Learning by volunteer computing, thinking and gaming: What and how are volunteers learning by participating in Virtual Citizen Science?

Citizen Science (CS) refers to a form of research collaboration that engages volunteers without formal scientific training in contributing to empirical scientific projects. Virtual Citizen Science (VCS) projects engage participants in online tasks. VCS has demonstrated its usefulness for research, however little is known about its learning potential for volunteers. This paper reports on research exploring the learning outcomes and processes in VCS. In order to identify different kinds of learning, 32 exploratory interviews of volunteers were conducted in three different VCS projects. We found six main learning outcomes related to different participants' activities in the project. Volunteers learn on four dimensions that are directly related to the scope of the VCS project: they learn at the task/game level, acquire pattern recognition skills, on-topic content knowledge, and improve their scientific literacy. Thanks to indirect opportunities of VCS projects, volunteers learn on two additional dimensions: off topic knowledge and skills, and personal development. Activities through which volunteers learn can be categorized in two levels: at a micro (task/game) level that is direct participation to the task, and at a macro level, i.e. use of project documentation, personal research on the Internet, and practicing specific roles in project communities. Both types are influenced by interactions with others in chat or forums. Most learning happens to be informal, unstructured and social. Volunteers do not only learn from others by interacting with scientists and their peers, but also by working for others: they gain knowledge, new status and skills by acting as active participants, moderators, editors, translators, community managers, etc. in a project community. This research highlights these informal and social aspects in adult learning and science education and also stresses the importance for learning through the indirect opportunities provided by the project: the main one being the opportunity to participate and progress in a project community, according to one's tastes and skills

Clinical interpretation of health and the human spirit for occupation .

In reading and contemplating Yenca\u27s (1998) article, I was immediately struck by the utility of the ideas she offers on a number of clinical fronts. We are presented with occupation-based strategies that are directly applicable to our work with patients and program development; we can make use of the language and ideas that are offered as a way to begin talking to one another (therapist to therapist) in clinical settings about occupation; and we are given the opportunity to think about the contribution, value, and efficacy of occupation and how we might convert those ideas into clinically based research actions. This last point is especially useful given Yerxa\u27s powerful view of the complex and compelling human and person issues that are looming on the horizon (achieving healthfulness, finding valued substitutes for work). In response to these person dilemmas of the future, it is exciting to consider what kinds of new treatment approaches, programming ideas, and research questions might be most appropriate for us to develop on me basis of our understanding of the importance of occupation to health

From 'River Cottage' to 'Chicken Run': Hugh Fearnley-Whttingstall and the class politics of ethical consumption

Lifestyle television provides a key site through which to explore the dilemmas of ethical consumption, as the genre shifts to consider the ethics of different consumption practices and taste cultures. UK television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV programmes offer fertile ground not only for thinking about television personalities as lifestyle experts and moral entrepreneurs, but also for thinking about how the meanings and uses of their television image are inflected by genre. In this article we explore how the shift from the lifestyled downshifting narrative of the River Cottage series to the 'campaigning culinary documentary' Hugh's Chicken Run exposes issues of celebrity, class and ethics. While both series are concerned with ethical consumption, they work in different ways to reveal a distinction between 'ethical' and 'unethical' consumption practices and positions - positions that are inevitably classed

Spengler's List: Screenwriting, the Wilderness and the Civilising Death of the Arts

A lament upon the dying of the art of screenwriting, alongside the other 'liberal arts', provoked by the pondering of two texts: Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West and John Livingston's The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation

Mentoring Sexual Minority Youth

It is estimated that up to 10 percent of the U.S. population is lesbian or gay. Thus, one can assume that some of the teenagers being served by mentoring programs are members of this sizeable minority group. Understanding the issues these young people face can help programs create an environment where gay and lesbian youth benefit from the adult caring and support that is at the heart of mentoring. This technical assistance packet, written by P/PV and published by the National Mentoring Center at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, describes the significant obstacles confronting lesbian and gay youth. It also suggests initial steps and mentor training that programs can implement to make gay and lesbian youth feel safe and welcome

Leisure in the later years

It is evident that the changing demographic structure of the population along with the emergence of a consumer culture will have implications with regards to leisure for people in later life. Leisure may afford freedom for self-expression not always available in other life contexts. However, there are a number of challenges at the personal and community level that need to be better understood in order to realise such a possibility. This article highlights some of the opportunities and constraints that impact on and influence the leisure of people in their later years