LACHIA UNIVERSITY OF EACH AGE ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION INSTITUTION

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1 LACHIA UNIVERSITY OF EACH AGE ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION INSTITUTION Milan Konečný, Stanislav Vajs Lachia University of Each Age, K Náměstí 500, Brušperk , Czech Rep. tel.: , [email protected], 8 th Int. Conference on Emerging elearning Technologies and Applications The High Tatras, Slovakia October 28-29, 2010 Abstract: This article is a description of alternative educational institution Lachia University of Each Age and it is controlled with SQUID Control system. Education is based on ASFIDOS system and other systems. This university provides nonstandard educational programmes and degrees. Controlling SQUID Control system, that is convenient for system control made up from projects of different levels, is based on simple rules and simple description of single projects. The University has a long experience in the area of pedagogy and research. Keywords: Adult education, applications, certification, learning management system, learning style, virtual university, research and development. 1. INTRODUCTION This article describes alternative educational institution Lachia University of Each Age (LULV) and the philosophy of its management. This project is unique, providing education from preschool up to senior applicants. Operating system SQUID also contributes to above-standard management in educational field and research.. The idea came from real experience and the management of a real educational institution. This institution is pioneering in the area of alternative education, since it has been managed on the basis of new mathematical models and operating systems. You can find more detailed description of the university and its management on 2. LACHIA UNIVERSITY OF EACH AGE (LULV) The University was founded in 2002 and is the successor of Svatopluk s center that was founded in 1991 in Brušperk. Founder and keeper of university is Lachia company o.s., which is a non-government non-profit organization. From the establishing document: Lachia University of Each Age is an open and adaptive system of educational and cognitive activities according to needs and interests of Lachia, with the seat in Brušperk. Basic principles of university: Chance to study for all population. Chance to share knowledge for non-standard teachers. Chance to participate in the research for non-academic workers as well. This is the most general description of the university. The registration of university is part of Lachia company s statues, which are registered by home office, c.j. VS/1-1/51076/02-R, [1] [2] 2.1 Visions of LULV From long-term study in the course of education and research on the various levels the following points of visions of university were created: Realization of lifelong learning from early age over primary school education, high school education, university education and after university education to senior age with the view of increasing culture in Lachia and its surroundings. Arranging opportunities for over-standard pedagogues to hand down their knowledge and thereby to develop. Realizing alternative research so-called cognitive activity that would solve some problems of real life. The initial province of university was in Lachia region and later, thanks to the Internet, also in virtual world. 2.2 Pedagogical methods Non-homogeneity of the surroundings and an effort to get linked with the needs of region lead to two basic pedagogical methods: Individual development of a student. Education connected with practice and needs of region. These two methods are basic ideas for education system ASFIDOS and for SQUID control system, viz. Asfidos system and University control. These methods we are also setting up on the basis of our experience with: 1

2 Adult education (Svatopluk centre). Activities at universities (VŠB Technical University of Ostrava, Pedagogical faculty in Ostrava, Ostrava University). Running Svatopluk high school. Activities at elementary school and pre-school organizations. The university deals with the development of the problems within its research activity. [2], [21], [22], [23], [24] 2.3 Experimental evolutionary methods Thanks to low expenses we use the following methods: Methods of mathematical simulation in practice. Transfer of technologies. Motivational study. These methods are based on research experience in: Universities (MFF UK Praha, VŠB TU Ostrava, University of Ostrava) Academy (Mining institute, Metalurgical institute) Research institutes (VZSKG, TATRA Kopřivnice, a.s.) These methods are focused at the research that is connected with Lachia. 2.4 Background for education Basic education programmes were the following: Lectures for any age. Courses, seminars, conferences, retrainee courses. Obtaining degrees L, LA, LAC, LACH. Transfer of technologies. E-learning. These programmes were developed into programmes described in section 2.8. Student of the university attends any activity. Teacher of the university implements at least one activity at the university. Research worker of the university takes part in cognitive activities of the university. Education in LULV is controlled with the help of system ASFIDOS Adaptive System For Individual Development Of Students, SQUID control system and by the inner organization manual. 2.5 Organization of the university The highest authorities of the university are the same as the authorities of Lachia company, o.s. General assembly the highest authority of the university in our case it is identical to general assembly of LS, o.s. Radosta top representative of the university and statutary representative RNDr. Milan Konečný Council it consists of radosta and viceradostas each of them is responsible for different sphere of function of university. Collegium of radosta consultative organ of radosta. See Sections and studios Inseparable part of the university are sections and studios. Sections deal with specific problems described in their names, arrange lectures, seminars, and so on. In the studio, the program is led by studio leader. At present University runs these sections and studios: The most active sections are the following: Section of projects - production and control of projects. Section of education - Development of educational activities, specially ASFIDOS system (Adaptive System for Individual Development of Students). Section of ecology Application and propagation of ecological projects in practise. Section of economy and finances organization of lectures, courses, seminars, tax and accounting consulting. Section of photography and movie - Photographic and movie activity, courses, seminars, expositions and production. Section of mathematical modeling theory and application of mathematical modeling. Section of literature, media and publication - literary and medial activities. Section of informatics application and development of IT. Section of modeling - realization of activities that are connected with fashion and modeling, courses, shows and so on. The university has also these sections: Section of industrial application Section of art and graphic Section of tourism and tourist business Section of history and philosophy Section of languages Section of business Section of fire-prevention and a safety technique Section of sport and hiking The studio is only one: Studio of Milan Konečný solving problems in the area of mathematics, economics, organization, time management and other areas. Sections are differently active. They have to make at least three activities during the year. This gives us extensive activity of university. 2

