The practices and challenges of telecollaboration in higher education in Europe

Telecollaboration is an area of CALL research and practice which has developed considerably in the last twenty years. Many research studies have been carried out and important findings have been made, but there has not yet been a large scale survey to try and \u2018map\u2019 the state of the art in telecollaboration practice. Most studies focus on single telecollaboration projects and look at the project design, learning outcomes and difficulties teachers and researchers have encountered in that particular project. This paper reports on a survey which sought to explore current practices and attitudes towards telecollaboration across European universities and to identify barriers that practitioners encounter. The survey was completed in full by a total of 210 university language teachers in 23 different European countries and 131 students. The picture we found presents a broad spectrum of practices. Despite an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards telecollaboration, findings also provide large-scale confirmation of some of the problems identified in small-scale studies, such as organizational difficulties, lack of time, limited technical support and great uncertainty regarding issues students should address in their exchanges. The paper concludes with some recommendations as to how to meet these challenges and how telecollaboration practice could become mainstreamed in higher education

Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of the Theory and Practice

Preferred citation for this report: Basurto, X., Virdin, J., Smith, H. and R. Juskus. 2017. Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of Theory and Practice. Oak Foundation.Often hidden in national statistics, small-scale fisheries have been poorly measured at a global level, and in thepast often ignored in states' policy-making. Yet estimates suggest their aggregate global contribution tonutrition, food security and poverty eradication is massive. The most recent estimates available suggest thatsmall-scale fisheries account for over 90 percent of the world's commercial fishers, processors and otherpersons employed along the value chain, equivalent to over 108 million people. Roughly half areemployed in the ocean and the other half in inland fisheries—making small-scale fisheries far and awaythe ocean's largest employer (greater than oil and gas, shipping, tourism, etc.). This level of activitytranslates into a large portion of the global fish catch: an estimated 46 percent of the total, and 38 percentof the fish caught in the ocean. SSFs are also estimated to provide over half the animal protein intake inmany of the world's least developed countries, and over half of the fish for domestic consumption indeveloping countries more broadly. In sum, in many regions of the world SSFs provide both incomes tohelp reduce poverty and safety nets to help prevent it

China, the United States, and the Climate Change Challenge

Outlines China's climate change policy, U.S. concerns about transfer of carbon-intensive jobs to China and ways to address them, ways for U.S. policy and legislation to spur China's adoption of clean technologies, and specific mechanisms for cooperation

Peer-to-Peer Bartering: Swapping Amongst Self-interested Agents

Large--scale distributed environments can be seen as a conflict between the selfish aims of the participants and the group welfare of the population as a whole. In order to regulate the behavior of the participants it is often necessary to introduce mechanisms that provide incentives and stimulate cooperative behavior in order to mitigate for the resultant potentially undesirable availability outcomes which could arise from individual actions.The history of economics contains a wide variety of incentive patterns for cooperation. In this thesis, we adopt bartering incentive pattern as an attractive foundation for a simple and robust form of exchange to re-allocate resources. While bartering is arguably the world's oldest form of trade, there are still many instances where it surprises us. The success and survivability of the barter mechanisms adds to its attractiveness as a model to study.In this thesis we have derived three relevant scenarios where a bartering approach is applied. Starting from a common model of bartering: - We show the price to be paid for dealing with selfish agents in a bartering environment, as well as the impact on performance parameters such as topology and disclosed information.- We show how agents, by means of bartering, can achieve gains in goods without altruistic agents needing to be present.- We apply a bartering--based approach to a real application, the directory services.The core of this research is the analysis of bartering in the Internet Age. In previous times, usually economies dominated by bartering have suffered from high transaction costs (i.e. the improbability of the wants, needs that cause a transaction occurring at the same time and place). Nowadays, the world has a global system of interconnected computer networks called Internet. This interconnected world has the ability to overcome many challenges of the previous times. This thesis analysis the oldest system of trade within the context of this new paradigm. In this thesis we aim is to show thatbartering has a great potential, but there are many challenges that can affect the realistic application of bartering that should be studied.The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate resource allocation using bartering mechanism, with particular emphasis on applications in largescale distributed systems without the presence of altruistic participants in the environment.Throughout the research presented in this thesis we have contributed evidence that supports the leitmotif that best summarizes our work: investigation interactions amongst selfish, rational, and autonomous agents with incomplete information, each seeking to maximize its expected utility by means of bartering. We concentrate on three scenarios: one theoretical, a case of use, and finally a real application. All of these scenarios are used for evaluating bartering. Each scenario starts from a common origin, but each of them have their own unique features.The final conclusion is that bartering is still relevant in the modern world

CHINESE SECURITY COOPERATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 2000-2017: EVIDENCE FROM THAILAND AND THE PHILIPPINES

Since the turn of the 21st century, China has steadily expanded security cooperation in Southeast Asia, reflected in more frequent naval port calls and military exercises and in increased arms sales to states in the region. Why has China been pursuing closer security cooperation in Southeast Asia, and what factors influence the degree to which Southeast Asian states seek, accept, or reject security cooperation with China? This thesis finds that China is primarily motivated to improve security ties in Southeast Asia in order to establish regional preeminence and cement its status as a great power. Related and supporting Chinese objectives include using security cooperation to achieve the following: establish influence within key Southeast Asian states that can be wielded to serve Chinese interests, prevent encirclement by the United States or its allies, and assuage regional anxieties about perceived Chinese aggressiveness. This thesis also finds that factors influencing the degree to which Southeast Asian states seek, accept, or reject security cooperation with China include the level of U.S. security cooperation a state receives, an interest in diversification of security partnerships, the prevalence of illiberalism or human rights abuses, and the presence or absence of a territorial dispute with China.http://archive.org/details/chinesesecurityc1094562780Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

International economic law and the digital divide : a new silk road?

