基于云计算的多媒体教学环境设计

云计算提供可定制的计算资源服务特点与建构主义教学理念不谋而合,意味着云计算技术在教育领域将会有深入的应用。在分析云计算应用于教育领域优势的基础上,结合建构主义理论,设计了一种基于云计算的多媒体教学环境,该教学环境整合高校与教学有关的系统构成教学云服务平台,为教师、学生、教学支持者提供全方位的服务和管理功能,将有效增强师生交互,促进资源共享,提高教学智能化程度。     

An atmospheric dust recorder

An apparatus is described for recording general atmospheric dust. The full-scale range of the present model of approximately 120 × 10⁶ particles per cubic foot of air may be increased or decreased as desired. The dust concentrations measured are far below smoke concentrations. The method is to impinge dust on a slowly moving strip of transparent film, and to measure the deposit by a comparison of two beams of light, one passing through the dusty film, the other through clean film. The decrease in transmitted light due to the dust is balanced automatically by a motor-driven optical wedge in the unobstructed beam. The position of this wedge is recorded on a chart. Dusty air is sampled continuously for long periods. Rapid fluctuations of a few minutes in length are registered. In this, and in the fact that it is direct-reading, without tedious laboratory quantitation, the recorder offers distinct advantages over the present dust determinators, almost all of which take momentary samples. A different calibration is needed for different dusts. The machine may be adapted to laboratory or field use. In factories, auxiliary blowers may be operated through relays, when the dustiness exceeds a specified level.     

Reviews

Vivienne Gross, Hackney Child and Family Consultation Service, Child Abuse and the School's Response: A Workshop for Professionals Involved with Ghildren/Young People from Nursery to Further Education by Eve Brock. Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1992. 22pp. ISBN 0 58210060 7, £25.00

Louise O'Connor, Roehampton Institute, Social Education and Personal Development Studies in Primary Education by Delwyn and Eva Tattum. London: David Fulton, 1992. 194pp. pb ISBN 185346 110 5, £12.99

Sue Smedley, Froebel Institute College, Stress in Teaching by Jack Dunham. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. 200pp. hb ISBN 0 415 06634 4, £35, pb ISBN 0 415 06635 2, £12.99

David Thomas, Department of Education University of Liverpool, Learning Support for Young People in Transition: Leaving School for Further Education and Work by Jean McGinfy and John Fish. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. 116pp. pb ISBN 0 335 09765 0, n.p.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF MAINSTREAM STAFF PERCEPTIONS OF ON‐SITE EBD UNITS

In this article Sue Sherbourne establishes the policy issues underpinning the development of On‐Site Units and investigates staff perceptions of their role and function.     

Lifelong education and transnational migration

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and through what mechanisms vulnerable adults are empowered through a second-chance education programme. At the same time, the paper aims at unveiling the obstacles hindering learners’ empowerment process and making suggestions for the improvement of the educational programme fostering further empowerment of the learners. To achieve the objectives set by the research, a hybrid methodological design was applied combining hermeneutic phenomenology and critical discourse analysis. Data collection was performed using three tools: semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and document analysis. The results led to the emergence of a multilevel empowerment scheme of vulnerable adults in the programme. The empowerment mechanisms that emerged were as follows: (a) empowerment through participation as a self-value, (b) empowerment through the reconstruction of past experiences, (c) empowerment through the strengthening of their social capital and (d) empowerment through literacy skills. At the same time, the study shed light on a number of factors that inhibit the process of learners’ empowerment, which unveil structural and operational weaknesses of the programme as well as of the policies pursued by the State.     

Students' understandings about animal skeletons

Surprisingly few studies have looked at people's understanding of skeletons. Most of the work in this field that has been done has only involved children's understanding of human skeletons. This study looks at students' understandings of the structure of animal (including human) skeletons. A crosssectional approach was used involving a total of 175 students in England from six different age groups (ranging from 4 year olds to 20 year olds). Students were presented, on separate occasions, with specimens of a brown rat, a starling and a herring and asked to draw what they thought was inside each specimen. On a final occasion, they were also asked to draw what they thought was inside themselves. Repeated inspections of the completed drawings allowed us to construct a seven point scale of 'skeletal understanding'. Our analysis shows the extent to which student understanding increases with age and the degree to which pupils know more about human than other skeletons. The findings are interpreted with reference to current trends in English science curricula and pedagogy. We comment in particular on the current inability of most students to see the skeleton as a functional, integrated whole.