A Contextualised General Systems Theory

A system is something that can be separated from its surrounds, but this definition leaves much scope for refinement. Starting with the notion of measurement, we explore increasingly contextual system behaviour and identify three major forms of contextuality that might be exhibited by a system: (1) between components; (2) between system and experimental method; and (3) between a system and its environment. Quantum theory is shown to provide a highly useful formalism from which all three forms of contextuality can be analysed, offering numerous tests for contextual behaviour, as well as modelling possibilities for systems that do indeed display it. I conclude with the introduction of a contextualised general systems theory based on an extension of this formalism

Learning about learning as systemic practice in the context of environmental decision-making

This paper has been written as the author is beginning a new phase of researching learning, investigating what supports people in their environmental decision making. This process of inquiry has arisen partly as a result of the development and teaching of the UK Open University’s Masters ’ level course Environmental decision making – a systems approach. The implications of approaching an inquiry with a view of ‘learning as systemic practice ’ is considered, drawing on insights into practice, skilled behaviour and learning systems from Lave, Wenger, Schon, Varela, Ison and Russell, among others. The relevance of various action research approaches for learning about learning as systemic practice is discussed. The paper finishes by identifying and exploring three focuses, that seem both challenging and important to the author to take account of as the research progresses. They are the needs for (i) systemic praxis (ii) an awareness of distinctions made by those who participate in the process of inquiry and (iii) using an approach with an epistemological dimension

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Contextualised Browsing in a Digital Library's Living Lab

Contextualisation has proven to be effective in tailoring \linebreak search results towards the users' information need. While this is true for a basic query search, the usage of contextual session information during exploratory search especially on the level of browsing has so far been underexposed in research. In this paper, we present two approaches that contextualise browsing on the level of structured metadata in a Digital Library (DL), (1) one variant bases on document similarity and (2) one variant utilises implicit session information, such as queries and different document metadata encountered during the session of a users. We evaluate our approaches in a living lab environment using a DL in the social sciences and compare our contextualisation approaches against a non-contextualised approach. For a period of more than three months we analysed 47,444 unique retrieval sessions that contain search activities on the level of browsing. Our results show that a contextualisation of browsing significantly outperforms our baseline in terms of the position of the first clicked item in the result set. The mean rank of the first clicked document (measured as mean first relevant - MFR) was 4.52 using a non-contextualised ranking compared to 3.04 when re-ranking the result lists based on similarity to the previously viewed document. Furthermore, we observed that both contextual approaches show a noticeably higher click-through rate. A contextualisation based on document similarity leads to almost twice as many document views compared to the non-contextualised ranking.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, paper accepted at JCDL 201

An algebra and conceptual model for semantic tagging of collaborative digital libraries

Cost-effective semantic description and annotation of shared knowledge resources has always been of great importance for digital libraries and large scale information systems in general. With the emergence of the Social Web and Web 2.0 technologies, a more effective semantic description and annotation, e.g., folksonomies, of digital library contents is envisioned to take place in collaborative and personalised environments. However, there is a lack of foundation and mathematical rigour for coping with contextualised management and retrieval of semantic annotations throughout their evolution as well as diversity in users and user communities. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation for semantic annotations of digital libraries in terms of flexonomies. The proposed theoretical model relies on a high dimensional space with algebraic operators for contextualised access of semantic tags and annotations. The set of the proposed algebraic operators, however, is an adaptation of the set theoretic operators selection, projection, difference, intersection, union in database theory. To this extent, the proposed model is meant to lay the ontological foundation for a Digital Library 2.0 project in terms of geometric spaces rather than logic (description) based formalisms as a more efficient and scalable solution to the semantic annotation problem in large scale

The development of a contextualised set of evaluation criteria for studying internationalisation at a Vietnamese public university : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

