Investigating Proactive Search Support in Conversations

Conversations among people involve solving disputes, building common ground, and reinforce mutual beliefs and assumptions. Conversations often require external information that can support these human activities. In this paper, we study how a spoken conversation can be supported by a proactive search agent that listens to the conversation, detects entities mentioned in the conversation, and proactively retrieves and presents information related to the conversation. A total of 24 participants (12 pairs) were involved in informal conversations, using either the proactive search agent or a control condition that did not support conversational analysis or proactive information retrieval. Data comprising transcripts, interaction logs, questionnaires, and interviews indicated that the proactive search agent effectively augmented the conversations, affected the conversations' topical structure, and reduced the need for explicit search activity. The findings also revealed key challenges in the design of proactive search systems that assist people in natural conversations.Peer reviewe

Maintaining the Human Touch in Educational Leadership

It is a pleasure to be invited to contribute to this special edition of the TCPEA School Leadership Review. TCPEA has been a valuable organization for me as the relationships that have been fostered through it have enabled me to grow personally and professionally. This has led me to consider some of the issues that educational leaders are facing today and will continue to face in the years to come which are focused on the notion of how to effectively maintain human relationships. While few leaders agree on everything, there is no doubt that we all agree this is a complex time for our schools. My focus of this article is to consider three of the challenges before us to maintain the human touch in our profession: Identifying appropriate responses to the dilemmas that are occurring due to technology advances which include movement to hybrid/blended and fully on-line teaching venues, Establishing covenant communities in our diverse classrooms and beyond, and Nurturing our professional relationships as educational leaders. While these three topics might seem unrelated, I believe they all are connected to our shared humanity and all have the potential to develop or diminish the human touch

Intangibles, Global Networks & Corporate Social Responsibility

Network organisations emphasise the importance of corporate and product intangible assets. In global competition, the managerial economics of intangibles imposes new network policies of corporate social responsibility, dominated by global social issues such as economic sustainability, eco-responsibility, worker protection and so on.Intangible Assets; Network; Global Competition; Corporate Social Responsibility DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2010.2.02brondoni

SearchBot: Supporting voice conversations with proactive search

Searching during conversations and social interactions is becoming increasingly common. Although searching could be helpful for solving arguments, building common ground, and reinforcing mutual assumptions, it can also cause inter-actional problems. Proactive search approaches can enrich conversations with additional information without neglecting the shared and established social norms of being attentive to ongoing interaction. This demo showcases SearchBot, a tool that minimizes the issues associated with the practice of searching during conversations. It accomplishes this by tracking conversational background speech and then providing continuous recommendations of related documents and entities in a non-intrusive way [3]

Teacher-researcher relationships and collaborations in research.

To understand the complexity of the classroom in ways that might inform teaching research in needed that explains both why and how something works. Teacher-researcher collaboration is essential if this is to happen. Collaborative work can ensure that research builds on from what teachers know and can do. Researchers working with teachers to address their current concerns are more likely to generate insights into what teachers might do and where they might go next. Collaboration can contribute a warrant for relevance for research findings. At the same teachers deepen and enhance their own practice through engaging in the research process. This paper describes and discusses some approaches to collaboration that have enables researchers and teachers to access a diversity of ideas and expertise to their mutual benefit

Linking educational leadership styles to the HR architecture for new teachers in primary education

This study aims to gain insight in the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and the configuration of different HR practices for new teachers in primary education. Besides the longstanding interest in educational leadership as a key element in teacher and student performance, there is a growing interest in strategic human resource management (SHRM) in the educational sector. However, few educational studies link educational leadership to SHRM. In particular, this study examines the relationship between principals’ instructional and transformational leadership style and principals’ strategic and HR orientation in configuring HR practices for new teachers. Data were gathered using a mixed methods approach, including interviews with 75 principals as well as an online survey of 1058 teachers in Flemish primary education. Qualitative interview data were transformed and analysed together with the quantitative survey data using logistic regression and ANOVA analyses. The results indicate that both instructional and transformational leadership is associated with the strategic orientation of principals. The HR orientation, on the other hand, is not reflected in the principals’ leadership style. Recommendations for further research in this area are discussed

Time, timing, talking and training : findings from an exploratory action research study to improve quality of end of life care for minority ethnic kidney patients

Background. With an ageing and increasingly diverse population at risk from rising levels of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, including kidney complications, there is a need to provide quality care at all stages in the care pathway including at the end of life and to all patients. Aim. This study purposively explored South Asian patients' experiences of kidney end of life care to understand how services can be delivered in a way that meets diverse patient needs. Methods. Within an action research design 14 focus groups (45 care providers) of kidney care providers discussed the recruitment and analysis of individual interviews with 16 South Asian kidney patients (eight men, eight women). Emergent themes from the focus groups were analysed thematically. The research took place at four UK centres providing kidney care to diverse populations: West London, Luton, Leicester and Bradford. Results. Key themes related to time and the timing of discussions about end of life care and the factors that place limitations on patients and providers in talking about end of life care. Lack of time and confidence of nurses in areas of kidney care, individual attitudes and workforce composition influence whether and how patients have access to end of life care through kidney services. Conclusion. Training, team work and time to discuss overarching issues (including timing and communication about end of life) with colleagues could support service providers to facilitate access and delivery of end of life care to this group of patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio