1,720,956 research outputs found
Early introduction of cost-effective e-Learning ICTs in schools
Full text linkSubmitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Technology Degree in Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015.One of the fundamental characteristics of technology is its ever-changing nature with the continuous release of new models and products almost on a daily basis. It is interesting to note that these new technologies seem to appeal more to the youth than to the old. This might explain why the content of some Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as films, TV, and games, are sometimes released with well-defined age ratings, in order to provide guidance to parents and guardians on the suitability of such content for their children. What is surprising is that there are age restrictions for the content presented by ICT devices, but devices themselves do not have any defined age restriction. For example, movies which can be played on computers, have a well-defined age restriction; but computers themselves do not have any defined age restriction. This non-definition of age ratings for ICT devices is certainly a general concern, but it is also a major concern for the education domain which needs to determine the minimum age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school. This problem of the non-definition of age ratings for ICT devices serves as a motivation for this study, whose aim is to determine the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school. The research objectives unfolding from this aim are: i) To select appropriate theories and models on the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; ii) To design a conceptual model of the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; iii To empirically test the above conceptual model of the factors affecting educators’perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; and iv) To make recommendations on the design of eLearning initiatives in schools based on the results of the current study. These four objectives were achieved as follows through the content analysis of existing literature and a survey of 70 primary and secondary school educators from the Camperdown magisterial district in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa: i) Specific personality and child development theories were selected as the theoretical foundation of this study; ii) The conceptual model proposed in this study gave rise to the following hypotheses: The demographics of an educator affect the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of his or her personality as well as his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school. The full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of the personality of an educator all affect his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; iii) The empirical testing of the above hypothesized model yielded the following results: the grade or class taught by an educator is the only demographic factor that affects the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of his or her personality; the subject specialisation of an educator is the only demographic variable that affects his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of the personality of an educator all affect his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; and iv) One of the recommendation of this study is that eLearning pilot projects be designed in ways that clearly consider differences between educators from various subject specialisations. This study identified the need for more research on the effect of personality on the perceptions of educators on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs, not only at school as it is the case for this study, but also at home. The main contribution of this research is to have found that educators’ personality has an effect on their perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school, compared to the literature reviewed by this study which seems to be silent on the relationship between the personality of educators and the determination of the age when learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school.
Student perception of the contribution of Hackathon and collaborative learning approach on computer programming pass rate
No full textExamining the Factors Influencing Students’ Satisfaction with Hackathon for IT Projects
Full text linkEducation-related hackathons provide a dynamic and participatory method of teaching where students take an active role and become inventors and problem solvers. It encourages teamwork, critical thinking, and the use of technology, preparing students for the demands of the workforce of the twenty-first century. Although it has played a significant role in changing enterprises and society at large, its impact on academia has not yet been adequately examined. Studying the factors influencing student satisfaction with the use of hackathons for teaching and learning is crucial and pertinent given that South African educational institutions are still in the early phases of employing hackathons. The study sought to determine the factors that contributed to students’ satisfaction with hackathons for IT project. To achieve the goal, a model incorporating the self-efficacy and satisfaction constructs with TAM variables (perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and behavioral intention (BI)) was developed. To test the model, an online questionnaire-based survey was carried out on 180 IT students who had taken part in a hackathon. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to assess the validity of the results, while Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability. The hypothesis in the suggested model was verified by using correlation to assess relationships between the constructs, while linear regressions were utilized to assess influences between variables. The Pearson correlation result showed that self-efficacy and behavioral intention have a moderately positive and statistically significant relationship with student satisfaction when using hackathon for IT projects, and the regression analysis revealed that students’ use of hackathons for IT projects is positively influenced by perceived usefulness and self-efficacy. The study identified factors that were positively correlated with and impacted students’ satisfaction with the use of hackathon for IT projects, which forms the primary contribution of this research work. By enabling a form of social learning where knowledge is created among students, the use of hackathon for IT projects will help change the learning environment from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered one
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Operational use of mobile learning : understanding and retention of curriculum content
No full textThis chapter aims to evaluate and explore students’ perceptions of mobile
phones in helping with understanding and retention of curriculum content. This
aim is achieved within a theoretical framework on the use of mobile learning
with understanding and retention. Student learning is influenced by different
environmental factors, which impact the adequacy of their understanding and
retention of curriculum content. At tertiary education level, the intensity and
quality of work become more physically and mentally demanding. Students
may find it more difficult to deal with the workload they are presented with. As
a result, this may affect the potential level of understanding that can be accomplished in certain subject areas. This study was conducted on undergraduate
students studying Information Technology (IT) at a university in Durban,
South Africa in 2016. The self-administered questionnaire-based survey
was used while transactional distance theory (TDT) is the core theoretical
framework that underpins this study. The outcome of students’ perception
was analyzed and it was found that the use of mobile phones in teaching and
learning improved their understanding and retention of curriculum content
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