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

Power and the Platform: A Phenomenological Approach to Understanding Rhetoric and Politics in Composition Massive Open Online Courses

In the changing landscape of complex networks for free, open education, MOOCs – or massive open online courses – have been touted by some scholars as a recent breakthrough that will transform pedagogical approaches in the future. As we celebrate this year the 20th anniversary of Cynthia and Richard Selfe’s landmark article, “The Politics of the Interface,” our attention should be directed to studying the maps of MOOC interfaces as educational, political, and ideological borderlands. By featuring the findings from a cyber-autoethnographic study that involves a critical-analytical examination on a myriad of composition MOOCs offered by Duke University, Ohio State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology, this thesis reveals current MOOC interfaces as a Western-centric, monocultural structures, and problematizes the kinds of borders established and maintained in MOOCs. By identifying the presence and effects of cultural and infrastructural dominance in MOOCs, this thesis examines ways in which students and teachers can establish new discursive domains within MOOC interfaces. Following a phenomenological methodology, which embodies self-consciousness as a central research experience, I reflect on my own attitudes and feelings about the process of observation and analysis to draw inferences of a writer-scholar’s engagement with MOOC interfaces. Instead of simply blindly rejecting or embracing MOOCs as the “next big thing” in education, I delve deeply into their interfaces to show how they conceal their power structure as a way to open up conversations about power and its exercise in computer interface design

iPad: A Virtual Studio in my Handbag

Central to this practice-based investigation is the concept that the iPad has the potential to provide the appropriate tools and resources required to create a body of new and original artworks. I suggest that the iPad enables the artist to re-define the concept of an artist’s studio and facilitates a move away from the traditional studio towards a new virtual studio. This investigation considers the affordances of the iPad in engendering new ways of visualising intimate, private, domestic and public space, through filmmaking, photography, and digital drawing and painting. The practice-based element of this doctorate is interwoven with an investigation of relevant critical theory and is presented as a descriptive analysis of my virtual studio. The research explores the contemporary methodologies of arts-based research; autoethnography and visual and digital ethnography. My contribution to knowledge is that the iPad is a virtual studio that enables myself and other artists to create new modes of creative practice. I have examined and analysed the historical technological contexts that form the foundations for the emergence of a new means of artistic production. I have also addressed questions around machine replicability and the role of new media in shaping the cultural landscape. An autonomous case study reflects on the emergence of new ethical codes of practice in relation to new media iPad art and considers the role of digital integrity within new Fine Art digital practices. It investigates the emergence of innovative online digital artistic communities who use the iPad as the main tool for the creation of iPad art and then access social networking platforms for its dissemination. It further researches a blog of female peers to consider the duality of the iPad as a complementary toolkit to traditional media

2020 Annual report of the officers of the town of Plymouth, N.H. year ending December 31, 2020, fiscal year ending June 30, 2020.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Spatial learning in virtual environments by children and adults after active or passive experience

Theories of spatial learning, such as those of Siegal and White (1975) and Piaget and Inhelder (1967) have considered active exploration of environments to be beneficial or essential for the development of specific spatial knowledge. Real world empirical research in the form of both laboratory experimental and broader environmental studies tends to support this suggestion, demonstrating that active exploration of an environment, in both children and adults, gives better spatial learning than passive experience. Based on these findings, the working hypothesis adopted in this thesis is that active exploration of a virtual environment (VE) would also result in better spatial learning than passive experience of the same VE. Also considered is the equivalence of real and virtual world experiences, and the degree of transfer of spatial learning between VEs and real equivalent environments. Seven experiments were undertaken, all utilising a yoked active passive paired-subjects design. A range of VEs was employed across the experiments, including a room, a corridor, and both complex and simple small towns. Three studies used children as participants and five, adults, all having both males and females. The key finding was that the experimental hypothesis was supported for children but not for adults. Active child participants (when using a familiar input device) demonstrated superior spatial learning to that of their passive counterparts, but active adult participants did not show superior spatial learning to that of passive counterparts. Underestimation of distances was a universal feature, but was greater in female than male participants. Otherwise, the general equivalence of real and virtual world experiences was confirmed, with transfer of spatial learning occurring from virtual environments to real world equivalent environments for both adults and children

Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works

Considering the education-to-employment system as a highway with three critical intersections -- enrolling in postsecondary education, building skills, and finding a job -- this research has determined places where students take wrong turns or fall behind, and why. With increased data and innovative approaches, employers, educators, governments and youth can create a better system

Greater Philadelphia Economic Development Framework

The Greater Philadelphia Economic Development Framework (Framework) was developed to satisfy provisions for a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) for the Greater Philadelphia Region, encompassing portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This document was developed according to provisions outlined in 13 CFR 303.7(c), Consideration of non- EDA funded CEDS, and was authored cooperatively with Select Greater Philadelphia and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. This Framework provides an overview of economic development in Greater Philadelphia, and includes a regional profile (including an historical overview, economic and demographic characteristics, the identification of 'distressed' communities as per EDA definition, and projected trends); a review of regional economic development organizations, programs, and resources; and summaries of key economic development documents, including numerous studies, reports, and analyses that have been developed over the last few years that provide insight into challenges and opportunities for economic growth in Greater Philadelphia. The report identifies regional economic development goals, objectives, and performance measures and includes a list of key economic development projects identified by the region's economic development and planning professionals as most likely to contribute towards meeting the identified goals and objectives