An uncommon case of relevance through everyday experiences

Physics education research has probed for the relevance of physics in students' everyday lives. Attitudinal and epistemological surveys have asked students if they think of or use physics in their daily lives. We have previously documented how it is uncommon that our life science students describe using or even seeing physics in their daily life (Nair, 2018). This result was unsurprising and aligns with previous scholarship of students majoring in disciplines outside of physics; we have argued that it is optimistic for scholars to expect students with disciplinary homes outside of physics to see their experiences through a lens of physics. Methodologically, we searched for a contrasting case (Sam). Sam is majoring in the life sciences and articulates moments where she uses physics to reason through everyday phenomena. We explore the ways in which courses can support students like Sam to find physics relevant to their everyday experiences.Comment: pre-prin

Bringing BCI into everyday life: Motor imagery in a pseudo realistic environment

Bringing Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) into everyday life is a challenge because an out-of-lab environment implies the presence of variables that are largely beyond control of the user and the software application. This can severely corrupt signal quality as well as reliability of BCI control. Current BCI technology may fail in this application scenario because of the large amounts of noise, nonstationarity and movement artifacts. In this paper, we systematically investigate the performance of motor imagery BCI in a pseudo realistic environment. In our study 16 participants were asked to perform motor imagery tasks while dealing with different types of distractions such as vibratory stimulations or listening tasks. Our experiments demonstrate that standard BCI procedures are not robust to theses additional sources of noise, implicating that methods which work well in a lab environment, may perform poorly in realistic application scenarios. We discuss several promising research directions to tackle this important problem.BMBF, 01GQ1115, Adaptive Gehirn-Computer-Schnittstellen (BCI) in nichtstationären Umgebunge

Sustainability principles through educational e-textile kit

Innovations in smart textiles technology are on the rise with a promise to add value to the consumer's life (Goodman et al., 2018). However, these innovations and the high development speed involved also raise concerns about environmental issues related to these trends (Van der Velden et al., 2015). Therefore, TTorch project was created which aim is to bring different fields, like electronics and textile engineering, together to create a kit for educational purposes and follow circular economy principles while doing it. TTorch is a creative toy with a development kit for up to 10-year-old children, using e-textile principles. The product kit creates a bridge between engineering and design, by letting the user explore a personal light source and build surroundings to it. The goal of the project is to show how interdisciplinary fields can work together and with that creating different opportunities. This paper gives a short overview of e-textiles, research on e-waste, textile waste and e-textile waste management. Further on it will focus on the necessary collaboration between design, engineering and industry by emphasising difference between core team and network around the core team. The collaboration aim it to create ecological product kit for educational purposes following the concept of STEAM. Discussions will include how collaboration between team members with diverse backgrounds, and surrounding network was necessary to identify specific gap in the market and to evolve the idea from product to development kit

Aspects of the Linguistic Culture of the Ural Mari People in XIXth-XXIst Centuries

This article adopts a linguoculturological approach to analyze the transformation of the Ural Mari culture between the XVIIIth and the XXIst centuries as an interconnection between language, mentality, and cultural identity.Ural Fed Univ, Ural Inst Humanities, Dept Art Hist & Socio Cultural Technologies, Ural Fed Univ, Ural Inst Humanitie

Engineering at San Jose State University, Winter 2014

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/engr_news/1012/thumbnail.jp

Problems and Opportunities of Interdisciplinary Work involving Users in Speculative Research for Innovation of Novel ICT Applications

In this article we focus upon some challenges of multidisciplinary teams working interdisciplinary in research for innovation of novel ICT applications. We start by defining some general challenges of especially social scientists when working interdisciplinary. The formulated challenges are grounded in our personal experiences. In the next part of the article we focus upon research methods that are used when involving users in the research of novel ICT applications. We shortly describe the different methods and the value they have for social scientists, designers, marketing people and engineers. In the latest part of the article we argument why, from our opinion, using this speculative research methods involving users can help facilitating interdisciplinary work

Innovation in Mobile Learning: A European Perspective

In the evolving landscape of mobile learning, European researchers have conducted significant mobile learning projects, representing a distinct perspective on mobile learning research and development. Our paper aims to explore how these projects have arisen, showing the driving forces of European innovation in mobile learning. We propose context as a central construct in mobile learning and examine theories of learning for the mobile world, based on physical, technological, conceptual, social and temporal mobility. We also examine the impacts of mobile learning research on educational practices and the implications for policy. Throughout, we identify lessons learnt from European experiences to date

The disjuncture of learning and recognition: credential assessment from the standpoint of Chinese immigrant engineers in Canada

To better recognise foreign qualifications, many OECD countries have promoted liberal fairness epitomised by universal standards and institutional efficiency. This paper departs from such a managerial orientation towards recognition. Building on recognitive justice, it proposes an alternative anchoring point for recognition practices: the standpoint or everyday experiences of immigrants. This approach is illustrated with a qualitative study of the credential recognition practices of the engineering profession in Canada. From the standpoint of Chinese immigrants, the study identifies a disjuncture between credential recognition practices and immigrants’ career stage post-migration. Taking this disjuncture as problematic, it further pinpoints recognition issues such as redundancy and arbitrariness, a narrow focus on undergraduate education, and a deficit view of training from other countries. While some of these issues may be addressed by improving administrative procedures, others demand a participatory space allowing immigrants to become partners of assessment, rather than merely its objects. (DIPF/Orig.

Information-Age Populism: Higher Education as a Civic Learning Organization

Viewing higher education as an environment "ripe for change," Harry Boyte makes the case for colleges and universities to forsake their traditional bastions of cloistered scholarship to become "civic learning" organizations. Many faculty members are willing and able to pursue their interests in the public relevance of teaching and research. What is needed to undertake the democratization of the production and diffusion of knowledge, Boyte says in this report from the Council on Public Policy Education, is to stress the need for disciplines to interact across porous boundaries with the wider world