The Use of Internet,Quasi-multimedial and Multimedial Educational Systems at the Technical University KoŠice

Electronic mail entered the Technical University Ko?ice in 1990. Now, instead of the few tens of users at the beginning, the system hosts thousands of them. Interactive teaching programmes as well as teaching programmes that are supported by audio and visual channels have also been used since 1990. The paper presents a short account of past development, the present situation and perspectives within the area of Internet use and of tuition that employs multimedia related means of teaching.     

Kindergarten teachers develop phoneme awareness in low-income,inner-city classrooms

Recent evidence suggests that training in phoneme awareness has a positive impact on beginning reading and spelling. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of instruction in phonological awareness provided in low-income, inner-city kindergarten classrooms by kindergarten teachers and their teaching assistants. Prior to the intervention, the 84 treatment children and 75 control children, who attended inner-city schools in an urban district in upstate New York, did not differ on age, sex, race, SES, PPVT-R score, phoneme segmentation, letter name knowledge, letter sound knowledge, or reading. After the 11 week intervention, the treatment children significantly outperformed the control children on measures of phoneme segmentation, letter name and letter sound knowledge, two of three reading measures, and a measure of invented spelling. Implications for improving beginning reading instruction are discussed.     

Schoolhouse in the Field: How Agrarian Cultural Values Shaped Texas Schools for Mexican Children, 1910-1930

This paper discusses the influence of agrarian cultural values on schools for children of Mexican heritage in Texas from 1910-1930. Both White landowners and Mexican laborers displayed values connected to the farming lifestyle in regards to children and education during this period. These shared agrarian values were bolstered by White racist behavior to keep education for Mexican children at a minimum. The weak educational system these values created has fostered continued low academic achievement for Mexican Americans during the past 80 years. Beliefs held by both Whites and Mexicans about children's work in the fields and the necessity of education are discussed. Other characteristics of both Whites and Mexicans in Texas are described. School facilities, teachers, curriculum, funding, compulsory attendance, and the typical attendance and achievement for children of Mexican heritage are explained. The challenge to the old system by Mexican Americans is also noted. The purpose of the rudimentary schools created in Texas and the implications for today concludes the discussion.     

Embedding Guides Where Students Learn: Do Design Choices and Librarian Behavior Make a Difference?

This study investigated whether library guides embedded in a university's learning management system fulfill their mission to promote library resources and maintain a librarian presence in the online course environment. Specifically, the study examined whether design elements, promotional practices, or other behaviors influenced guide use. It questioned whether students located the library guides and, if so, did students find the guides helpful. Results confirmed that students who used library guides found the guides helpful. Select faculty and librarian behaviors may also influence student use of library guides. Promotion and marketing practices, however, are not the only factors encouraging students to use library guides.     

Highly selective biomechanical separation of cancer cells from leukocytes using microfluidic ratchets and hydrodynamic concentrator

The separation of cells based on their biomechanical properties, such as size and deformability, is important in applications such as the identification of circulating tumor cells, where morphological differences can be used to distinguish target cancer cells from contaminant leukocytes. Existing filtration-based separation processes are limited in their selectivity and their ability to extract the separated cells because of clogging in the filter microstructures. We present a cell separation device consisting of a hydrodynamic concentrator and a microfluidic ratchet mechanism operating in tandem. The hydrodynamic concentrator removes the majority of the fluid and a fraction of leukocytes based on size, while the microfluidic ratchet mechanism separates cancer cells from leukocytes based on a combination of size and deformability. The irreversible ratcheting process enables highly selective separation and robust extraction of separated cells. Using cancer cells spiked into leukocyte suspensions, the complete system demonstrated a yield of 97%, while enriching the concentration of target cancer cells 3000 fold relative to the concentration of leukocytes.     

Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Students' Prior Sexual Abuse Victimization

This paper reports findings of an exploratory study surveying 61 students about their prior child sexual abuse victimization. Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students were surveyed at the beginning and end of a child abuse course and results indicated that 19.7 % of the students reported being sexually abused during childhood. Results also indicated that taking a child abuse course may increase BSW students' self‐awareness regarding prior victimization. The paper discusses how prior child sexual abuse victimization can affect social work students, education, and practice.     

A biological basis for generative learning in technology-and-science Part II: Implications for technology-and-science education

Young pupils’ reactions to electricity are likely to have been formed more through social than school channels. In most cases these backgrounds will be approximately the same throughout the age‐group, although personal reflection and disposition will then be likely to diversify individual responses. This paper looks particularly to the differences produced and tries to identify influences which might be due to parental license, to age‐related factors, to cognitive growth, and verbal development. The paper concludes with some speculation on the interaction between these social and cognitive factors using new and broader categories of intelligence and work on the social development of children.