Learning architectures and negotiation of meaning in European trade unions

As networked learning becomes familiar at all levels and in all sectors of education, cross-fertilisation of innovative methods can usefully inform the lifelong learning agenda. Development of the pedagogical architectures and social processes, which afford learning, is a major challenge for educators as they strive to address the varied needs of a wide range of learners. One area in which this challenge is taken very seriously is that of trade unions, where recent large-scale projects have aimed to address many of these issues at a European level. This paper describes one such project, which targeted not only online courses, but also the wider political potential of virtual communities of practice. By analysing findings in relation to Wengers learning architecture, the paper investigates further the relationships between communities of practice and communities of learners in the trade union context. The findings suggest that a focus on these relationships rather than on the technologies that support them should inform future developments

Survey on Evaluation Methods for Dialogue Systems

In this paper we survey the methods and concepts developed for the evaluation of dialogue systems. Evaluation is a crucial part during the development process. Often, dialogue systems are evaluated by means of human evaluations and questionnaires. However, this tends to be very cost and time intensive. Thus, much work has been put into finding methods, which allow to reduce the involvement of human labour. In this survey, we present the main concepts and methods. For this, we differentiate between the various classes of dialogue systems (task-oriented dialogue systems, conversational dialogue systems, and question-answering dialogue systems). We cover each class by introducing the main technologies developed for the dialogue systems and then by presenting the evaluation methods regarding this class

E-Commerce Japanese Style

Presentation to the Japan Industry and Management of Technology Program (JIMT) on electronic commerce in Japan, how it is different from e-commerce in the US, and the challenges that foreign companies face entering the e-commerce market in Japan.IC2 Institut

Towards Consistent Principles of Flexicurity

The paper contains analysis of, critical remarks on, and constructive suggestions to Towards Common Principles of Flexicurtity of the European Commission (2007). The latter promotes relaxing the employment protection legislation while providing advances in employment and social security for flexible workforces, like fixed-term, part-time and agency workers, or self-employed. The default assumption, that relaxing labour laws can be compensated by these advances, is criticised as the compensating measures are regarded as vague and insufficient. Therefore, some additional measures are proposed to counterbalance the actual flexibilisation of employment relations, including (1) flexinsurance, a kind of progressive flexibilisation tax, meaning that the employer's contribution to social security should be proportional to the flexibility of the contract/risk of becoming unemployed, (2) elements of the basic minimum income model, (3) workplace tax for worse working conditions of atypically employed which should protect 'the working environment' in the same way as the green tax protects the natural environment, and (4) constraining financial markets. It is argued that all of these meet interests of social partners and solve contradictions between several European policies. --

Peacebuilding education, a complex perspective

This article presents the design of a formal, special and flexible educational model for basic secondary school, aimed at adult victims of the armed conflict and former combatants in Colombia. This model is supported by emergent pedagogies and participatory methodologies which seek to consolidate harmonious relations between communities and nature with a higher purpose: a peaceful coexistence as a support for peace construction in Colombia. It is based on the pivotal element Culture of Peace that contributes to the construction of sustainable peace within the framework of social justice and rights. The pedagogical pillars have three complementary approaches: bio-learning, pedagogical mediation and popular education. The methodology fits into complex thinking that consists in the recognition of networks of relationships existing in knowledge, as well as the impossibility of exhausting it in a single epistemic field, in order to build and share knowledge through an integrative project that engages different academic fields incorporated in the study cycles. Thus, it would be possible to address the pivotal elements, with a multidimensional, contextual and trans- disciplinary perspective in interaction with the areas of knowledge required for these learning cycles

Preparing Teacher Candidates to Serve Students From Diverse Backgrounds: Triggering Transformative Learning Through Short-Term Cultural Immersion

This study followed 24 teacher candidates in a short-term cultural immersion field experience designed to help them reflect on their assumptions and perspectives in order to better understand the culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students they will teach. Qualitative methods were informed by a phenomenological research approach to examine candidates’ transformative learning experiences in a cultural immersion context. The findings are discussed within a three-stage framework of transformative learning: triggering experiences, frame of reference examination, and transformative change

ENHANCEMENT OF VIRTUAL TEAMS THROUGH SOFTWARE SELECTION: A PROPOSAL

The concept of virtual team gains importance in world economy as the process of globalization advances. This article presents the virtual team as a drive force through the improvement of the collaborative work processes. Substantial features are presented here, in regard to the assembly of the virtual team, the stages of its development and an empirical contrast analysis against the traditional team. In the virtual environment, an emphasis is set on trust, management and planning. These three objectives can be mainly acquired through communication and an accurate representation of the information. In an attempt to estimate the general software necessities required by a virtual team, a model is created that reunites a series of applications considered optimal for telework.Virtual team, software solutions, telework, project management

Learning as spirituality and nurture - Pacific indigenous peoples' perspectives of lifelong learning

This paper discusses characteristics of an adult education practice for peoples in the Pacific. There is no one Pacific way as the Pacific population is diverse consisting of many cultures, languages, social structures and differing colonial experiences. For many Pacific peoples learning is holistic, is driven by cultural motivation, which is often for the benefit of their extended families(the collective)rather than personal gains or self-actualisation. Learning is constantly intervened by spiritual matters, the same being true for most aspects of Pacific peoples’ day-to-day lives. Therefore spirituality is integral to learning at all levels formal and informal