3 2.7 Support institution As all universities have support institution, this university has them also: Technology park the objective is the solution of small technical problems that are related to Lachia locality in cooperation with university. University library specialized library with special control system. University health centre it deals with health and healthy life style. PRIVIZ centre - centre, which gives chances to entrepreneurs, institutions, employees and the unemployed in the area of consulting, retraining, innovation, education and intermediation of information and services. LS Press the publisher of the university and Lachia company, o.s. We publish articles, collections, textbooks, fiction and notes. These institutions help the university and the whole region. We employed several workers. We made a database of books, which is unique in region. We organized several lectures and seminars about a healthy life style. We published 60 issues of magazines and 10 publications. 2.8 Education activities and their syllabuses Present activities and study programmes are in the following state: Lecture - student attends lectures. It doesn t matter what age he or she is. Topics of lectures are different, according to interests. tourism, ecology, economy, life style Courses - student attends a course. Group of minimally three people. For example English and German language, IT, accounting etc Seminary - student attends a seminar, which can be from one day to one week long, even longer. For example IT. Section departmental - student attends activities of Section - lectures, seminars, round tables. For example Section of mathematical modeling. Retraining - program is finished with the certificate of retraining Innovative - program is finished with the certificate of educational innovation of a student Degrees o L - student demonstrates above - standard knowledge at the level of primary school. o LA - student demonstrates above - standard knowledge at the level of high school. o LAC - student demonstrates above- standard knowledge at the level of university. o LACH - student demonstrates above-standard knowledge at the level of after-university education. E learning - We develop e-learning on three levels at LULV: o Basic e-learning - Basic e-learning teaching, where communication between student and teacher is arranged through the Internet, or Skype. o LULV e-learning - e-learning programs developed at LULV are used o Z e-learning - intermediated e-learning courses are used Studio - these programs are multibranch. The leader of Studio passes down knowledge from multiple branches in a group. Individual - student works with individual study plan, which is combined with other syllabuses with already set topics. Free student works with individual study plan, which is combined with other syllabuses, no topic is set. Accompanying - Student is studying at another school and he consults different problems at LULV. Some activities are not working in full range. We will develop them in the future. 2.9 Cognitive and research activities To date we were dealing with following problems: The control theory and its application. Development of SQUID control system. Time management and its application. MASV method in controlling. Creation and implementation of financial models. Media mathematics. In present, university is developing its research activity in the course of pedagogy, as you can see from this article. From the university development of MASV method were written these five articles [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. The university is preparing ten articles and five publications in a year Stats for students, teachers and researchers To outline the dimension of university, we quote following statistics: Students: Present - year 2009/10 - more than 150 students Past - before year more than 1000 students Teachers: Present - year 2009/10 - more than 20 teachers Past - before year more than 100 teachers Researchers: Present - year 2009/10 - more than 10 researchers Past - before year more than 80 researchers 3

4 In the future the great numbers of students, teachers and researchers aren t expected Degrees It is very hard and prestige to obtain a degree. Two degrees, L and LA, have been awarded so far. Both were awarded to Marek Kozák for his composing, concerts and organization activities. There are 12 candidates to obtain the degree L, 15 to obtain the degree LA, 25 to obtain the degree LAC and 15 to obtain the degree LACH, in the disciplines: Mathematics, Engineering, IT, Photo / film, Pedagogy, Etc Financial resources of LULV The aim of the university is not only to obtain grants and sponsor s gifts. One of the ideas is that the students will participate in financing the university. Current situation: Self-financing charges, services, production, business... Sponsorship. Grants. Returns from investments. This idea is a part of adaptive regulator, which belongs to SQUID control system, the control system of university Location of university Seats of the university are in following buildings: K Náměstí 500, Brušperk - office ZŠ Vojtěcha Martínka, Brušperk office, computer room, small class and the gallery Národní dům Brušperk lecture hall We are hiring some rooms in Lachia Virtual part of the university is on Publishing and project activities of the university Lachia company and university got lot of subsidies on small projects in the past. The university is using SQUID control system, which consists of small projects. In present, the university is trying to realize self-finance projects. 3. ASFIDOS SYSTEM This system was created with the help of pedagogical experience connected with different types of schools and education institutions. The aim of this system is to create individual study plan for each student so that it: Fortified students strong points. Weak points, which are not important, are not developed. Programme is implemented adaptively. These are the basic ideas of the system and we will describe this problem in following articles in details. 4. UNIVERSITY CONTROL University is a part of Lachia company, o.s. (nongovernmental, non-profitable organization), which is controlled by SQUID control system. SQUID control system has these basic characteristics: It controls the system of so-called small projects, which are in SQUID form. Small project is described through visions, database of activities, existing and upcoming activities and through history. Set of basic activities isn t empty these activities are undemanding, have low risk rate and they produce small profit. SQUID control has supporting financial system. Control rule: each project must realize or take a share in minimum of three activities. During the time, when system has no new activities, it works on basic activities. One of the main parameters of university activities is publishing and projects. Publishing of the university is rich: Research articles [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] Pedagogical articles [3], [10], [11], [19] Fiction [12], [13], [14], [15], [16] Notes [17], [18] Art [20] University is above standard in publishing, as you can see in references. The university has rich experience with projects, it deals mainly with so-called small projects. In spite of that it has experience with application of bigger projects, which are subsidized from the EU funds. Fig. 1. University control In the control of the university there are sections, studios, and support institutions rated as projects. This system of control means, that the function of university is wellbalanced and that it realizes more than 40 activities a year. [3], [9] 4

