Shaping Metrics for HEI Cultural Engagement - Knowledge Transfer

An application was submitted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for support for a project that would identify and define activities deemed relevant to Knowledge Transfer (KT) - Cultural Engagement (CE), and propose appropriate means to evaluate them. It was acknowledged from the outset that efforts at agreeing “metrics” for the impact of such activities had been attempted before, albeit with limited success. (One such notable example has been lately provided by the Higher Education and Business Community Interaction Survey (HEBCIS) which has collected some data on social, community, and cultural engagement for some years; however, the robustness and consistency of the data for these purposes have often been questioned.

Materiality, Craft, Identity, and Embodiment: Reworking Digital Writing Pedagogy

Too often in Rhetoric and Composition, multimodal writing (an expansive practice of opening up the media and modes with which writers might work) is reduced to digital writing. “Reworking Digital Writing” argues that the opportunities and insights of digital writing should encourage us to turn our attention to all kinds of nondigital materials that have not traditionally been considered part of composing—including the materials that are already familiar to crafters and do-it-yourselfers (DIYers). Further, I argue that the material, technical, rhetorical, economic, and social dimensions of DIY craft provide a coherent framework for teaching multimodal writing in ways that encourage students to engage in the work of writing in ways that can make more apparent the composing activities and processes of writing and make more concrete the kinds of work that composed objects can do. Through this approach to composing, I argue that we can help students experience the very real ways in which writing can reshape our subjectivities and build new kinds of worlds with others. To that end, I examine DIY craft histories, theories, and practices to develop a new pedagogical framework for teaching multimodal writing

“A small, shabby crystal, yet a crystal”: A life of music in Wittgenstein’s Denkbewegungen

Ludwig Wittgenstein's life and writings attest the extraordinary importance that the art of music had for him. It would be fair to say even that among the great philosophers of the twentieth century he was one of the most musically sensitive. Wittgenstein’s Denkbewegungen contains some of his most unique remarks on music, which bear witness not only to the level of his engagement in thinking about music, but also to the intimate connection in his mind between musical acculturation, the perils of modernity, and the challenge, which was very personal to Wittgenstein, of philosophizing amidst what he believed was a dissolution of the resemblances which unite his culture’s ways of life. In particular, Denkbewegungen contains unique remarks on modern music, the problem of Gustav Mahler’s music, and the music of the future. Also, it contains, among other things, some unusually forward-looking remarks on the differences between Brahms and Bruckner, which both probe deeply into the nature of musical creativity and anticipate his later philosophical move beyond the inner/outer divide in his last writings. I shall offer a close reading of Wittgenstein’s remarks on music in Denkbewegungen, which situates them in the broader context of his philosophical development in his middle-period and beyond. I aim to show the deep integration of Wittgenstein’s thinking about music with his philosophical development, his deep sense of cultural lamentation, and his development as a person and as a philosophical expositor

Enhancing Open and Distance Learning Materials: Validating the AFCI Model for Basic Chemistry

In this study, we present the validation of the AFCI (Analysis and Identification, Find Color, Color Composition, and Implementation) model as a problem-based approach to enhance the quality of multicolor output in open and distance learning materials. The primary objective was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the AFCI model, specifically designed to incorporate two-color separation techniques aimed at reducing costs while improving the quality of multicolor content. Our research encompassed the examination of printed modules and samples across diverse subject areas, including Basic Chemistry, Architecture, Enterprise System Design, and Teacher Profession. To establish the validity of the AFCI model, a comprehensive validation process was conducted, involving focused group discussions with experts specializing in graphic design, printing, and educational materials. The outcomes of this rigorous validation process revealed substantial validity coefficients (rα visibility = 0.98, rα attractiveness = 0.97, rα convenience = 0.91, rα emphasis = 1), affirming the model's effectiveness. Furthermore, the internal consistency of the AFCI model was confirmed with a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.86. This research significantly contributes to the realm of open and distance learning by introducing an innovative model for improving multicolor content quality. The AFCI model's successful validation underscores its potential to benefit practitioners and educators in developing high-quality teaching materials, thereby enhancing the overall learning experience in open and distance education

Bridging the Abyss

This paper seeks to explain the epistemological bases for the two cultures and to show why this disciplinary divide continues to plague American academic culture. Next, we discuss strategies for bridging the two cultures through general education curricula which promote mutual understanding of the two cultures while educating students in basic skills. Evidence is presented which shows the efficacy of these integrative, interdisciplinary curricula. In conclusion, we briefly mention some collaborative research efforts which indicate the enduring effects that such an education may have

On the Treatment of Intangible Assets in National Accounting

The purpose of this paper is to give some suggestions on the treatment of intangible assets in national accounting. Knowledge ("World 3" in Karl Popper's term) is a sort of environment for human beings. As people more and more come to think that knowledge is an important factor for economic growth, the society comes to believe knowledge is capital. However, it is not easy to treat knowledge as capital. First of all, it is because knowledge creation is not economic production. In this paper, it is proposed that knowledge access should be focused instead. In addition, by drawing attention to striking similarities between expenditures for certain intangible fixed assets and certain work-in-progress-type expenditures, it is suggested that the concept of intangible fixed assets in the 1993SNA may be better interpreted when you consider them as a special type of work-in-progress. Finally, the treatment of intangible non-produced assets is discussed.

Reverse Engineering Heterogeneous Applications

Nowadays a large majority of software systems are built using various technologies that in turn rely on different languages (e.g. Java, XML, SQL etc.). We call such systems heterogeneous applications (HAs). By contrast, we call software systems that are written in one language homogeneous applications. In HAs the information regarding the structure and the behaviour of the system is spread across various components and languages and the interactions between different application elements could be hidden. In this context applying existing reverse engineering and quality assurance techniques developed for homogeneous applications is not enough. These techniques have been created to measure quality or provide information about one aspect of the system and they cannot grasp the complexity of HAs. In this dissertation we present our approach to support the analysis and evolution of HAs based on: (1) a unified first-class description of HAs and, (2) a meta-model that reifies the concept of horizontal and vertical dependencies between application elements at different levels of abstraction. We implemented our approach in two tools, MooseEE and Carrack. The first is an extension of the Moose platform for software and data analysis and contains our unified meta-model for HAs. The latter is an engine to infer derived dependencies that can support the analysis of associations among the heterogeneous elements composing HA. We validate our approach and tools by case studies on industrial and open-source JEAs which demonstrate how we can handle the complexity of such applications and how we can solve problems deriving from their heterogeneous nature

Shaping Metrics for HEI Cultural Engagement - Knowledge Transfer

An application was submitted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for support for a project that would identify and define activities deemed relevant to Knowledge Transfer (KT) - Cultural Engagement (CE), and propose appropriate means to evaluate them. It was acknowledged from the outset that efforts at agreeing “metrics” for the impact of such activities had been attempted before, albeit with limited success. (One such notable example has been lately provided by the Higher Education and Business Community Interaction Survey (HEBCIS) which has collected some data on social, community, and cultural engagement for some years; however, the robustness and consistency of the data for these purposes have often been questioned.