Analyzing false memories in children with associative lists specific for their age

Two experiments attempted to resolve previous contradictory findings concerning developmental trends in false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm by using an improved methodology--constructing age-appropriate associative lists. The research also extended the DRM paradigm to preschoolers. Experiment 1 (N=320) included children in three age groups (preschoolers of 3-4 years, second-graders of 7-8 years, and preadolescents of 11-12 years) and adults, and Experiment 2 (N=64) examined preschoolers and preadolescents. Age-appropriate lists increased false recall. Although preschoolers had fewer false memories than the other age groups, they showed considerable levels of false recall when tested with age-appropriate materials. Results were discussed in terms of fuzzy-trace, source-monitoring, and activation frameworks.     

Learner Autonomy and ICT: A Web-based Course of English for Psychology

The purpose of this paper is to show how the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a tool may change not only the contents, but also the teaching procedures and the scope of the material covered, as well as its relevance for the students of a discipline which is no exclusively focused on English. In class we use the WWW as a source of authentic material for the study of English in the field of psychology. The students have access to current on-line material, and they can work with such diverse web sites as departments of psychology web sites, on-line atlases of the brain, resource web sites, career orientation and professional information web sites, etc. By so doing, the students become proficient in English and become also acquainted with vocabulary related to their main discipline, i.e. psychology. The result is a more dynamic approach to teaching English, so that the students gain autonomy, with the instructor acting only as co-ordinator, supervisor and tutor.

L'autonomie de l'enseigné et les ICT: un cours Web en Anglais sur la psychologie

Le but de cet article est de montrer comment l'utilisation du Web comme outil peut changer non seulement les contenus, mais aussi les procédures d'enseignement et l'importance des documents convus aussi bien que son adaptation pour les étudiants d'une discipline qui n'est pas centrée exclusivement sur l'Anglais. En classe, nous utilisons le Web comme source des documents authentiques pour l'étude de l'Anglais dans le domaine de a psychologie. Les étudiants ont accès aux documents en ligne et ils peuvent travailler avec des sites web divers comme ceux des départements de psychologie des atlas en ligne du cerveaux, des sites de ressources, des sites d'orientation des carrières et d'information professionnelle, etc. Ce faisant, les étudiants deviennent compétant en Anglais et s'habitent au vocabulaire de leur discipline principale, la psychologie. Le résultat est une approche plus dynamique de l'enseignement de l'Anglais de sorte que les étudiants acquièrent une autonomie, l'instructeur agissant seulement comme coordinateur, superviseur et tuteur.

Lerner-Autonomie und IKT: Ein webbasierter Englischkurs für Psychologie

Dieses Papier soll zeigen, wie durch die Nutzung des World Wide Web als Tool u.U. nicht nur der Inhalt sondern auch Unterrichtsschritte und das benutzte Lernmaterial sich ändern kann, wie auch seine Bedeutung für Studenten einer Disziplin, die keineswegs auf Englisch ausgerichtet ist. Im Unterricht benutzen wir das WWW als Quelle für authentisches Material für das Studium von Englisch im Bereich der Psychologie. Die Studenten haben Zugang zu aktuellem Online-Material und können mit diversen Websites von Psychologie Departments, Online-Atlanten des Gehirns, Quellen- und Hilfsmittel-Websites, Berufswahl- und Berufsinformations-Websites usw. Dadurch werden die Studenten erfahrener im Gebrauch des Englischen und erhalten dabei gleichzeitig Vertrautheit mit den Fachbegriffen ihres Studienfachs, z.B. Psychologie. Als Resultat profitiert auch der Englisch- Unterricht , so daß die Studenten selbständiger werden und der Unterrichtende mehr als Koordinator, Superviser und Tutor tätig werden kann.     

A conceptual approach to secure electronic elections based on patterns

Electoral processes are complex and need to be secure, reliable, and auditable. It is then important to define ways to evaluate their functional completeness and correction as well as their security and reliability. Many solutions to specific aspects of voting have been proposed but we do not know of any holistic view of this process. We present a unified approach to elections based on a conceptual model built using software patterns. A set of analysis patterns describe the structure and management of an election. The patterns describe voter registration, ballot structure, election day management, voting process, and the complete election. A conceptual model is built from the analysis patterns and defines precisely the functional properties of such a system together with its security requirements. The conceptual model is defined using UML diagrams that can be extended or complemented with formal methods to make the system verifiable. We show how to continue to the design phase for this system. While the model will not apply exactly to all elections it can be used as a reference architecture for voting applications and to show explicitly the security considerations for these kind of events. It can also be used for existing elections to verify that they have the required security provisions. The model can also be used as a reference for researchers to integrate their solutions in the complete process.     

Teaching Thermodynamics to Physics Students using the Keller Plan

Summaries

English

An experimental Keller Plan programme for teaching thermodynamics to second‐year students at a Spanish university, is described. The evaluation of the programme, made in comparison with conventionally taught students, showed Keller Plan teaching to result in an improvement of students’ study habits and a more positive attitude towards examinations and tests. On the negative side, however, students following the Keller Plan programme performed less well in actual calculations and problem‐solving than their counterparts. A modified Keller Plan scheme has recently been adopted.     

