We explore in this study how infants may derive phonetic categories from adult input that are highly variable. Neural networks in the form of self-organizing maps (SOMs; Kohonen, 1989, 1995) were used to simulate unsupervised learning of Mandarin tones. In Simulation 1, we trained the SOMs with syllable-sized continuous F[subscript 0] contours,…

Public health relies on well trained nurses and clinical experience is an important component of that training. However, clinical experience training for student nurses also has significant challenges, as it can place patients at risk. Also it is difficult to schedule/predict patient conditions and procedures. Human patient simulation (HPS) can…

The annual "Horizon Report" describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, a qualitative research project established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years. The…

In an online class, it's not unusual to never see a teacher or classmates face-to-face. It's not unusual to interact with an instructor and classmates through discussion boards or e-mail and to get information through online documents and presentations rather than live lectures. In the spring of 2009 students in the online class "Warcraft:…

This article proposes a VHDL language course that establishes a strong correlation between the language statements and their use in circuit synthesis. Two course modules are described: a basic module that contains the essential concepts of the language, sufficient for students to describe medium complexity circuits, followed by a second module…

This work describes a new "Moodle" module developed to give support to the practical content of a basic computer organization course. This module goes beyond the mere hosting of resources and assignments. It makes use of an automatic checking and verification engine that works on the VHDL designs submitted by the students. The module automatically…

An Educational Testing Service (ETS) procedure was evaluated, which is based on item response theory and estimates true scores on tests not taken. The reading, vocabulary, and mathematics tests of high school seniors from the National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of 1972 and the High School and Beyond (HSB) seniors of 1980 and 1982 were found to share…

Describes the hardware and software, typical application, future use, and initial results of an evaluation of a program which enables future teachers to practice their teaching skills on microcomputer-simulated students. These "students" are programed with such characteristics as enthusiasm and prior knowledge and are able to interact.…

Discusses the need for educational change and ways to achieve it. Topics include problems with testing, the importance of learning by doing, the lack of Internet's educational value, and the possibilities of using computer software to create real-life simulations for students to learn by doing and to design new curricula. (LRW)

Suggests that the most effective way to motivate student enthusiasm and interest in the social studies classroom is through the use of educational simulations. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of simulations, and presents three of the most effective commercial simulations available today. (DB)

School to Career is part of a national initiative to help students make connections between the content, skills, and concepts they are learning in the classroom and careers in the real world. School-to-career practices add relevance to the elementary school curriculum and promote engagement in learning. A key feature of many school-to-career…

This paper proposes extensive applications of virtual collaborative space in order to enhance the efficiency and capability of Digital Campus. The usability of Digital Campus has been experimented in different learning environments and evaluated by questionnaire as that the presence technology and a sense of solidarity influence the participants'…

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability (effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction) of e-feedback interfaces. The experiment compares a traditional visual approach with a multimodal approach in order to determine the impact of multimodal metaphors upon the user's understanding, reasoning and engagement with the…

One major challenge in using group projects to assess student learning is accounting for the differences of contribution among group members so that the mark assigned to each individual actually reflects their performance. This research addresses the validity of grading group projects by evaluating different methods that derive individualized…