Journal of
Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics
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 ISSN: 1690-4524 (Online)    DOI: 10.54808/JSCI



TABLE OF CONTENTS





Implementation of Time and Frequency Response Analysis for Web-Based Laboratories
Teyana Sapula, Damian Haule
Pages: 1-6
ABSTRACT:
The University of Dar Es Salaam has developed the web-based laboratory for Time and Frequency Response Analysis. The purpose of this web-based laboratory is the utilization of real data from real experiments, in terms of instrumentation and experimental circuits, rather than simulations. The use of webbased laboratory came after realizing the difficulties imposed by the traditional laboratories. Web-based laboratories allow students and educators to interact with real laboratory equipment located anywhere in the world at anytime. This paper presents the implementation of web-based laboratory of single stage common emitter, resistor capacitor coupled amplifier using National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite platform. Two components are deployed: time response analysis and frequency response analysis. The experiment allows students to carryout time and frequency analysis of the amplifier. The modular can be used to any microelectronic circuits to carry out any time response and frequency response analysis. Both the time response and frequency response analysis results of the amplifier are validated.


Connecting Technology with Student Achievement: The Use of Technology by Blue Ribbon School Principals
Ronald A. Styron, Jr., Jennifer Styron
Pages: 7-12
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions and technology usage of K-12 school principals of Blue Ribbon Schools to identify technological characteristics of successful school leaders. Items on the questionnaire were aligned with the International Society of Technology Education National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for School Administrators. The researchers sent questionnaires to 500 principals throughout the United States with a return rate of nearly 37%. Pearson and Spearman correlations were conducted to determine the level of agreement with NETS-A Standards of Blue Ribbon School Principals and if there was a relationship between use of technology and NETS-A Standards. Independent-sample t-tests were also conducted to determine if the levels of agreement with NETS-A Standards differed by gender. Results of this study indicated that there is evidence to support high levels of agreement of Blue Ribbon School Principals with the NETS-A Standards with females reporting higher levels of agreement then males, and the need for professional development to support technology integration.


Transparent Institutions
Javier Fombona, María C. Alvarez, Joanne Mampaso, Maria Angeles Pascual, Jacinto F. Iribarren, Pablo Pando
Pages: 13-16
ABSTRACT:
The objective of this project is to create sets of media-based imagery that illustrate the internal workings of public institutions to the common citizen. This is an important need in countries that are seeking to open up their public and private institutions and bring them closer to their users. Method: There is a clear need to carry out proposals that tackle organizational lack of transparency; to this end, through an interdisciplinary approach, we propose the creation of a freeaccess Web-based portal that shows the interior of the institutions at hand, learning institutions to start with, this scope will be broadened later to institutions of health and public safety. The project chooses and shows a core selection of features capable of becoming international models for each kind of institutions, elementary schools in this phase. These features are shown in short videos, depicting every core element found: installations, governing bodies, documentation, samples of learning and teaching methodologies in use, etc. Results: the propossed project succeeds in getting institutions closer to their users. It has been developed in Spain, and translated to other Latin-American countries and the United States.


Engineering Computer Games: A Parallel Learning Opportunity for Undergraduate Engineering and Primary (K-5) Students
Mark Michael Budnik, Heather Ann Budnik
Pages: 17-23
ABSTRACT:
In this paper, we present how our College of Engineering is developing a growing portfolio of engineering computer games as a parallel learning opportunity for undergraduate engineering and primary (grade K-5) students. Around the world, many schools provide secondary students (grade 6-12) with opportunities to pursue pre-engineering classes. However, by the time students reach this age, many of them have already determined their educational goals and preferred careers. Our College of Engineering is developing resources to provide primary students, still in their educational formative years, with opportunities to learn more about engineering. One of these resources is a library of engineering games targeted to the primary student population. The games are designed by sophomore students in our College of Engineering. During their Introduction to Computational Techniques course, the students use the LabVIEW environment to develop the games. This software provides a wealth of design resources for the novice programmer; using it to develop the games strengthens the undergraduates


