Abstract: The introduction of haptic elements in a graphic user interfaces are becoming more widespread. Since haptics are being introduced rapidly into computational tools, investigating how these models affect Human-Computer Interaction would help define how to integrate and model new modes of interaction. The interest of this paper is to discuss and investigate the issues surrounding Haptic and Graphic User Interface designs (GUI) as separate systems, as well as understand how these work in tandem. The development of these systems is explored from a psychological perspective, based on how usability is addressed through learning and affordances, defined by J.J. Gibson. Haptic design can be a powerful tool, aiding in intuitive learning. The problems discussed within the text is how can haptic interfaces be integrated within a GUI without the sense of frivolity. Juxtaposing haptics and Graphic user interfaces has issues of motivation; GUI tends to have a performatory process, while Haptic Interfaces use affordances to learn tool use. In a deeper view, it is noted that two modes of perception, foveal and ambient, dictate perception. These two modes were once thought to work in tandem, however it has been discovered that these processes work independently from each other. Foveal modes interpret orientation is space which provide for posture, locomotion, and motor skills with variations of the sensory information, which instructs perceptions of object-task performance. It is contended, here, that object-task performance is a key element in the use of Haptic Interfaces because exploratory learning uses affordances in order to use an object, without meditating an experience cognitively. It is a direct experience that, through iteration, can lead to skill-sets. It is also indicated that object-task performance will not work as efficiently without the use of exploratory or kinesthetic learning practices. Therefore, object-task performance is not as congruently explored in GUI than it is practiced in Haptic interfaces.
Abstract: Implementing Information Technology/ Information
System (IT/IS) is critical for every industry as its potential benefits
have been to motivate many industries including the Malaysian
construction industry to invest in it. To successfully implement IT/IS
has become the major concern for every organisation. Identifying the
critical success factors (CSFs) has become the main agenda for
researchers, academicians and practitioners due to the wide number
of failures reported. This research paper seeks to identify the CSFs
that influence the successful implementation of IT/IS in construction
industry in Malaysia. Limited factors relating to people issue will be
highlighted here to showcase some as it becomes one of the major
contributing factors to the failure. Three (3) organisations have
participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews are employed as
they offer sufficient flexibility to ensure that all relevant factors are
covered. Several key issues contributing to successful
implementations of IT/IS are identified. The results of this study
reveal that top management support, communication, user
involvement, IT staff roles and responsibility, training/skills, leader/
IT Leader, organisation culture, knowledge/ experience, motivation,
awareness, focus and ambition, satisfaction, teamwork/ collaboration,
willingness to change, attitude, commitment, management style,
interest in IT, employee behaviour towards collaborative
environment, trust, interpersonal relationship, personal characteristic
and competencies are significantly associated with the successful
implementations of IT/IS. It is anticipated that this study will create
awareness and contribute to a better understanding amongst
construction industry players and will assist them to successfully
implement IT/IS.
Abstract: This paper explores the use of project work in a
content-based instruction in a Rajabhat University, a teacher college,
where student teachers are instructed to perform teaching roles
mainly in basic education level. Its aim is to link theory to practice,
and to help language teachers maximize the full potential of project
work for genuine communication and give real meaning to writing
activity. Two research questions are formulated to guide this study:
a) What is the academic achievement of the students- writing skill
against the 70% attainment target after the use of project to enhance
the skill? and b) To what degree is the development of the students-
writing skills during the course of project to enhance the skill? The
sample of the study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major
students. The data was collected by means of achievement test,
student writing works, and project diary. The scores in the summative
achievement test were analyzed by mean score, standard deviation,
and t-test. Project diary serves as students- record of the language
acquired during the project. List of structures and vocabulary noted in
the diary has shown students- ability to attend to, recognize, and
focus on meaningful patterns of language forms.
Abstract: The paper presents the service learning project titled
DicDucFac (idea-leadership-product), that was planned and
conducted by the team of information sciences students. It was
planned as a workshop dealing with the application of modern social
media (Facebook, YouTube, Gmail) for the purposes of selfpromotion,
free advertising via social networks and marketing own
ideas and/or products in the virtual world. The workshop was
organized for highly-skilled computer literate unemployed youth.
These youth, as final beneficiaries, will be able to apply what they
learned in this workshop to “the real world“, increasing their chances
for employment and self-employment. The results of the project
reveal that the basic, active-learning principles embodied in our
teaching approach allow students to learn more effectively and gain
essential life skills (from computer applications to teamwork) that
can only be learned by doing. It also shows that our students received
the essentials of professional ethics and citizenship through direct,
personal engagement in professional activities and the life of the
community.
Abstract: Pharmacology curriculum plays an integral role in
medical education. Learning pharmacology to choose and prescribe
drugs is a major challenge encountered by students. We developed
pharmacology applied learning activities for first year medical
students that included realistic clinical situations with escalating
complications which required the students to analyze the situation
and think critically to choose a safe drug. Tutor feedback was
provided at the end of session. Evaluation was done to assess the
students- level of interest and usefulness of the sessions in rational
selection of drugs. Majority (98 %) of the students agreed that the
session was an extremely useful learning exercise and agreed that
similar sessions would help in rational selection of drugs. Applied
learning sessions in the early years of medical program may promote
deep learning and bridge the gap between pharmacology theory and
clinical practice. Besides, it may also enhance safe prescribing skills.
