Kinetic studies determining the second order rate constants for the monoepoxidation of cyclic dienes, 1,3-cyclohexadiene and 1,3-cyclooctadiene, and the epoxidation of cis-/trans-2-hexenes by dimethyldioxirane (DMDO) were carried out using UV methodology. Consistent with published results, the kinetics of cis-/trans-2-hexenes by DMDO showed greater reactivity of the cis-isomer compared to that of the trans-compound. Molecular modeling studies for the epoxidation of a series of cis-/trans-alkenes, by DMDO were carried out using the DFT approach. The mechanism of epoxidation by DMDO was modeled by determining the transition state geometry and calculating the electronic activation energies and relative reactivities. The calculations were consistent with a concerted, electrophilic, exothermic process with a spiro-transition state for all cases. Kinetic studies for the monoepoxidation of the cyclic dienes showed a greater reactivity for 1,3-cyclohexadiene compared to that for 1,3-cyclooctadiene. The DFT method was employed to successfully model the transition state for the monoepoxidation of the cyclic dienes by DMDO and successfully predict the relative reactivities. Student misconceptions, at the high school and/or middle school level involving energy changes and chemical reactions have been prevalently noted in literature (by ACS and AAAS). Two examples of these misconceptions are: 1) heat is always needed to initiate a chemical reaction and 2) all chemical reactions create or destroy energy. In order to address these types of misconceptions, an educational module detailing the influence of energy changes on chemical reactions has been developed in conjunction with the Bio-bus program for middle and high school students. Visual aids and hands-on activities were developed in the module to potentially help students overcome/deal with the common misconceptions. Surveys were designed to access the situations (determine the extent of the misconceptions) and the effectiveness of the educational module, before and immediately after the module and one-month later to determine retention. The educational module has been presented to approximately 100 high school students from underrepresented communities. Pre-survey data confirmed the presence of the common misconceptions reported in the literature. Data from the post-survey indicated the new instructional module enhanced the student’s interest of science and expanded their content knowledge and laboratory skills. The post-survey data (immediately following the module) showed a significant difference in two out of five misconceptions when compared to the pre-survey data. However, this significance decreased when the 1-month post-survey data were compared to the pre-survey data.

... The design of advanced blended learning arrangements demands a shift of focus from mere content-based knowledge delivery to moderated interactions between topics, peers and educators. The provision of suitable learning content does not serve primarily as learning resources, but rather as a trigger for active learning as an appropriate combination of individual and collaborative engagement to achieve learning goals which address the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. This triggered interaction benefits strongly by demand-driven and goal-oriented tele-tutorial moderation, perhaps based on deeper insight into learners’ interactions, provided by Learning Analytics. [Aus: Collaborative Online Learning]

A presente pesquisa configura-se como um estudo de caso de natureza qualitativa que procurou analisar e tecer algumas considerações importantes a respeito de um curso livre experimental de inglês básico on-line - denominado Beginner Grammar Writing (BGW)-, com enfoque no desenvolvimento das habilidades de leitura e de escrita. Esse curso foi oferecido para alunos de diferentes países cuja língua materna não é o inglês, e ministrado, concomitantemente, por duas professoras da área, residentes em países distintos. Procurou-se verificar se o curso, que adotou uma metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem colaborativa/comunicacional, veio a se tornar uma comunidade de aprendizagem, a partir das características apontadas por vários teóricos, e das quais elegemos as seguintes: interesses comuns, empatia, sociabilidade colaborativa e tempo de exposição no grupo. Os dados obtidos foram coletados ao longo do curso em questão, no primeiro momento em que foi oferecido. Esses dados consistem em documentos digitais do curso (tais como e-mail dos alunos, e-mail trocados entre as professoras, registros de participação dos estudantes no fórum e em sessões de chat) e na observação participante da professora/pesquisadora ao longo de todo o curso. O estudo fundamentou-se nas teorias da comunicação escolar, comunicação on-line, de aprendizagem colaborativa e no referencial teórico a respeito de comunidades virtuais (de aprendizagem). A reflexão sobre os dados recolhidos e a análise efetuada apontaram algumas questões relevantes a respeito de ensino de inglês on-line na perspectiva de uma metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem colaborativo/ comunicacional e mostraram que o curso BGW atingiu o objetivo de promover a aprendizagem coletiva. A análise de dados confirmou ainda que uma comunidade de aprendizagem foi criada e é mantida como tal a partir do curso BGW aqui estudado. / The present study is a qualitative case study of an experimental English basic on-line course, entitled Beginner Grammar Writing (BGW), with emphasis on the development of writing and reading skills. This course was offered to students from different countries, whose native language was not English, and was delivered simultaneously by two teachers of English, resident in distinct countries. The study attempted to verify whether the students in the course, which adopted a teaching and learning collaborative/communicational methodology, became a learning community from the characteristics described by several theoreticians and from which we selected the following: common interests, empathy, collaborative sociability and time of exposure in the group. The data were collected from the course when it was first offered. Data consisted of digital documents (such as students´ e-mail, e-mail exchanged between the teachers, questionnaires, registers of students´ participation in the discussion forum and in the chat sessions, and some others) and the participative observation of the teacher/researcher throughout the course. The theoretical framework was based on the communicative theory, the collaborative learning approach and the theoretical referential on virtual learning communities. The data showed that the BGW course reached its objective of promoting a collective learning. The data also confirmed that a learning community was created and is maintained as so from the course studied.

A presente pesquisa configura-se como um estudo de caso de natureza qualitativa que procurou analisar e tecer algumas considerações importantes a respeito de um curso livre experimental de inglês básico on-line - denominado Beginner Grammar Writing (BGW)-, com enfoque no desenvolvimento das habilidades de leitura e de escrita. Esse curso foi oferecido para alunos de diferentes países cuja língua materna não é o inglês, e ministrado, concomitantemente, por duas professoras da área, residentes em países distintos. Procurou-se verificar se o curso, que adotou uma metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem colaborativa/comunicacional, veio a se tornar uma comunidade de aprendizagem, a partir das características apontadas por vários teóricos, e das quais elegemos as seguintes: interesses comuns, empatia, sociabilidade colaborativa e tempo de exposição no grupo. Os dados obtidos foram coletados ao longo do curso em questão, no primeiro momento em que foi oferecido. Esses dados consistem em documentos digitais do curso (tais como e-mail dos alunos, e-mail trocados entre as professoras, registros de participação dos estudantes no fórum e em sessões de chat) e na observação participante da professora/pesquisadora ao longo de todo o curso. O estudo fundamentou-se nas teorias da comunicação escolar, comunicação on-line, de aprendizagem colaborativa e no referencial teórico a respeito de comunidades virtuais (de aprendizagem). A reflexão sobre os dados recolhidos e a análise efetuada apontaram algumas questões relevantes a respeito de ensino de inglês on-line na perspectiva de uma metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem colaborativo/ comunicacional e mostraram que o curso BGW atingiu o objetivo de promover a aprendizagem coletiva. A análise de dados confirmou ainda que uma comunidade de aprendizagem foi criada e é mantida como tal a partir do curso BGW aqui estudado. / The present study is a qualitative case study of an experimental English basic on-line course, entitled Beginner Grammar Writing (BGW), with emphasis on the development of writing and reading skills. This course was offered to students from different countries, whose native language was not English, and was delivered simultaneously by two teachers of English, resident in distinct countries. The study attempted to verify whether the students in the course, which adopted a teaching and learning collaborative/communicational methodology, became a learning community from the characteristics described by several theoreticians and from which we selected the following: common interests, empathy, collaborative sociability and time of exposure in the group. The data were collected from the course when it was first offered. Data consisted of digital documents (such as students´ e-mail, e-mail exchanged between the teachers, questionnaires, registers of students´ participation in the discussion forum and in the chat sessions, and some others) and the participative observation of the teacher/researcher throughout the course. The theoretical framework was based on the communicative theory, the collaborative learning approach and the theoretical referential on virtual learning communities. The data showed that the BGW course reached its objective of promoting a collective learning. The data also confirmed that a learning community was created and is maintained as so from the course studied.

L'un des défis majeurs pour les décennies à venir, dans le domaine des technologies de l'information et de la communication, est la réalisation du concept des réseaux autonomes. Ce paradigme a pour objectif de rendre les équipements réseaux capables de s'autogérer, c'est-à-dire qu'ils pourront s'auto-configurer, s'auto-optimiser, s'auto-protéger et s'auto-restaurer en respectant les objectifs de haut niveau de leurs concepteurs. Les architectures majeures de réseaux autonomes se basent principalement sur la notion de boucle de contrôle fermée permettant l'auto-adaptation (auto-configuration et auto-optimisation) de l'équipement réseau en fonction des événements qui surviennent sur leur environnement. Le plan de connaissance est une des approches, très mise en avant ces dernières années par le monde de la recherche, qui suggère l'utilisation des systèmes cognitifs (l'apprentissage et le raisonnement) pour fermer la boucle de contrôle. Cependant, bien que les architectures majeures de gestion autonomes intègrent des modules d'apprentissage sous forme de boite noire, peu de recherches s'intéressent véritablement au contenu de ces boites. C'est dans ce cadre que nous avons fait une étude sur l'apport potentiel de l'apprentissage et proposé une méthode d'apprentissage distribué et collaboratif. Nous proposons une formalisation du problème d'auto-adaptation sous forme d'un problème d'apprentissage d'état-actions. Cette formalisation nous permet de définir un apprentissage de stratégies d'auto-adaptation qui se base sur l'utilisation de l'historique des transitions et utilise la programmation logique inductive pour découvrir de nouvelles stratégies à partir de celles déjà découvertes. Nous définissons, aussi un algorithme de partage de la connaissance qui permet d'accélérer le processus d'apprentissage. Enfin, nous avons testé l'approche proposé dans le cadre d'un réseau DiffServ et montré sa transposition sur le contexte du transport de flux multimédia dans les réseaux sans-fil 802.11. / One of the major challenges for decades to come, in the field of information technologies and the communication, is realization of autonomic paradigm. It aims to enable network equipments to self-manage, enable them to self-configure, self-optimize, self-protect and self-heal according to high-level objectives of their designers. Major architectures of autonomic networking are based on closed control loop allowing self-adapting (self-configuring and self-optimizing) of the network equipment according to the events which arise on their environment. Knowledge plane is one approach, very emphasis these last years by researchers, which suggests the use of the cognitive systems (machine learning and the reasoning) to realize closed control loop. However, although the major autonomic architectures integrate machine learning modules as functional block, few researches are really interested in the contents of these blocks. It is in this context that we made a study on the potential contribution machine learning and proposed a method of distributed and collaborative machine learning. We propose a formalization self-adapting problem in term of learning configuration strategies (state-actions) problem. This formalization allows us to define a strategies machine learning method for self-adapting which is based on the history observed transitions and uses inductive logic programming to discover new strategies from those already discovered. We defined, also a knowledge sharing algorithm which makes network components collaborate to improve learning process. Finally, we tested our approach in DiffServ context and showed its transposition on multimedia streaming in 802.11 wireless networks.

Online basierte Lernplattformen sind an Universitäten und Hochschulen im Bereich der Lehre weitestgehend eingeführt. An Schulen werden diese Lernplattformen ebenfalls immer mehr genutzt. Bei der Nutzung von online basierten Lernplattformen verspricht man sich eine Reihe von Verbesserungen im Bereich der Selbstlernkompetenzen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird untersucht, in welcher Form Lernangebote auf der Basis von Lernplattformen über das Internet für Schüler bereitgestellt werden können und welche Konsequenzen sich für den Aufbau der Lernplattformen ergeben, wenn diese in der Schule eingesetzt werden. Parallel hierzu wird untersucht, wie stark sich die Selbstlernkompetenz der Schüler während der Nutzung von online basierten Lernplattformen verändert. Damit eine Zuordnung der entwickelten Szenarien zu den jeweiligen Lernplattformen vereinfacht wird, wurde ein Diagramm in der Form eines Fünfeckes entwickelt. Dieses Diagramm wird als didaktisches Pentagramm in der Arbeit eingeführt und verwendet. Bei der Nutzung der Lernplattformen wird die Möglichkeit der Kollaboration zwischen den Nutzern (Lehrende und Lerner) als Klassifikationskriterium aus der Sicht eines Lerners eingeführt. Daraus ergeben sich zwei Typen von Lernplattformen: - Primär kollaborative Systeme (PKS) bzw. Gruppenlernsysteme, bei denen die Kollaboration einen wesentlichen Bestandteil des Wissenserwerbs darstellt und - Sekundär kollaborative Systeme (SKS) bzw. Individuallernsysteme, bei denen eine Kollaboration mit anderen Lernern in den Hintergrund rückt. Der Einsatz der Lernplattformen wird zum einen durch einen Fragebogen zum anderen durch die Messung der Leistungsentwicklung im Vergleich zu Testgruppen ohne die Nutzung von online basierten Lernplattformen erfasst. Aus diesen Ergebnissen heraus werden allgemeine technische Anforderungen an Lernplattformen abgeleitet. Durch die Umsetzung dieser Forderungen soll sichergestellt werden, dass bei einem Einsatz der Lernplattformen im schulischen Bereich ein optimaler Lernerfolg erreicht werden kann. Es wird nachgewiesen, dass für Einsatz von online basierten Lernplattformen bei Lernern mit einer gering ausgeprägten Selbstlernkompetenz eine Steuerung des Lernweges notwendig ist. In diesem Fall führt der Einsatz von online basierten Lernplattformen des Types SKS zu einer Verbesserung der Lernleistung. Der kollaborative Ansatz unter Nutzung eines primär kollaborativen Systems bzw. Gruppenlernsystems führt bei den Testgruppen zwar zu einer Verbesserung der Selbstlernkompetenz, hierbei können jedoch keine Verbesserungen von Lernleistungen gegenüber dem klassischen Lehransatz nachgewiesen werden. ---- <img src="http://vg01.met.vgwort.de/na/532892aa69654092b591f5531a8bf22c" width="1" height="1" alt=""/>