Digitalization of the administrative services in various fields of activity

The aim of the article was to analyze the state of the digital transformation of administrative services in various fields of activity. The main methodological tools were statistical, graphical, comparative analysis, and observation methods. The research found that national governments are taking a large number of initiatives related to digital public services. The DESI Index has shown itself to good advantage in the EU. It ranks Member States according to their digital performance and analyses their progress in providing e-government services. The AuroraAI programed developed in Finland will contribute to the improvement of electronic administrative services, smooth daily life, business, safe and ethical approach. The Finnish web portal My Kanta provides a wide range of applications that can be of benefit to citizens, healthcare professionals and organizations, government bodies. In Ukraine, the smooth functioning of the Diia web portal promotes the spread of digital skills, the inclusion of citizens in relation to receiving digital administrative services during the period of hostilities. Global geopolitical transformations have focused the efforts of states on strengthening intersectoral cooperation of public authorities in the digitalization of administrative services. The availability of such services for the elderly remains unresolved. The adaptation of the positive practices of the government of Finland in Ukraine will become a vector for further research and thorough studies during the post-war reconstruction of the state. Particular attention will be paid to the issue of availability of the services under research

Applying the Higher Education Academy framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education to online partnership learning communities: A case study and an extended model

As internet access and use increase exponentially, pedagogical practice becomes increasingly embedded in online platforms. We report on an online initiative of engaged student learning, the peer-led, staff-assisted e-helpdesk for research methods and statistics, which we evaluated and redeveloped using the lens and guiding principles of the framework for partnership in learning and teaching of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). The aim of the redevelopment was to steer the initiative towards a more integrative and sustainable implementation, as manifest in the applied construct of an online partnership learning community. Our evolving experience of the e-helpdesk highlighted the central role of the facilitator in engineering and maintaining social presence in the online community. We propose an extended model for building an online partnership learning community, whereby partnership encapsulates all the essential elements of student and staff partnership as outlined in the HEA framework, but is also critically defined by similar parameters of partnership between users and facilitators. In this model, the facilitator’s role becomes more involved in instructional teaching as disciplinary expertise increases, but descending levels of disciplinary expertise can foster ascending levels of independent learning and shared discovery for both users and facilitators.  &nbsp

Applying the Higher Education Academy Framework for Partnership in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education to Online Partnership Learning Communities: A Case Study and an Extended Model

As internet access and use increase exponentially, pedagogical practice becomes increasingly embedded in online platforms. We report on an online initiative of engaged student learning, the peer-led, staff-assisted e-helpdesk for research methods and statistics, which we evaluated and redeveloped using the lens and guiding principles of the framework for partnership in learning and teaching of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). The aim of the redevelopment was to steer the initiative towards a more integrative and sustainable implementation, as manifest in the applied construct of an online partnership learning community. Our evolving experience of the e-helpdesk highlighted the central role of the facilitator in engineering and maintaining social presence in the online community. We propose an extended model for building an online partnership learning community, whereby partnership encapsulates all the essential elements of student and staff partnership as outlined in the HEA framework, but is also critically defined by similar parameters of partnership between users and facilitators. In this model, the facilitator’s role becomes more involved in instructional teaching as disciplinary expertise increases, but descending levels of disciplinary expertise can foster ascending levels of independent learning and shared discovery for both users and facilitators

Socio-Technologies of Assembly: Sense-Making and Demonstration in Rebuilding Lower Manhattan

This paper examines how New Yorkers reshaped the public sphere as they engaged in a series of self-organized, loosely coordinated efforts to collectively make sense of the challenges they faced in responding and recovering from the attack of 9/11. The authors explore how technologies of deliberation, representation, and demonstration were mobilized to widen the scope and diversify the organizational strategies enabling public participation. Drawing on Dewey's philosophy of pragmatism and the social studies of science, they focus on how disparate socio-technologies of assembly offered different affordances that both enabled and inhibited particular discursive practices and forms of collective inquiry

Ebooks in education

Ebooks are coming of age in education, as this exciting collection commissioned by Jisc demonstrates. Case studies, reflecting ebook success stories across the higher and further education sectors, include: - An innovative app to encourage ebook take-up in a Welsh college. - A partnership between a library and research centre to create open access monographs and midigraphs. - Several examples of creative negotiations with ebook publishers. Insight chapters address hot topics in the ebook universe, including: - The changing world of access to scholarly digital content in the mobile environment. - The challenges faced by the library as online distance learning moves from margin to mainstream. - How ebooks have the potential to meet a wide range of accessibility needs. - Experimentation with ebooks as a shared service. This collection will provide inspiration and guidance to institutions as they develop projects and services to support students and researchers and will be of interest to library practitioners, publishers, ebook vendors, information professionals, teachers, lecturers and students. Jisc, in collaboration with Ubiquity Press, is pleased to be making this publication available open access on a CC-BY licence. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org//10.5334/bal

Land reuse and redevelopment : creating healthy communities

How land is used and reused can affect public health. There are hundreds of thousands of potentially contaminated sites that were formerly used as industrial, commercial, or residential properties. These sites are called brownfields or land reuse sites. Former gas stations, manufactured gas plants, factories, dry cleaners, and abandoned properties are typical sites that may have people living or working in close proximity to them. Unfortunately, many of these sites are contaminated with harmful chemicals or may even have been redeveloped without proper environmental oversight. These sites may lead to harmful chemical exposures for children and adults.CS316923-ACreating_Healthy_Communities-508.pdf20201013

Nurses’ Learning and Conceptualization of Technology used in Practice

How nurses conceptualize and learn about health technology used in practice was examined in this qualitative, interpretive-descriptive study. Traditionally, conceptualizations of technology used in the nursing profession have been viewed from either socially- or technically- centric perspectives that have clouded the real nature of nurse-technology interactions. For instance, current perspectives examining nurses’ use of technology typically ignore or minimize socio-technical considerations impacting technology acceptance and adoption by nurses. A research approach that embraced the mingling of social and material (sociomaterial) actors was used to address the following research questions: (a) How do nurses conceptualize health technology used in practice?, and, (b) How do nurses learn about health technology used in practice? The theoretical lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) provided the overall perspective and guided elements of data collection and analysis. ANT is aligned to a relational ontology, whereby both human and non-human participants (or actors) are viewed in symmetry (or as equals) during data analysis. Privilege during the analysis was, therefore, not automatically prescribed to either the human or non-human actors. Interviews, documents, and direct observation of nurses constituted the majority of the data collected for this study. Using an iterative data analysis process, themes were generated related to nurses’ conceptualization of and learning about technology used in practice. Technology was conceptualized by nurses to possess variation in naming, roles, and also engendered notions of action or praxis. Learning technology by nurses possessed elements resembling both processes and products. From these learning processes and products, salient strategies (e.g., indispensability, semblance, habituation) were developed by nurses in order to negotiate and use various health technologies for practice. Ultimately, learning of health technology by nurses appeared to actively influence, modify, and shape the role of health technology, and its subsequent use by human actors. Therefore, how nurses learn about technology should be considered during the planning, development, and evaluation of future technologies. End-users, like nurses, will rarely use a health technology to its fullest capability unless learning is congruent with the environmental context surrounding the technological actor. In light of these findings, recommendations for nursing education and professional practice related to the role and interpretation of health technology used by nurses in 2013 is also discussed, along with implications for future research

Algorithmic Transparency for the Smart City

As artificial intelligence and big data analytics increasingly replace human decision making, questions about algorithmic ethics become more pressing. Many are concerned that an algorithmic society is too opaque to be accountable for its behavior. An individual can be denied parole or credit, fired, or not hired for reasons that she will never know and which cannot be articulated. In the public sector, the opacity of algorithmic decision making is particularly problematic, both because governmental decisions may be especially weighty and because democratically elected governments have special duties of accountability