Surveillance-based Mechanisms in MUVEs (MultiUser Virtual Environments) used for Monitoring, Data Gathering and Evaluation of Knowledge Transfer in VirtuReality
Jakub Štogr
Pages: 24-27
ABSTRACT:
Multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) generate a large amount of data but most of them are not accessible even to users who triggered them. What’s more, most datasets are not even stored for further use; they have only temporary character and very short "halftime of decay" limited f.e. to onesecondlong screen display. Such a huge loss of data makes evaluation of knowledge transfer in MUVEs almost impossible. There is a need to both improve monitoring capabilities of MUVEs to be able to make completion assessment and use MUVEs that enable simulation (re)experience using complete datasets gathered from environment itself. Future research in the field of simulation methodology is suggested.


Managing Positive Stress for Change in the Implementation of Technology in Schools
Carol Vanvooren, Douglas Devore, Norma Ambriz-Galaviz
Pages: 28-31
ABSTRACT:
In the Information Age, faculty and staff in large institutions and schools make transformative changes slowly. The implementation of technology as a tool for communication and in classroom integration for instruction is also slow for many educators. However, today there is an urgency to bring the most recent technology systems, applications, and strategies into the educational organization, creating an environment that requires knowledgeable leaders to manage the rapid change. With resistance just a parking lot whisper away, leaders must orchestrate the right amount of stress to create a need in the staff to constantly evolve to a new level of technology implementation. The five positive stress inducing strategies for change, first introduced by DeVore in 1994 [4], have proven to be used by highly effective leaders from elementary schools through college. With leaders trained in these key strategies, the likelihood of faculty and staff commitment to the needed changes in technology integration is greatly increased. Leaders can’t wait for the experienced employee to consider using technology as a tool; even elementary students race past the limited and readily outdated technology skills of most teachers. Leaders must create the positive stressors to initiate change for technology in their organizations now.


Information Technology, Human Resources Management Systems and Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis from Spain
Pilar Ficapal-Cusí, Joan Torrent-Sellens, Pilar Curós-Vilà
Pages: 32-38
ABSTRACT:
This research paper uses survey data on 1.518 Catalan firms (in Spain, with capital in Barcelona) to examine the relationship between IT use, innovative human resources management systems (IHRMS) and firm’s performance. Using factor and cluster analysis, we find that only one-third of Catalan firms use IHRMS. Using association analysis we find that firms that adopt IHMRS are more internationalised; show grater ability to adapt to the change environment, to innovate and to collaborate; focuses product/service differentiation strategy enhancing quality; apply a greater degree of new forms of work organization; use IT more intensively; and invest more in training their employees Using regression analysis, we find that features which are structural, technological, strategic, organisational and result-related explain the adoption of IHRMS.


System for Detecting Kindergartners
Masatoshi Hamanaka, Yuichi Murakami, Dahyun Kim, Yuji Miura, Kazuya Atsuta, Seunghee Lee
Pages: 39-45
ABSTRACT:
This paper describes a system for detecting kindergartners


Making a Difference? Assessment of Information Literacy at Linköping University Library
Christina Brage, Eva Sofia Svensson
Pages: 46-50
ABSTRACT:
Information literacy, the ability to identify, assess, retrieve, evaluate, adapt, organize and communicate information within an iterative context of review and reflection, has been recognized as a critical competency both at universities and in professional work. In higher education information literacy instruction is now being integrated into the academic curriculum and is also now being assessed like other subjects. This paper summarize and discuss how information literacy skills are assessed by librarians and faculty together in two different educational programs at Linköping University and the outcomes of such efforts. The similarities between the two programs, although different approaches, is the importance of tying information literacy assessment methods to leaning outcomes and to prepare students for future professional life.