Abstract: Chess is one of the indoor games, which improves the
level of human confidence, concentration, planning skills and
knowledge. The main objective of this paper is to help the chess
players to improve their chess openings using data mining
techniques. Budding Chess Players usually do practices by analyzing
various existing openings. When they analyze and correlate
thousands of openings it becomes tedious and complex for them. The
work done in this paper is to analyze the best lines of Blackmar-
Diemer Gambit(BDG) which opens with White D4... using data
mining analysis. It is carried out on the collection of winning games
by applying association rules. The first step of this analysis is
assigning variables to each different sequence moves. In the second
step, the sequence association rules were generated to calculate
support and confidence factor which help us to find the best
subsequence chess moves that may lead to winning position.
Abstract: This research sought to discover the forms of
promotion and dissemination of traditional local wisdom that are
used to create occupations among the elderly at Noanmueng
Community, Muang Sub-District, Baan Doong District, Udornthani
Province. The criteria used to select the research sample group were:
having a role involved in the promotion and dissemination of
traditional local wisdom to create occupations among the elderly;
being an experienced person who the residents of Noanmueng
Community find trustworthy; and having lived in Noanmueng
Community for a long time so as to be able to see the development
and change that occurs. A total of 16 persons were thus selected. Data
was gathered through a qualitative study, using semi-structured indepth
interviews. The collected data was then summarized and
discussed according to the research objectives. Finally, the data was
presented in narrative format. Results found that the identifying
traditional local wisdom of the community (which grew from the
residents’ experience and beneficial usage in daily life, passed down
from generation to generation) was the weaving of cloth and
basketry. As for the manner of promotion and dissemination of
traditional local wisdom, these skills were passed down through
teaching by example to family members, relatives and others in the
community. This was largely the initiative of the elders or elderly
members of the community. In order for the promotion and
dissemination of traditional local wisdom to create occupations
among the elderly, the traditional local wisdom should be supported
in every way through participation of the community members. For
example, establish a museum of traditional local wisdom for the
collection of traditional local wisdom in various fields, both from the
past and present innovations. This would be a source of pride for the
community, simultaneously helping traditional local wisdom to
become widely known and to create income for the community’s
elderly. Additional ways include organizing exhibitions of products
made by traditional local wisdom, finding both domestic and
international markets, as well as building both domestic and
international networks aiming to find opportunities to market
products made by traditional local wisdom.
Abstract: Weblog is an Internet tool that is believed to possess
great potential to facilitate learning in education. This study wants to
know if weblog can be used to promote students- critical thinking. It
used a group of secondary two students from a Singapore school to
write weblogs as a means of substitution for their traditional
handwritten assignments. The topics for the weblogging are taken
from History syllabus but modified to suit the purpose of this study.
Weblogs from the students were collected and analysed using a
known coding system for measuring critical thinking. Results show
that the topic for blogging is crucial in determining the types of
critical thinking employed by the students. Students are seen to
display critical thinking traits in the areas of information sourcing,
linking information to arguments and viewpoints justification.
Students- criticalness is more profound when the information for
writing a topic is readily available. Otherwise, they tend to be less
critical and subjective. The study also found that students lack the
ability to source for external information suggesting that students
may need to be taught information literacy in order to widen their use
of critical thinking skills.
Abstract: The counting and analysis of blood cells allows the
evaluation and diagnosis of a vast number of diseases. In particular,
the analysis of white blood cells (WBCs) is a topic of great interest to
hematologists. Nowadays the morphological analysis of blood cells is
performed manually by skilled operators. This involves numerous
drawbacks, such as slowness of the analysis and a nonstandard
accuracy, dependent on the operator skills. In literature there are only
few examples of automated systems in order to analyze the white
blood cells, most of which only partial. This paper presents a
complete and fully automatic method for white blood cells
identification from microscopic images. The proposed method firstly
individuates white blood cells from which, subsequently, nucleus and
cytoplasm are extracted. The whole work has been developed using
MATLAB environment, in particular the Image Processing Toolbox.
Abstract: The development of competences and practical
capacities of students is getting an important incidence into the
guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The
methodology applied in this work is based on the education through
directed resolution of practical cases. All cases are related to
professional tasks that the students will have to develop in their
future career. The method is intended to form the necessary
competences of students of the Marine Engineering and Maritime
Transport Degree in the matter of “Physics".
The experience was applied in the course of 2011/2012. Students
were grouped, and a practical task was assigned to them, that should
be developed and solved within the team. The aim was to realize
students learning by three ways: their own knowledge, the
contribution of their teammates and the teacher's direction. The
results of the evaluation were compared with those obtained
previously by the traditional teaching method.
Abstract: The complexity of teaching English in higher
institutions by non-native speakers within a second/foreign language
setting has created continuous discussions and research about
teaching approaches and teaching practises, professional identities
and challenges. In addition, there is a growing awareness that
teaching English within discipline-specific contexts adds up to the
existing complexity. This awareness leads to reassessments,
discussions and suggestions on course design and content and
teaching approaches and techniques. In meeting expectations
teaching at a university specified in a particular discipline such as
engineering, English language educators are not only required to
teach students to be able to communicate in English effectively but
also to teach soft skills such as problem solving skills. This paper is
part of a research conducted to investigate how English language
educators negotiate with the complexities of teaching problem
solving skills through English language teaching at a technical
university. This paper reports the way an English language educator
identified himself and the way he approached his teaching in this
institutional context.