In-class Computer Research Articles

Career-computer simulation increases perceived importance of learning about rare diseases

BackgroundRare diseases may be defined as occurring in less than 1 in 2000 patients. Such conditions are, however, so numerous that up to 5.9% of the population is afflicted by a rare disease. The gambling industry attests that few people have native skill evaluating probabilities. We believe that both students and academics, under-estimate the likelihood of encountering rare diseases. This combines with pressure on curriculum time, to reduce both student interest in studying rare diseases, and academic content preparing students for clinical practice. Underestimation of rare diseases, may also contribute to unhelpful blindness to considering such conditions in the clinic.MethodsWe first developed a computer simulation, modelling the number of cases of increasingly rare conditions encountered by a cohort of clinicians. The simulation captured results for each year of practice, and for each clinician throughout the entirety of their careers. Four hundred sixty-two theoretical conditions were considered, with prevalence ranging from 1 per million people through to 64.1% of the population. We then delivered a class with two in-class on-line surveys evaluating student perception of the importance of learning about rare diseases, one before and the other after an in-class real-time computer simulation. Key simulation variables were drawn from the student group, to help students project themselves into the simulation.ResultsThe in-class computer simulation revealed that all graduating clinicians from that class would frequently encounter rare conditions. Comparison of results of the in-class survey conducted before and after the computer simulation, revealed a significant increase in the perceived importance of learning about rare diseases (p < 0.005).ConclusionsThe computer career simulation appeared to affect student perception. Because the computer simulation demonstrated clinicians frequently encounter patients with rare diseases, we further suggest this should be considered by academics during curriculum review and design.

Real-Time Multiple Object Visual Tracking for Embedded GPU Systems

Real-time visual object tracking provides every object of interest with a unique identity and a trajectory across video frames. This is a fundamental task of many video analytics applications, such as traffic monitoring or video surveillance in general. The development of real-time multiple object tracking systems on low-power edge devices as IoT nodes, without compromising accuracy, is a challenge due to the limited computing capacity of said devices. This might rule out the best in-class computer vision solutions, which, nowadays, are based on deep learning, and thus, they are very hardware demanding. This article meets this challenge with a multiple object detection and tracking system that employs cutting-edge deep learning architectures on an embedded GPU while operating in real time. For this purpose, a system has been designed that extends a joint architecture of tracking and detection by adding a module comprised of appearance-based and movement-based trackers that allow to maintain the identity of the objects of interest for longer periods of time while alleviating the burden of the detector. Our system is mapped onto an embedded GPU platform, cutting down power consumption significantly with respect to a server GPU. Tracking performance metrics show a 51.1% in multiple object tracking accuracy (MOTA) on the MOT16 data set. This, in conjunction with a real-time processing speed of 25.2 FPS for up to 45 simultaneous objects and low-power consumption of 15 W, make our system an ideal solution for a wide range of video analytics applications.

Content learning opportunities, computer-based instruction, and students’ mathematics and science achievement

Employing data from TIMSS 2011, this study investigated the association among middle school students’ in-class computer use, content learning opportunities, and mathematics and science achievement. 3,398 students and 183 mathematics teachers and 3,989 students and 363 science teachers were included in the study. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data. The mathematics results suggested that in-class computer use was associated indirectly with mathematics achievement because teachers provide greater content learning opportunities. In contrast, the science results showed no significant relation between in-class computer use and students’ achievement. Further, our study found that using computers in class as an information tool moderated the socioeconomic status–science achievement association. Computer integration into mathematics and science classrooms is discussed.

Les simulateurs informatiques, ressources pour la formation des enseignants de mathématiques

In this paper, we analyze the criteria used to design a computer simulator for learning mathematics in the classroom. Although simulators are used in many professional fields to minimize risk and accelerate the process of gaining experience, few simulators are available for the purposes of teacher training. Therein we see an opportunity to introduce the use of a simulator into the confines of in-class training and, in so doing, facilitate interactions between theory and practice. To determine the design criteria for the simulator, we look at the benefits and risks of using technologies for training purposes as well as two theoretical frameworks that help us characterize technology-based teaching practices. We continue by showing how these criteria factored into the design of our in-class computer simulator. Finally, we discuss the possibilities for the development of other software programs.

