Major Writing Project

The Application of Computer Aided Instruction in Course of Elements of Information Theory

Ru-wei Li School of Electronic Information and Control

Engineering Beijing University of Technology

Beijing 100124, China e-mail: [email protected]

Xi-da Lin School of Electronic Information and Control

Engineering Beijing University of Technology

Beijing 100124, China e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—In order to solve existent questions of CAI (Computer Aided Instruction) in university teaching, the course of Elements of Information Theory was taken as an example to describe how to use the CAI. According to characteristic of this course and teaching law, CAI could be used correctly and reasonably by some methods which could wake up the interest of students, such as the combination between writing on the blackboard and electronic blackboard writing, color matching, the combination between dynamic state and static state, the presented amount of information and the control of speed, the interaction between teachers and students, the diversity of CAI and so on. The practice shows that the proposed teaching method based on CAI contributes to play the leading role of teachers and the subject status of students. The learning initiative of college students could be inspired and their learning interest could also be aroused by CAI. Finally, the quality and efficiency of classroom teaching are further improved.

Keywords- CAI (Computer Aided Instruction); traditional teaching; classroom teaching; teaching quality

I. INTRODUCTION In the form of traditional teaching, course teaching

mainly relies on the corresponding notes and writing on the blackboard of teachers. Long-term practice proves that the traditional teaching method is conducive to control the classroom rhythm. With the writing on the blackboard of teachers, students could keep up with teacher’s schedule and thinking. Besides, the teaching style of teachers could also be stood out, which is beneficial to influence students’ growth by personal charisma of teachers. However, the shortages of traditional teaching are obvious. The writing on the blackboard of teachers easily leads to fatigue of teachers. What’s more, the chalk dust is bad for the health of teachers and students. Meanwhile, the teaching of writing on the blackboard will lead to inadequate information in class, and some abstract theories and practices are not easy to be explained clearly by oral. To some extent, the learning initiative of students is inhibited, which will lead students to lose interest easily. The efficiency and quality of teaching are affected seriously. Therefore, it couldn’t meet the needs of talent quality in new era.

With the development of multimedia technology, in order to solute the disadvantages of traditional teaching, CAI emerges as the times require. It is a kind of open teaching form and students are fully placed in the subject status of study. The electronic blackboard writing consists of dynamic simulation experiments, rich static materials, interactive practices between human and machine, intelligent tutoring and so on. It not only lets students acquire more information in a very short period of time, but also overcome the limitations of the traditional teaching objectively. Besides, the classroom efficiency and teaching quality are improved largely. More time and space of independent operation and activity are left to students to make them stride over the limitation of time and space and adequately play their imagination and creativity. Therefore, CAI is widely used in university classroom teaching at present. However, long term practice shows that with the help of CAI, there is not a large change in the effect and quality of teaching [1]. In addition to the students’ personal reason, however, the immediate cause of influencing teaching effect is the misuse and misunderstanding of CAI for teachers. For example, in CAI, some teachers ignore the inspiration of students and the leading role of teachers which is entirely replaced by computer. Some teachers adopt the inappropriate forms: The learning enthusiasm of students is not inspired by the directly copied text books and monotonous color. The attention of students to learn knowledge is scattered by the blind pursuit of novelty and obsessed with appearance. The perception of key knowledge, imagination and creativity are affected by the excessive and unnecessary media and videos. Focusing on some theoretical knowledge, some teachers directly copy text books. Careful thinking, rigorous reasoning, accurate calculation and logical judgment are lost in multimedia demonstration, which impedes the cultivation of students’ innovation ability and learning ability [2].

In consequence, focusing on the wrong region of CAI’s use and understanding, relying on the course of Information Theory Basis, this course features are used as a starting point. Combined with students’ cognitive regularity, taking advantage of image visual, novelty, diversity and large information of CAI, preciseness and density of traditional teaching in theoretical knowledge teaching and the leading role and evocation of teachers in teaching, CAI is organically

2015 7th International Conference on Information Technology in Medicine and Education

978-1-4673-8302-8/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/ITME.2015.36

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2015 7th International Conference on Information Technology in Medicine and Education

978-1-4673-8302-8/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/ITME.2015.36

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combined with traditional teaching to promote the improvement of college teaching’s quality and effect.

II. THE COURSE FEATURES OF ELEMENTS OF IMFORMATION THEORY

Elements of Information Theory is a discipline [3] that studies the general rule of information storage, transmission and processing by Probability Theory, Stochastic Process and Mathematical Statistics. It involves a large amount of mathematical knowledge and covers most of mathematical knowledge of sciences and engineering students. The knowledge includes Advanced Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Discrete Mathematics, Probability Theory & Mathematics Statistics, Stochastic Process and Numerical Analysis. The knowledge itself is more complex and abstract than other knowledge. Meanwhile, it also involves some professional knowledge of communication, which makes it have strong theoretical. In consequence, even for the communication students, they all believe that Elements of Information Theory is very abstract and dull. This course is very hard to be accepted. In addition, information, an important concept in Information Theory, is not a complete and systematic concept until today. Different research schools have different opinions and understanding of information nature and definition [3]. Based on this course features, the appropriate CAI is adopted to improve the teaching quality.

