In the effort to examine the factors that impact the use of ICT by teachers, research has up until now neglected the acceleration of ICT developments as a factor that affects the successful integration of ICT in education. The technological acceleration in general has triggered significant changes at the social level, such as the acceleration of social change and the acceleration of the pace of life. This is why the study of the acceleration of ICT provides for a good theoretical framework to study the teachers and their interaction with ICT in a broader context, one that engages the environment in which a teacher functions as a teacher and a learner. This study explores the role of the acceleration of ICT as a factor that affects the use of ICT by teachers in Cyprus secondary schools. The Social Acceleration (SA) theory is used to interpret the whole situation. After examining how teachers perceive the ICT acceleration, how it affects them at school and personally as lifelong learners the results showed that ICT acceleration is not a significant factor in the use of ICT by teachers at schools in Cyprus but it still affects teachers indirectly as lifelong learners. I argue that the teachers have established a superficial relation to technology that has to do with a short-sighted vision of ICT integration which also the Ministry of Education shares. I propose that serious decisions should be made at a policy level in order to make a conscious adoption of technology, not necessarily running behind the accelerated ICT developments but exploiting the potential of ICT according to the needs of the educational system.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis, PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

The West Vancouver Acceleration Programme was started in 1955 under the direction of the British Columbia Department of Education. It was part of an experiment carried out in three separate schools, to see if some of the top academic students could complete the regular High School curriculum, Grades 9-12, in three instead of four years. The 'above average students' were grouped into special classes in which both acceleration and enrichment took place. In this context, the 'above average students' were those students whose I.Q. was 113 or better and who had achieved consistently high results in the academic subjects English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science. The question asked was: Have the accelerated students at West Vancouver Senior High School attained an academic standard in three years as high as that attained by a matched group of regular programme students in four years? The experimental group consisted of two divisions of accelerated students at the Grade 12 level, who covered the last four years of the regular High School programme in three years, completing it in 1958. The control group was drawn from the two top divisions of the regular Grade 12 students who were of comparable ability to the accelerated students, and who would probably have been on the "Acceleration Programme" had it commenced one year earlier. The marks used for comparison purposes were those obtained in the 1958 internal Easter examinations. The two groups were matched for I.Q. and the comparison carried out on a subject basis. In Mathematics a statistically significant difference between the means of the marks obtained was found in favour of the accelerated group. In Physics, French and Latin no significant difference was found. It was concluded that in general the accelerated students achieved an academic standard in three years as high as the regular programme students achieved in four years. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Electromagnetic acceleration has the potential for various applications stemming from space electric propulsion systems to future air breathing hypersonic augmentation. Electromagnetic acceleration uses electromagnetic body force produced by the interactions of currents carried in plasma which is either externally applied or self-induced magnetic fields to accelerate the whole body of gas. Historically, these plasmas sources have been arc jets, shock tube and microwaves. Never has an electromagnetic accelerator been powered by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source. The von Karman Institute has experimentally investigated the acceleration of an electrically conductive fluid produce by a subsonic ICP source. This ICP source was powered with a 15 kW and 27.1 MHz radio frequency facility called the Minitorch. The electromagnetic acceleration was accomplished with the design, fabrication and testing of a linear Hall current magnetofluiddynamic accelerator (MFDA) channel. The channel was geometrically orientated into the Hall configuration to accounts for the large Hall Effect. This channel used a single pair of copper annulus electrodes powered by a 10 kW direct current power supply. The channel was water cooled and contained various diagnostics to provide greater insight to the electromagnetic acceleration process. This was the first successful magnetofluiddynamic acceleration of an ICP source and validates the proof of concept. One-dimensional MFD modeling was formulated and used to determine the necessary performance requirements of the MFDA channel E and B field subsystems. An interaction parameter of approximately 2.25 was required for the doubling of an inlet velocity of 300 m/sec. The required subsystem need to provide a current density was 6 Amps/cm2 with a magnetic field strength of 0.50 Tesla over an acceleration length of 0.1 meters. Additional the most critical constraint was the thermal management subsystem which was designed to overcome large heat transfer fluxes to achieve a steady state condition over a test run of 10 minutes. The dynamic pressure measured increase the inlet velocity 101% for an argon plasma flowing at 1.01 g/s at a magnetic field strength of 0.49 Tesla. his strong acceleration of the plasma was most notable near the region of the electrodes at the exit of the 0.1 m long channel. The central region of the plasma has less dynamic pressure increase corresponding to only a maximum of 15% increase in velocity at a magnetic strength of 0.49 Tesla. Experimental results showed that axial discharge voltages increased with increased magnetic fields, indicating a strong Hall Effect in the accelerator as expected. Theoretical analysis was accomplished using the one-dimensional equation of motion and was compared to utilizing only the momentum equation. Experimental force fluxes were compared to the calculated values of the one-dimensional equation of motion and momentum equation. The reference area for the current density was selected from intensity measurement using a high speed camera with the MFDA channel on. There was significant error in the analysis concerning using the momentum Lorentz force only versus the one-dimensional equations of motion; which included joule heating. This analysis summarized the necessity to include joule heating in the formulation of the problem.

No description available.