PhDThe failure of the trade negotiations at Seattle, and the collapse of the negotiations at Doha have bought increased attention to the issue of development, aid, and the implementation of special and differential rights in favour of developing countries. This thesis looks to examine one aspect of the many issues facing developed and developing countries in the negotiations that lie ahead, specifically how international economic law can be used in the application of technological processes to help address the Digital Divide. At present, there is an emphasis on development and the needs of developing countries, and that such development needs to be sustainable. Research reviewed in Chapter 2 indicates that growing information technology levels leads to growth of GDP. Importantly the use of ICT‘s will foster growth in the trade of electronic goods and services (electronic intangibles). By making positive attempts to reduce the Digital Divide, DCs and LDCs will be in a better position to access the necessary ICTs required to help grow GDP and facilitate sustainable development. The thesis sets out various measures to help reduce the digital divide and founded in international economic law. Central to the thesis is a new Layering Theory that the Author argues will assist operators (both incumbents and Independent Service Providers) in the developing world to gain access to international backbone Internet networks at cost price, one of the main impediments to reducing the international digital divide. The Layering Theory sets out a procedure for accurately identifying the relevant market for providers of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) and services so that those operators who abuse their dominance by refusing to supply an interconnection service or access to a digital network can be compelled to interconnect their networks to those smaller domestic or third country Internet Service Providers (ISP) operators who require access. By gaining access/interconnection in this way, operators in DCs and LDCs will be in a much better position to take advantage of cheaper production costs to export electronic intangibles overseas. Also, the thesis sets out recommendations for reform of international telecommunications, new provisions on technology transfer to help DCs and LDCs access the ICTs needed to address the Digital Divide, including provisions on technology transfer found in the increasing take-up of bilateral and regional trade agreements—and if there is to be free trade in e-commerce—recommendations for reform of current WTO rules on the classification of electronic goods and services. However, the thesis also argues that the digital divide cannot be addressed without strengthening the human capital base in developing and least developed countries, and that this cannot happen without such states also giving greater effect to the enforcement of civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights ―at home‖. The thesis asks whether it is possible to define a relationship in IEL between civil and political, and economic social and cultural rights as a collective for example in the form of the much debated and somewhat controversial Right to Development (the ―RTD‖ as defined in this thesis) on the one hand, with economic indicators, such Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the other? And if so, how the RTD can be operationalise

The impact of South Africa's economic diplomacy on Africa's development

South Africa has become a significant role player in the international relations since being readmitted into the world community after the first democratic election in 1994. The primary focus of country’s international relations is the African continent. South Africa has played a pivotal role in bringing peace across the continent. There has also been an increase in South Africa’s engagement with the continent on economic and trade issues. South Africa’s economic diplomacy has been scrutinized from different angles. There has been perceptions of a South Africa with imperialists or hegemonic tendencies resembling those of the West. There are also those who view South Africa’s economic role in the continent in the positive light as a contributor to economic growth and development. The South African governments have always preached the notion of the “African agenda” and the interest in fair trade and engagement with the continent. This study assesses different debates regarding South Africa’s economic diplomacy in Africa and explores if this is benefiting the continent’s development. The study also considers if such economic diplomacy has positive spin off for the South African economy. Since economic diplomacy is operated at government level the study also considers how economic diplomacy is coordinated in South Africa. There are a number of recommendations presented for the improvement of economic diplomacy in South Africa

China’s international education aid to Cambodia in the 2010’s: Situation analysis and trends

Since 2004, China has contributed an increasing amount of annual financial aid to Cambodia, especially from 2010 to 2012. Cambodia’s increasing budget shortages in education from 2014 to 2018 motivated its government to seek development aid from abroad. In the context of the ongoing rise in China's overall budget aid to Cambodia, this research studied the circumstances of this educational aid, discerning trends from 2010 to 2019, and evaluating China’s position. Data was gathered using descriptive mixed methods, with statistical data gathered from the Cambodia Official Development Assistance (ODA) Database as well as relevant documents.Results were that 1) China was among the five countries with the overall highest number of development assistance projects in Cambodia (others included Japan, South Korea, the US, and Canada). China was the largest financial contributor with the most concessional loans, with the likelihood of offering further grants by the late 2010s; 2) China provided little aid to education when compared to that provided for other sectors and compared to other aid providers. However, China did provide aid for education when combined with the facilities sectors they invested in.Notably, most Chinese educational aid programs were not recorded in the Cambodia ODA Database; though these amounts did not vary much from those of Japan and  South Korea