Evaluating empowerment and control of HE e-learning in a secure environment

With the increased spread of HE distance learning into a wide variety of contexts it is important for us to understand the factors involved in its successful deployment for students. E-learning has a great potential to support effective and empowering HE distance learning (Wilson, 2007; Adams, 2005; Hughes, 2005). However, within two secure environments, prisons and health service, the factors involved are complex. This paper reviews HE e-learning technology perceptions within these two contrasting contexts from 225 students' and stakeholders' perspectives. Previous research has detailed literature limitations on obtaining students' perspectives of e-learning (Conole et al, 2006). These limitations are compounded when other stakeholder perceptions are not integrated (Sun et al, 2007; Adams et al, 2005; Millen at al, 2002). This paper developed and applied an e-learning framework for student and stakeholder perceptions. This social psychological framework, is based on previous practice based e-learning studies and is used here to synthesise two large-scale case studies. The framework focuses on three concepts learner Access (e.g. learning design, technology design, physical access), Awareness (e.g. of resources, their usage and support for e-learning tasks) and Acceptability (e.g. trust, privacy, aesthetics, engagement). Students' and stakeholders' perceptions identified high levels of students' empowerment through e-learning whilst still requiring a further pedagogical tailoring and an awareness of support. However, serious problems within these contexts have identified blocks to e-learning through stakeholders perceptions and fears of acceptability (i.e. issues of risk and trust). Ultimately, through understanding competing perceptions and needs within these complex environments we can support the effective technological development, pedagogical design and deployment of e-learning systems

Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins. As such, it can often be difficult to navigate prior work, and/or to piece together a broad picture of what the field looks like as a whole. In this paper, we aim to contextualize HCI4D—to give it some historical background, to review its existing literature spanning a number of research traditions, to discuss some of its key issues arising from the work done so far, and to suggest some major research objectives for the future

Mixing Methods and Sciences: A Longitudinal Cross-Disciplinary Mixed Methods Study on Technology to Address Social Isolation and Loneliness in Later Life

Despite a growing interest in longitudinal mixed methods research, the literature offers few examples of complex designs. To evaluate a communication-based technology to address social isolation and loneliness in later life, we conducted two long-term studies in aged-care homes. We used a longitudinal convergent mixed methods design and a cross-disciplinary approach that employed techniques from social and computer sciences to ensure a comprehensive evaluation. While cross-disciplinary mixed methods research is also growing, a discussion of its methodological practices, challenges, and strategies is still scarce. This article contributes to mixed methods research by providing lessons learned on how cross-disciplinary mixed studies can be designed and integrated from collection to interpretation, particularly when combining convergent and longitudinal approaches. We also show the value of “design-in-action”—that is, the refinement and adjustment of techniques throughout research, as methods “talk to each other.”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

Translingual and Translational Practices as Rhetorical Care Technologies in COVID-19 Recovery

Drawing from an ethnographic study with Korean-speaking language minority communities in an urban metropolitan area in the United Sates, this study illuminates how multilingual transnational community workers and members cope with disaster recovery–specific technologies in the aftermath of COVID-19. Networking studies on language and cultural differences and studies on care rhetorics in feminist science and technology studies, this study examines how language minorities enact translingual and translational activities as care practices. By attending to racial, linguistic, and cultural differences and unequal power structures, this study identifies four emerging findings: 1) developing translingual attunements; 2) cultivating transmodal attunements; 3) producing translational attunements; and 4) enacting transcultural coalitional actions. These findings suggest multilingual transnational communities rhetorically negotiate disaster management technologies and unequal distributions of disaster relief resources by translating a wide range of forms and leveraging diverse translingual and transmodal resources. To disrupt technocratic textual regimes of disaster recovery, the author argues that more research should investigate diverse rhetorical strategies and caring practices performed by marginalized communities

Beyond bench and bedside: disentangling the concept of translational research

The label ‘Translational Research’ (TR) has become ever more popular in the biomedical domain in recent years. It is usually presented as an attempt to bridge a supposed gap between knowledge produced at the lab bench and its use at the clinical bedside. This is claimed to help society harvest the benefits of its investments in scientific research. The rhetorical as well as moral force of the label TR obscure, however, that it is actually used in very different ways. In this paper, we analyse the scientific discourse on TR, with the aim to disentangle and critically evaluate the different meanings of the label. We start with a brief reconstruction of the history of the concept. Subsequently, we unravel how the label is actually used in a sample of scientific publications on TR and examine the presuppositions implied by different views of TR. We argue that it is useful to distinguish different views of TR on the basis of three dimensions, related to (1) the construction of the ‘translational gap’; (2) the model of the translational process; and (3) the cause of the perceived translational gap. We conclude that the motive to make society benefit from its investments in biomedical science may be laudable, but that it is doubtful whether the dominant views of TR will contribute to this en

Pervasive Technologies and Support for Independent Living

A broad range of pervasive technologies are used in many domains, including healthcare: however, there appears to be little work examining the role of such technologies in the home, or the different wants and needs of elderly users. Additionally, there exist ethical issues surrounding the use of highly personal healthcare-related data, and interface issues centred on the novelty of the technologies and the disabilities experienced by the users. This report examines these areas, before considering the ways in which they might come together to help support independent-living users with disabilities which may be age-related