Portfolio 6 - Personalised Learning

In recent years, there are more people showing appreciation toward “personalized learning”, in which instruction is tailored to a student’s individual needs. Personal learning approaches range from modules that students can master at their own pace to computer programs designed to match the way it presents content with a learner’s personality.

Generally, different learners have different characteristics, for example, some learners are highly self-motivated and self-driven, learning best by exploring on their own or at least with very little guidance. On the other hand, some learners prefer coaching and a more structured approach, such that they are typically self-motivated when the subject matter appeals to their interests. There is another type that is often motivated by external rewards and may learn best with step-by-step instruction. Some may resist learning altogether and have little motivation or interest in achieving goals established by the tutors. These general categorizations provide a basis for developing personalized instruction. Among all the projects that attempted to meet the personalized education, the most welcome learning system is the web-based education systems. This system guides individual learning using resources found on internet and adjusts the learning pace according to the learner’s request. There are still ongoing researches and surveys to improve and customize the current education system. Given the diversity of individual preferences, and the complexity of each human brain, developing teaching methods that maximize learning is a major challenge for the software engineers in the future.

Most of the time, engineers will have to understand these complex problems and return feasible solutions, which will contributions to the people and society. Learning could be more reliable when familiarities the learning process in more advanced software. In future, there might be something like immediate knowledge acquisition.

References:

Advance personalized learning. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9127.aspx

Portfolio 5 - A computer that read our mind

With the advancement in the technology, the computer can now read our mind. There are new researches that show humans' mind can be read using computational modeling technology. This technology uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect and locate brain activity when a person thinks about a particular word. The computational model enables a computer to determine the correct word that a research subject is thinking about by analyzing brain scan data. This technology may have applications in the study of autism, disorders of thought such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick's disease. However, several ethical issues are predicted to arise when the technology is fully developed and made available to the public. We shall discuss the potential risks with the technology and ways to minimize them.

First, we have to determine the authorized people who can use the technology. This is to minimize the misuse of this technology in the wrong group of people. In the case of misuse, other people’s privacy may be affected. Secondly, we need to set up certain rules and regulations to ensure that the technology is use in a reasonable situation with the correct ethic. Lastly, we will have made sure that the technology is fully secured so that no other people will be able to access this technology. The security of the computer is very extremely important because the computer contains confidential information and also involves in privacy issues. In the case of being hacked, the hackers may enter the computer systems to retrieve information for own use. Therefore, the strong security of the computer system must be maintained. In conclusion, I think that the technology can provide us with more benefits than risks if the rules and security is maintained properly.

Portfolio 4 - Difficulties writing in engineering classes

In Engineering classes, there are a lot of jargons, technical terms to explain in assignments. For example, in MLE 1101 module, we often need to compare the difference in certain materials and explain their usage. In doing so, I usually end up with long sentences of poor sentence structures. I feel that even though I am an engineering student, my work is judged by engineers and people who are in this field, the importance of plain English must be instilled. I hope my writing can be understand by people who are not from the engineering background. Another difficulty is how to answer the question directly and not writing so many sentences to explain a simple phrase. I hope to be able to construct my sentences properly. There should be an introduction, followed by a body text and a conclusion. I resolve the above difficulties by seeking help from my lecturer if I have any doubts with the technical terms. I also form a study group with some of my friends in MLE1101. I think there is a slight improvement because I used to take a very long time to draft my tutorial assignment, but now the situation is better. I will continue to improve by making sure I listen to the lectures and complete my tutorials on time.

Portfolio 3 - Reverse engineer the brain

Understanding how the human brain works will give engineers a better understanding to simulate its activities. Such stimulations will offer a more accurate method for testing potential biotechnology solutions to brain disorders such as neutral implants or drugs. Neurological disorders can one day be rectified by technology innovations that will allow inserting of new materials into human bodies to do the jobs of damaged or lost nerve cells.

There are already cases of applications using artificial intelligence have benefited from simulations based on brain reverse engineering. Some applications are AI algorithms used in machine vision systems in automated factories or in speech recognition. As the technology incresaes, future AI software should be able to guide devices that can enter the human body to perform medical diagnoses and treatments. Parkinson's disease is also using the technology of "neutral prostheses' in the form of cochlear implants to treat hearing loss and stimulating electrodes to treat it.

