Oklahoma City Community Foundation 2016 Annual Report

Oklahoma City Community Foundation Annual Report 201

The University of Pretoria archives virtual classroom : connecting the community's past with the virtual future

Recent technological changes, as well as higher expectations from the constituencies they serve, have had major impacts on the realm of museums. The virtual environment and all it has to offer, along with the perception by a more democratic society that museums are community property, have made traditional museums reconsider their positions in order to remain viable. Within the financial and resource constraints of the museum domain, this article will focus on a response to these challenges, which utilises the new technology, works more closely with the broader museum audience and collaborates with other information-related institutions such as archives and libraries. It looks specifically at an exhibition project devised and developed by the University of Pretoria Archives, the "Virtual Classroom", as a practical and viable solution to the challenges posed.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_mousaion.html or http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=20129am2013cp201

It’s just common sense! Why do negative perceptions of sociology teaching in medical education persist and is there any change in sight?

Based on a review of the literature pertaining to sociology teaching in medical education, this paper asks why does the problem of relevance with regards to sociology teaching in medical education still persist? And is there any change in sight? The literature suggests that epistemological understandings of medicine as represented by the biomedical model are deeply entrenched with far reaching consequences for sociology teaching. Notions of the social components of medicine as ‘irrelevant’ or ‘common sense’ have over time been reinforced by students’ expectations of medicine on entering medical education; by the attitudes of clinical and biomedical staff members who can act as negative role models and by institutional barriers including the organization of curricula content, decisions about ‘who teaches what’, timetabling and assessment. Changing such deeply ingrained practices may be an insurmountable task for educators working alone in individual medical schools. However, pedagogical changes emphasizing ‘integration’ and a growing understanding within medicine and higher education of alternative epistemologies predicated on social paradigms, means that increasingly, persons from different disciplinary and professional backgrounds share similar understandings about the complexities of medical care. As associated ideas filter into medical education new opportunities are arising to challenge collectively the structural forces at play which in turn could lead to a major shift in medical students’ thinking. If sociologists are to have a role in guiding the transmission of sociological ideas about health and illness it is crucial to understand and take part in these developments

Piloting journalistic learning in a rural Trump-supportive community: A reverse mentorship approach

Partisan politics challenge educators to determine how best to navigate discussions of controversial subjects within their classrooms. This can be particularly true for new educators in the early stages of developing their confidence and classroom management skills. This qualitative case study uses situated learning and the communities of practice theoretical constructs to investigate a new approach to educator training and co-facilitation. The new approach places recent journalism school college graduates in classrooms alongside teachers to foster real-time professional development through a process best described as reverse mentoring. The model could potentially provide educators with new pedagogical strategies during divisive political times. Specifically, this study examines the working relationship between an established sixth grade English-language arts/social studies teacher and a 25-year-old recent journalism school college graduate who collaborated during the 2016-17 academic year at a public middle school in a conservative rural community in the Pacific Northwest

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience