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Incinerator work to start despite permit concerns

The facility was given planning consent by West Berkshire Council in August 2022.




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Plans for carbon capture facility at incinerator

The business says it is welcoming public feedback on the proposal.




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Daughter's mission to give people CPR skills and access to defibrillators

Kenilworth woman's campaign to give people the best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest.




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New Aston Martin simulator ‘like something from Star Wars’ – Krack | RaceFans Round-up

In the round-up: New simulator 'like Star Wars' - Krack • Pirelli likes 'flexibility' of new C6 • Play NZ anthem when McLaren wins - Lawson



  • RaceFans Round-up

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Alpine must make up for 0.3-second deficit with 2025 chassis – Briatore | RaceFans Round-up

In the round-up: Alpine must make up for 0.3-second deficit with 2025 chassis - Briatore • Stolen Lauda helmet goes on display • Wittich 'has not resigned'




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Innovators and entrepreneurs: XPRIZE as catalyst

Economic freedom is positively associated with job creation




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New Search experiences in EEA: Rich results, aggregator units, and refinement chips

Following our latest update on our preparations for the DMA (Digital Markets Act), we're sharing more details about what publishers can expect to see in regards to new search results in European Economic Area (EEA) countries, and how they can express interest in these experiences.




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What web creators should know about our March 2024 core update and new spam policies

Today we announced the March 2024 core update. This is designed to improve the quality of Search by showing less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, and more content that people find useful. We also shared that we have new spam policies to better handle the practices that can negatively impact Google's search results. In this post, we'll go into more detail for creators about both the update and the spam policies.




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Próximas convocatorias de nuestros cursos en línea

Si quieres darle un impulso a tu negocio en el mes de septiembre no te pierdas todas estas propuestas de formación en línea para traductores que te traemos. Sigue leyendo. Se nota que estáis volviendo ya de vacaciones. Estamos recibiendo muchas reservas para los cursos...

La entrada Próximas convocatorias de nuestros cursos en línea aparece primero en Traducción Jurídica.




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CONVOCATORIA DEL EXAMEN DE TRADUCTOR JURADO 2017

El Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores convoca el examen de traductor jurado de 2017 en el BOE 61 de 13 de marzo de 2017. La espera se ha acabado. Sin embargo, la convocatoria de intérpretes jurados de...

The post CONVOCATORIA DEL EXAMEN DE TRADUCTOR JURADO 2017 appeared first on El Blog del Traductor Jurado.




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WSO2 Stratos - Platform-as-a-Service for private and public cloud

Yesterday we announced something I believe is a game-changer: WSO2 Stratos. What is Stratos?

WSO2 Stratos is a complete SOA and developer platform offered as a self-service, multi-tenant, elastic runtime for private and public cloud infrastructures.
What that means is that our complete SOA platform - now enhanced with Tomcat and Webapp support - is available as a  "cloud native" runtime that you can either use on the Web (yes - you can try it out right now), on Amazon VPC, or on your own internal private cloud based on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, Eucalyptus and (coming soon) vmWare vSphere. It is a complete Platform-as-a-Service for private and public clouds.

I'll be writing more about Stratos over the coming weeks and months, and I'll also provide links and tweets to other Stratos blogs, but in this blog I want to simply answer three questions:

  1. I'm already talking to {vmWare, Eucalyptus, Ubuntu, Savvis, Joyent} about private cloud - what does WSO2 add that they don't have?
  2. What is the difference between Stratos and the Cloud Images that WSO2 already ships?
  3. Why would I choose WSO2 over the other vendors offering Platform-as-a-Service?
In order to answer the first question, lets look at the cloud computing space, which is most easily divided up into:
  • Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): this is where Amazon, Eucalyptus, vmWare, Saavis and Joyent play
  • Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Google App Engine, vmForce, Tibco Silver and now WSO2 Stratos play in this space.
  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Google Apps, Google Mail, Microsoft Office Live, Salesforce, SugarOnDemand - these and many more make up the SaaS category.
To generalize wildly, most people talking about public cloud today are talking about SaaS. And most people talking about private cloud today are talking about IaaS.

SaaS is fantastic for quick productivity and low cost. WSO2 uses Google Apps, Sugar on Demand and several other SaaS apps. But SaaS doesn't create competitive advantage. Mule also uses Google Apps. They may well use Salesforce. SaaS cannot produce competitive advantage because your competitors get access to exactly the same low-cost services you do. In order to create competitive advantage you need to build as well as buy. For example, we use our Mashup Server together with our Sugar Business Messaging Adapter to provide insight and management of our pipeline that goes beyond what Sugar offers.

