Constructing the Learning Environment in Classroom Convivial Computer Tools for Higher Education

New education technologies are coming on stream, enabling connectivity among teachers, facilitators and students. Students have to learn how to access Managed Learning Environments each time they move to different course websites. These barriers can hinder the real understanding of the subject matter for a course. This research calls for a rethink of pedagogical process towards blending together commonly used emerging social software and legacy educational tools rather than developing new tools for the classroom. Indeed, a learning tool should fit well to the learning model and philosophy of that course. Three case studies were conducted through different courses in the Digital Media master program and Informatik program at the University of Bremen, Germany. Students worked in small groups to design digital media and learning portal that should make learning more interesting and meaningful for them. At the end, this research proposes the concept of Constructing the Learning Environment in classroom and Convivial Computer Tools for higher education, where students and teachers, via dialogues in the class, can negotiate to deploy a set of selected tools and functions to match their learning needs. It is also to show that a tool with too many functions can cause confusion, rather than enhance effectiveness. To empower collaborative, interactive and personal learning, this work proposes the blended learning and classroom procedures for a convivial selection of educational tools. At the end, our innovative attempt is to bring constructionist learning into the higher education context

Overview, Facilitation, and Strategies Involving Municipal Geothermal District Energy Systems in Ohio

As United States looks to decarbonize its energy systems, there is likely to be a surge in interest in multi-customer District Energy. Interest in networked thermal will be especially high for low-income neighborhoods, which have been targeted by the Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy development. In northern climates, many such areas have no air conditioning, and residents are increasingly at risk with the intensity and duration of hot weather resulting from climate change. Geothermal systems (and heat pumps) provide both heat and air conditioning to buildings, especially when integrated with natural gas hybrid systems. Ohio law provides a clear path for municipalities to create and regulate utilities that operate District Energy systems

The Virginia Tech Computational Grid: A Research Agenda

An important goal of grid computing is to apply the rapidly expanding power of distributed computing resources to large-scale multidisciplinary scientic problem solving. Developing a usable computational grid for Virginia Tech is desirable from many perspectives. It leverages distinctive strengths of the university, can help meet the research computing needs of users with the highest demands, and will generate many challenging computer science research questions. By deploying a campus-wide grid and demonstrating its effectiveness for real applications, the Grid Computing Research Group hopes to gain valuable experience and contribute to the grid computing community. This report describes the needs and advantages which characterize the Virginia Tech context with respect to grid computing, and summarizes several current research projects which will meet those needs

Future States of the Research Library

What can be said about the year 2021 that hasn’t already been said? Challenging, unprecedented, extraordinary in almost every way, 2021 even surpassed the previous annus horribilis, 2020. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to ripple humanity-wide, ceaselessly rebounding off, and cruelly amplifying, almost every kind of inequity and social challenge. A long overdue reckoning with the legacies of racism in the United States did not materialize in any truly transformative way, political discord worsened, and anti-science voices grew to dominate what should have been rational conversations about a coherent and collective response to a profound global health threat. It was within this context that the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) planned its 2021 meetings, which continued as virtual gatherings for a second year. Recognizing the monumentality of the change upon us, the committee of organizers planned the spring and fall 2021 meetings as a series, devoting the spring meeting to hearing from experts, mostly from outside of research libraries, on a set of broad issues, with the fall meeting more specifically focused on the library response and to understanding its evolving context. “The Big Pivot,” as we dubbed the meeting sequence, gave us time and space to grapple with major forces reshaping every aspect of our society, to work to understand them more deeply, and to contextualize their implications for our libraries and institutions. In this issue of Research Library Issues (RLI), we reflect on some of the topics explored in 2021 with a forward look to the conversations and work continuing into 2022

An Investigation into the Adoption, Implementation and Utilisation of Campus Portals: A Comparative Case Study of Saudi and U.K. Universities.

Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs) have become crucial components in contemporary organisations, including universities. Campus portals (CPs) have found their way into the academic environment and universities are increasingly implementing these technologies. While there are many studies concerning EIPs in organisations, there are few studies that touch this issue in the academic environment. This study investigates factors affecting the adoption, implementation and utilisation of CPs from the implementers’ and users’ perspectives. It adopts a comparative approach based on multiple case studies in some Saudi and UK universities. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation, which was analysed using hermeneutics and other qualitative data analysis techniques. Findings show that adoption and implementation of CPs are affected by factors including: technological, organisational, environmental, financial, innovation and user-related factors. Results from the users perspective reveal that although CPs are perceived to be useful in terms of accessing information and services, there are many concerns related to system, content and service quality. Moreover, the study has identified two main gaps between users and the implementers: a communication gap and an expectations gap. Consequently, users complained about a lack of user involvement and poor communication. Findings are interpreted using elements from institutional theory. Development of CPs is affected by many institutional factors such as coercive, mimetic, normative and competitive pressures. Furthermore, the introduction of CPs could lead to a clash of institutional logics among various stakeholders. Institutional arguments are likely to arise between portal teams and other campus constituents such as service providers and users. This study has three major contributions. First, it used institutional theory to investigate CPs adoption and implementation. As a result, it extends the line of research on the use of this theory to study IS in organisations. Second, it responds to calls from other IS researchers to study portals by conducting in-depth field investigation using qualitative research. Third, it addresses issues related to the development of bilingual portals in universities.Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabi

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue President\u27s Message From the ACUTA CEO Wireless Challenges on Campus Snapshot: And Then There\u27s Mass Notification Time to Deploy Wireless Security Cameras? Five Steps to Simplify and Secure BYOD Where Wireless Rules Coming Soon to Your Campus: Wireless loT The Federal Reserve Research Grant and FISMA Compliance Managing Privacy and Security in the Age of loT 2014 Institutional Excellence Awar

Investigating massive open online courses (MOOCs) opportunities for developing countries: Case of Papua New Guinea

The proliferation of massive open online courses or MOOCs has proven disruptive to the traditional educational enterprise. While there is an on going debate about the future of MOOCs, it has already shown effective results for particular cohort of learners. This research investigates the adoption of MOOCs as a disruptive initiative in developing countries, and in particular in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The results from conducting in-depth interviews with PNG MOOC users and Australian based academics have been conducted. Findings suggest a framework with four dimensions: Intentional and Non-Intentional attributes distributed from a Systematic (disruptive) to Non-Systematic (nondisruptive) spectrum. Based on such finding, recommendations include generating awareness of MOOCs to educational institutions, investment in feasibility studies and engaging in established Australian institutions for long term partnership in MOOC development and deployment

Learning from Recent British Information Literacy Models: A Report to ACRL\u27s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force

Information literacy is a fluid concept, shaped by our experiences, and changes in our information rich society. Guidelines articulating information literacy need modification to reflect the current form of this evolving concept. This report highlights the work of four groups in the United Kingdom to create innovative guidelines to assist practitioners in the promotion and teaching of information literacy