This research describes the evaluation of a teacher education program set up to foster the use of computers as a support for project work. The teachers, who got involved in the program mainly with the motivation of learning how to use computers, recognized changes in their attitudes and pedagogical practices.

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ciências da Educação; This thesis reports a new approach to the teaching of Mathematical Analysis 1/ Calculus (AM1) to students of engineering, applying results of research on the use of computers and active learning with the aim of enhancing understanding. The main goal of the new approach is to reduce the known problem of failure and superficial understanding in introductory college mathematics in Portugal (and other countries). This researcher created the approach named ActivMathComp where: - Students are active and collaborate with colleagues during classes; - Computer is embedded as a communication, interaction and computational tool; - Students use interactive digital learning documents; - Students explore concepts in order to develop a deep understanding of them; - Students contact with mathematical applications; - Students have frequent short quizzes with immediate feedback on a Learning Management System; - The teacher/student relationship is grounded on trust, on mutual understanding and on students’ involvement on their own learning. The interactive digital documents were created assuming principles such as the zone of proximal development and multiple representations. Towards its comparison with the traditional approach...

Computers have had a major impact on the development of Nuclear Medicine. Computer technology has allowed improved acquisition, display and analysis of radionuclide data and is largely responsible for the ability of radionuclide studies to accurately quantify organ physiology. In addition, computers are vital to reconstruction tomography, which has been applied to nuclear imaging. Mathematical modeling, which provides improved quantitative descriptions of complex physiologic systems investigated by radionuclides is also aided by computer technology. The role of the computer has even be extended to administrative functions like patient record keeping, automated data reporting, and programmed instruction of nuclear medicine trainees. In this review these aspects of computers in nuclear medicine will be reviewed, with emphasis on the recent improvements in nuclear imaging.

Computers have been used for the past 25 years in radiation oncology for such diverse activities as treatment planning, treatment machine verification, image processing, and tumor registry analysis. This paper reviews each of these areas, with examples of working systems, and outlines a computer hardware configuration most suitable for their implementation.

In General Practice, computers might assist clinical decision-making,perform business procedures, and support health care delivery research. Before being used, however, computers first must be economically justifiable. The cost of computer systems is known. One can estimate their potential dollar benefit in primary care. Computer technology was therefore assessed for its potential to save money in a model General Practice. Information processing needs were noted, functional specifications were developed, and typical costs for systems appropriate to practices of varying size were calculated. Computers might improve primary care in many ways, but savings accrue only from support of billing and accounting. Savings might equal or exceed the cost of a computer system in groups of practitioners, optimally composed of between six and eight doctors. If computers could pay for themselves by performing essential business functions, they would then be readily available for other purposes in General Practice.

After years of ‘ad hoc’ growth in the use of computers in the curriculum, the University of Minnesota Medical School in cooperation with the Bio-Medical Library and Health Sciences Computing Services developed and began implementation of a plan for integration of medical informatics into all phases of medical education.

Policymakers and development experts seeking to improve the quality of education are interested in the role technology can play. Not only do they want to use technology to directly aid learning, but they also want to ensure that students in developing countries - and poor communities everywhere - get the same exposure, and same education benefit, from technology as do their counterparts in wealthier parts of the world. Bringing computers into the schoolroom is seen by experts as one way to do this. But just making technology available may not be enough. Policymakers and development experts need to know how to ensure the technology is used effectively. To assist educators, policymakers and education experts understand how technology may boost the quality of education; the World Bank supported a two-year study of a program in Colombia that places computers in public schools. The study failed to find that the computers led to any measurable increase in student test scores. Researchers suggested this could be because teachers and students mainly used the computers to learn how to use computers...

Increasing returns to schooling and rising inequality are well documented for industrial countries and for some developing countries. The growing demand for skills is associated with recent technological developments. The authors argue that computers in the workplace represent one manifestation of these changes. Research in the United States and industrial countries documents a premium for computer use. But there is recent evidence suggesting that computer skills by themselves do not command a wage premium. The authors review the literature and use data from a survey of higher education graduates in Vietnam. The results support the unobserved heterogeneity explanation for computer wage premiums. They suggest that computers may make the productive workers even more productive. However, given the scarcity of computers in low-income countries, an operational strategy of increasing computer availability and skills would seem to offer considerable hope for increasing the incomes of the poor.

BACKGROUND: Computers and other forms of information technology are increasingly used in medical education. We undertook a study to evaluate the place of the computer in the assessment of clinical skills of junior medical students. METHODS: The history taking and physical examination skills of 136 third-year students were assessed in a series of structured and observed clinical stations and compared to their performance in similar computer-based problems. RESULTS: Students scored equally on the computer-based tasks and in the observed stations, but the weaker students who failed one or another component of the examination were more likely to pass at a clinical station and fail the computer task. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that computer-based clinical simulations can be constructed to supplement conventional assessment processes in clinical medicine and may have a role in increasing their reliability.