IaaS is of course a great basis to build apps. But it's just infrastructure. Yes - you get your VM hosted quicker. But someone has to create a useful VM. And that is where PaaS comes in. PaaS is how to speed up cloud development.

What does Stratos give you on top of an IaaS? It gives you an Application Server, Registry, Identity Server, Portal, ESB, Business Activity Monitor and Mashup Server. And it gives you these as-a-Service: completely self-service, elasticly scalable, and granularly metered and monitored. Someone in your team needs an ESB - they can provision one for themselves instantly. And because it's multi-tenant, it costs nothing to run until it gets used. How do you know how it's used? The metering and monitoring tells you exactly how much each tenant uses.

2. What is the difference between Stratos and the existing WSO2 Cloud Images?

The cloud images we started shipping in December are not Cloud Native. Stratos is Cloud Native. In practice, this means that when you log into Stratos (go on try it now) you can instantly provision your own domain, together with a set of Stratos services. This saves memory - instead of allocating a new VM and minimum half a gigabyte of memory to each new server you get a new ESB with zero extra memory cost. And it's much easier. The new ESB will automatically be governed and monitored. It's automatically elastically clustered.

3. Why would I choose WSO2 over other PaaS vendors?

Firstly, if you look at PaaS as a whole there is a huge divide between Public PaaS and Private PaaS. The public PaaS vendors simply don't offer private options. You can't run force.com or Google App Engine applications internally, even if you want to. WSO2 bridges that gap with a PaaS you can use in the public Web, on a virtual private cloud, or on premises.

The second big differentiator between WSO2 and the existing PaaS offerings is the architecture. Mostly PaaS is a way of building webapps. WSO2 offers a complete enterprise architecture - governance, business process, integration, portal, identity and mashups. And we support the common Enterprise Programming Model (not just Java, WebApp, JAX-WS, but also BPEL, XSLT, XPath, Google Gadgets, WSDL, etc). The only other PaaS that I know of that offers a full Enterprise architecture is Tibco Silver.

The third and most important differentiator is about lock-in. Software vendors love lock-in - and Cloud vendors love it even more. So if you code to Google App Engine, you are tied into Google's identity model, Google's Bigtable, etc. If you code to force.com or vmForce - you are tied to force's infrastructure services. If you code to Tibco Silver, you are tied to Tibco. WSO2 fights this in three ways:
  • No code lock-in: we use standards-based coding (WAR, JAX-WS, POJO) and Stratos is 100% Apache License Open Source.
  • No model lock-in: we use standards-based services: 
    • Identity is based on OpenID, OAuth, XACML, WS-Trust
    • Registry is based on AtomPub and REST
    • Business Process is based on BPEL, etc
  • No hosting lock-in: you can take you apps and data from our public PaaS and re-deploy internally or on your own virtual private cloud anytime you like.
I hope you found this a useful introduction to Stratos. If you want more information, contact me paul@wso2.com, or check out the Stratos website or code.




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Treat For Legal Interpreters and an Archive for Translators As Well

OpenCourt is an experimental project run by WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, that uses digital technology to make Quincy District Court more accessible to the public.

Full Article

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Training for legal translators. Part IV. Make at least one big study commitment.

This is the last part of a series on training for legal translators. See the first post here. To put yourself on the path to becoming a good legal translator, you need to make one big study commitment. A big study commitment is anything that takes at least a year, challenges you, and costs a lot of […]




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Five things your translator should know when translating legislation into English

Translating the legislation or regulations of a country, company or university into English requires certain skills and know-how. This post lists five things your translator should know when translating legislation into English. 1. How to apply English drafting conventions Conventions on headings, numbering, referencing and capitalisation differ from one legal language to another. For instance, […]




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Marine Le Pen dans le piège de « l’inéligibilité obligatoire »

Alors que les procureurs doivent requerir, ce mercredi 13 novembre a son proces, la presidente du groupe RN a l'Assemblee redoute, par-dessus tout, d'etre empechee de se presenter en 2027.




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« Gladiator II » : bis repetita, triste cirque

L'infatigable Ridley Scott se repose pourtant sur ses lauriers avec cette suite inutile et empatee de son propre classique sorti en 2000. Spectaculaire mais vain.





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Senators make short work of listless Leafs in a flat Battle of Ontario - The Globe and Mail

  1. Senators make short work of listless Leafs in a flat Battle of Ontario  The Globe and Mail
  2. Tavares on Maple Leafs’ lifeless loss to Senators: ‘We should be disappointed’  Sportsnet.ca
  3. Ullmark records first shutout of season as Senators smother Maple Leafs  TSN
  4. TAKEAWAYS: Ottawa Senators draw first blood in Battle of Ontario  Ottawa Citizen
  5. Wednesday FTB: Lose to the Sens, why not?  Pension Plan Puppets




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Cette espèce marine serait capable de... faire repousser des parties de son anatomie

Les pycnogonides, une espèce marine apparentée aux araignées, peuvent faire repousser des parties du corps après amputation, et pas seulement de simples membres, selon une étude publiée lundi, ouvrant la voie à de nouvelles découvertes sur la régénération.

"Personne ne s'attendait à cela", a déclaré Gerhard Scholtz de la prestigieuse université Humboldt à Berlin, et l'un des auteurs principaux de cette étude parue dans la revue Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Nous avons été les premiers à démontrer que c'était possible", a-t-il ajouté. Il est connu qu'une multitude d'espèces d'arthropodes tels que les mille-pattes, les araignées ou d'autres insectes peuvent faire repousser une patte après l'avoir perdue.

"Les crabes peuvent même se débarrasser automatiquement de leurs membres s'ils sont attaqués", a déclaré Gerhard Scholtz, précisant: "ils les remplacent par un nouveau membre". Ce que les chercheurs ont découvert à travers leurs expériences avec ces minuscules créatures à huit pattes, est qu'elles sont capables de régénérer même d'autres parties du corps. Pour l'étude, ils ont amputé différents membres et parties postérieures du corps de 23 pycnogonides juvéniles et adultes, et ont observé les résultats.

Repousse d'un corps à partir de seulement quelques cellules

Aucune régénération de parties du corps n'a été constatée dans les spécimens adultes, mais certains étaient toujours en vie après deux ans. Les spécimens juvéniles, en revanche, ont connu une régénération complète ou quasi-complète des parties du corps manquantes, y compris l'intestin postérieur, l'anus, la musculature, et certaines parties d'organes génitaux.

A long terme, 90% des pycnogonides ont survécu, et 16 spécimens juvéniles ont effectué leur mue par la suite au moins une fois. La régénération postérieure a ainsi été constatée chez 14 des spécimens juvéniles tandis qu'aucun des spécimens adultes n'a mué ou ne s'est régénéré. Les capacités de régénération varient à travers le règne animal.

Les vers plats, par exemple, peuvent faire repousser leur corps à partir de seulement quelques cellules. Les vertébrés, dont les hommes, n'ont quasiment aucune capacité de régénération à l'exception de quelques espèces comme les lézards, qui peuvent faire repousser leurs queues.

Selon Gerhard Scholz, les résultats de l'étude ouvrent de nouvelles voies de recherche dans le domaine. "Une multitude d'espèces différentes peuvent être testées de cette manière", dit-il, ce qui pourrait permettre de comparer les mécanismes de régénération. "Au bout du compte, peut-être que les mécanismes que nous découvrons chez les arthropodes nous aiderons dans les traitements médicaux après la perte d'un membre, d'un doigt, etc... chez les humains", espère le chercheur.




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Totems migratoires

La politique est souvent guidée par des marqueurs idéologiques qui manquent de nuances. L'immigration illustre cette polarisation : la gauche prône une générosité aveugle, la droite une sévérité rigide. Le meurtre de Philippine de Carlan relance ce débat. La gestion de l'immigration doit équilibrer humanité et acceptabilité, mais sans sacrifier vérité ni lucidité.




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The role of mediator variable in digital payments: a structural equation model analysis

The proliferation of technology and communication has resulted in increased digitalisation that includes digital payments. This study is aimed at unravelling the relationship between awareness of individuals about the digital payment system and customer satisfaction with digital payments. Two models were developed in this study. First model considers awareness → usage pattern → customer satisfaction. Second model considers usage pattern → customer satisfaction → perception of digital payments. These two alternative models were tested by collecting data from 507 respondents in southern India was analysed using the structural equation modelling. The results indicate that usage pattern acted as a mediator between awareness and satisfaction, and satisfaction acted as a mediator between usage pattern and consumers' perception of digital payments. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.




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Design of data mining system for sports training biochemical indicators based on artificial intelligence and association rules

Physiological indicators are an important basis for reflecting the physiological health status of the human body and play an important role in medical practice. Association rules have also been one of the important research hotspots in recent years. This study aims to create a data mining system of association rules and artificial intelligence in biochemical indicators of sports training. This article uses Markov logic for network creation and system training, and tests whether the Markov logic network can be associated with the training system. The results show that the accuracy and recall rate obtained are about 90%, which shows that it is feasible to establish biochemical indicators of sports training based on Markov logic network, and the system has universal, guiding and constructive significance, ensuring that the construction of training system indicators will not go in the wrong direction.




