Jenny Pange

An Online Expert System for Diagnostic Assessment Procedures on Young Children's Oral Speech and Language

Abstract Internet has influenced many aspects of modern life, as it gave people the opportunity to access massive amount of information. Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) offer the option to analyze, organize, synthesize and transmit information and therefore contribute and reveal valuable clinical and educational tools. The aim of the present study is to report on the development of an Internet based Speech Pathology Expert System in Greek, named APLo, intended to be used by clinicians and teachers involved in oral language learning and strengthening of four to seven year old children. This system embeds the experts knowledge on oral language assessment. A hybrid approach that integrates symbolic rules with neural networks is being used to model and represent the knowledge in the system. Particular attention is given to the validation and verification of the system. Potentials, further use and developments for upgrading e-evaluation/e-assessment of speech and language disorders and protocols according to technological and scientific advances are discussed.

The Use of Social Networking and Learning Management Systems in English Language Teaching in Higher Education.

Purpose – The use of web-enhanced teaching of the English as a foreign language in higher education in Greece is addressed in this case study which examines the students perceptions of online instruction using Moodle as a learning management system (LMS), with and without the use of Facebook (FB) as an adjunctive learning platform. The merging of this collaborative and interactive social platform with a LMS is explored, examining the attitudes of higher education foreign language learners toward Moodle as a LMS, and FB as an adjunctive informal learning environment. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Results are drawn from a pre-FB questionnaire after a term using Moodle only, and a post-FB questionnaire following a term using Moodle and FB. Findings – Results suggest that the use of web-based tools and social media changed the way students viewed the role of internet technology in the development of their English language learning. Most students (76 percent) agreed tha...

Large Noise Level Estimation

We generalize a method of noise estimation for chaotic time series due to [Schreiber, 1993] in cases where the noise level is relatively large. The noise estimation is based on the correlation integral, which, for small amounts of noise, is not affected by the attractors curvature effects. When the noise is large, however, one has to increase the range of the correlation integral and this brings about significant inaccuracies in its evaluation due to both curvature effects and noise. In this Letter, we present a modification of Schreibers noise level estimation method, which uses a robust error estimator based on L-∞ (rather than the usual L2) norm in the computations. Since L-∞ was proved less sensitive to curvature effects, it gives a more accurate estimation of the noise standard deviation compared with Schreibers results. Here, we illustrate our approach on the Henon map corrupted by Gaussian white noise with zero mean, as well as on real data obtained from the Nasdaq Composite time series of daily returns.

Statistical significance of the LMS regression

We propose the use of simulation in order to obtain a statistical significance measure of the least median of squares (LMS) regression coefficients. We shuffle the values of the dependent variable many times (e.g. 100), so as to preserve their distribution, and we calculate the LMS regression coefficients for every shuffled data. In this way we form a confidence interval for the slope centered on 0, because the slopes of the shuffled data are considered statistically equal to 0. The coefficients of the original data are considered significant if they are not belong on the above mentioned interval.

Estimating Malmquist productivity indexes using probabilistic directional distances: An application to the European banking sector

Our paper by adopting the latest advances on the probabilistic characterization of directional distance functions as has been introduced by Daraio and Simar (2014), develops a Malmquist productivity index and presents its main decompositions. Specifically, the proposed productivity index is based on the probabilistic version of directional distance functions which are expressed as transformations of radial distances. We illustrate how these indexes can be computed and how different components can be derived. Specifically, we demonstrate how a probabilistic version of the following categories of change can be obtained: technical, efficiency, pure efficiency, scale efficiency, scale change factor and scale bias of technical change. Finally, we apply the probabilistic productivity indexes alongside with their decompositions to inputs/outputs data from a sample of 644 banks from 28 European countries between the years 2007, 2010 and 2014. The results suggest that the EU banks’ productivity levels remained relative unchanged from the initiation of U.S. prime crisis and during the EU sovereign debt crisis. Finally, during the U.S. prime crisis and the Global Financial Crisis, banks’ maintained their productivity levels by utilizing better their inputs and by exploiting scale economies. However, during the sovereign debt crisis banks maintained their productivity levels by investing on financial engineering competences.

Are the Greek preschool teachers able to use distance learning technologies

This study shows the attitude of the Greek preschool teachers towards the new technologies and distance learning technologies, as they become more and more important to the kindergartens. It shows that the teachers of our sample were partly informed and partly familiar with the new technologies. In contrast, those who were involved in distance learning are not only very familiar, hut also they are willing to use the new technologies in their classrooms. Collaboration and communication through the Internet is also boosted by the teachers who are familiar with the new technologies. Our sample consisted of 100 subjects, all of them women between 26-50 years old, graduates of preschool education departments.

How Often do Pre-School Teachers in Greece Use Nt and ICT in Their Classrooms? A Study of Continuing Education Needs:

During the last five years one of the main goals of Educational Departments in Greece has been to prepare teachers who, amongst other tasks, must be able to apply New Technologies to their everyday teaching and use Information and Communication Technologies to retrieve information about many classroom activities. This study refers to the courses taught on New Technologies and Information and Communication Technologies, at a postgraduate level, in a continuing education programme, at the Department of Pre-school Education at the University of Ioannina, Greece. It also discusses the use of New Technologies by in-service pre-school teachers as well as their expectations of the application of New Technologies to kindergartens. Their suggestions for better training in the use of New Technologies during their undergraduate studies, and the problems of applying them in the classroom, are also presented.

Fairness Through Mathematical Problem Solving in Preschool Education

This chapter reports on a study of fairness in young children. Its aim is to examine how preschoolers respond to mathematical problem-solving contexts that imply fairness and the claim of sharing and distributing. The results suggest that by the age of four, children are cognitively and socially capable, at a certain level, to transmit from their own state of mind to that of the others, overcome self-interest and understand, expect and prefer fairness, while distributing justice.

A Comparative Study of Distance Education in Greece and Bulgaria

Distance education, unlike traditional education, makes it possible for students to receive instruction independent of place and time. Course materials can be sent via post or e-mail, and students can be located anywhere and rarely, if ever, need to meet their instructors and/or fellow students face to face. This article is an attempt to explore and compare some aspects of distance education in Greece and Bulgaria.

Serious Games and Motivation

Serious games are gaining a lot of interest in education because they are effective learning tools that engage and motivate students. However, serious games are not ad-hoc motivational but they must follow specific elements to assure motivation. There are several types of motivation that reinforce the effectiveness of serious games and engage students to the task. When these types are combined they provide high learning outcomes. The preliminary study examines how primary school teachers apprehend serious games and how their concepts are related with intrinsic motivation. The findings of the current study provide clear evidence that teachers believe that serious games intrinsically motivate students to learn by developing significant learning skills.