The "quantum efficiency" (QE) is an important property of a light detector. This quantity can be determined in the undergraduate physics laboratory. The experimentally determined QE of a silicon photodiode appeared to be in reasonable agreement with expected values. The experiment confirms the quantum properties of light and seems to be a useful…

The aim of this paper and the one which follows is to explore how the potential of computer games may be taken up in schools to support learning engagement among students. It is not the intention of the papers to dismiss existing classroom practices or overlook accounts of innovative practices in schools; the papers' aim is to provide educators…

For decades, training has been one of the most common interventions used by organizations to improve the performance of their employees and teach them new ideas and skills. But owing to the cost of developing and delivering training, organizations have adopted alternative ways to enable employee performance while reducing the cost and minimizing…

Web-based sites such as WebCT/Blackboard are useful for faculty and generally appreciated by students. This article describes the results in a hybrid course of the addition of specialized Web-based software. The intent was to enhance student skills in analysis and critique. Highly structured assignments were graded with Waypoint software,…

Two experimental studies test the effect of group mirrors upon quantitative and qualitative aspects of participation in collaborative problem solving. Mirroring tools consist of a graphical representation of the group's actions which is dynamically updated and displayed to the collaborators. In addition, metacognitive tools display a standard for…

Using the film "Journey to the Centre of a Triangle" with a group of 15-year-old pupils, the author describes how they had done some work on constructions such as angle bisector and perpendicular bisector. The pupils were given A3 papers, rulers, compasses and pencils and they were asked to recreate their favourite scence from the film. The film…

This paper contributes significant data to the report of the project Observation and the implementation of free software in ICT schools in Andalusia. The researchers' main goal is to analyse its effects in the teaching-learning process. This project is backed and financed by the National Research Plan (R&D&I) 2004-2007 of Spain's Ministry…

This deliverable reports the technical and research development performed until M36 (January 2009) within tasks T5.2 and T5.4 of WP5 in the KP-Lab project, per the latest Description of Work (DoW) 3.2 [DoW3.2]. The described components are included in the KP-Lab Semantic Web Knowledge Middleware (SWKM) Prototype Release 3.0 software that takes…

How do you dynamically customize the programming language available in a context within an existing system, without changing the underlying system? This dissertation introduces a language design approach that addresses this problem. The basic idea is to structure programs as systems of multiple interacting levels of abstraction, where all of the…

A real-time interactive distance lecture is a joint work that should be accomplished by the effort of the lecturer and his students in remote sites. It is important for the lecturer to get understanding information from the students which cannot be efficiently collected by only using video/audio channels between the lecturer and the students. This…

This article explores the emergence of multimodality as intrinsic to the learning, teaching and assessment of English in the Twenty-First Century. With subject traditions tied to the study of language, literature and media, multimodal texts and new technologies are now accorded overdue recognition in English curriculum documents in several…

In almost all the civil engineering programs in the United States, a student is required to take at least one design course in either steel or reinforced concrete. One of the topics covered in an introductory steel design course is the design of connections. Steel connections play important roles in the integrity of a structure, and many…

This paper explores pre-service teachers' perceptions of subject knowledge as they learn to teach during a one-year postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) programme in England. The article examines the impact of pre-service teachers' previous experiences and individual subject knowledge profiles on their development during their PGCE course.…

A number of educational researchers have developed pedagogical approaches that involve the teacher in discovering and helping to correct misconceptions that students bring to their study of their subject matter. During the last decade, several computer systems have been developed to support teaching and learning using this kind of approach. A…

This article describes how a diverse, interdisciplinary team of faculty formed a topic-based faculty learning community. Following an introduction to faculty learning communities and a brief discussion of their benefit to faculty engaged in the process of adopting new technology, we explain how our team, through a competitive mini-grant…