Although there are already ways to interact with the human brain and simulating it to perform tasks, there is still a long way to go to fully understand and know how to use the brain. Detailed information of the brain's secret communication code still remain to be deciphered. Moreover, it will be difficult to realise out and analyze all the complexities of the nerve cells such as signals, pathways, dynamics and feedback loops. Hence, the successful understanding of the brain activities will provide engineers a full idea on how to create more outstanding accomplishments.

Reference

http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9109.aspx retrieved 5th October 2008

Portfolio 2 - Common Grammer Mistake

We can only tell if the person is proficient in English by the way they write. Writing tells about a person's style and ability to express oneself. In the modern era, plain English is recommended instead of using jargons or flowery words. Some common grammer mistakes examples are like 'we look forward to meet you soon or we look forward to hear from you soon', but the correct way of writing should be 'we look forward to meeting you soon or we look forward to hearing from you soon. Another example is the word ' alot', there is no such word, it should be written as a lot. A good and easy to understand English sentence should also consist no more than 17 words. If the sentence is too long, it makes it difficult for the reader to understand and absorb the meaning. Puntuaction also plays a crucial role in structuring sentences, a misplacement of the comma or full stop will change the meaning of the entire sentence. An another important hint to look out for is to accept that writing and speaking is not the same. Some people might think that they can just type out what they have said out. In actual fact, not all conversations can be done that way.

Adjective Lesson Plan - English Adjectives Activity

In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun - for example, "He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic woman." When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type. This page will explain the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them.

1. Which is the correct order?
a) small Canadian thin lady
b) Canadian small thin lady
c) small thin Canadian lady
d) thin small Canadian lady

Answer: b
Size, shape, then origin.

2. Which is the correct order?
a) carving steel new knife
b) new steel carving knife
c) steel new carving knife
d) new carving steel knife

Answer: b
Age, material, then purpose.


3. Which is the correct order?
a) beautiful blue sailing boat
b) blue beautiful sailing boat
c) sailing beautiful blue boat
d) blue sailing beautiful boat

Answer: a
Opinion, colour, then purpose.


1st Conditional Tense - First Conditional Exercise in English

Compare the following two sentences:
A. If you call me I come.
B. If you call me I will come.

Both sentences seem to suggest that an action will take place, if a certain condition is met.That's what they have in common.There is a difference though, in a way that sentence A seems to express a sort of general rule, a principle that the speaker adheres to. In sentence B the speaker merely states an intention (what is likely to happen). We use the 1st Conditional in offers, suggestions, warnings and threats.
Examples: If we hurry (present simple), we will catch the bus.
If we miss it, there will be another one


1. If I lose my job now I ...
a) would start a business of my own.
b) will take a long holiday and apply for a new job later.
Answer: b


4. If the demand increases prices ...
a) rise.
b) will rise.

Answer: b

References
http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_grammar/1stconditional.htm
http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evr_english_grammar.htm

Portfolio 1 - People's resistance to new ways of doing things

In general, people do not resist just to new ways of doing things but rather to any new changes that is taking place around them.
Everyone feels the most comfortable when they are in their comfort zone and doing the things they have known or done for ages.
However, in this new modern age, technology is changing very fast and the need to upgrade is essential for everyone.

Also, new technology may be adding burden to those bpeople who still coping with the current/existing technology. In such cases, they will have to juggle with the both systems.
Hence, they have to adapt to this kind of learning environment. For people who are more educated, it may be easier because they are educated in a way that learning is a crucial part of everyone's life. But for those less fortunatate people who received little or no education, they would be pondering and puzzled on the new terms and usage. For example, bank statements going paperless, using email to commmunicate the latest bank statement to us instead of mailing the hardcopy to us.

Another example would be paying bills via bank transfer instead of using cash.
Although majority of the people are educated but there are still a minority who are not. This could explain why some if the people resist to new technology and changes. However, I believe there are ways to improve this situation. The technology enables us to fill up our particulars via the electronic form which no longer require a hard copy. It can be very helpful to the people who wish to adapt to this new technology if there is a booth and a staff to assist those who cannot read and write.

I conclude that by doing it this way can help improve the situation.

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