Readers weigh in on how to teach physics

As a longtime teacher of college-level physics, I read with interest Ricardo Heras’s Commentary on traditional versus creative styles in solving physics problems (Physics Today, March 2017, page 10). He has clearly been bitten by the excitement and satisfaction of studying physics, and he is already thinking deeply about how it can best be presented to students. My guess is that he will someday be a very highly regarded teacher.I also think, though, that the traditional textbook problems Heras disparages have considerable value. Yes, we have all had (and probably were ourselves) students who can grind out an end-of-chapter or test problem without really internalizing the physics involved. But that is not the primary goal I have in mind when I have my students, particularly first-year students, do the problems.Heras’s model of a creative problem-solver is Richard Feynman, a rightly revered figure. But most of us, and most of our students, are not Feynman. I cannot expect my first-year students to develop deep physics insight. Before insight comes command of the foundational knowledge and techniques of the discipline, and my students are in desperate need of accruing practice in setting up and working through problems. The inevitable disappointment of seeing that their answer does not match the one in the back of the book and having to diagnose what went wrong is often the most educational aspect of the work. At higher levels, having students dig out an old-fashioned table of integrals and see how to compute an expectation value by hand—as Erwin Schrödinger might have done—gives them a sense of the nitty-gritty that underpins the insights of great creative minds.Insight and expertise accrete over years of such grinding practice. Developing intuition in physics—or in any challenging discipline—is no different from learning to play a sport, speak a new language, or play a musical instrument proficiently: practice, practice, practice. Each boring problem is an incremental step along the climb, an investment that will eventually pay off in the form of a coherent foundation of knowledge and a grasp of techniques that will last a lifetime.I have witnessed the evolution from blackboard- and overhead-based “static” lectures to powerful in-class computer and projector systems and laboratory sensor-interface units being used to illustrate concepts, calculations, and phenomena in ways I could only have dreamt of when I began teaching. But before a problem is thrown to the computer, it always goes up on the board first to have its physics, units, mathematical nuances, and orders of magnitude examined. To be sure, many traditions are inertia incarnate, impediments at best and destructive at worst. But not all are without virtue, and the best can be adapted to the times. Section:ChooseTop of page <<CITING ARTICLES© 2017 American Institute of Physics.

A Comparison of a Computer-Based and a Lecture-Based Computer Literacy Course: A Turkish Case

Computer-based instructional applications are considered an effective alternative to traditional teaching methods and today in numerous educational and training settings, interactive computer programs are used to teach young students and adults computer literacy skills. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes and motivations of students who attended a computer-based in-class computer literacy course with the attitudes and motivations of those who participated in a classical lecture-based computer literacy course. The results show that there is no significant difference between computer-based instruction group students’ and lecture-based instruction group students’ total attitudes scores. However, a significant instructional mode effect on students’ motivation was detected.

Students Respond To The Use Of Instructional Technology In The Accounting Information Systems Classroom

A SERVQUAL-inspired instrument measured students’ satisfaction with technology tools used in AIS classrooms; 151 students in six schools participated. Student in-class computer activities generated the highest satisfaction among students, live software demonstration the least. Satisfaction varied little by gender or age group. Student in-class computer activities showed the most reaction of satisfaction to usage rates, and in all cases greater usage led to higher satisfaction. In some instances, the satisfaction score for a question differed across technology groups, but these differences are not generalizable. Factor analysis largely supports the a priori loading of satisfaction items into five SERVQUAL dimensions

Side Effects of Incidental Computer Use: Increased Confidence

100 students were administered a pretest based on two of Chickering's 1990 seven vectors of educational development. 67 participated in one of two management classes which required use of computers. 33 acted as a control group with no in-class computer use. Analyses indicate that in addition to intended gains in learning, students also showed related developmental effects including increased confidence in using computers. Changes in scores on perceived Autonomy, controlling for prior computer use and outside exposure to computers, were not significant. Results show some effects from using computers in the classroom to augment instruction.

Psychology of computer use: XXVI. Computer-related stress and in-class computer usage.

Two-year college students receiving three different levels of class-based computer experiences were surveyed using Hudiburg's Computer Technology Hassles Scale. Although their academic work involved widely different types of work with computers, all groups (ns = 23, 32, and 24) appeared to perceive the same interactions with computers as unpleasant. The students selected unpleasant interactions in the same numbers and with the same intensity.

In-Class Computer Demonstrations for Physical Geology

Three major problems in teaching beginning geology are: 1) the inability of many students to think in three dimensions about the earth and how it changes, 2) the lack of interest of non-science students, and 3) the large lecture-hall settings and large number of students. These problems can be mitigated to some extent by using a computer, a method of displaying the computer screen to the entire class so that all the students can see the screen, and some interesting computer software. Two basic types of software can be used: general programs used to illustrate geologic phenomena (for instance, original horizontal or superposition) and programs written specifically for geologic applications. Both types of programs are usually interactive and allow the instructor to show something happening while explaining the particular phenomenon.