A sourcebook of exercises, games, scenarios and role plays, this practical, user-friendly guide provides a complete and valuable resource for research methods tutors, teachers and lecturers. Developed to complement and enhance existing course materials, the 100 ready-to-use activities encourage innovative and engaging classroom practice in seven areas: finding and using sources of information planning a research project conducting research using and analyzing data disseminating results acting ethically developing deeper research skills. Each of the activities is divided into a section on tutor notes and student handouts. Tutor notes contain clear guidance about the purpose, level and type of activity, along with a range of discussion notes that signpost key issues and research insights. Important terms, related activities and further reading suggestions are also included. Not only does the A4 format make the student handouts easy to photocopy, they are also available to download and print directly from the book’s companion website for easy distribution in class.

What’s new in the European research and development area? Cloud computing is a provision model where whatever computing resource that can be thought of (machines, network, software solutions, applications) is provided as a service. This new paradigm has changed the center of gravity of computing in both the academic and industry environments, but despite the considerable efforts and investments, there are critical problems that are not yet solved. The research and development community involved in distributed computing is searching for viable solutions that will increase the adoption of the cloud. This is the case of the collaborative work done by multi-national teams in the context of the FP7 programme of the European Commission. Students, researchers and developers working in the field of distributed computing will find in this book a snapshot of the on-going activities in research and development of cloud computing undertaken at the European level. These activities are organized by the latest hot topics of cloud computing research, which include services, management, automation and adoption. Summarizing, this book will help the reader understand and identify the research and development winds that are pushing the clouds to Europe.