The changing discourse on race in contemporary Cuba

During the last decade, the positivist perspective of social reality has lost credibility in education and other fields, giving way to a wide range of alternative conceptions of social science. This proliferation is welcome but confusing. This paper examines several intellectual traditions within the “post‐positivist camp” and identifies a number of approaches to decoding social reality as guidelines for field‐based research.     

The impact of national culture on e‐learning implementation: a comparative study of an Argentinean and a Swedish university

This paper analyses and suggests possible technological innovation strategies in higher educational institutions in Africa. The paper describes management issues in the implementation of eLearning with particular reference to its usage in higher education abroad and in Africa, and also suggests appropriate approaches for technological innovation of higher education in Africa. The major findings of the paper, which are based on three case studies, suggest that eLearning needs to be implemented within a strategically developed framework based on a clear and unified vision and a central educational rationale. The findings further highlight the importance of using a combination of strategies – top–down, bottom–up and inside–out – during the diffusion process to attain coherence, collegiality and ownership. The process of technological transformation is not a smooth translation process but one of dislocations, dilemmas and uncertainties and it is an art to effect change and sustainable technological transformation since people are central to this transformation process.

L'innovation technologique et les stratégies de management pour l'enseignement supérieur en Afrique: L'Harmonisation du réalisme et du l'idéalisme

Cet article analyse et suggére des stratégies d'innovation dans des établissements d'enseignement supérieur en Afrique. Il décrit les problèmes de management qui pose l'introduction du e‐Learning avec une référence particulière pour son usage dans l'enseignement supérieur à l'étranger et en Afrique et suggére les approches appropriées pour l'innovation technologique dans l'enseignement supérieur en Afrique. Les résultats principaux exposés dans cet article qui sont fondés sur trois études de cas suggérent que le e‐Learning doit être introduit dans un cadre stratégique fondé sur une vision clariment unifiée et une rationalisation centrale de l'éducation. De plus ces résultats mettent en évidence l'importance de l'utilisation combinée de plusieurs stratégies : stratégies autant en bas, de bas en haut, d'intérieur et d'extérieur pendant le processus de diffusion afin d'aboutir à la cohérence, la collégialité et la possession. Le processus de transformation technologique n'est pas un processus de translation sans à compris mais un de dislocation, de dilemmes, d'incertitudes et c'est un art de procéder au changement et à une transformation technologique soutenue puisque les hommes sont au c?ur de ce processus de transformation.

Technologische Innovations‐ und Umsetzungsstrategien für höhere Bildung in Afrika: Realität und Idealismus aufeinander abstimmen

Dieser Beitrag analysiert technologische Innovationstrategien und stellt Vorschläge für deren Einführung in höhereren Bildungsinstitutionen in Afrika zur Diskussion. Das Papier beschreibt Managementangelegenheiten bei der Umsetzung von eLearning unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Anwendung in der höheren Bildung im Ausland und in Afrika und schlägt auch entsprechende Ansätze für die technologische Innovation im Bereich der höheren Bildung in Afrika vor. Das wesentliche Ergebmiss dieser Arbeit, die auf drei Fallstudien beruht, ist, dass eLearning innerhalb eines strategisch entwickelten Rahmens, basierend auf einer klaren und einheitlichen Sichtweise und einer zentralen bildungslogischen Grundlage eingeführt werden muß. Die Befunde heben weiter die Wichtigkeit hervor, eine Kombination von Strategien zu verwenden: Top‐Down, Bottom‐Up und Inside‐Out Strategien während des Ausbreitungsprozesses, um Kohärenz, Kollegialität und Eigentumsrechte zu erlangen. Der Prozeß technologischer Transformation ist nicht etwa eine sanfte Überleitung, sondern von Verfremdung, Dilemmata und Unsicherheit begleitet. Es ist eine Kunst, Änderung und nachhaltige technologische Transformation zu bewirken, da ja die Menschen das zentrale Element dieses Transformation-sprozesses sind.     

Production and consumption of university Linked Data

Linked Data increases the value of an organisation's data over the web by introducing explicit and machine processable links at the data level. We have adopted this new stream of data representation to produce and expose existing data within The Open University (OU) as Linked Data. We present in this paper our approach for producing the data, based on well-defined workflows at the organisation as well as the technical levels. We also discuss the data already available to consume, and show the potential improvements that Linked Data brings by presenting three applications: (1) the OU Expert Search system for finding experts at the OU based on a specified topic of interest, (2) the Social Study application to identify potential courses for students based on their Facebook profile information, and (3) the Linked OpenLearn application that helps students identify related media and courses to OpenLearn units at the OU. Before concluding the paper, we show the potential benefits and an approach towards interlinking data beyond The Open University with other universities, using a common categorisation scheme.