The aim of this thesis is to explore the development of a contextualised set of evaluation criteria for studying internationalisation at a Vietnamese public university. The literature on internationalisation has so far paid little attention to Vietnam, a context which is at an early stage in conceptualising a plan for its internationalisation. This thesis, therefore, will assist Vietnamese universities in this effort in order to become a part of the global higher education system. Having access to a set of relevant evaluation criteria will not only enable them to better understand their current level of internationalisation but also inform their future internationalisation strategy. The research process was supported by two conceptual frameworks: practical participation evaluation and utilization-focused evaluation approaches. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods was employed to conduct the three-phase development of the contextualised set of evaluation criteria. A collaborative partnership was also developed with the institutional stakeholders from a key university for which the set of criteria was contextualised for evaluating the internationalisation process. The findings from this study indicated that the development of a contextualised set of evaluation criteria for internationalisation at a Vietnamese public university was informed by a complexity of contextual factors. In particular, the domestic-focused nature of institutional internationalisation was found to be shaped not only by national economic and political rationales but also the institutional structure of single focus on teaching. The complexity was further expanded to (national) cultural relevance, institutional purposes for the evaluation, and the institutional mono-disciplinary structure when it came to the evaluation of that internationalisation. As a result of the study, a modelling process for developing a contextualised set of criteria for internationalisation at Vietnamese public universities was established. Insights into the complexity of the process for contextualising a set of evaluation criteria to study internationalisation at a Vietnam university also led to implications and recommendations for institutional stakeholders at the key university in the study (policy implementers and senior leaders), other universities, and policy makers

Edufare for the future precariat: the moral agenda in Australia’s ‘earning or learning’ policy

This paper considers the educational experience constructed under Australia’s policy decision in 2009 to extend compulsory education by requiring that students must be ‘earning or learning’ till 17 years of age. The discussion draws on an empirical project that explored the moral order operating in classrooms for students retained under this policy in non-academic pathways in high schools and Technical and Further Education colleges across three towns experiencing youth employment stress. It asks how the policy regulating these students’ prolonged engagement with formal education plays out in classroom interactions, to what end and to whose benefit. A theoretical lens informed by work by Standing and Wacquant is used to understand the contemporary moment, and work by Durkheim and Bernstein unpacks the moral work implicated in classroom interactions. The analysis describes the light curriculum and the heavy compliance demanded in these ‘edufare’ programmes then argues that in essence the policy seeks to manage the social risk posed by the future precariat. The conclusion reflects on whether this is an adequate policy response to broad generational changes in fortunes and prospects to which education may not have the answers

The Noetic Prism

Definitions of ‘knowledge’ and its relationships with ‘data’ and ‘information’ are varied, inconsistent and often contradictory. In particular the traditional hierarchy of data-information-knowledge and its various revisions do not stand up to close scrutiny. We suggest that the problem lies in a flawed analysis that sees data, information and knowledge as separable concepts that are transformed into one another through processing. We propose instead that we can describe collectively all of the materials of computation as ‘noetica’, and that the terms data, information and knowledge can be reconceptualised as late-binding, purpose-determined aspects of the same body of material. Changes in complexity of noetica occur due to value-adding through the imposition of three different principles: increase in aggregation (granularity), increase in set relatedness (shape), and increase in contextualisation through the formation of networks (scope). We present a new model in which granularity, shape and scope are seen as the three vertices of a triangular prism, and show that all value-adding through computation can be seen as movement within the prism space. We show how the conceptual framework of the noetic prism provides a new and comprehensive analysis of the foundations of computing and information systems, and how it can provide a fresh analysis of many of the common problems in the management of intellectual resources

Governing animal–human relations in farming practices: a study of group housing of sows in the EU

EU pig welfare legislation required European pig farmers to shift from individual to group housing of pregnant sows by 1 January 2013. This requirement was principally designed to meet the sows’ needs for locomotion and interaction with conspecifics. This article explores how the legislation affected everyday sow–farmer interactions, which influence farm animal welfare to an important degree. We start by analysing conceptualisations of sow welfare and sow–farmer relations as implicated in the EU directive and the scientific advice that informed it. Contending that these conceptualisations largely overlook co-developments in sow housing systems and sow–farmer relations, we subsequently introduce an alternative analytical framework that builds on sociological, practice-oriented theories. We then apply this framework to analyse 19 qualitative interviews with pig farmers in Belgium on the on-farm introduction of group sow housing. In this analysis, we discern different ways in which farmers’ choices for particular group housing systems were co-constituted by and co-constitutive of everyday sow–farmer relations. We conclude by reflecting on the scientific and policy implications of these findings