169,698 research outputs found
Robots and us: towards an economics of the âGood Lifeâ
(Expected) adverse effects of the âICT Revolutionâ on work and opportunities for
individuals to use and develop their capacities give a new impetus to the debate on the
societal implications of technology and raise questions regarding the âresponsibilityâ of
research and innovation (RRI) and the possibility of achieving âinclusive and sustainable
societyâ. However, missing in this debate is an examination of a possible conflict
between the quest for âinclusive and sustainable societyâ and conventional economic
principles guiding capital allocation (including the funding of research and innovation).
We propose that such conflict can be resolved by re-examining the nature and purpose
of capital, and by recognising mainstream economicsâ utilitarian foundations as an
unduly restrictive subset of a wider Aristotelian understanding of choice
Digital Technology and the End of Social Studies Education
In Fall 2000, when "Theory and Research in Social Education" (TRSE) first dedicated an issue to technologies in social studies education, Neil Postman contributed a View Point piece to this issue. Postman, who died in 2003, was an interesting choice because he was an outspoken critic of educational technology who believed that, as he said at the time, "the new technologies both in and out of the classroom are a distraction and an irrelevance." Taking his cue from Postman, the author addresses the issue of digital technology in social studies education by telling a story of his own. He offers a wandering narrative -- and an old-fashioned one at that -- common in the religious stories that Postman saw as the prototype for all cultural stories: the narrative of faith, tested by doubt, emerging reaffirmed. He also discusses two elements that he believes need to be far more present in social studies education, at the pre-service and K-12 level: (1) Clearer disciplinary perspectives; and (2) easier ways of working with data within these perspectives. Technologies, if carefully designed, can be helpful in both areas
Reimaginging Learning: A Big Bet on the Future of American Education
Today's young people are the most diverse, connected generation in history and have incredible aspirations for themselves. Educators all over the country are reimagining learning to better meet this generation's needs, rethinking classrooms and schools so they work better for students. It's an exciting time for innovation in education.At the same time, big bets are an increasingly popular concept in philanthropy. Several articles and papers in the last year have encouraged donors to consider them as a way of creating meaningful change, including in education. Big bets are usually defined as large grants to a specific issue or an individual organization.We're proposing something different.We've been working with partners across the country who are pursuing a common vision: reimagining learning with a broad set of outcomes in mind, so that every student finishes high school with an abundance of choices and the freedom to pursue them. Philanthropists have an opportunity to make a big bet on this shared vision.Most schools weren't designed with this vision in mind. But right now, all over the country, teams of educators are working to change this. They are partnering with families to create schools that speak to their hopes and honor their strengths. These schools prioritize rigorous academics and help students develop critical thinking skills, set important goals and create plans to reach them, and develop the mindsets and habits they need to take charge of their futures.Through deep engagement with our partners, we've thought concretely about how these ideas might spread and where existing momentum and early evidence might shine a light on a path forward. In September 2015, with our partners Summit Public Schools and Transcend, we released a paper entitled Dissatisfied Yet Optimistic (DYO), which made the case for reimagining learning. This new companion piece explores what it might take to strengthen and accelerate the momentum created by the early pioneers who are designing schools consistent with the ideas in DYO.What follows is a big idea for how $4 billion in philanthropy over 10 years could dramatically improve the performance of our schools by focusing on this emerging vision for how schools could produce much better and broader outcomes for students
Muscularity of Mind: Towards an Explanation of the Transition from Unconscious to Conscious
The title âMuscularity of Mindâ indicates the point of view that is argued in this essay. I attempt to trace the roots of higher cognitive abilities to the physiological coupling that exists between neuro-sensory and muscular system. Most of the current discourses on the subject base their studies more on the nervous and sensory dimensions, neglecting the most crucial of all, the role of voluntary muscles in shaping the higher cognitive abilities. I make a claim that emancipation of voluntary muscles from the mandatory biological functions to take on the softer habits during the course of evolution played the crucial role in shaping the higher cognitive abilities. I undertake to explain the transition from procedural to declarative representation by hypothesizing that softer operations that are peculiar to higher cognitive agents in the evolutionary order are rooted in the physiological nexus between neuro-sensory and muscular subsystems of the cognitive agent. The objective of this essay is to indicate that the problem cannot be solved without attending to this nexus
The Backside of Habit: Notes on Embodied Agency and the Functional Opacity of the Medium
In this chapter what I call the âbacksideâ of habit is explored. I am interested in the philosophical implications of the physical and physiological processes that mediate, and which allow for what comes to appear as almost magic; namely the various sensorimotor associations and integrations that allows us to replay our past experiences, and to in a certain sense perceive potential futures, and to act and bring about anticipated outcomes â without quite knowing how. Thus, the term âbacksideâ is meant to refer both the actual mediation and the epistemic opacity of these backstage intermediaries that allow for the front stage magic. The question is if the epistemic complexities around sensorimotor mediation gives us valuable insights into the nature of human agency and further how it might begin to show us new ways to think of the mind as truly embodied yet not reducible to any finite body-as-object
Innovation in key stage 3
"The report; evaluates the extent to which the implementation of the revised curriculum is having a positive impact in schools; identifies case studies of innovative practice; and
makes recommendations for further development." - introduction
The persistence of media control under consolidated authoritarianism: containing Kazakhstanâs digital media
Citizens of Kazakhstan have greater access to the Internet now than at any time in the past. However, the Nazarbaev regime has systematically cut off the supply of political analysis on the country's web sites while simultaneously shifting popular on-line consumption habits in non-political directions. The result is that the presence of the Internet in Kazakhstan is helping the authoritarian regime remain in power
The Other Side of Peirce's Phaneroscopy
Research on Peirceâs phaneroscopy has been done with and through the
paradigm or the conceptual schema of âBeingâ â what has been critiqued
by post-structuralist philosophers as the metaphysics of Being.
Thus, such research is either limited to attempts to define âphaneron,â or
to identify whether there is a particular and consistent meaning intention
behind Peirceâs use of this term. Another problematic characteristic with
such a way of engaging with phaneroscopy is the very anonymity of the
schema of âBeing.â While all scholars admit to the universality of
âphaneron,â rarely, if ever, do we see an account of how such universality
can be instantiated. In this paper, I attempt to engage with phaneroscopy
differently. Instead of presenting a better version of what
phaneroscopy is, or making arguments about what is the case with phaneroscopy,
both of which are ways of philosophising with âbeing,â I attempt
to enact phaneroscopy. This would mean to undertake to follow
Peirceâs instructions for the phaneroscopist and report the findings.
Based on the latter, I shall analogise phaneron with the possibility of
understanding
Materiality in the future of history: things, practices, and politics
Frank Trentmann is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. From 2002 to 2007, he was director of the ÂŁ5 million Cultures of Consumption research program, cofunded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He is working on a book for Penguin, The Consuming Passion: How Things Came to Seduce, Enrich, and Define Our Lives, from the Seventeenth Century to the TwentyâFirst. This article is one of a pair seeking to facilitate greater exchange between history and the social sciences. Its twinââCrossing Divides: Globalization and Consumption in Historyâ (forthcoming in the Handbook of Globalization Studies, ed. Bryan Turner)âshows what social scientists (and contemporary historians) might learn from earlier histories. The piece here follows the flow in the other direction. Many thanks to the ESRC for grant number RESâ052â27â002 and, for their comments, to Heather Chappells, Steve Pincus, Elizabeth Shove, and the editor and the reviewer
Taste and the algorithm
Today, a consistent part of our everyday interaction with art and aesthetic artefacts occurs through digital media, and our preferences and choices are systematically tracked and analyzed by algorithms in ways that are far from transparent. Our consumption is constantly documented, and then, we are fed back through tailored information. We are therefore witnessing the emergence of a complex interrelation between our aesthetic choices, their digital elaboration, and also the production of content and the dynamics of creative processes. All are involved in a process of mutual influences, and are partially determined by the invisible guiding hand of algorithms.
With regard to this topic, this paper will introduce some key issues concerning the role of algorithms in aesthetic domains, such as taste detection and formation, cultural consumption and production, and showing how aesthetics can contribute to the ongoing debate about the impact of todayâs âalgorithmic cultureâ
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