Meeting the information challenge: exploring partnerships with Africa

Africa suffers from the disadvantages of marginality within the global technical system and a legacy of externally driven infrastructure. Developments in information and communication technologies now offer the chance to redress these but the technologies require skills and capacities which are scarce. The technologies themselves can be used to leverage existing resources so that the necessary skills can be developed. However this process needs to take account of African priorities and requirements if the current inequitable situation is not to be reproduced in a new global infrastructure. The key to this is a balance between external partnership and internal collaboration. The African diaspora offers a means of moderating such relationships

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

Is there a role for online repositories in e-Learning?

Many universities across Europe are introducing, or thinking of introducing, an online repository for learning and teaching materials. Evidence from development projects in the UK suggests that tutors are willing to share resources with each other. Yet they do not at present make much use of online repositories. Why is this? What can be done? Are repositories a good idea? Our article will explore and answer these questions. The authors together lead a project called “Developing Repositories at Worcester” (DRaW) funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Illinois Digital Scholarship: Preserving and Accessing the Digital Past, Present, and Future

Since the University's establishment in 1867, its scholarly output has been issued primarily in print, and the University Library and Archives have been readily able to collect, preserve, and to provide access to that output. Today, technological, economic, political and social forces are buffeting all means of scholarly communication. Scholars, academic institutions and publishers are engaged in debate about the impact of digital scholarship and open access publishing on the promotion and tenure process. The upsurge in digital scholarship affects many aspects of the academic enterprise, including how we record, evaluate, preserve, organize and disseminate scholarly work. The result has left the Library with no ready means by which to archive digitally produced publications, reports, presentations, and learning objects, much of which cannot be adequately represented in print form. In this incredibly fluid environment of digital scholarship, the critical question of how we will collect, preserve, and manage access to this important part of the University scholarly record demands a rational and forward-looking plan - one that includes perspectives from diverse scholarly disciplines, incorporates significant research breakthroughs in information science and computer science, and makes effective projections for future integration within the Library and computing services as a part of the campus infrastructure.Prepared jointly by the University of Illinois Library and CITES at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaig

Preservation of Web Resources: The JISC PoWR Project

This paper describes the work of the JISC-funded PoWR (Preservation Of Web Resources) project which is developing a handbook on best practices and advice aimed at UK higher and further educational institutions for the preservation of Web sites and Web resources. The paper summarises the challenges institutions face in preserving Web resources, describes the workshops organized by the project in order to identify the challenges and identify appropriate best practices, and outlines areas in which further work is required

FDZ Annual Report 2008

"Following the exceedingly positive response to our Annual Report 2007, you now have the Annual Report 2008 of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research in this FDZ Methodenreport. Like last year, the FDZ Annual Report 2008 is not a glossy brochure full of photos but summarises the main events of the past 12 months in a few pages. The Annual Report 2008 is mainly based on key figures which the FDZ made available to the German Council for Social and Economic Data for their evaluation in 2009. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. The Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General function', 'Basic information', 'The service-oriented FDZ', 'The international FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe, BA-Beschäftigtenpanel, Befragung, IAB-Querschnittsbefragung, IAB-Haushaltspanel, IAB-kombinierte Firmendaten, IAB-Weiterbildungspanel

Supporting sustainable e‐learning

This paper draws upon work carried out within phase one of a national forum for support staff, funded by the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre. It sets out themes in current Learning Technology research within the context of institutional practice. It reports the responses of a range of e‐learning support staff to new developments in the reuse and sharing of Learning Objects. The article highlights tensions across support units, inconsistencies in support provision and confusion over issues concerning different modes of teaching. It also forewarns a growing gap between institutional practice and research in the development of approaches to sustainable e‐learning

Framing professional competencies for systems thinking in practice: final report of an action research eSTEeM inquiry

The Open University eSTEeM project (The OU Centre for STEM Pedagogy) was a 12-month inquiry beginning March 2017 building on an initial eSTEeM project (2014-2016) entitled ‘Enhancing Systems Thinking in Practice in the Workplace’ reported on in Reynolds et al (2016). The initial report highlighted the challenges of enacting systems thinking in practice (STiP) in the workplace after qualifying with STiP core modules at The OU. Expressions of interest were manifest amongst systems thinking practitioners and employers for having some kind of formalised externally validated ‘competency framework’ for professional recognition of systems thinking in practice. The primary aim of the inquiry was to provide STiP alumni with externally recognised institutionalised professional backing for their newly acquired skill-sets associated with systems thinking. The project aimed to design a learning system – through the idea of an action learning lab – for developing a competency framework associated with systems thinking in practice. The project was carried out by a core team of three academics – Reynolds, Shah, and van Ameijde, associated with the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice (ASTiP) Group in the School of Engineering and Innovation, along with advice and support from other ASTiP colleagues – most notably Ray Ison and Chris Blackmore. The inquiry comprised some desktop research on competency framings, a series of online interviews, the drafting of an interim report, a video recording of employee/ employer interaction regarding application of STiP competencies in the workplace, a workshop held in London Regional Office in June 2017, and follow-up reporting and conversations arising from the workshop. One significant outcome from this activity led to ideas and consultations with Employer representatives, professional bodies and the Institute for Apprenticeships to initiate a Trailblazing Committee for a new Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship Standard