This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. When the author was young he used to think that the ideal design for a concert hall would contain walls that were composed of sound-absorbing material, like foam or egg cartons or such. He noticed, though, that this was not the case. Most concert halls contain curtains…

Through relational dialogue, learners shape their identities by sharing information about the world and how they see themselves in it. As learners interact, they receive feedback from both the environment and other learners which, in turn, helps them assess and adjust their self-presentations. Although learners retain choice and personal agency,…

Kunskapsskolan is a chain of independent secondary schools which functions as a comprehensive platform for personalised education, known as the Kunskapsskolan programme (KED). What is special about this programme is that students set their own objectives, work independently and are assessed against their personal academic goals. Kunskapsskolan is…

This paper presents a new methodology to develop remote laboratories for systems engineering and automation control courses, based on the combined use of TwinCAT, a laboratory Java server application, and Easy Java Simulations (EJS). The TwinCAT system is used to close the control loop for the selected plants by means of programmable logic…

People live in an era of social, enterprise-oriented, and increasingly cloud-based technology; a dramatic shift away from stand-alone isolated silos that previously dominated. Computing systems can flourish today only when built to easily exchange data and services. An application that stands alone may provide practical functionality but may not…

Almost everything is now available online. What is good about this is that in most circumstances, libraries are no longer limited to serving users within just physical spaces. This proves to be a wonderful benefit for users, but sometimes it does not always work out as expected. Those familiar with setting up electronic resources know the…

Open source software is poised to make a profound impact on K-12 education. For years industry experts have been predicting the widespread adoption of open source tools by K-12 school districts. They're about to be proved right. The impact may not yet have been profound, but it's fair to say that some open source systems and non-proprietary…

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) shows demonstrable signs of simplifying software integration. It provides the necessary framework for building applications that can be integrated and can reduce the cost of integration significantly. Organizations are beginning to architect new integration solutions following the SOA approach. As such,…

Privacy is a thing of the past. Monitoring is everywhere. If one is looking at this online, the author is sure that lots of information has been stored and linked to anyone about that action. Nevertheless, at least people can try to play with "their" minds and surf the web anonymously. In this article, the author discusses ways to try to hide…

As e-resource systems and web coordinator for Southern Oregon University, the author is deeply involved with the university library's website. In the latest revision of this website, the author knew she needed to jazz it up a little. With screen real estate on the main page at a premium, the author hoped to use a tabbed box and an accordion-style…

Hiring substitute teachers used to be an early-morning calling burden for staff members at schools in Oregon's Coos Bay School District. Now that work has been passed off to Aesop, a service from Frontline Placement Technologies, which springs into action upon receiving a notification, either by call or log-in, from a teacher reporting an absence.…

Effective assessment is vital in educational activities. We propose IWAS (intelligent Web-based assessment system), an intelligent, generalized and real-time system to assess both learning and teaching. IWAS provides a foundation for more efficiency in instructional activities and, ultimately, students' performances. Our contributions are…

The transition to a new architecture and design for an academic library Web site does not always proceed smoothly. In this case study, a library at a large research university hired an outside Web development contractor to create a new architecture and design for the university's Web site using dotCMS, an open-source content management system. The…

This article explores the architecture of the Red de Innovacion y Aprendizaje (RIA), or Learning and Innovation Network, which is a group of education centres that provide access to computers, the Internet and quality education to low-income communities in Mexico. The RIA began in May 2009 when ten pilot centres were opened in four municipalities…

Given the emergence of service-oriented architecture, IS students need to be knowledgeable of multiple server-side computer programming languages to be able to meet the needs of the job market. This paper outlines the pedagogy of an innovative course of multiple server-side computer languages for the undergraduate IS majors. The paper discusses…