I found a nice blog post that actually explains the article I red about using Google to discover meaning. The author was able to simplify the math of the article to a human-readable level.
Colloquy
Pedagogical Strategies
1 – Problem-Based Learning_
Example & Facilitation of Problem Based Learning ->
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/clrit/learningtree/PBL/PBLFacilitatingExample.html
Case Examples of Problem Based Learning in Biology ->
http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pbl.htm
This site provides a list of case examples of PBL in the teaching of Biology
Art History and Problem Based Learning ->
http://www.udel.edu/pbl/cte/spr96-arth.html
Geology and Problem Based Learning ->
http://www.udel.edu/pbl/cte/spr96-geol.html
Physics and Problem Based Learning ->
http://www.udel.edu/pbl/cte/jan95-phys.html
2 – Project-Based Learning_
Computer Supported Cooperative Work Course ->
http://craft.epfl.ch/Jahia/site/craft/op/edit/pid/52932
An Example of Project-Based Learning Using a Laboratory Gantry-Crane ->
http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie97/papers/1294.pdf
3 – Inquiry-based Learning_
Inquiry Page -> http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/index.php3
How can I identify trees in a plot in the winter and early spring? ->
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/bin/update_unit.cgi?command=select&xmlfile=u14069.xml
4 – Argumentation-based learning_
Paper by Pierre Dillenbourg on Argugraph
5 – Contest-based learning_
ThinkQuest -> http://www.thinkquest.org/index.html
Logiquest -> http://www.allenmoos.ch/logiquest/
6 – Autonomous Learning_
What is autonomy? -> http://ec.hku.hk/autonomy/what.html
The face to face autonomous learning module ->
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/languages/translang/tandem.htm
Matching pedagogy and technology- Tandem learning and learner autonomy in online virtual language environments ->
http://www.tcd.ie/CLCS/assistants/kschwien/Publications/ECReportprint.htm
7 – Seminar teaching_
Ten Tips for Effective Seminar Teaching ->
http://www.hca.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/guides/tipsem.php
An Approach to Seminar Teaching ->
http://www.prs-ltsn.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/discussions/megone.html
Tags: pedagogy
Store Wars
Italy’s brain drain
Fabien pointed me to this article on Italy’s brain drain. It is an article of 2001. It is funny to see how things didn’t change at all during the last years. Sad …
STAMPS Midlet advancements
ShoutSpace bug report
1) For first-time users the contextual-menu to post new messages is too “hidden”. The user shouldn’t have to read the “Help” to learn how to perform a simple task like that one. Add both functions “Write new message” and “Locate me here” to an ‘Action’ menu into the main menu bar between ‘ShoutSpace’ and ‘Options’
2) The Newsgroup view should be fixed allowing the selection of different messages, coloring etc. Also some of the messages are not selectable.
3) Automatic filtering based on the date should enable to visualize only the last two months. However the expired messages should be still available on the server side for search.
CompLearn
CompLearn is a suite of simple-to-use utilities that you can use to apply compression techniques to the process of discovering and learning patterns.
The compression-based approach used is powerful because it can mine patterns in completely different domains. It can classify musical styles of pieces of music and identify unknown composers. It can identify the language of bodies of text. It can discover the relationships between species of life and even the origin of new unknown viruses such as SARS. Other uncharted areas are up to you to explore.
In fact, this method is so general that it requires no background knowledge about any particular classification. There are no domain-specific parameters to set and only a handful of general settings. Just feed and run.
Read more about CompLearn in New Scientist and Technology Research News.
Tags: clustering, hack, information visualization, text data mining
Clustering by Compression
R. Cilibrasi and P. M. B. Vitányi. Clustering by compression. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 51(4):1523–1545, April 2005. [url]
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This paper presents anew method for clustering based on compression. The idea is first to determine an universal similarity distance computed from the lenght of compressed data files; Secondly, they apply a hierarchical clustering method, proving good results on different datasets.
According to the authors, two objects are deemed close if we can significantly “compress” one given the information in the other, the idea being that if two pieces are more similar, then we can succintly describe one given the other.
Other keywords: heterogeneous data analysis, hierarchical unsupervised clustering, Kolmogorov Complexity, normalized compression distance, parameter-free data mining, quartet tree method, universal dissimilarity distance
Tags: clustering
RapidSlow L-system
One of my old passions:
“Rapidslow“( ~19MB) and “Benign Beings” are two abstract animations exploring shapes and creatures generated by movement programmed using the L-system language. This language was specifically designed to simulate growth of plants and their interaction with the environment. It is an attempt to imagine how movement evolved from “plantly” to “creaturely”. Ultimately it is a search to understand how movement scultps body, space and sound.
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