Multimedia tools for use in materials handling classes

Materials handling is a vital function in a manufacturing or distribution system. Efficient handling of material allows such systems to operate at high levels of productivity. US companies invest over US$60 billion annually in materials handling technology. It is therefore extremely important for universities to prepare materials handling engineers who understand the principles of materials handling, as well as the design, implementation, operation and control of materials handling systems so that they can ensure the cost-effectiveness of this investment. This paper pertains to development of an interactive, multimedia-based system for use in materials handling classes. Modules in the system introduce students to: the 10 principles of materials handling; and two major equipment categories—conveyors and automated storage and retrieval systems. They illustrate industrial applications of material handling equipment and teach the problem-solving process through a case study and an extensive series of models, algorithms, problems and solutions. The modules have been formally evaluated and results are summarized. They are being distributed at a nominal cost to US and international universities. The module described in this paper on the ‘10 principles of materials handling’ was selected as a finalist for the 2002 PREMIER Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware.     

Knowledge of the alphabet and explicit awareness of phonemes in pre-readers: The nature of the relationship

This study was carried out to examine the extent to which preschool children are aware of the phonemic structure of the spoken word and to investigate how they acquire that knowledge. The four year old non-readers carried out a battery of takss designed to assess product name reading ability, knowledge of the alphabet, rhyme skills and explicit phonemic awareness ability. There was evidence that they generally acquired knowledge of the alphabet before they showed explicit phonemic awareness ability. Fixed order regression analyses showed that ability to read and write the alphabet generally accounted for unique variance in phoneme awareness and product name reading ability over and above that accounted for by rhyme skills but that rhyme ability accounted for no unique variance beyond that accounted for by alphabet knowledge. Further analyses showed that alphabet knowledge also contributed unique variance to product name reading ability over and above that accounted for by phonemic awareness ability but that the reverse was not the case. It was hypothesised that many preschool non-readers may start to gain an insight into the phonemic structure of the spoken word by becoming aware of the connection between the sounds of letters in environmental print and the sounds of the spoken word.     

Sites for Power and Knowledge? Towards a critique of the virtual university

Traditional discourses emanated from sites where agents of knowledge received their professional formation. Postmodernists suggest that the principle that the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from personal formation is becoming obsolete and that the nature of knowledge cannot survive the information technology revolution unchanged. We examine these propositions with reference to a qualitative study of university staff who were developing and using World Wide Web (WWW) courses. The interview material supports the view that the WWW exemplifies a weakening of the framing of knowledge, has an elective affinity with the individual indulgence of postmodernism and is not effectively controlled through the community of science. Yet the WWW is parasitic on the project of modernism. Its user-friendly surface conceals extreme underlying complexity. The project of reducing professional training to the telematic transmission of an organised stock of knowledge is shown to be ultimately incoherent because it ignores the crucial need for implicit understanding and skill.     

Phonological awareness and reading speed deficits in reading disabled Greek‐speaking children

There is evidence that phonological awareness skills secure decoding ability and that phonological deficits underlie failure to acquire adequate word recognition. Slow word‐reading rate may be an additional defining characteristic of reading disability. The present study aimed to investigate whether: (1) reading disabled (RD) Greek‐speaking children showed reading accuracy and reading speed deficits relative to chronological age‐matched controls (CAC) and reading age‐matched controls (RAC); (2) they showed phonological deficits relative to the two control groups who do not present reading difficulties; and (3) they showed reading comprehension deficits over and above any word reading deficits.

Results suggested that the reading accuracy of the RD group was predictably weaker than that of the CAC group but equivalent to that of the RAC group. However, the reading speed of the RD group was significantly slower than the RAC group, who showed the same single word reading speed as the CAC group.

Slow and laboured decoding was found to compromise the reading comprehension of the RD group, whose listening comprehension performance was as good as the two other groups. The RD children performed poorly on phonological awareness tasks and naming speed. Naming speed was not an independent core feature of reading difficulties in the Greek language but was associated with a general phonological deficit.

It is recommended that diagnostic assessments for children with reading difficulties in Greek should include phonological awareness, single word reading and pseudoword reading tasks that measure both accuracy and speed.     

Performing cleanliness: clean milk competitions in Britain,c.1920–1940

The question of how best to secure a healthy, disease-free milk supply was one of the most contentious public health issues in interwar Britain. Commentators identified improper and unhygienic milking practices as just one area of the dairy industry in desperate need of reform. In the 1920s a loose partnership of agricultural scientists and educators, civil servants, and dairy businesses turned to competition as a means by which to convince milkers as to the benefits of “scientific dairying”. Clean milk competitions came to simultaneously educate and discipline British dairy workers by working to redefine milking skill with the help of the laboratory sciences. However, the venture was a contentious one, wherein competition participants would often resist the meanings and methods that were coming to be employed in the quest for “clean milk”.