Racism and citizenship education in Northern Ireland

Racist attitudes towards, and attacks on, the minority ethnic populations in Northern Ireland (NI) have increased dramatically over the last number of years. Despite the increased media attention regarding racist attacks, the fallacy that racism is not a major problem in NI is an enduring one. However, there is a growing recognition that minority ethnic communities experience a diverse range of racial harassment. Education is a mode promoted by national and European governments as the vehicle in which anti-racism programmes can be delivered. This article suggests the impending introduction of a statutory citizenship education (CE) component to the revised NI curriculum from September 2007 can play an important role in tackling the high levels of racism being experienced by the minority ethnic population in NI.     

Student teachers’ perceptions of their mentors as internal triggers for learning

This study used responses of 20 student teachers to describe the different ways in which student teachers perceive the practice of their mentors as internal triggers for learning in their practicum experiences in the schools. Reported observations from pedagogical journals of student teachers were described according to various kinds of teaching knowledge and skills and were further categorized as providing either support or challenge to student teachers’ perceptions of learning to teach. The student teachers identified support and challenge in each one of the categories of teaching knowledge and skills, thereby supplying evidence for different kinds of emotional and cognitive triggers for learning. Based on the findings, we make some recommendations for supervision of mentoring relationships.     

Cognitive load and knowledge sharing in Learning Networks

Learning Networks (LNs) are online social networks designed to support nonformal learning; they are therefore particularly suitable for self-directed learners. In LNs, learners need to construct knowledge through knowledge sharing with other participants. However, without support, learners have to organize knowledge sharing themselves and this could induce extraneous cognitive load. When working on complex learning tasks, this organizing process could have a detrimental effect on knowledge construction. To optimize cognitive load, we propose using a peer support system that applies the mechanisms of peer tutoring to support knowledge sharing. Its mechanisms reduce, we argue, the extraneous load imposed by having to organize knowledge sharing as well as induce germane load by directing the freed-up cognitive capacity to processes that contribute to knowledge construction.     

Another Perspective on Assessing the Significance of Information Technology in Education

Summary

The significance of information technology in education is usually assessed or evaluated on terms of some measures of effectiveness. In different school settings the effectiveness is operationalized in different ways, and in the literature various methods of determining the effectiveness have been discussed (e.g., Secretary's Conference on Educational Technology 1999). In this article, models for assessing the significance of information technology in education based on the teachers' subjective perspective are introduced. Theoretical backgrounds of the models are based on methods developed in information management science to assess the impact of information technology (IT) in industry and business. The first model is comprised of categorizing the rationales for using IT in education, the second model assesses the strategic impact of existing IT applications on one hand and of future IT applications on the other on education, and the third model assesses the roles of applications of IT in teaching. Also, the empirical findings of a small scale test of the two latter models in the Teacher Training School in Rauma (TTSR), a primary school in Finland with about 260 pupils and 19 teachers, are introduced.     

中国公民个人信息权保护现状

随着计算机和网络信息化的普及,个人信息可以轻易地在网络上被获取。而中国的许多公民由于传统习惯的影响,在社会的经济文化生活中,往往缺乏自我信息的保护意识,导致不法分子在获得公民个人信息后对公民信息权进行侵害。文章就我国公民个人信息权在日常生活中被侵害现状进行阐述,希望能够引起社会各界的广泛关注。     

基于集值信息系统的扩充粗糙集模型

借助于属性集值的相似程度在集值信息系统上定义了一种新的带有参数的优势关系-α-优势关系,并研究了其性质;同时比较了两类优势关系,得到的结论是:只要合理地设置阈值α就可以提高分类的精度,从而提高对数据预测、分类的准确度.     

电气信息专业实验教学改革研究与实践

按照我国建设创新型国家、走新型工业化道路的战略要求,结合东华大学电气信息专业学生的实际情况,开展电气信息专业实验教学改革研究与实践。旨在加强学生在校期间实践能力培养,尤其是学生实践创新能力和创新精神的培养,逐步形成一个突出实践和创新精神培养的电气信息专业实验教学体系,形成理论实践结合、课内课外结合、校内校外结合、产学研结合的系列化实践教学模式,为国家和社会提供德才兼备、基础宽厚、实践能力强、具有创新精神的电气信息专业工程型人才。     

非线性回归模型中的拟Fisher信息

给出拟Fisher信息达到其上界的充要条件,此条件为真得分函数是线性无偏的,即观测数据来自指数族分布,当拟Fisher信息太小时,提出了一种线性有偏拟得分方法,该方法能增加拟Fisher信息,从而改进了参数估计。     

旅游消费定位与旅游资源开发

本文从信息论的观点出发,提出旅游消费本质是获取地理环境信息的过程,开发旅游资源就是将蕴藏其内的地理信息进行破译,以人们可以接受的图文、语言形式编码,并阐明了合理开发旅游资源的基本原则。     

试论企业信息系统的构建

信息系统本身是一个计算机应用软件系统 要建立一个实用性强、智能化程度高、操作方便灵活的企业信息系统,需要一个相当复杂的过程这一过程包括系统分析、系统设计、系统编码和调试以及系统维护等几个方面.