Toward More Equitable Outcomes: A Research Synthesis on Out-of-School Time Work with Boys and Young Men of Color

This article contributes to a growing conversation by identifying trends in an expanding body of research on practices used to support BYMOC. As the field moves toward clearer recognition of what constitutes "effective" practice, afterschool professionals are playing an important role in empowering and organizing BYMOC to achieve more equitable educational, economic, health, and life outcomes

SPEIR: developing a common information environment in Scotland

Purpose - To report on the work of the SPEIR project and indicate its relevance beyond the Scottish information environment. SPEIR was funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council to identify, research, and develop the elements of an internationally interoperable Scottish Common Information Environment (SCIE) for Library, Museum and Archive domain information services, and to determine the best path for future progress. A key focus was to determine the distributed information infrastructure requirements of a pilot Scottish Cultural Portal being developed in parallel with the SPEIR work, building on existing pilot initiatives such as the CAIRNS distributed catalogue and landscaper, the SCONE collections database, the SCAMP staff portal and an embryonic organisational infrastructure based on the Confederation of Scottish Mini-cooperatives (CoSMiC). Design/methodology/approach - A series of practical pilots was undertaken. These were underpinned by relevant desk and field research and conducted within an overarching holistic approach to developing the distributed environment. Practical implications - Key outcomes included the creation of a single upgraded integrated service incorporating an extended distributed catalogue, collections database, and landscaper, the creation of a pilot distributed digital library, the development of open-URL-based facilities to permit portals to incorporate 'canned searches' of the catalogue, the collections database, the SDDL, and other compatible services, an illustrative pilot Scottish terminology mapping service, and various organisational infrastructure and professional support improvements. Originality/value - The embryonic technical and organisational infrastructure reported may provide a model for other small countries (or regions within larger countries) seeking a coherent approach to the development of an interoperable information environment

Beyond whole-school approaches to sustainability: social practices and practice architectures at secondary schools in England

The education sector is an important component of the UK's net zero strategy, in terms of both the carbon footprint of school buildings and operations, and the opportunities to teach about environmental issues and empower climate action. However, school sustainability is often narrowly defined around individual choices and behaviours by different school stakeholders, rather than the broader patterns of social practices. This qualitative study of secondary schools in England involved stakeholder interviews and student focus groups at twelve schools in Greater London and the Thames Valley Region (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire) where 142 people participated in this research, including teachers, students, parents, governors and school staff (leadership, facilities, finance). School sustainability was explored through the lens of social practice theory, and three bundles of practices and arrangements were identified: teaching/learning, catering/eating, movement/travel. Whole-school approaches to sustainability were reframed through the semantic, material and social spaces identified in the theory of practice architectures. School sustainability requires a substantial investment into retrofitting school buildings, but it also needs to be woven in the culture of a school – firmly on the agenda of the governors and leadership team, parallel to an issue like safeguarding – and supported by clearly identified roles and relationships in each institution. This research is aimed at environmental educators and researchers wishing to apply insights from social theory to develop more effective whole-school approaches to sustainability. This research also reveals a potential divide between state and private schools when it comes to environmental education, empowerment and action

Models for Learning (Mod4L) Final Report: Representing Learning Designs

The Mod4L Models of Practice project is part of the JISC-funded Design for Learning Programme. It ran from 1 May – 31 December 2006. The philosophy underlying the project was that a general split is evident in the e-learning community between development of e-learning tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively, and is impeding uptake of new tools and methods by teachers. To help overcome this barrier and bridge the gap, a need is felt for practitioner-focused resources which describe a range of learning designs and offer guidance on how these may be chosen and applied, how they can support effective practice in design for learning, and how they can support the development of effective tools, standards and systems with a learning design capability (see, for example, Griffiths and Blat 2005, JISC 2006). Practice models, it was suggested, were such a resource. The aim of the project was to: develop a range of practice models that could be used by practitioners in real life contexts and have a high impact on improving teaching and learning practice. We worked with two definitions of practice models. Practice models are: 1. generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices (JISC 2006) However, however effective a learning design may be, it can only be shared with others through a representation. The issue of representation of learning designs is, then, central to the concept of sharing and reuse at the heart of JISC’s Design for Learning programme. Thus practice models should be both representations of effective practice, and effective representations of practice. Hence we arrived at the project working definition of practice models as: 2. Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc).(Mod4L working definition, Falconer & Littlejohn 2006). A learning design is defined as the outcome of the process of designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme (JISC 2006). Practice models have many potential uses: they describe a range of learning designs that are found to be effective, and offer guidance on their use; they support sharing, reuse and adaptation of learning designs by teachers, and also the development of tools, standards and systems for planning, editing and running the designs. The project took a practitioner-centred approach, working in close collaboration with a focus group of 12 teachers recruited across a range of disciplines and from both FE and HE. Focus group members are listed in Appendix 1. Information was gathered from the focus group through two face to face workshops, and through their contributions to discussions on the project wiki. This was supplemented by an activity at a JISC pedagogy experts meeting in October 2006, and a part workshop at ALT-C in September 2006. The project interim report of August 2006 contained the outcomes of the first workshop (Falconer and Littlejohn, 2006). The current report refines the discussion of issues of representing learning designs for sharing and reuse evidenced in the interim report and highlights problems with the concept of practice models (section 2), characterises the requirements teachers have of effective representations (section 3), evaluates a number of types of representation against these requirements (section 4), explores the more technically focused role of sequencing representations and controlled vocabularies (sections 5 & 6), documents some generic learning designs (section 8.2) and suggests ways forward for bridging the gap between teachers and developers (section 2.6). All quotations are taken from the Mod4L wiki unless otherwise stated