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Virtual Computing Laboratories: A Case Study with Comparisons to Physical Computing Laboratories




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Using Wikis to Enhance Website Peer Evaluation in an Online Website Development Course: An Exploratory Study




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Windows 8: What Educators Need to Know




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Technology-based Participatory Learning for Indigenous Children in Chiapas Schools, Mexico




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An Exploratory Study on Using Wiki to Foster Student Teachers’ Learner-centered Learning and Self and Peer Assessment




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The Impact of Hands-On Simulation Laboratories on Teaching of Wireless Communications

Aim/Purpose: To prepare students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the field of wireless communications. Background: Teaching wireless communications and networking is not an easy task because it involves broad subjects and abstract content. Methodology: A pedagogical method that combined lectures, labs, assignments, exams, and readings was applied in a course of wireless communications. Contribution: Five wireless networking labs, related to wireless local networks, wireless security, and wireless sensor networks, were developed for students to complete all of the required hands-on lab activities. Findings: Both development and implementation of the labs achieved a successful outcome and provided students with a very effective learning experience. Students expressed that they had a better understanding of different wireless network technologies after finishing the labs. Recommendations for Practitioners: Detailed instructional lab manuals should be developed so that students can carry out hands-on activities in a step-by-step fashion. Recommendation for Researchers: Hands-on lab exercises can not only help students understand the abstract technical terms in a meaningful way, but also provide them with hands-on learning experience in terms of wireless network configuration, implementation, and evaluation. Impact on Society: With the help of a wireless network simulator, students have successfully enhanced their practical skills and it would benefit them should they decide to pursue a career in wireless network design or implementation. Future Research: Continuous revision of the labs will be made according to the feedback from students. Based on the experience, more wireless networking labs and network issues could be studied in the future.




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A Study on the Effectiveness of an Undergraduate Online Teaching Laboratory With Semantic Mechanism From a Student Perspective

Aim/Purpose: The current study was conducted to investigate the students’ perceived satisfaction with the use of a semantic-based online laboratory, which provides students with a search mechanism for laboratory resources, such as instruments and devices. Background: The increasing popularity of using online teaching labs, as an important element of experiential learning in STEM education, is because they represent a collection of integrated tools that allow students and teachers to interact and work collaboratively, whereas they provide an enriched learning content delivery mechanism. Moreover, several research studies have proposed various approaches for online teaching laboratories. However, there are hardly any studies that examine the student satisfaction provided by online laboratories based on students’ experiential learning. Methodology: To measure the effectiveness of the laboratory, we performed a case study in a Computer Fundamentals online course in which undergraduate students were able to manage devices and instruments remotely. Participants were a sample of 50 third semester students of Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology Administration who were divided in experimental and control groups (online laboratory vs. traditional manner). Given a laboratory assignment, students were able to carry out the management of devices and instruments through a LabView virtual environment and web services. The data of the experiment were collected through two questionnaires from both groups. The first is a system usability score (SUS) questionnaire concerning lab usability and the second one students’ cognitive load. Contribution: The results of the study showed a high correlation between usability and cognitive load-satisfaction of students who used the online teaching laboratory compared to the students who did not use it. Findings: On the one hand, the online laboratory provided students with an easy way to share and deploy instruments and devices, thus enhancing system usability. On the other hand, it offered important facilities which enabled students to customize the search for instruments and devices, which certainly had a positive impact on the relationship between cognitive load and satisfaction. Recommendations for Practitioners: In this work we propose an intuitive laboratory interface as well as easiness to use but challenging and capable of providing similar experiences to the traditional laboratory. Recommendation for Researchers: This study is one of the first to analyze the cognitive load-satisfaction relationship and compare it with usability scores. Impact on Society: Our analyses make an important contribution to the literature by suggesting a correlation analysis comparing the results of experimental and control groups that participated in this research work, in terms of usability and cognitive load-satisfaction. Future Research: Future work will also investigate other methodological aspects of instructional design with the aim to improve personalized learning and reinforce collaborative experiences, as well as to deal with problems related to laboratory access, such as authentication, scheduling, and interoperability.




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Unveiling the Digital Equation Through Innovative Approaches for Teaching Discrete Mathematics to Future Computer Science Educators

