because we know it must be a whole number and it is more likely to be 809 than 810. When we w 8 Technical glossary This glossary is intended to provide a basic explanation of how a number of common mathematical terms are used. Definitions can be very slippery and confusing and at worst can replace one difficult term with a large number of other puzzling concepts. Therefore, where an easy definition is available it is provided here, where this has not been possible an example is used. If you require more detailed or complete definitions, you should refer to one of the very good mathematical dictionaries th 7.3 Frequency tables So far you have looked at small sets of data, which are relatively easy to analyse. Naturally, this is not always the case and you need to consider how to work with a larger set of data. Data set B shows 30 TMA scores recorded by a tutor in the order that the scripts were marked. Data set B: Make your conference work You can make a big difference to the effectiveness of any conference, and to your tutor group conference in particular. We are going to discuss in turn the four main ways that you can help a conference work well: get involved; help people to get to know you; construct clear messages; take some responsibility. To get the most out of conferencing on your course, get involved 2.2.2 Reading graphs and charts: manipulating numbers Text is just one way of communicating information. Numbers are another way, but whether presented singly, in groups or even as tables , numbers often require a lot of work from the reader to uncover the message. A much more immediate and powerful way to present numerical information is to use graphs and charts. When you use single numbers or tables, the reader has to visualise the meaning of the numbers. Graphs and charts allow the reader to do this at a glance. To show how powerful these rep 1.2 Types of diagrams As there is this variety in the types of diagrams we use, we need to think more broadly about what pictures and diagrams are trying to represent. You will encounter three main types of diagrams when studying MST subjects.
Pictures or pictorial diagrams that attempt to represent the essential features of a part of reality – for example, diagrams of equipment, molecules or parts of a plant. Diagrams that try to describe 7.2 Reorganizing notes The technique of re-reading completed notes and supplementing them with comments and queries is a useful way of processing ideas. Another way of processing ideas is to reorganize notes around a set of questions or thematic headings. This is particularly useful for those notes that you will be drawing upon for planning and writing assignments. They can be reworked and key concepts and ideas can thus be applied to different types of questions and issues. 2.6 Environmental explanations of dyslexia? ‘Environment’ is often used to refer to only social or non-biological influences. However, it actually also refers to the biological, cognitive and behavioural environments that we may be exposed to. If you refer back to Frith's framework (see Figure 2) you will remember that the environment can be h 1.8 Reflecting on definitions of ‘abnormality’ The main thing to remember is that the way that ‘abnormality’ is defined will have consequences for the method of identification. It will also impact on people's expectations of their future development. For example, we discussed the way that dyslexia is defined in relation to a person's IQ. Does that mean that if someone has a low IQ and an even lower reading age we should adjust our expectations of what that person can achieve with help, or let IQ influence how much help is offered? Sim
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