Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.^[1] Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative learning capitalize on one another's resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one another's ideas, monitoring one another's work, etc.).^[2][3] More specifically, collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetry roles.^[4] Put differently, collaborative learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. These include both face-to-face conversations^[5] and computer discussions (online forums, chat rooms, etc.).^[6] Methods for examining collaborative learning processes include conversation analysis and statistical discourse analysis.^[7]

Thus, collaborative learning is commonly illustrated when groups of students work together to search for understanding, meaning, or solutions or to create an artifact or product of their learning. Further, collaborative learning redefines traditional student-teacher relationship in the classroom which results in controversy over whether this paradigm is more beneficial than harmful.^[8][9]Collaborative learning activities can include collaborative writing, group projects, joint problem solving, debates, study teams, and other activities. The approach is closely related to cooperative learning.

Podcast

The Serial podcast being played through an iPhone

A podcast, or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video fileswhich a user can download and listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.^[1] It is distinct from Internet radio, which involves streaming rather than downloading.

The word was originally suggested by Ben Hammersley as a portmanteau of "iPod" (a brand of media player) and "broadcast".^[2] The files distributed are in audio format, but may sometimes include other file formats such as PDF or EPUB. Videos which are shared following a podcast model are called video podcasts or vodcasts.

The generator of a podcast maintains a central list of the files on a server as a web feed that can be accessed through the Internet. The listener or viewer uses special client application software on a computer or media player, known as a podcatcher, which accesses this web feed, checks it for updates, and downloads any new files in the series. This process can be automated to download new files automatically, which may seem to users as though new episodes are broadcast or "pushed" to them. Files are stored locally on the user's device, ready for offline use.^[3]There are many different mobile applications available for people to use to subscribe and to listen to podcasts. Many of these applications allow users to download podcasts or to stream them on demand as an alternative to downloading. Many podcast players (apps as well as dedicated devices) allow listeners to skip around the podcast and control the playback speed.

Some have labeled podcasting as a converged medium bringing together audio, the web, and portable media players, as well as a disruptive technology that has caused some people in the radio business to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production, and distribution.^{[4][need quotation to verify]} Podcasts are usually free of charge to listeners and can often be created for little to no cost, which sets them apart from the traditional model of "gate-kept" media and production tools. Podcast creators can monetize their podcasts by allowing companies to purchase ad time, as well as via sites such as Patreon, which provides special extras and content to listeners for a fee. Podcasting is very much a horizontal media^[5] form – producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other.^[4]

National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) is one of four National Curriculum Frameworks published in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by the National Council of Educational Research and TrainingNCERT in India. The document provides the framework for making syllabii, textbooks and teaching practices within the school education  programmes in India.

The NCF 2005 document draws its policy basis from earlier government reports on education as Learning Without Burden and National Policy of Education 1986-1992 and focus group discussion. After wide ranging deliberations 21 National Focus Group Position Papers have been developed under the agies of NCF-2005. The state of art position papers provided inputs for formulation of NCF-2005.

The document and its offshoot textbooks have come under different forms of reviews in the press. Its draft document came under the criticism from the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). In February 2008 the director Krishna Kumar in an interview also discussed the challenges that are faced by the document.

The approach and recommendations of NCF-2005 are for the entire educational system. A number of its recommendations, for example, focus on rural schools. The syllabus and textbooks based on it are being used by all the CBSE schools, but NCF-based material is also being used in many State schools.

NCF 2005 has been translated into 22 languages and has influenced the syllabii in 17 States. The NCERT gave a grant of Rs.10 lakh to each State to promote NCF in the language of the State and to compare its current syllabus with the syllabus proposed, so that a plan for future reforms could be made. Several States have taken up this challenge. This exercise is being carried out with the involvement of State Councils for Educational Research and Training [SCERT] and District Institutes of Education and Training [DIET].

Main Features of the NCF 2005

The document is divided into 5 areas:

• Perspective
• Learning and Knowledge
• Curriculum Areas, School Stages and Assessment
• School and Classroom Environment
• Systemic Reforms
• Mother tongue as a medium of instructions.
• free development
• availability of resources

  

SPEECHES

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Speech production (English) visualized by Real-time MRI

Speech is the vocalized form of communication used by humans and some animals, which is based upon the syntacticcombination of items drawn from the lexicon. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units (phonemes). These vocabularies, the syntax that structures them, and their sets of speech sound units differ, creating many thousands of different, and mutually unintelligible, human languages. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also enable them to sing.

A gestural form of human communication exists for the deaf in the form of sign language. Speech in some cultures has become the basis of written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia. In addition to its use in communication, it is suggested by some psychologists such as Lev Vygotskythat speech is internally used in mental processes to enhance and organize cognitionin the form of an interior monologue.

Speech is researched in terms of the speech production and speech perception of the sounds used in vocal language. Other research topics concern speech repetition, the ability to map heard spoken words into the vocalizations needed to recreate them, which plays a key role in vocabularyexpansion in children and speech errors. Several academic disciplines study these; including acoustics, psychology, speech pathology, linguistics, cognitive science, communication studies, otolaryngology and computer science. Another area of research is how the human brain in its different areas such as the Broca's area and Wernicke's areaunderlies speech.

It is controversial how far human speech is unique; in that animals also communicatewith vocalizations. While none in the wildhave comparably large vocabularies, research upon the nonverbal abilities of language trained apes such as Washoe and Kanziraises the possibility that they might have these capabilities. The evolutionary origins of speech are unknown and subject to much debate and speculation.

Digital library

A digital library is a special library with a collection of digital objects that can include text, visual material, audio material, video material, stored as electronic media formats (as opposed to print, or other media. ), along with means for organizing, storing, and retrieving the files and media contained in the library collection. Digital libraries can vary immensely in size and scope, and can be maintained by individuals, organizations, or affiliated with established physical library buildings or institutions, or with academic institutions.^[1] The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. An electronic library is a type of information retrieval system. These information retrieval systems are able to exchange information with each other through interoperability and sustainability^[2].

Software implementationEdit

Institutional repository software is designed for archiving, organizing, and searching a library's content. Popular open-source solutions include DSpace, EPrints, Digital Commons, and Fedora Commons-based systems Islandora and Hydra.^[3] The design and implementation in digital libraries are constructed so computer systems and software can make use of the information when it is exchanged. These are referred to as semantic digital libraries. Semantic libraries are also used to socialize with different communities from a mass of social networks^[4]. DjDL is a type of semantic digital library. Keywords-based and semantic search are the two main types of searches. A tool is provided in the semantic search that create a group for augmentation and refinement for keywords-based search. Conceptual knowledge used in DjDL is centered around two forms; the subject ontology and the set of concept search patterns based on the ontology. The three type of ontologies that are associated to this search are bibliographic ontologies, community-aware ontologies, and subject ontologies.