Aim/Purpose: This study seeks to present a learning model of discrete mathematics elements, elucidate the content of teaching, and validate the effectiveness of this learning in a digital education context. Background: Teaching discrete mathematics in the realm of digital education poses challenges, particularly in crafting the optimal model, content, tools, and methods tailored for aspiring computer science teachers. The study draws from both a comprehensive review of relevant literature and the synthesis of the authors’ pedagogical experiences. Methodology: The research utilized a system-activity approach and aligned with the State Educational Standard. It further integrated the theory of continuous education as its psychological and pedagogical foundation. Contribution: A unique model for instructing discrete mathematics elements to future computer science educators has been proposed. This model is underpinned by informative, technological, and personal competencies, intertwined with the mathematical bedrock of computer science. Findings: The study revealed the importance of holistic teaching of discrete mathematics elements for computer science teacher aspirants in line with the Informatics educational programs. An elective course, “Elements of Discrete Mathematics in Computer Science”, comprising three modules, was outlined. Practical examples spotlighting elements of mathematical logic and graph theory of discrete mathematics in programming and computer science were showcased. Recommendations for Practitioners: Future computer science educators should deeply integrate discrete mathematics elements in their teaching methodologies, especially when aligning with professional disciplines of the Informatics educational program. Recommendation for Researchers: Further exploration is recommended on the seamless integration of discrete mathematics elements in diverse computer science curricula, optimizing for varied learning outcomes and student profiles. Impact on Society: Enhancing the quality of teaching discrete mathematics to future computer science teachers can lead to better-educated professionals, driving advancements in the tech industry and contributing to societal progress. Future Research: There is scope to explore the wider applications of the discrete mathematics elements model in varied computer science sub-disciplines, and its adaptability across different educational frameworks.




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Adoption and Usage of Augmented Reality-based Virtual Laboratories Tool for Engineering Studies

Aim/Purpose: The study seeks to utilize Augmented Reality (AR) in creating virtual laboratories for engineering education, focusing on enhancing teaching methodologies to facilitate student understanding of intricate and theoretical engineering principles while also assessing engineering students’ acceptance of such laboratories. Background: AR, a part of next-generation technology, has enhanced the perception of reality by overlaying virtual elements in the physical environment. The utilization of AR is prevalent across different disciplines, yet its efficacy in facilitating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is limited. Engineering studies, a part of STEM learning, involves complex and abstract concepts like machine simulation, structural analysis, and design optimization; these things would be easy to grasp with the help of AR. This restriction can be attributed to their innovative characteristics and disparities. Therefore, providing a comprehensive analysis of the factors influencing the acceptance of these technologies by students - the primary target demographic – and examining the impact of these factors is essential to maximize the advantages of AR while refining the implementation processes. Methodology: The primary objective of this research is to develop and evaluate a tool that enriches the educational experience within engineering laboratories. Utilizing Unity game engine libraries, digital content is meticulously crafted for this tool and subsequently integrated with geo-location functionalities. The tool’s user-friendly interface allows both faculty and non-faculty members of the academic institution to establish effortlessly the virtual laboratory. Subsequently, an assessment of the tool is conducted through the application of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, involving the administration of surveys to university students to gauge their level of adaptability. Contribution: The utilization of interactive augmented learning in laboratory settings enables educational establishments to realize notable savings in time and resources, thereby achieving sustainable educational outcomes. The study is of great importance due to its utilization of student behavioral intentions as the underlying framework for developing an AR tool and illustrating the impact of learner experience on various objectives and the acceptance of AR in Engineering studies. Furthermore, the research results enable educational institutions to implement AR-based virtual laboratories to improve student experiences strategically, align with learner objectives, and ultimately boost the adaptability of AR technologies. Findings: Drawing on practice-based research, the authors showcase work samples and a digital project of AR-based Virtual labs to illustrate the evaluation of the adaptability of AR technology. Adaptability is calculated by conducting a survey of 300 undergraduate university students from different engineering departments and applying an adaptability method to determine the behavioral intentions of students. Recommendations for Practitioners: Engineering institutions could leverage research findings in the implementation of AR to enhance the effectiveness of AR technology in practical education settings. Recommendation for Researchers: The authors implement a pragmatic research framework aimed at integrating AR technology into virtual AR-based labs for engineering education. This study delves into a unique perspective within the realm of engineering studies, considering students’ perspectives and discerning their behavioral intentions by drawing upon previous research on technology utilization. The research employs various objectives and learner experiences to assess their influence on students’ acceptance of AR technology. Impact on Society: The use of AR in engineering institutions, especially in laboratory practicals, has a significant impact on society, supported by the UTAUT2 model. UTAUT2 model assesses factors like performance, effort expectancy, social influence, and conditions, showing that AR in education is feasible and adaptable. This adaptability helps students and educators incorporate AR tools effectively for better educational results. AR-based labs allow students to interact with complex engineering concepts in immersive settings, enhancing understanding and knowledge retention. This interactive augmented learning for laboratories saves educational institutions significant time and resources, attaining sustainable learning. Future Research: Further research can employ a more comprehensive acceptance model to examine learners’ adaptability to AR technology and try comparing different adaptability models to determine which is more effective for engineering students.




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Building a Community of Curatorial Practice at Penn State: A Case Study

The Penn State University Libraries and Information Technology Services (ITS) collaborated on the development of Curation Architecture Prototype Services (CAPS), a web application for ingest and management of digital objects. CAPS is built atop a prototype service platform providing atomistic curation functions in order to address the current and emerging requirements in the Libraries and ITS for digital curation, defined as “... maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of digital information for future and current use; specifically, the active management and appraisal of data over the entire life cycle” (Pennock, 2006)[7]. Additional key goals for CAPS were application of an agile-style methodology to the development process and an assessment of the resulting tool and stakeholders’ experience in the project. This article focuses in particular on the community-building aspects of CAPS, which emerged from a combination of agile-style approaches and our commitment to engage stakeholders actively throughout the process, from the construction of use cases, to decisions on metadata standards, to ingest and management functionalities of the tool. The ensuing community of curatorial practice effectively set the stage for the next iteration of CAPS, which will be devoted to planning and executing the development of a production-ready, enterprise-quality infrastructure to support publishing and curation services at Penn State.




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IT Educators and IT Adoption




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Factors Influencing the Decision to Choose Information Technology Preparatory Studies in Secondary Schools: An Exploratory Study in Regional/Rural Australia




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Creation of Anticipatory Information Support for Virtual Organizations between System(S) Theory and System Thinking




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Role of Perceived Importance of Information Security: An Exploratory Study of Middle School Children’s Information Security Behavior




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An Exploratory Survey in Collaborative Software in a Graduate Course in Automatic Identification and Data Capture




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Informing through User-Centered Exploratory Search and Human-Computer Interaction Strategies




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Using a Learner-Centered Approach to Teach ICT in Secondary Schools: An Exploratory Study




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Assessment of Nigerian Teacher Educators’ ICT Training




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Cross-Departmental Collaboration for the Community: Technical Communicators in a Service-Learning Software Engineering Course




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Challenges in Adopting Open Innovation Strategies in SMEs: An Exploratory Study in Portugal




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Student Preferences and Performance in Online and Face-to-Face Classes Using Myers-Briggs Indicator: A Longitudinal Quasi-Experimental Study

This longitudinal, quasi-experimental study investigated students’ cognitive personality type using the Myers-Briggs personality Type Indicator (MBTI) in Internet-based Online and Face-to-Face (F2F) modalities. A total of 1154 students enrolled in 28 Online and 32 F2F sections taught concurrently over a period of fourteen years. The study measured whether the sample is similar to the national average percentage frequency of all 16 different personality types; whether specific personality type students preferred a specific modality of instructions and if this preference changed over time; whether learning occurred in both class modalities; and whether specific personality type students learned more from a specific modality. Data was analyzed using regression, t-test, frequency, and Chi-Squared. The study concluded that data used in the study was similar to the national statistics; that no major differences in preference occurred over time; and that learning did occur in all modalities, with more statistically significant learning found in the Online modality versus F2F for Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving types. Finally, Sensing and Thinking (ST) and Sensing and Perceiving (SP) group types learned significantly more in Online modality versus F2F.




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The Elements Way: Empowering Parents, Educators, and Mentors in the Age of New Media

Aim/Purpose: This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of mentor’s work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way. Background: The New Media offers our “screen kids” a lot of information, many behavioral models, and a new type of social communication. The Elements Way is an educational method designed to enhance openness, development, breakthroughs, goal achievement, and transformation in the age of media and social networks. Methodology: The Elements Way was developed following research on communication in the diversified media, especially new media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and television reality shows, and the study is an examination of the effectiveness of mentors’ work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way. All mentors had been trained in the Elements Way. The study population included 640 mentors working with immigrants’ children in Israel. The work was conducted in 2010-2013. The mixed-methods approach was selected to validate findings. Contribution: Empowering children and enhancing their ability to cope; Creating openness and sharing, making children more attentive to the significant adults in their lives; Supporting children who face the complex reality that characterizes our age. Findings: Significant differences were found in the mentors’ conduct with the children. Work programs were designed and implemented with care and consistency, and mentors succeeded in generating change within the children and achieving desired goals. Of the 640 participating mentors, 62 were not able to promote the child, and interviews with them revealed that their work with the children was not consistent with the Elements Way and began from a different vantage point. Recommendations for Practitioners: Success factors: Self-awareness and awareness of one’s surroundings. Empathy. Willingness to engage in significant interactions. Self-cleansing and self-reflection. Ability to engage in a personal and interpersonal dialogue. Ability to accept and contain the child. Cooperation with the child in creating a work program and assisting the child to achieve the goals that were set in the program. Recommendation for Researchers: Future studies should focus on analyzing the discussions of children and adolescents, to add depth to our insights regarding children and adolescents’ perception of the mentors’ work from their perspective. Impact on Society: Finding the “keys” to openness, development, goal achievement, and transformation in our work with “screen kids.” Future Research: Studies that are designed to examine the effectiveness of mentor’s work with immigrant children and adolescents at risk, using the Elements Way.