Reducing the drop-out rate of a technical oriented course by introducing Problem Based Learning – a first concept
Christian Kaufmann, Alexander Mense, Harald Wahl, Robert Pucher
Pages: 51-55
ABSTRACT:
At the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Wien one of the most difficult courses in the Bachelor degree program of Computer Science is “Database Systems and Database Design”. Together with “Advanced Computer Programming”, this course accounts for the high drop-out rate in the degree program. For this reason, this course was chosen for a redesign, in line with the research project QUADRO (Measures to increase quality of teaching and to reduce drop-out rates) promoted by the City of Vienna – MA 27 (EU strategy and promote economic development). As the authors have already gained experience in Problem Based Learning (PBL), they saw an opportunity to improve students’ database knowledge by changing the teaching method to Problem Based Learning (PBL). The proposed paper first explains the current situation, identifies its drawbacks and difficulties. In a second step, it describes the new method, shows the students’ feedback after the first semester and the resulting changes in the concept.


There Is No Knowledge Without Terminology. How Terminological Methods and Tools Can Help to Manage Monolingual and Multilingual Knowledge and Communication
Gabriele Sauberer
Pages: 56-60
ABSTRACT:
The paper presents “10 good reasons for terminology” in any expert field and any language(s) by discussing the areas of application in the public and the private sector as well as in science and education. After a short introduction on the history of terminology, the term “ontology” will be discussed, as one of the key terms in current knowledge engineering and terminology. The paper gives an overview on means and methods of assuring and improving the quality of knowledge generation, communication and management through terminology. Also, it introduces the main standards, players and experts in the terminology community, such as the International Network for Terminology (www.termnet.org).


GeoGebra and eXe Learning: applicability in the teaching of Physics and Mathematics
Eunice Maria Mussoi, Maria Lucia Pozzatti Flores, Ana Marli Bulegon, Liane Margarida Rockenbach Tarouco
Pages: 61-66
ABSTRACT:
Today, education in the field of sciences is still characterized by excessive attention to repetitive exercises at the expense of understanding and visualizing the concepts of mathematical and physical phenomena. This article will show the potential of the software GeoGebra to build content and / or activities in Physics and Mathematics usable in isolation or engaged in other activities, such as eXe Learning. For this we constructed two activities: a mathematical content - Application of successive derivatives, and a content of physics - Application of uniform rectilinear motion. These contents were built in eXe Learning, and the graphics was built in GeoGebra and imported into the eXe by Java Applet. The content was done with the exported SCORM to Moodle, it is within this framework that the student will study the movement and display of graphic content.


The Object of Learning - Before, During and After a Learning Situation
Mona Holmqvist, Charlotte Tullgren, Göran Brante
Pages: 67-73
ABSTRACT:
The aim of this study is to describe in what ways the object of learning changes shape during its way from the intended (planned), enacted (offered) and lived (discerned) object of learning. The study is based on variation theory, and learning study is used as a model. A total of three preschool teachers, 39 children aged 4-5 years and three researchers participated in the study. Three interventions were carried out in three different groups of children (A, B and C) by three preschool teachers. The data consist of videodocumented meetings with the preschool teachers and researchers, interviews with the children in the form of pre-, post- and delayed post-tests and video-documented interventions (3). The results show (a) how the teachers


Online Access Patterns and Students' Performance
Nasir Butrous
Pages: 74-78
ABSTRACT:
The paper follows accessing patterns of five cohorts of postgraduate students enrolled in a core unit within a master of business administration (MBA) program. The unit is designed to provide numerous opportunities for student participation in Discussion Boards using Blackboard technology. Discussion Boards create numerous opportunities for interaction amongst online learners to share and exchange their experiences, creating a sense of a virtual community. Relationships between accessing patterns for each week of the semester for each student are explored in relation to their performance using course statistics generated by the Blackboard technology. Close examination of the significant differences in access patterns to the course window and its components of communication, content, and student areas reveal middle of the semester (week 7) as the common critical point that differentiates high achieving students from low achieving students. Identifying critical points provides the faculty staff member an opportunity to introduce intervention strategies in order to improve the learning experience of all the students.