5 5. CONCLUSIONS The issue of alternative education is very interesting. With the application of mathematical models and control methods it is possible to improve functioning of this institution significantly. The project of Lachia company, o.s. and Lachia University of Each Age is a typical example of alternative institution, which uses that. This gives us preconditions for development of problems of organization control. We are also going to develop these problems in abstract form, specially SQUID Control system and ADAPTIVE regulator, which we didn t mention in this article, but which is connected with these problems. You can study the development of university and its control system on [17] KOZÁK, M. Malá suita č.1 pro varhany, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2006, ISMN M [18] KOZÁK, M. Třikrát pro klavír, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2005, ISMN M [19] JANOTKA, J., Komenský a jeho odkaz, in a print [20] MALÍK, O., Nebeské metamorfózy, in a print [21] PRŮCHA, J., Alternativní školy a inovace ve vzdělávání, Portál 2004, ISBN [22] PÁVKOVÁ, J., HÁJEK, B., HOFBAUER, B., HRDLIČKOVÁ, V., PAVLÍKOVÁ, A., Pedagogika volného času, Portál 1999, ISBN [23] MALACH, J., Andragogika, Ostrava 2003, ISBN [24] MALACH, J., Kapitoly z andragogiky, Ostrava 2002, ISBN REFERENCES [1] Stanovy Lašského společenství o.s., Ministerstvo vnitra ČR, č.j. VS/1-1/51076/02-R, [2] BARTL, D. a kolektiv, Konference k 11. výročí založení Svatoplukova centra, Brušperk 2002, ISBN [3] KONEČNÝ, M., VAJS, S. Lašská Univerzita Libovolného Věku a její řízení, ARTEP 2010, Stará Lesná, Slovakia [4] KONEČNÝ, M. MASV method and energy optimization of control parameters, ARTEP 2010, Stará Lesná, Slovakia [5] KONEČNÝ, M. Some remarks to control by MASV method, ICCC 2009, Zakopane, Poland [6] KONEČNÝ, M. MASV method and controlling in finite time, Transactions of the VŠB Technical University of Ostrava, Mechanical Series, No. 1, 2009, vol. LIV [7] KONEČNÝ, M. TPO regulator with MASV method, ICCC 2010, Hungary. [8] KONEČNÝ, M. MASV method and energy optimization of control parameters, magazine Strojárstvo 5/2010 [9] KONEČNÝ, M., VAJS, S. Lašská Univerzita Libovolného Věku a její řízení, magazine Strojárstvo 5/2010 [10] KONEČNÝ, M. Zajímavé aplikace matematiky. Brušperk 1995 [11] KONEČNÝ, M. Matematické hrátky. Brušperk 1996 [12] KONEČNÝ, M. Něco málo z historie MAWISu a trocha aplikace řízení, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2010, ISBN [13] KONEČNÝ, M., MAWISův smích a MAWISův pláč, MAWIS, Brušperk 2003 [14] KONEČNÝ, M., MAWISácké epigramy, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2007, ISBN X [15] KONEČNÝ, M., MAWISákoviny & MAWISácké epigramy, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2008, ISBN [16] KONEČNÝ, M., MAWISácké humoresky aneb Vším, čím jsem byl, byl jsem rád, Lašské společenství, Brušperk 2009, ISBN THE AUTHORS Milan Konečný: The head of Lašské společenství, o.s. and Lachia University of Each Age. He is author and co-author of more than 50 works. He is graduate of MFF UK Praha. He was a lector at VŠB TUO in Ostrava, Pedagogical faculty in Ostrava, Vyšší škola technická in Kopřivnice, University of Ostrava. As a researcher he worked in HU ČSAV in Ostrava, in research institutes VŽSKG in Ostrava and in TATRA Kopřivnice. Stanislav Vajs: Student of VŠB TUO in Ostrava. He is interested in computers and programming languages. His publications are Lašská Univerzita Libovolného Věku a její řízení, printed in magazine Strojárstvo and on ARTEP [3] [9] ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank Doc. Ing. Jaroslav Šeminský, Ph.D. for suggestion of publishing this article, which was a motivation for us to describe this system. 5