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Mandatory Gamified Security Awareness Training Impacts on Texas Public Middle School Students: A Qualitative Study

Aim/Purpose. The problem statement in the proposed study focuses on that, despite the growing recognition that teenagers need to undergo security awareness training, little is known about the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security awareness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behavior of students in Texas. Background. This study was guided by the research question: What are the impacts security training experts believe implementing a mandatory gamified security aware-ness training curriculum in public middle schools will have on the long-term security behaviors of students in Texas? The study gathers opinions from experts on the impacts of security awareness training on students. Methodology. Our research used semi-structured interviews with twelve experts chosen through the use of purposive sampling. The population for the study consisted of experts in the fields of security awareness training for and teaching middle school-aged children. Candidates were recruited through the Cyber-Texas Foundation and snowball sampling techniques. Contribution. The research contributed to the body of knowledge by using interviews to explore the impacts of security awareness training on middle school students based on the opinions and views of the teachers and instructors who work with middle school students. Findings. The findings of this study demonstrate that middle school is an ideal time to provide cybersecurity training and will impact student behaviors by making them more conscious of cyber threats and preparing them to be more tech-savvy professionals. The research also showed that well-designed cybersecurity games with real-world application combined with traditional teaching techniques can help students develop positive habits. The research also suggests that teachers possess the skills to teach cybersecurity classes and the classes can be integrated into the current school day without the need for any significant changes to existing daily schedules. Recommendations for Practitioners. A well-design gamification-based curriculum implemented in Texas Middle Schools, combined with traditional teaching techniques and repeated over an extended time period, will impact students’ behaviors by making them more able to recognize and respond to cyber risks and will transform them into more secure and tech-savvy members of society. Recommendations for Researchers. The research shows middle school instructors and technology experts believe the implementation of a security awareness training program in middle schools is both possible and practical, while also beneficial to the students. The recommendation is to encourage researchers to explore ways to build curricula and games capable of appealing to students and implementing the instruction into school programs. Impact on Society. Demonstrating that training provided in middle school will make lasting impacts and improvements to student behaviors benefits children and their families in the short-term and workplaces in the long-term. The development of a more security-conscious workforce can reduce the significant number of data breaches and cyber attacks resulting from the poor security habits of companies’ users. Future Research. Future research that will add significant value to the body of knowledge includes testing the effectiveness of habit-shaping games to determine whether existing long-term games maintain student interest. Qualitative studies could interview parents of teenagers using habit-shaping games to determine the effectiveness of the applications. Another qualitative study could interview teachers to determine how teachers’ ages affect their comfort level teaching technology classes. Both studies could provide valuable insights into how to implement security awareness training in schools.




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Gamified Cybersecurity Education Through the Lens of the Information Search Process: An Exploratory Study of Capture-the-Flag Competitions [Research-in-Progress]

Aim/Purpose. Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges are a popular form of cybersecurity education where students solve hands-on tasks in a game-like setting. These exercises provide learning experiences with various specific technologies and subjects, as well as a broader understanding of cybersecurity topics. Competitions reinforce and teach problem-solving skills that are applicable in various technical and non-technical environments outside of the competitions. Background. The Information Search Process (ISP) is a framework developed to under-stand the process by which an individual goes about studying a topic, identifying emotional ties connected to each step an individual takes. As the individual goes through the problem-solving process, there is a clear flow from uncertainty to clarity; the individual’s feelings, thoughts, and actions are all interconnected. This study aims to investigate the learning of cybersecurity concepts within the framework of the ISP, specifically in the context of CTF competitions. Methodology. A comprehensive research methodology designed to incorporate quantitative and qualitative analyses to draw the parallels between the participants’ emotional experiences and the affective dimensions of learning will be implemented to measure the three primary goals. Contribution. This study contributes significantly to the broader landscape of cybersecurity education and cognitive-emotional experiences in problem-solving. Findings. The study has three primary goals. First, we seek to enhance our under-standing of the emotional and intellectual aspects involved in problem-solving, as demonstrated by the ISP approach. Second, we aim to gain in-sights into how the presentation of CTF challenges influences the learning experience of participants. Lastly, we strive to contribute to the improvement of cybersecurity education by identifying actionable steps for more effective teaching of technical skills and approaches. Recommendations for Practitioners. Competitions reinforce and teach problem-solving skills applicable in various technical and non-technical environments outside of the competitions. Recommendations for Researchers. The Information Search Process (ISP) framework may enhance our understanding of the emotional and intellectual aspects involved in problem-solving as we study the emotional ties connected to each step an individual takes as the individual goes through the problem-solving process. Impact on Society. Our pursuit of advancing our understanding of cybersecurity education will better equip future generations with the skills and knowledge needed to ad-dress the evolving challenges of the digital landscape. This will better pre-pare them for real-world challenges. Future Research. Future studies would include the development of a cybersecurity curriculum on vulnerability exploitation and defense. It would include practice exploiting practical web and binary vulnerabilities, reverse engineering, system hardening, security operations, and understanding how they can be chained together.