SECOND-ORDER CYBERNETICS, SEMIOTICS AND THE ART
Niculae V. Mihaita
Pages: 79-83
ABSTRACT:
We take into consideration the concept of second order cybernetics and Pierce‘s approach of semiotics fundamentals. I am also an observer, experimenter and mental interpreter of metasigns given to the audience by Eugene Ionesco‘s absurd theatre. The interpreting of signs meaning is determinate by the context. From Semiotics ‗point of view, the objects I‘m studying (The Love Poem Lucifer or Evening Star, the short play Foursome and the most known, The Chairs) gives me a lot of information about differences or NOT between actors, positive and negative interactions and become knowledge when I see them as signs. Second order cybernetics brings to the semiotics the idea of closure of structural coupling, interpretation and language [Soren, Cybersemiotics, 2008]. Them, the objects chosen are, for EXPERIMENTER, the YOYO in figure 1, and signifies the OBJECT of recursion. Boje [Boje, David, 2005] redefines antenarrative communication more holistically as an enactive phenomenon, and makes connections between varieties of disciplines in order to find out how antenarratives help us understand communication in the world. Instead of the finite event of producing an artifact, betting is a process and an end in itself, through which the practitioners might gain self-awareness. By synthesizing enactive-thinking in virtual space and the practice of communicating we appeal for valuable insights into the creative mind, challenging scholars and practitioners alike. Drawing contributions as above ideograms are useful for practicing cyberneticians, statisticians, researchers and academics, Informational Statistics applications [Mihaita, 2010] explores the ways in which liberal arts writers seek to involve, create and engage with new and diverse audiences from beginners encountering and participating in the work unexpectedly, to professionals from other disciplines and members of particular communities. Taking into consideration the Second-order Cybernetics‘s paradigm, any playwriter or painter is an autopoietic system (auto=self, poietic = creation). He is an Observer of his environment, in my case study he could be Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett or Manet in real Crises situations. As Experimenter he is writing short plays as Foursome or plays as Chairs or Waiting for Godot or paint many times the nearly the same Manet‘s Execution of Maximilian. As Interpretants of the above works they give answers to questions and sometimes surprise with them. Could be something hidden behind what we see, hear or read? Could be some coding and quantitative methods and measurements reveal something new or an palimpsest as a negative reflection (Chairs versus Foursome) of Eugène Ionesco‘s Absurd Theatre?


Unpacking New Media Literacy
Der-Thanq “victor” Chen, Jing Wu, Yu-Mei Wang
Pages: 84-88
ABSTRACT:
The 21st century has marked an unprecedented advancement of new media. New media has become so pervasive that it has penetrated into every aspect of our society. New media literacy plays an essential role for any citizen to participate fully in the 21st century society. Researchers have documented that literacy has evolved historically from classic literacy (reading-writing-understanding) to audiovisual literacy to digital literacy or information literacy and recently to new media literacy. A review of literature on media literacy reveals that there is a lack of thorough analysis of unique characteristics of new media and its impacts upon the notion of new media literacy. The purpose of the study is to unpack new media literacy and propose a framework for a systematic investigation of new media literacy.


A Hybrid Model for Making Online Assignments Effective In a Traditional Classroom
Ronda Sturgill
Pages: 89-91
ABSTRACT:
Today’s college student has grown up in a world filled with technology and many current college students routinely utilize the latest and most up to date forms of technology. The result is an ever-changing way of communicating between faculty members and students. Many faculty members, however, are intimidated by the use of the terms “technology”, “online” and “distance education.” This often results in a communication gap between faculty and students where faculty members will “lose” students on the first day of class. Advantages of incorporating online tools into the course structure include freeing up additional class time, enhancing classroom discussions, and allowing students to remain current with information in their field. This hybrid instructional model focuses on the integration of technology tools as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching. This paper will describe how to effectively incorporate and implement technology using online course tools in a traditional classroom setting. Specific examples of online assignments, discussions, and assessments from an allied health education program and class will be discussed. Lessons learned and challenges confronted when adapting to the utilization of specific online course assignments and tools will be discussed.