La Informática Educativa es un área de investigación que se consolida internacionalmente como un campo de investigación aplicada en el que el componente interdisciplinar toma una importancia capital. Es frecuente y enriquecedor que en los trabajos que se realizan centrados en la Informática Educativa combinen equipos de investigación compuestos por ingenieros, pedagogos, psicólogos y otros expertos en todas y cada una de las ramas del conocimiento. El resultado de estas investigaciones origina constructos y/o experiencias reales que se aplican en todos los niveles educativos (desde infantil a doctorado y en la práctica profesional), con todas las posibles aproximaciones formales en cuanto al aprendizaje (formal, no formal e informal) y bajo todas las modalidades de presencialidad (presencial, en línea o mixta). Esta combinación de factores permite que los artículos derivados de los proyectos de investigación de Informática Educativa tengan interés y cabida en una difusa línea fronteriza entre los ámbitos Científico/Ingenieril y de las Ciencias Sociales. Son muchos los eventos internacionales y revistas especializadas que tocan directa o colateralmente el campo de la Informática Educativa, entre ellos uno de los más consolidados en el ámbito latinoamericano...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; Information superiority is the foundation for Joint Vision 2010 and the method tor services to dominate the battlefield. The goal of IT21 is to rapidly implement a warfighting information network. To facilitate the engagement of information warfare, this thesis proposes that all officers be issued a laptop computer. This thesis discusses how a computer can be as valuable as a ifle or a tank, and possibly change the way the Department of Defense fights wars. With a laptop computer, officers can have 24 hrs access to critical information - turning all Naval officers into Information Warriors! When officers transfer, they will be immediately on line at their new duty station. This thesis uses the Technical Architecture for Information Management (TAFIM) model for strategic planning and evaluatesthree migration paths: a paycheck computer allowance; continuing buying desktop computers within individual command budgets; and leasing laptop computers. The alternatives are evaluated using an Information Technology Assessment Worksheet. This thesis recommends that the best alternative is to lease computers for all officers and have Naval Information Systems Management Center (NISMC) be the program manager. This thesis dearly shows that after a three-year period the cost of leasing a computer is more economical than purchasing a computer; http://archive.org/details/armingournavalof00jone; Lieutenant Commander...

BACKGROUND: Computer-aided learning is accepted by students as a learning resource, but the views of the teaching community are largely unknown. PURPOSE: To document clinicians' experience with computers and to record their attitudes toward computer usage in clinical practice and student education. METHODS: Questionnaire mailed out to all clinicians, including interns and residents, fellows, and attending physicians in 3 major teaching hospitals in South Australia, with a total of 646 clinical staff. RESULTS: Replies were received from 246 staff. Eighty percent of clinicians had at least 2 years of experience with computers and used computers for at least 2 hr each week. Despite this, there was an obvious lack of conviction among clinicians that computer-aided learning was of use in student education and assessment. This may reflect their lack of experience with this medium as an educational tool. CONCLUSIONS: If computer-aided learning is to make any significant impact on medical student education, it must be carefully and objectively evaluated, and its benefit must be clearly demonstrated to clinical teachers.; Alexander Polyakov, Edward Palmer, Peter G. Devitt and Brendon J. Coventry

This paper presents the evaluation of the program Computers for Education. The program aims to integrate computers, donated by the private sector, into the teaching of language in public schools. The authors conduct a two-year randomized evaluation of the program using a sample of 97 schools and 5,201 children. Overall, the program seems to have had little effect on students' test scores and other outcomes. These results are consistent across grade levels, subjects, and gender. The main reason for these results seems to be the failure to incorporate the computers into the educational process. Although the program increased the number of computers in the treatment schools and provided training to the teachers on how to use the computers in their classrooms, surveys of both teachers and students suggest that teachers did not incorporate the computers into their curriculum.

Studies over the last ten years suggest computers are not being used to their full potential inside schools (Abrami et al., 2006; Smeets, 2005; Suronta & Lehtimaki, 2004). Findings often recommend some combination of professional development, increased technical support, and the development and acquisition of user-friendly software to remedy the situation. While any one of these options may help in the short term, this thesis argues that, even in combination, none of these solutions get to the root of education’s problem with integrating new technology. Policy purports that simply inserting a computer into a classroom will open up new possibilities for learning, however in order to successfully integrate new technology in a way that is beneficial for both students and the teacher, what is needed is an approach to learning that will foster a creative and engaged learning environment. Using a phenomenological perspective that draws from my experience helping teachers implement computer technology and my artistic practice, this thesis will explore what began as a hunch, that there might be something to an artist’s approach that makes using technology more navigable. This approach, which is transferable to other environments, can foster meaningful learning. By developing a manner of approach that is by nature creative and leads to an unfolding process for learning...

Los computadores se han convertido en herramienta indispensable para realizar tareas de medianas y pequeñas empresas. La tecnología de información es muy competida, las tendencias como venta por Internet, venta directa, disminución de márgenes de utilidad, guerra de precios, desaparición de mayoristas y distribuidores. El soporte es valor agragado por excelencia en momentos donde todos ofrecen la última tecnología. Acer Computers Colombia S.A. es pieza clave en todo este proceso, y es indispensable que ponga al alcance de gran número de usuarios sus productos y servicios, diversos modelos de PC's, notebooks y servidores, con la mejor relación costo-beneficio, ofreciendo calidad excepcional en todos sus componentes para lograr su objetivo de llegar al mercado de pequeña y mediana empresa.

Here we present an investigation of the use of computers and mobile phones by Hispanic day laborers at Casa Latina, a community-building nonprofit organization for Latino immigrants in Seattle, Washington. Drawing from 95 structured interviews, 6 in-depth interviews, a focus group, and a series of participatory observations of computer training classes at Casa Latina, we find that information and communication technologies (ICT) help immigrant day laborers remain connected with their families and their employers and facilitate their navigation of, and integration into, the society in which they have precarious social and economic standing. ICT help immigrant day laborers maintain links with their past and their roots, offer tools to navigate their present needs, and help them build future plans and aspirations. Hispanic day laborers experience ICT mostly through mobile phones used to communicate with employers and families; they use computers and the Internet to communicate with family and friends. In addition, the experience of the immigrant day laborers is strongly influenced by their English-language proficiency—which helps them navigate daily life in the United States and communicate with employers—and their use of transportation to move around the city for work and daily life. The results of this study offer new insight into the ways in which day laborers in Seattle use ICT to help them meet personal and employment needs and realize their long-term goals.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the knowledge of and attitudes toward computers of graduate nursing students before and after an elective course “Computers in Nursing”. At the beginning of the course students completed a questionnaire which included questions about computer access and use, knowledge of computer terminology and computer use, and attitudes toward computers. Prior to the course students had widely varying self-rated knowledge of computer terminology scores. Self-rated knowledge scores were significantly higher, as anticipated, at the conclusion of the course. Students' attitudes, as measured on a semantic differential tool, were positive prior to the course and did not change significantly during the course.

The paper considers the level of the extremely low-frequency magnetic field, which is produced by laptop computers. The magnetic field, which is characterized by extremely low frequencies up to 300 Hz is measured due to its hazardous effects to the laptop user's health. The experiment consists of testing 13 different laptop computers in normal operation conditions. The measuring of the magnetic field is performed in the adjacent neighborhood of the laptop computers. The measured data are presented and then classified. The classification is performed by the K-Medians method in order to determine the critical positions of the laptop. At the end, the measured magnetic field values are compared with the critical values suggested by different safety standards. It is shown that some of the laptop computers emit a very strong magnetic field. Hence, they must be used with extreme caution.; Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

A utilização da informática como instrumento de ensino tem se disseminado na educação. Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar como o computador está sendo usado em escolas da região metropolitana de São Paulo, avaliando o grau de considerações sobre ergonomia na introdução dessa ferramenta. A ergonomia compreende o conjunto de conhecimentos científicos visando o conforto, segurança e eficácia dos produtos. Participaram 126 escolas, 37 delas do ensino fundamental, de 1ª à 4ª série, com 21.824 alunos; 49 escolas do ensino fundamental, de 5ªà 8ª série, com 29.851 alunos e 40 escolas do ensino médio com 31.516 alunos. A maioria das escolas informou utilizar o computador como ferramenta auxiliar das matérias curriculares a partir de 1995. O uso do computador predominou, no período de 5ª à 8ª série, nas escolas particulares; com um computador para cada 2 ou 3 alunos e com a duração semanal das aulas de até 1h59min. Nas salas de informática instaladas nas escolas, predominou a ausência de mesas e cadeiras com ajustes de altura para as características antropométricas dos alunos. As orientações sobre ergonomia da computação foram fornecidas em 30% das escolas. Na maioria das escolas não se observou queixa de desconforto visual ou muscular sofridos pelos alunos durante a utilização do computador. Esse fato pode estar relacionado ao pequeno número de horas de utilização do computador. Concluímos que a aquisição de mobiliário e equipamentos para as salas de informática deve incluir a consulta a banco de dados antropométricos e à percepção de conforto dos estudantes.; The use of computers as a teaching tool is becoming disseminated in education. The present study has as its purpose to investigate how computers are being used in schools within the metropolitan area of São Paulo...

Keywords Librarians; Librarianship; Digital Libraries; Computers and Man - Relationship Palabras-llave Bibliotecarios; Biliotecologia; Biblioteca Digitais; Computadores y Hombres - Relacionamiento