III. CAI USED IN THE COURSE OF ELEMENTS OF INFORMATION THEORY

A. Combination between writing on the blackboard and electronic blackboard writing Modern education concept should pay attention to not

only the leading role of teachers, but also the subject status of students. Only by a clear understanding of this concept, could teaching form be correctly used. Only in this way, could the leading role of teachers and subjective initiative of students be played fully. In the course teaching of CAI, in order to foster students’ rigorous reasoning about concept and theorem, such as some basic concepts, entropy, average mutual information, traditional teaching is adopted. Students are directed to understand these concepts by derivation of writing on the blackboard. Then the conclusion of writing on the blackboard is given by PPT. This method contributes to play the leading role of teachers. Meanwhile, it also leads students to go to thinking and understanding with the help of teachers’ derivation process, which overcomes the shortage of electronic blackboard writing. Large amount of information and fast switching of electronic blackboard writing will lead to the misunderstanding of students. The burden of teachers’ writing on the blackboard could also be reduced by conclusion of electronic blackboard writing. In the process of interpreting exercises, in general, questions are displayed by electronic blackboard writing, and then derivation process of exercises is displayed by writing on the blackboard. The attention of students is easily attracted by teachers’ writing on the blackboard.

B. Color matching Due to the sensory stimulation role of color, the interest

of students could be attracted by the appropriate combination of colors. In teaching process of Elements of Information Theory, different layers are represented by different colors. Meanwhile, the key points and parts of course are display in boldface. However, excessive colors are not suitable to be presented on a paper of PPT. Otherwise, the attention of students will be scattered by the messy and disorganized PPT.

C. Combination between dynamic state and static state Dynamic image is organically combined with static

image by CAI. In teaching process, static state is contained in dynamic states, meanwhile, dynamic state is also contained in static state. This way is helpful to arouse the thinking of students. For example, in the process of interpreting the rate-distortion function, in order to illustrate the fidelity rule, different levels of sound distortion are inserted in electronic blackboard writing to make students feel the importance of fidelity rule. In the process of interpreting entropy, the application of entropy in speech enhancement is introduced. The process of speech enhancement is reappeared by multimedia. Meanwhile, enhanced speech and original speech are added, which makes students feel the charm of entropy and motivates the students’ interest.

D. The grasp of quantity and speed in the present information

Compared with other teaching methods, the high efficiency of CAI is most outstanding. Firstly, the speed of demo is very fast. As long as you move the mouse or keyboard, teaching contents will be displayed, which improves the classroom efficiency. Secondly, the displayed contents are very rich and the amount of information is large. The limitation of time and space could be broken, which highlights the connection and communication of knowledge. In essence, compared with the traditional teaching methods, the application of CAI makes students acquire larger and richer knowledge. However, when the speed of demo and the amount of information exceed the accepting range of students, the high efficiency of CAI will descend seriously. Therefore, in course teaching of CAI, focusing on the theory knowledge, the playback speed of PPT can’t be too fast and the displayed contents of every PPT can’t be too much. Meanwhile, the demo can be played quickly, which ensures the high efficiency of CAI.

E. Interaction between teachers and students In teaching process, interaction between teachers and

students could not only stimulate the learning interest of students, but also improve the teaching enthusiasm of teachers. In traditional teaching, students could be attracted to participate by personal charisma of teachers. In CAI, multimedia couldn’t be relied absolutely. After all, computer is lifeless and has not the emotional color. Hence,

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in course teaching of CAI, the conclusion and question are displayed by PPT. The derivation process and the interpretation of meaning are display by writing on the blackboard of teachers. The rigorous derivation and cadence of voice of teachers could provide the auxiliary information. The interaction between teachers and students could be finished by the asking questions and rhetorical questions of teachers and the answers and asking questions of students, which improves the quality of teaching effectively.

F. Taking advantage of the CAI’s diversity to arouse the interest of students

As the saying goes, interest is the excellent teacher. How to arouse the interest of students? This question must be taken into consideration in teaching. In the course of Elements of Information Theory, the diversity of CAI is used. In the application of multimedia, the text, picture, sound, living example, scientific achievement and the displayed form of text are referenced properly. The learning interest of students is aroused to make them feel the practicability of knowledge.

IV. CONCLUSION In order to avoid the situation of depending on computer

completely, CAI is introduced into the course teaching of Elements of Information Theory. The leading status of teachers and the subject status of students are established. The matching of color is arranged reasonably. The writing on the blackboard is organically combined with the

electronic blackboard writing. The dynamic state is combined with the static state by picture, sound and word of PPT. The presented amount of information and speed are controlled reasonably. The interaction between teachers and students is promoted by the asking question and rhetorical question. The interest of students is aroused by the diversity of CAI. Long term practice shows that the proposed method improves the effect and quality of teaching than traditional methods.

In a word, CAI is an emerging teaching method that keeps pace with the times. In the course of development, it is unavoidable to meet some unthinkable difficulties. However, as long as the appropriate disposal is applied, the proposed method must promote modern teaching activity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Education teaching

research projects of Beijing University of Technology in 2015.

REFERENCES

[1] Jianwei Liu, Chunling Liu. “A rational reflection on the application of computer assisted instruction in teaching”, International Journal of Technology Management, 2014, 4: p110-111.

[2] Henan Tang. “The reflection and exploration of computer aided instruction’s application”, Heilongjiang Science, 2013, 11: p151.

[3] Xuelong Zhu. “Application information processing theory” [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2001.5.

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