György Molnár

Half-magnitude extensions of resolution and field of view in digital holography by scanning and magnification

Digital holography replaces the permanent recording material of analog holography with an electronic light sensitive matrix detector, but besides the many unique advantages, this brings serious limitations with it as well. The limited resolution of matrix detectors restricts the field of view, and their limited size restricts the resolution in the reconstructed holographic image. Scanning the larger aerial hologram (the interference light field of the object and reference waves in the hologram plane) with the small matrix detector or using magnification for the coarse matrix detector at the readout of the fine-structured aerial hologram, these are straightforward solutions but have been exploited only partially until now. We have systematically applied both of these approaches and have driven them to their present extremes, over half a magnitude in extensions.

Practices of crowdsourcing in relation to big data analysis and education methods

The subject of our paper is crowdsourcing and its use in big data analysis and education. Crowdsourcing is the latest revolution brought about by the digital technologies of computing and communication. Since 2006, it has been a popular process of obtaining services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from an online community, using ICT. Firstly we introduce crowdsourcing in the context of the information society, ubiquitous computing, and Web 2.0. We shall then look at the paradigm shift in methodology caused by the advent of crowdsourcing and big data. This brings us to the focus of our paper, where we can define and categorize crowdsourcing according to several aspects, and introduce the theory of collective intelligence, the wisdom of crowds, in order to present its use in big data analysis and education. In the fourth part, we give examples of citizen science crowdsourcing related to education. Finally, we raise some important issues and draw conclusions.

New learning spaces? M-learning's, in particular the iPad's potentials in education

The iPad is a very popular touchscreen tablet computer, which was introduced approximately two, two and a half years ago. It runs the MAC operating system making it suitable for different general and special uses. The paper focuses on the fact how the use of iPads can help education, make teaching and learning more efficient. In addition to the technical, infrastructural parameters, which are essential as much as the users experience and it usability are concerned, the paper provides a few concrete applications as well. Today, the use of iPads is general either in everyday life, or in public education or tertiary education. The author analysis his experiences from the viewpoint of students, but also mentions applications useful for teachers. Students can use iPads with the appropriate applications in any stage of the learning process, e.g. using notes, course materials, schedules and assignments, cooperation, group assignments by collaboration. The paper also describes such solutions or respectively suggestions by means of which the monitoring of shared content and data can be realized by the teacher. A few professional applications (e.g. used by students of medicine, engineering and natural sciences) are also listed.

Crowdsourcing Project as Part of Non-formal Education

Crowdsourcing is the latest revolution brought by the digital technologies of computing and communication. It is a nowadays popular way of finding services, concepts, or content by asking contributions from a large group of people, particularly from users. According to Jeff Howe, crowdsourcing generally refers to the participatory online activity of calls for individuals to voluntarily undertake a task. The key elements of a crowdsourcing project are the open call format intended for an enormous network of potential contributors. It is a revolution that brings people together and harnesses their collective intelligence. Crowdsourcing in an online, distributed problem-solving model that pulls the collective intelligence of online communities to assist explicit goals. Online communities, or crowds, are given the opportunity to answer to crowdsourcing activities requested. In crowdsourcing, there is no clear frontier between the subjects of a research and the researchers themselves. It differs from traditional outsourcing as it involves a random, volunteer crowd and not previously selected group of individuals. A crowdsourcing - along with big data and citizen science – is a key part of an important scientific, methodological and educational phenomenon. With advent of crowdsourcing, a paradigm shift can be witnessed in information procurement, transfer, storage and processing as well as in learning. In the practice, crowdsourcing forms a firm bond with the phenomenon of wisdom of the crowds and user-generated content.

Digital Immigrants – Strangers

Abstract In social context, a stranger can be identified as one who is excluded from a group. This group can sometimes have only a few members, while in other cases it can consist of a whole nation or of an entire society. From a digital perspective, there are two kinds of citizens: first, those who are members of the digital information society. They are able to take part in social and public communication on several levels. Their habits often make life easier, and the pace they live their lives at is faster than of those before them. They are the digital natives. Second, there are those who designed the digital world, but ironically they are the ones who do not really understand how it works in practice. They are the digital immigrants, the strangers. In our study, our key point is that digital immigrants, who have been in this world longer than the so-called digital natives, are perceived as strangers as they are in many ways excluded from today’s digital information society. The rituals of their daily interaction, routine, and media consumption as well as information gathering differ from those who are “full members” of the information society.

The role of electronic and virtual learning support systems in the learning process

In the digital age, the possibilities which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gives offer numerous advantages to contemporary society. The full exploitation of the latent teaching and learning potential which lies within us all depends solely on the individuals receptivity, attitude and available digital capabilities. This article acquaints the reader with some of the pedagogic challenges, possibilities, and practices in the digital domain which might be of assistance in improving the efficiency and success of both teaching and learning.