http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Sun, 19 May 2013 18:07:58 PDT Sun, 19 May 2013 18:07:58 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=80941 Overview of accessibility issues for people with disabilities in distance education. Includes information on various disabilities and the implications each have on the design of distance education, access symbols which may be used to promote and publicize accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and legal rulings and relevant cases regarding accessibility to distance education. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=351548 Introduction to Robotics is one of the ten free courses being offered to the public through Stanford Engineering Everywhere. The course belongs to the Artificial Intelligence series and is taught by Professor Oussama Khatib of Stanford University's Computer Science Department. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to basics of modeling, design, planning, and control of robot systems. In essence, the material treated in this course is a brief survey of relevant results from geometry, kinematics, statics, dynamics, and control.The course is presented in a standard format of lectures, readings and problem sets. Topics: robotics foundations in kinematics, dynamics, control, motion planning, trajectory generation, programming and design. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=351579 Machine Learning is one of the ten free courses being offered to the public through Stanford Engineering Everywhere. The course belongs to the Artificial Intelligence series and is taught by Andrew Ng, Assistant Professor of Stanford University's Computer Science Department. This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. Topics include: supervised learning (generative/discriminative learning, parametric/non-parametric learning, neural networks, support vector machines); unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction, kernel methods); learning theory (bias/variance tradeoffs; VC theory; large margins); reinforcement learning and adaptive control. The course will also discuss recent applications of machine learning, such as to robotic control, data mining, autonomous navigation, bioinformatics, speech recognition, and text and web data processing. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=656489 This book was written and submitted to the Open Textbook Challenge by Dr. Olivier Bonaventure of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. He also serves as the Education Director of ACM SIGCOMM. Computer Networking has already been used by several universities around the world, including UCL. From the preface: "This open textbook aims to fill the gap between the open-source implementations and the open-source network specifications by providing a detailed but pedagogical description of the key principles that guide the operation of the Internet.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=81607 The "Federal Court Concepts" module is designed to introduce secondary and postsecondary students to the American federal court system. It contains basic information about the structure of the federal courts, what kind of cases that federal courts hear, and how to use federal court decisions in research. It is also designed to be a model of accessibility for students with disabilities. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=225904 ArtificialWisdom.com (GRADE) is a website that considers the possible educational value of popular video games.  It is a general resource designed for both teachers and parents. Its easy navigation and "readability" makes it a wonderful starting place to better understand what children and young people are playing and its potential impact on the classroom.  It provides a general description of the game, an educational  "grade", its possible use in the classroom, and the skills that are required for the game (e.g. problem solving, business skills, etc.).  As many teachers know, even if certain games are not being used as a classroom activity, student familiarity with the games can be useful in combination with a discussion or lecture.  For example, "Company of Heroes," a popular WWII real time strategy game, might prove an effective addition to a History classroom. Whereas the historical "facts" may not be entirely accurate, its inaccuracy might be of value in terms of a comparison activity or just as a backdrop for visualizing the historical events.   Games are listed according to age appropriateness and genre (sports, strategy, etc.) and the results are often surprising.  For example, "Brain Age" a Nintendo educational game is ranked as a C+, while "Company of Heroes" receives an A-.  This site also links to articles about video game studies, new educational games, and parental controls.  While it is not a hard-hitting resource, it does provide a useful overview of current and soon-to-be-released games through the eyes of the educator or parent. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=76907 Explains the technology and science behind compact disks. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=75319 This document describes the process of developing educational multimedia, including product design, interaction design, interface design, prototyping, and usability testing. Guidelines for participating in a professional critique are also included. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=84632 Imagine a tool that allows you to quickly create desktop widgets that do amazing things...that will run on both Macs and PC's. Now imagine having hundreds of other educators and computer nerds building over a thousand such widgets that you can download and use for free! But first read their cartoon history http://www.konfabulator.com/cartoon/partOne.html to understand why this is important...and then explore some of the 1350 widgets already developed! These range from the purely fun (penguins waddling across your screen), to the utilitarian (onscreen timekeeper for tracking time you spend on projects; lowest gas prices in your area finder ), to the educational (news feeds in Bulgarian; universal keyboard..to type in any language). There are way too many webcams...and such...but the gems you find are worth the search!Note: Konfabulator is java-based. It is free to download and no longer requires a registration. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=80951 Overview of accessibility issues related to Microsoft Excel. Covers problems with Excel-generated HTML, includes information on how to publish more accessible versions of your Excel documents. Provides awareness of resources available at little or no cost to facilitate the conversion of Excel documents.