Does Augmented Visual Feedback from Novel,Multicolored, Three-Dimensional-Printed Teeth Affect Dental Students' Acquisition of Manual Skills?

Although three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is increasingly used in dental education, its application regarding the provision of online visual augmented feedback has not been tested. Thus, this study aimed to: (1) develop two generations of multicolored 3D-printed teeth that provide visual augmented feedback for students conducting the cavity preparation process, (2) assess students' clinical performance after training on the 3D models, and (3) acquire student feedback. For the first-generation model, augmented feedback was obtained from five 3D-printed teeth models for five cavity preparation procedures. Each model comprised three layers printed in green, yellow, and red indicating whether preparation was acceptable, limited, or unacceptable, respectively. The study used a crossover design in which the experimental group trained on five multicolored models and 10 standard plastic teeth, and the control group trained on 15 standard plastic teeth. Students gave positive feedback of the methodology but complained about the printed material's hardness. Therefore, a second-generation model was developed: the model's occlusal plane was replaced with a harder printed acrylic material, and the experiment was repeated. During training, instructors provided external terminal feedback only for performance on standard plastic teeth. Manual grades for cavity preparations on standard plastic teeth were compared. No significant differences were found between the control and experimental groups in both generations' models. However, less instructor time was needed, and similar clinical results were obtained after training with both generations. Thus, multicolored 3D-printed teeth models promote self-learning during the process of acquiring manual skills and reduce student dependency on instructors.     

Should students design or interact with models? Using the Bifocal Modelling Framework to investigate model construction in high school science

The Bifocal Modelling Framework (BMF) is an approach for science learning which links students’ physical experimentation with computer modelling in real time, focusing on the comparison of the two media. In this paper, we explore how a Bifocal Modelling implementation supported learning outcomes related to both content and metamodeling knowledge, focusing on the role of designing models. Our study consisted of three conditions implemented with a total of 69 9th grade high-school students. The first and second classes were assigned two implementation modes of BMF: with and without a model design module. The third condition, employed as a control, consisted of a class that received instruction in the school’s traditional approach. Our results indicate that students participating in both BMF implementations demonstrated improved content knowledge and a better understanding of metamodeling. However, only the ‘BMF-with-design’ group improved significantly in both content and metamodeling knowledge. Our qualitative analyses indicate that both BMF groups designed detailed models that included scientific explanations. However only students who engaged in the model design component: (1) completed a detailed model displaying molecular interaction; and (2) developed a critical perspective about models. We discuss the implications of those results for teaching scientific science concepts and metamodeling knowledge.     

Writing private and shared annotations and lurking in Annoto hyper-video in academia: Insights from learning analytics,content analysis,and interviews with lecturers and students

Educational technology research and development - Interactive features of the hyper-video environment, such as indexing, bookmarks, links to learning materials, multiple-choice questions, and...     

Cognitive and metacognitive determinants of eyewitness memory accuracy over time

Metacognition and Learning - In the present study, we investigated the accuracy of eyewitness accounts over time from a metacognitive perspective, in which post-retrieval monitoring and control...     

On improving Tunstall codes

Though many compression methods are based on the use of variable length codes, there has recently been a trend to search for alternatives in which the lengths of the codewords are more restricted, which can have useful applications, such as easier processing and fast decoding. This paper explores the construction of variable-to-fixed length codes, which have been suggested long ago by Tunstall. Using new heuristics based on suffix trees, the performance of Tunstall codes can in some cases be improved by more than 40%.     

What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble,Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status

A child's first words mark the emergence of a uniquely human ability. Theories of the developmental steps that pave the way for word production have proposed that either vocal or gestural precursors are key. These accounts were tested by assessing the developmental synchrony in the onset of babbling, pointing, and word production for 46 infants observed monthly between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Babbling and pointing did not develop in tight synchrony and babble onset alone predicted first words. Pointing and maternal education emerged as predictors of lexical knowledge only in relation to a measure taken at 18 months. This suggests a far more important role for early phonological development in the creation of the lexicon than previously thought.     

Coparticipando en el conocimiento: la ampliación de la inteligencia humana con las tecnologías inteligentes

Utilizar un ordenador supone una simbiosis de nuestra inteligencia con una herramienta externa sin la cual la mente contaría sólo con sus propios medios y no funcionaría igual.

Por otra parte, algunos de los procedimientos de uso del ordenador pasan de hecho a interiorizarse, a incorporarse autónomamente a la mente.

Este artículo, que permite analizar ambos hechos, nos ayuda a tener claro el papel del ordenador en el aprendizaje y funcionamiento cognitivo     

I Witness: Re-presenting Trauma in and by Cinema

This article considers how film helps reconcile a traumatic collective past through representation of a personal trauma. It focuses on the role of witnesses in conveying their experiences regarding events that have traumatized them. The author suggests that a witness to a traumatic event performs the excess of an event that has transformed him or her. By framing the witness as a performer rather than a mere conduit for transferring knowledge to the uninformed, the article underscores the communicative dimension of witnessing by studying this process as an ongoing interplay between addressers and addressees who undergo mutual transformations in and by this action. These arguments are presented through an examination of the film Waltz With Bashir (2008), in which its director documented his struggle to come to terms with his personal trauma surrounding the part he played in the Lebanon War. The author suggests that by performing this loss of experience, the director turns the audience into witnesses, thus transforming a personal loss of experience into a collective experience of loss.     

Staging peace: Televised ceremonies of reconciliation

The visit of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem was the model for Dayan and Katz's conceptualization of the genre of media events, as live programs which have the power to transform history. Fifteen years later, a series of televised reconciliation ceremonies, which marked the stages of the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors (the Palestinians and the Jordanians), are used to re‐examine the model. We demonstrate (1) how the effectiveness of these ceremonies depends on the type of contract among the three participants—leaders, broadcasters and public—each of whom displays different kinds of reservations, and (2) how the aura of the ceremonies draws on the prior status of the participants (Hussein), but also confers status (Arafat).