Η διδασκαλία των γενικών αρχών του προγραμματισμού, ειδικά όταν αφορά ηλικίες της πρώτης βαθμίδας εκπαίδευσης, συγκεντρώνει όλο και περισσότερο το ενδιαφέρον της ερευνητικής κοινότητας. Η εργασία αυτή έχει σαν σκοπό να παρουσιάσει μια πρόταση διδασκαλίας της έννοιας της διαδικασίας σε μαθητές πέμπτης και έκτης δημοτικού. Η προτεινόμενη διδακτική παρέμβαση αξιοποιεί το προγραμματιζόμενο ρομπότ δαπέδου Pro-Bot και προσπαθεί να διερευνήσει το βαθμό εξοικείωσης των μαθητών με την έννοια της διαδικασίας στον προγραμματισμό και να ανιχνεύσει τυχόν διδακτικά προβλήματα που προκύπτουν κατά τη διδασκαλία της. Αφού γίνει μια εισαγωγή στην έννοια της ρομποτικής και στα οφέλη που προκύπτουν από την ένταξή της στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία, περιγράφονται διάφορα διαθέσιμα πακέτα και γίνεται εκτενής αναφορά στο προγραμματιζόμενο ρομπότ Pro-Bot. Στη συνέχεια, παρουσιάζεται η έννοια και το περιβάλλον χρήσης της διαδικασίας, ενώ ερευνάται η βιβλιογραφία που σχετίζεται με την εφαρμογή της ρομποτικής στη διδασκαλία των διαδικασιών στην εκπαίδευση. Ακολουθεί η περιγραφή των στόχων και της μεθοδολογίας της έρευνας και παρουσιάζονται αναλυτικά οι δραστηριότητες, συνοδευόμενες από παρατηρήσεις και φωτογραφικό υλικό από την πορεία της διδασκαλίας. Τέλος, μέσα από την αξιολόγηση των φύλλων εργασίας και του υπόλοιπου υλικού, εξάγονται χρήσιμα συμπεράσματα. / Teaching the general principles of programming, especially to primary education students, becomes more and more interesting to the research community. This thesis aims to present a teaching proposal of the concept of procedure to fifth and sixth graders. The proposed approach utilizes the programmable floor robot Pro-Bot and tries to explore the extent to which students get familiar with the concept of procedure in programming and to detect any problems that may arise when teaching. Once introducing the concept of robotics and the arising benefits of its integration into the learning process, various robotic packages available are described followed by a detailed reference to the programmable robot, Pro-Bot. Furthermore, procedure concept and usage environment is introduced, succeeded by literature research related to the application of robotics in teaching procedures, description of the research objectives and methodology and presentation of teaching activities, together with observations and photos of the course of instruction. Finally, through the evaluation of worksheets and the rest of the material, useful conclusions are made.

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No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The present study first establishes a framework for examining sociologically how ideas are formed with particular reference to the examination of Chinese intellectuals' conceptualization of democracy. The basis for this framework is K. Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, together with A. Gramsci's sociology of intellectuals and P. Bourdieu's notion of intellectual field. Deriving the insights from these scholars we hope to establish a more coherent conceptual framework for the analysis of intellectual production. With this framework in hand, the next step was to determine a reasonable approach to the examination of the ideological formation of Chinese intellectuals. The source of information for the study came from the first-hand intensive interviews with the selected intellectuals. Besides, the present study also scrutinizes the works of these intellectuals whose works have spanned the years especially from the May Fourth Movement (1919) to the June Fourth Incident (1989). Their perceptions of democracy, freedom and human rights provide vital clues for determining the complete picture of the evolution on the idea of democracy in contemporary China. No one intellectual has managed to suggest what democracy is, but using the theoretical framework and examining the interviews, writings and speeches of these intellectuals over a period of several years have allowed this researcher to develop a systematic and a more integrated view of democracy as formulated by Chinese intellectuals. In the process of analyzing the ideological production of Chinese intellectuals, this writer has also discovered the emergence of new and different relationships which have developed between Chinese intellectuals and the state. At the same time as they have become more independent, the nature of their critique has changed. In the past Chinese intellectuals criticized only the corruption of government and never the system of government itself. But post-Mao intellectuals have thrown off the fetters of their predecessors and turned their attacks on the system of their repressive Communist regime. Those who, in an earlier era, were fiercely loyal to the Communist ideals now speak only of the myth of a Communist utopia. Their criticism of the crises in China and their critique of state socialism reveal not only their scepticism of socialist praxis but also their wishes to make China more democratic. One point which deserves special attention is that the present research finds that the sixth generation of intellectuals has become more conscious about their independent role, rethinking a new relationship with the state and they have distinguished themselves from the establishment. The most significant finding of the present research is the fact that the ideological formation is greatly affected by the social location, the educational orientation and generational location of intellectuals. More importantly, a deeper understanding of how Chinese intellectuals conceive the ideas of democracy is significantly determined by the particular socio-historical and socio-cultural contexts in which the ideas are formed. The present study also observes that intellectual radicalism is greatly constrained by the socioeconomic and political opportunities that intellectuals have access. With different social locations and socio-economic-political opportunities to which intellectuals access, they may adopt different strategies in coping with the state. After the June Fourth massacre, many Chinese intellectuals with critical thinking were forced to exile overseas. The writer also finds that these exiled intellectuals have deeper reflection of democracy and also their relationship with the state especially when their socio-political circumstances have changed. Adding these observations together, it is highly indicative to us that Chinese intellectuals have struggled for a more autonomous social position and endeavored to have a new relationship with the state.

Le tourisme est une industrie qui croît à une vitesse exponentielle. Elle est souvent mise de l’avant comme moyen d’amoindrir la pauvreté dans plusieurs régions du monde. Cependant, la littérature lui consacre beaucoup de critiques et de reproches. Ainsi, la mondialisation a favorisé la naissance d’un tout nouveau mouvement : le tourisme alternatif. C’est dans cette logique que la présente thèse s’attarde sur l’étude du tourisme alternatif dans la zone désertique algérienne, plus précisément à Timimoune. Ainsi, elle interroge les attitudes et perceptions des divers acteurs (touristes, agences touristiques, guides touristiques locaux et les populations locales) à considérer le tourisme alternatif comme levier à l’amélioration des conditions de vies des communautés locales en termes de santé, d’éducation et de création d’emploi.

This dissertation comprises two essays that attempt to determine, empirically, the fiscal response of governments’ to international assistance. The first essay examines whether an increasingly popular recommendation in international aid policy to switch from tied foreign assistance to untied foreign assistance affects investment in critical development expenditure sectors by developing countries. In the past, most international aid has been in the form of tied assistance as donors believed that tying aid will improve its effectiveness. It has been argued, that if tied aid is well designed and effectively managed then its overall effectiveness can be improved. On the contrary, it is also believed that tied aid acts as an impediment to donor cooperation and the building of partnership with developing countries. In addition, it is also argued that it removes the ‘feeling’ of ownership and responsibility of projects from partner countries in aid supported development. Two other more popular arguments used to challenge the effectiveness of foreign aid is that it is compromised when tied to the goods and services of the donor countries because almost 30 percent of its value is eliminated and also because it does not allow recipient countries to act on their priorities for public spending. These problems bring into question whether tied aid is truly the most effective way to help poor countries. A recommendation by the international community is that a switch to untied aid would be necessary. With untied aid, the recipient country is not obligated to buy the goods of the donor country neither is it compelled to pursue the public expenditure priorities of donors. Instead with untied aid they will have greater flexibility over spending decisions and can more easily pursue the priorities of their countries as they see fit. Hence, one could expect that a one dollar increase in untied aid will increase spending in the critical priority sectors by more than a one dollar increase in tied assistance. The question therefore is whether national domestic priorities coincide or not with what the international community has traditionally deemed should be priority. Empirically, we test this prediction using country-by-country data for 57 countries for the period 1973 to 2006. The results suggest that on average untied aid has a greater impact on pro-poor spending than do tied aid. In addition, the results also suggest that fungibility is still an issue even after accounting for the effects of untied aid. However, one could argue that fungibility may not be as bad as it appears since the switch to untied aid improves spending in the sectors that are essential for growth and development. The second essay explores the hypothesis that the expectations of debt forgiveness can discourage developing countries from attaining fiscal independence through an improvement of their tax effort. On the one hand, the international financial community typically advises poor countries to improve revenue mobilization but, on the other hand, the same international community routinely continues to bail-out poor countries that fail to meet their loan repayment obligations. The act of bailing-out these countries creates an expectation on the part of developing country governments that they will receive debt forgiveness time and again in the future. Therefore, the expectation of future bail outs creates a moral hazard that leads to endemic lower tax efforts. The key prediction of our simple theoretical model is that in the presence of debt forgiveness, tax ratios will decline and this decline will be stronger the higher the frequency and intensity of the bailouts. Empirically, we test this prediction using country-level data for 66 countries for the period 1989 to 2006. The results strongly suggest that debt forgiveness plays a significant role in the low tax effort observed in developing countries. Our empirical model allows for the endogeneity of tax effort and debt forgiveness. Interestingly we find that more debt forgiveness is actually provided to countries with lower tax effort. The results are robust to various specifications.

Since the Internet was introduced, it has taken over faster than anyone was ever expected it to do. It has taken over how we, humans, today live our life and is expected to accomplish our errands, such as paying our bills, ordering clothes and looking up information about travelling. With that said it is important to remember and have in thought that not everyone has the knowledge and skills to use the Internet, this because of the extreme development that the Internet brings. As mentioned above there is one group of people that has been called the “forgotten group” when it comes to the expansion of Internet, and those are the seniors. Most of the seniors today have difficulties using the Internet due to either lack of knowledge or due to the size of the text on the websites, as well as the different color combinations. Since the seniors today have special needs on how to easily use a website, they are forgotten since most websites aren’t developed for seniors. However, sometimes appearances are deceiving and that is what this study has shown us. By questionnaire and interview study, the result of this study has showed us that the majority of the informants do use Internet, but they have special needs when it comes to the design on a website, and that includes color combinations, sizes of the text as well as on how to navigate from one page to another.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1988. / Abstract lacking from microfiche. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-160).