Team Work
The class teacher/s and student/s need to work like a team, with the teacher being the coach who needs to continually encourage, motivate and intrigue each and every player, demanding high performance while ensuring that no individual gets bogged down in detail or overwhelmed with targets. This is particularly difficult in the sessions immediately after mimicking has been introduced since students become easily confused and tired when they first tackle mimicking. It is essential that each and every student understand why he or she is doing each activity, without taking undue amounts of time to explain. Whether the target is speed, creativity, effective use of repetition, making short clear sentences or so on, it is essential that every student is aware that the particular target is a guideline, and may be modified by them to suit their needs.
The need for speed is not a transparent goal and causes many cognitive problems for students since few realize the link between the ability to talk fast and easily understandable pronunciation and meaning, nor do most quickly realize that they are actively learning vocabulary items or good syntax through the peer-on-peer activities, Indeed it will be quite some time before these processes become self-evident and even more so in seminar classes. It's relatively easy to get most students intellectually and physically engaged in actively learning with verbally active classes while the real trick is to get everyone interested. If it's boring for the teacher it will probably be even more so for the students, especially for those who want cognitive understanding before they tackle something. These students are not recalcitrant, they reasonably expect to understand what they're doing and clearly identify their targets before they do anything. It is up to the "coach" to make sure that participants see the relevance of what they're doing and are actively interested in achieving either their own personal goals, the activity targets, or both through doing the activity in an active way.
Which of the following statements is true, according to the author?
A. Mimicking is the most difficult task for the teacher and students as well.
B. The teacher has to explain to the students without taking up too much time.
C. The sessions are essential to the students' carrying out the particular activities.
D. Once the target of the activity is settled, nothing should change any more.
2002
November 14 — 18, '02 2002 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Westin Hotel, Minneapolis USA. November 12 — 14, '02 2002 Participatory Design Conference. University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington USA.
November 1 — 4, '02 11th annual symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, California USA.
October 12 — 13, '02 1st Workshop on Human Factors in Computational Systems: Understanding Using, Constructing Interfaces. Maringa-Parana Brazil.
September 1 — 4, '02 14th IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Abstracts Due February 27; Papers Due March 13, 2002.
July: AgentSheets Inc. incorporated to commercialize the AgentSheets visual programming technology and Ristretto Java output.
April 18 — 23: ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 02) "Making the Impossible Possible" Los Angeles Convention Center. Los Angeles, CA USA.
Which of the following conferences was held in Maringa-Parana Brazil?
ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.
B. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
C. 1st Workshop on Human Factors in Computational Systems.
D. 2nd International Conference on AUTONOMOUS AGENTS.
White House Tours
White House Visitor Center
The center is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and features many aspects of the White House, including its architecture, furnishings, first families, social events, relations with the press and world leaders, as well as a thirty-minute video. Allow between 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours to explore the exhibits. Please note that restrooms are available, but food service is not.
General Tour Information
On-street parking is not available near the White House, and use of public transportation is strongly encouraged. The closest Metrorail stations to the White House (southeast corner of 15th and E Streets) are Federal Triangle (blue and orange lines), Metro Center (blue, orange, and red lines) and McPherson Square (blue and orange lines).
Public telephones and restrooms are not available at the White House; the closest ones are in the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, and in the White House Visitor Center.
Which of the following is true, according to the tour guide?
A. There are restrooms available at the White House.
B. There are no restrooms at the White House.
C. There are food services at the White House.
D. Public telephones are available at the White House.
Illegal Immigration
A key point in the discussion of illegal immigration (and legal immigration, for that matter) is that many of those who are vehemently opposed to illegal immigration are also opposed to large amounts of legal immigration as well. These thinly hidden agendas mean that often the debate on illegal immigration cannot be separated from the debate on legal immigration.
Americans firmly believe in tough laws against illegal immigrants and 70% of Americans want no more than 300,000 legal immigrants to enter the U.S. per year. In fact, 20% of Americans want immigration completely stopped. Taking these numbers as the truth, it is clear that America thinks that we have too many immigrants.
Such a dislike of immigration is interesting considering the success of past immigration. Many people would say that today's immigrants are somehow different than those of the past. However, the truth is that the similarities between the immigrants of today and those of the past are numerous. Their reasons for coming to this country are often similar.
When illegal immigration is not confused with legal immigration, debate can take place in a sane manner. Outlandish solutions like building a huge 2,000 mile-long fence and gathering a virtual army to defend the border from Mexicans are not the answer. Making legal immigration easier and more common is the best solution that we have now.
Which of the following solutions is the one the author will agree to?
A. Legalizing the illegal immigration.
B. Facilitating the legal immigration.
C. Building a long fence along the border.
D. Stationing a huge army defending the border.