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Clickers in the Laboratory: Student Thoughts and Views




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Analysis of Explanatory and Predictive Architectures and the Relevance in Explaining the Adoption of IT in SMEs




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Analogical Thinking for Generation of Innovative Ideas: An Exploratory Study of Influential Factors

Analogical thinking is one of the most effective tools to generate innovative ideas. It enables us to develop new ideas by transferring information from well-known domains and utilizing them in a novel domain. However, using analogical thinking does not always yield appropriate ideas, and there is a lack of consensus among researchers regarding the evaluation methods for assessing new ideas. Here, we define the appropriateness of generated ideas as having high structural and low superficial similarities with their source ideas. This study investigates the relationship between thinking process and the appropriateness of ideas generated through analogical thinking. We conducted four workshops with 22 students in order to collect the data. All generated ideas were assessed based on the definition of appropriateness in this study. The results show that participants who deliberate more before reaching the creative leap stage and those who are engaged in more trial and error for deciding the final domain of a new idea have a greater possibility of generating appropriate ideas. The findings suggest new strategies of designing workshops to enhance the appropriateness of new ideas.




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PRATO: An Automated Taxonomy-Based Reviewer-Proposal Assignment System

Aim/Purpose: This paper reports our implementation of a prototype system, namely PRATO (Proposals Reviewers Automated Taxonomy-based Organization), for automatic assignment of proposals to reviewers based on categorized tracks and partial matching of reviewers’ profiles of research interests against proposal keywords. Background: The process of assigning reviewers to proposals tends to be a complicated task as it involves inspecting the matching between a given proposal and a reviewer based on different criteria. The situation becomes worse if one tries to automate this process, especially if a reviewer partially matches the domain of the paper at hand. Hence, a new controlled approach is required to facilitate the matching process. Methodology: Proposals and reviewers are organized into categorized tracks as defined by a tree of hierarchical research domains which correspond to the university’s colleges and departments. In addition, reviewers create their profiles of research interests (keywords) at the time of registration. Initial assignment is based on the matching of categorized sub-tracks of proposal and reviewer. Where the proposal and a reviewer fall under different categories (sub-tracks), assignment is done based on partial matching of proposal content against re-viewers’ research interests. Jaccard similarity coefficient scores are calculated of proposal keywords and reviewers’ profiles of research interest, and the reviewer with highest score is chosen. The system was used to automate the process of proposal-reviewer assignment at the Umm Al-Qura University during the 2017-2018 funding cycle. The list of proposal-reviewer assignments generated by the system was sent to human experts for voting and subsequently to make final assignments accordingly. With expert votes and final decisions as evaluation criteria, data system-expert agreements (in terms of “accept” or “reject”) were collected and analyzed by tallying frequencies and calculating rejection/acceptance ratios to assess the system’s performance. Contribution: This work helped the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), a funding agency at Umm Al-Qura University, in managing the process of reviewing proposals submitted for funding. We believe the work can also benefit any organizations or conferences to automate the assignment of papers to the most appropriate reviewers. Findings: Our developed prototype, PRATO, showed a considerable impact on the entire process of reviewing proposals at DSR. It automated the assignment of proposals to reviewers and resulted in 56.7% correct assignments overall. This indicates that PRATO performed considerably well at this early stage of its development. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important for funding agencies and publishers to automate reviewing process to obtain better reviewing quality in a timely manner. Recommendation for Researchers: This work highlighted a new methodology to tackle the proposal-reviewer assignment task in an automated manner. More evaluation might be needed with consideration of different categories, especially for partially matched candidates. Impact on Society: The new methodology and knowledge about factors influencing the implementation of automated proposal-reviewing systems will help funding agencies and publishers to improve the quality of their internal processes. Future Research: In the future, we plan to examine PRATO’s performance on different classification schemes where specialty areas can be represented in graphs rather than trees. With graph representation, the scope for reviewer selection can be widened to include more general fields of specialty. Moreover, we will try to record the reasons for rejection to identify accurately whether the rejection was due to improper assignment or other reasons.