Search

This study developed a survey to explore students' preferences in constructivist context-aware ubiquitous learning environments. A constructivist context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) environment survey (CULES) was developed, consisting of eight scales, including ease of use, continuity, relevance, adaptive content, multiple sources, timely guidance, student negotiation, and inquiry learning. The survey responses were gathered from 215 university students from five universities in Taiwan. The students all had actual experience of using u-learning systems in u-learning environments. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the CULES had high reliability and validity. The structural model revealed that the provision of realistic and close-to-real-life information could enhance students' preferences for timely guidance, student negotiation, and inquiry-learning activities. In addition, the attainment of inquiry learning is quite challenging when designing u-learning activities, as it involves the enhancement of the other CULES scales.

This paper examined the profile of Singaporean pre-service teachers in terms of their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). A total of 1185 pre-service teachers were studied with a TPACK survey. An exploratory factor analysis found five distinctive constructs: technological knowledge, content knowledge, knowledge of pedagogy, knowledge of teaching with technology and knowledge from critical reflection. The participants of this study did not make conceptual distinctions between TPACK constructs such as technological content knowledge and technological pedagogical knowledge. There were some differences in their TPACK perceptions by gender. However, the influence of age and teaching level were not strong. The methodological and theoretical implications for the development of TPACK surveys were discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

This article examines several research questions to establish a theory model for explaining factors that influence adult learners' preferences for constructivist Internet-based learning environments (CILE). Data were gathered from 541 individual participants enrolled in adult education institutes in Taiwan for structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses. The research results established a 10-scale instrument for assessing adult learners' preferences for CILE. Among the scales of CILE, adult students placed the highest value on relevance to life and reflective thinking, and scored the lowest for critical judgement, ease of use and student negotiation. The SEM analyses revealed that compared to Internet self-efficacy (ISE), self-directed learning readiness plays a major role in predicting adults' preferences for their learning environment, especially for the higher level of intellectual challenge. ISE plays a mediating role in the relationships between Internet usage and the participants' preferences. This result suggests that more time spent on Internet practice may increase adult learners' ISE, which may strengthen their preferences for Internet-based learning environments.

Although previous research has demonstrated the benefits of applying the Internet facilities to the learning process, problems with this strategy have also been identified. One of the major difficulties is owing to the lack of an online learning environment that can record the learning portfolio of using the Internet facilities in education, such that the teacher can analyze and evaluate the learning performance of students, and hence the teaching strategies can be adjusted accordingly. In this paper, we propose a web-search learning environment, called Meta-Analyzer, which is able to assist the teachers in analyzing student learning behaviors of using search engines for problem solving. Two-hundred and twenty students and 54 teachers contributed to the trial of the system. The results have shown that the novel approach is able to gain a better understanding about students' learning processes and searching strategies in technology-enhanced environments, as well as to assist the teachers to acquire more about the learning status of students, and hence more constructive suggestions can be given accordingly.

This paper provided a content analysis of studies in the field of cognition in e-learning that were published in five Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals (i.e. Computers and Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, Educational Technology Research & Development, and Journal of Computer Assisted Learning) from 2001 to 2005. Among the 1027 articles published in these journals from 2001 to 2005, 444 articles were identified as being related to the topic of cognition in e-learning. These articles were cross analyzed by published years, journal, research topic, and citation count. Furthermore, 16 highly-cited articles across different topics were chosen for further analysis according to their research settings, participants, research design types, and research methods. It was found from the analysis of the 444 articles that "Instructional Approaches," "Learning Environment," and "Metacognition" were the three most popular research topics, but the analysis of the citation counts suggested that the studies related to "Instructional Approaches," "Information Processing" and "Motivation" might have a greater impact on subsequent research. Although the use of questionnaires might still be the main method of gathering research data in e-learning cognitive studies, a clear trend was observed that more and more studies were utilizing learners' log files or online messages as data sources for analysis. The results of the analysis provided insights for educators and researchers into research trends and patterns of cognition in e-learning.

Using a multielement antenna, we have performed measurements of the angular dependence of propagating magnetostatic spin waves in a thin yttrium iron garnet film, both in-plane and out-of-plane, and compared the measurements with existing theoretical models. For most magnetic field directions, theory and experiments agree reasonably well. However, there is a range of magnetic field directions where differences between theory and experiment become large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report experiments which characterize spin wave propagation in a thin (111) yttrium iron garnet film for arbitrary angles between the in-plane magnetic field and the mode wavevectors. By measuring the magnetic field evolution of the phase of the wave traveling across the film, we deduce the frequency dependence of the wavevector, the dispersion relation, from which the mode velocity follows. Additionally, we observe multiple nodes in the regime of the propagating Damon-Eshbach mode; these arise from avoided crossings associated with the higher, exchange split, standing wave modes along the film normal, the positions of which correlate with the direct absorption measurements of their positions. This information allows a determination of the exchange parameter. Using this technique, we examine the nonreciprocity in spin wave propagation that results from an adjacent metal layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the present paper is to provide practical and numerical implementations of the method of fundamental solutions for three-dimensional exterior Stokes problems with quiet far-field condition and discuss the issues therein. The solutions of the steady Stokes problems are obtained by utilizing the boundary collocation method as well as the expansion of Stokeslets, which are the fundamental solutions of the steady Stokes equations. To validate the proposed model, numerical results of a lid-driven cavity flow, uniform flow passing a sphere, and a rotating dumbbell-shaped body show good agreement with the numerical and analytical solutions available in the literature. Also, a hypothetical problem with both vorticity and velocity boundary conditions is solved and compared with the analytical solution. The proposed model is then properly exploited to obtain the flow results of uniform flow passing a pair of vertical spheres in tandem and uniform flow passing a pair of horizontal spheres in tandem. Furthermore, the accuracy of the present numerical scheme is addressed and the detail flow characteristics, such as pressure distribution, streamline contour, velocity field, and vorticity fields are sketched. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(2006)132:3(317) CE Database subject headings: Numerical models: Hydrodynamics: Particles; Boundaries; Uniform flow; Velocity.