Understanding Remote Patient Monitoring as an Infrastructure Framework

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) refers to clinicians’ capabilities for maintaining and adjusting their patients’ plan of care by utilizing remotely gathered data such as vital signs to proactively make medical decisions that improve health outcomes and well-being. The focus of this healthcare capability has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic as it allows for patients to remain at home and thwart the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus and payee policies were quickly changed to adapt to the novel situation. We synthesize the literature and present a four-component digital infrastructure framework to think through the design and implementation of remote patient monitoring projects. We identify research questions that emerge from our description of each component. We believe this framework will be useful to research studying remote patient monitoring as it provides a holistic viewpoint of the technologies involved and how those core elements may interact

SPEIR: Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research. Final Project Report: Elements and Future Development Requirements of a Common Information Environment for Scotland

The SPEIR (Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research) project was funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). It ran from February 2003 to September 2004, slightly longer than the 18 months originally scheduled and was managed by the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR). With SLIC's agreement, community stakeholders were represented in the project by the Confederation of Scottish Mini-Cooperatives (CoSMiC), an organisation whose members include SLIC, the National Library of Scotland (NLS), the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU), the Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL), regional cooperatives such as the Ayrshire Libraries Forum (ALF)1, and representatives from the Museums and Archives communities in Scotland. Aims; A Common Information Environment For Scotland The aims of the project were to: o Conduct basic research into the distributed information infrastructure requirements of the Scottish Cultural Portal pilot and the public library CAIRNS integration proposal; o Develop associated pilot facilities by enhancing existing facilities or developing new ones; o Ensure that both infrastructure proposals and pilot facilities were sufficiently generic to be utilised in support of other portals developed by the Scottish information community; o Ensure the interoperability of infrastructural elements beyond Scotland through adherence to established or developing national and international standards. Since the Scottish information landscape is taken by CoSMiC members to encompass relevant activities in Archives, Libraries, Museums, and related domains, the project was, in essence, concerned with identifying, researching, and developing the elements of an internationally interoperable common information environment for Scotland, and of determining the best path for future progress

Learning from the learners' experience: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections

This publication comprises papers from presenters who, having made a conference presentation, were invited to author an academic paper about their work

Embedding civil engagement in museums

Initiatives over the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond have sought to reposition museums at the heart of their communities as agents for civil engagement. This paper explores the principles involved in making the role possible, using the example of urban history museums. It argues that this will take time, commitment and careful planning, and will impact on every aspect of the museum's activities. It is an essential task however, reflecting the direction museums should be taking in society in the 21st century, but will only be achieved if there is a change of culture across the profession

The Information and Learning Commons: A Selective Guide to Sources

Purpose: This bibliography aims to give citations and annotations for a core selection of sources on the information and learning commons trend in academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach: Articles, books, and web sites relevant to this topic were found in the Library, Information Science & Technologoy Abstracts database; Library Literature Index; WorldCat; and on the internet. Sources were chosen that contribute to an overview of the concepts or cover pratical considerations in implementation. Findings: Libraries are developing best practices as they experiment with learner-centered service models, but they apply these best practices differently according to their unique needs. Early implementations focus on technology and access, while later implementations focus on more collaborations surrounding learner-centered pedagogies. Research limitations/implications: This bibliography selects from English language books, web sites, and peer reviewed journals about US, British, Canadian, and Ociania academic libraries, large and small. Originality/value: This survey of the literature will help librarians and administrators understand the theoretical trends and collaboration that influence how libraries can change service, space, and technology to meet emerging needs