Using ODL and ICT to develop the skills of the unreached: a contribution to the ADEA triennial of the Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning

Innovation in technology is occurring at rapid pace thus shrinking the distances and making information and knowledge more than ever accessible to everyone irrespective of where the person resides. This paper consists of four main articles. The first one deals with technological trends. The second one focuses on the deployment and use of open and distance education mode in rural areas by documenting initiatives that embrace information and communication technologies (ICTs). Due to challenges faced in rural areas only a few success stories/cases currently exist and some of these are cited in this article. The challenges faced in the deployment of ICT enhanced ODL have been highlighted as well as the potential of developing and delivering effective and relevant ODL programmes in rural areas in order to ensure that issues of educational equity and social exclusion rural communities are adequately addressed. ICTs in ODL are perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value addition to any community’s development efforts, yet poor rural communities particularly in Africa do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to enable themselves to develop using ICTs. Inadequate ICT infrastructures in rural areas remain a major source for the digital divide in Africa and for under-performance of distance learners. The third one analyses the support provided to ODL learners who often encounter difficulties in completing their studies through the distance education mode due to loneliness, uncertainties and de-motivation. ICT has not been able to sufficiently support distance learners in overcoming those obstacles efficiently. An investigation regarding those learning supports has been conducted in ten distance learning institutions, along with an intensive literature review with the aim of understanding the high percentage of dropout rates of distant learners. The learners’ interactions have been scrutinized through content analysis of their synchronous exchanges, during a completely online course. After taking into account the limited technical and human resources in Africa, a technological virtual environment along with a pedagogical framework has been proposed with the aim of giving adequate educational support to them. The fourth article has explored The Open University (UK) and its efforts to use new technologies to deliver online courses to difficult-to- reach learners in prison environments. The case study analysed here is an international course (called, B201- Business Organisations and their environments) which also touches an African cohort of learners. The implications for designing and delivering online ODL to the complex unreachable environments of prisons anywhere, and particularly in Africa, have been discussed

Game theory for collaboration in future networks

Cooperative strategies have the great potential of improving network performance and spectrum utilization in future networking environments. This new paradigm in terms of network management, however, requires a novel design and analysis framework targeting a highly flexible networking solution with a distributed architecture. Game Theory is very suitable for this task, since it is a comprehensive mathematical tool for modeling the highly complex interactions among distributed and intelligent decision makers. In this way, the more convenient management policies for the diverse players (e.g. content providers, cloud providers, home providers, brokers, network providers or users) should be found to optimize the performance of the overall network infrastructure. The authors discuss in this chapter several Game Theory models/concepts that are highly relevant for enabling collaboration among the diverse players, using different ways to incentivize it, namely through pricing or reputation. In addition, the authors highlight several related open problems, such as the lack of proper models for dynamic and incomplete information games in this area.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The Hardship That is Internet Deprivation and What it Means for Sentencing: Development of the Internet Sanction and Connectivity for Prisoners

Twenty years ago, the internet was a novel tool. Now it is such an ingrained part of most people’s lives that they experience and exhibit signs of anxiety and stress if they cannot access it. Non-accessibility to the internet can also tangibly set back peoples’ social, educational, financial, and vocational pursuits and interests. In this Article, we argue that the sentencing law needs to be reformed to adapt to the fundamental changes in human behavior caused by the internet. We present three novel and major implications for the sentencing law and practice in the era of the internet. First, we argue that denial of access to the internet should be developed as a discrete sentencing sanction, which can be invoked for relatively minor offenses in much the same way that deprivation of other entitlements or privileges, such as the right to drive a motor vehicle, are currently imposed for certain crimes. Second, we argue that prisoners should have unfettered access to the internet. This would lessen the pain stemming from incarceration in a manner which does not undermine the principal objectives of imprisonment—community protection and infliction of a hardship—while at the same time providing prisoners with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge, and relationships that will better equip them for a productive life once they are released. Previous arguments that have been made for denying internet access to prisoners are unsound. Technological advances can readily curb supposed risks associated with prisoners using the internet. Finally, if the second recommendation is not adopted, and prisoners continue to be denied access to the internet, there should be an acknowledgement that the burden of imprisonment is greater than is currently acknowledged. The internet is now such an ingrained and important aspect of people’s lives that prohibiting its use is a cause of considerable unpleasantness. This leads to our third proposal: continued denial of the internet to prisoners should result in a recalibration of the pain of imprisonment such that a sentencing reduction should be conferred to prisoners

Political Discourses of Idealised Masculinity: The Risk Management of Male Prisoners through Work, Education and Family Transitions

This thesis focuses upon the new rehabilitation of male prisoners within the context of idealised masculinity. Through the discourse analysis of written policy documents, this work addresses two fundamental questions: How is idealised masculinity constituted within political discourse and how does idealised masculinity influence the formulation of prison rehabilitation programmes? Idealised masculinity is defined as the heterosexual breadwinning role attributed to men as workers and providers for the family. It is this that is articulated within political discourses as a technique of government by which to reduce re-offending amongst the male prisoner population. Within the Foucauldian analysis of governmentality and Neo-Marxist theorising around Post-Fordism, idealised masculinity represent a form of governance that the state employs to inform its programme of managing the risks posed by offenders. This is evident through two particular pathways to reduce re-offending. Namely Pathway Two Education, Training and Employment and Pathway Six Children and Families. The argument presented is that current forms of punishment and imprisonment are characterised and defined within gender specific practices underpinned by the constitution of masculinity. The purpose of which is to reconstruct male prisoner’s attitudes and behaviour from that of deviant to non-deviant behaviour, from anti-social to pro-social values and through their moral and responsible reconstruction towards active, self-governing subjects. Thus the importance of maintaining family ties and the re-skilling and training of male prisoners to be able to compete within the labour market and obtain legitimate employment underpins political discourses surrounding penal concerns of the new rehabilitation. However governing at a distance and the state being unable or unwilling to place the children and family of offender’s on a formal footing and to effectively intervene to stimulate job creation activities within the labour market could mean that male prisoners are merely set up to fail

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - 2007 Annual Report

Contains president's essay, program information, grant summaries, profiles of MacArthur Fellows Program award recipients, timeline of the year in review, financial statements, and list of officers and staff

Electronic Monitoring in Scotland

This research report examines the current uses of electronic monitoring (EM) tagging technology in the Scottish criminal justice system. Findings and recommendations released in this report by Stirling criminologists Prof Gill McIvor and Dr Hannah Graham indicate support among criminal justice practitioners to make key changes to the use of electronic monitoring tagging in Scotland. Their study sought the views of criminal justice social workers, Scottish Prison Service staff, sheriffs, the Parole Board for Scotland, Police Scotland, G4S monitoring staff, Scottish Government policymakers, and a third sector organisation. The themes and findings presented here form one part of an EU-funded international comparative research project involving five jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Significantly, this is the first comparative study of its kind of electronic monitoring in Europe

Disparities in primary health care utilisation: Who are the disadvantaged groups? How are they disadvantaged? What interventions work?

This Policy Issue Review draws on recent evidence to provide a picture of who in Australia experiences poor access to primary health care services, including particular areas of need, and how such needs may be remedied through intervention approaches that focus on equitable distribution of quality health care and outcomes