Internet: The Mainstreaming of Online Life

Presents findings from a survey that examines the widespread adoption of the Internet in the past decade, and its dramatic impact on communication patterns and on the way Americans seek information

Resourceful leadership: how directors of children’s services improve outcomes for children experiencing child poverty; summary report

This targeted report has been published alongside a longer report,"Resourceful leadership: how directors of children’s services improve outcomes for children.

The Impact of Advocacy Funding on the School Choice Debate

In this brief, the funding sources of school choice advocates and opponents and their potential impact on policy are examined. In addition, the strategies funders use to promote or oppose the school choice movement are explored

Multi-platform media: how newspapers are adapting to the digital era

No abstract available

Reshaping dominant stories : a poststructuralist approach to online role play

Online role play is an increasingly popular teaching/learning technique in higher education (Wills & McDougall 2009) but there has been little research into ways a poststructuralist approach may be supported in this format. This paper describes two very different means of incorporating a poststructuralist approach into role plays in higher education to problematise dominant assumptions in the language and content of the subject matter. The first method was a series of interventions in a face-to-face role play in which medical students practised consultations with adolescent school students. The consultations were interrupted repeatedly with activities designed to interrogate assumptions and the school students acted as coaches to improve the medical students\u27 technique. Although this role play was performed face-to-face, some of its activities may be redeveloped to suit an online role-playing format. The second method was a feature of an online role play involving Middle-East politics and journalism students, in which daily online newspapers provided a reflecting and distorting mirror to the political events simulated by the politics students. Indications of ways in which the two methods produced changes in understanding were gathered using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods: questionnaires, focus groups, interviews, participant observation and analysis of online discussions and artefacts

Reshaping Academic Practice and Relationships within the Department Of Plant Sciences

At the University of Cambridge, a research and development project concerned with teaching and learning in small-group tutorials has been initiated in Department of Plant Sciences. Known as the Plant Sciences Pedagogy Project, it is part of the Teaching for Learning Network (TfLN), which includes members of the Centre for Applied Research into Educational Technologies (CARET), the Department of Engineering and the Faculty of Classics. Provision of small-group tutorials plays a key role in teaching support for students at the University of Cambridge. However, variation in student experience of tutorial quality was raised as a point of concern in a recent student survey (Cambridge University Students’ Union, 2004). Our research therefore focussed on analysis of the tutorial environment with the aim of finding out how best to support our teaching staff and to influence changes in teaching and learning practices within the Department. The Plant Sciences Pedagogy Project used a number of qualitative and quantitative educational research methods in order to identify key plant sciences specific teaching and learning issues. These methods included practice-value questionnaires, self-efficacy questionnaires, supervision video analysis, student focus groups and supervisor interviews, which were implemented over the course of two academic years. The research findings were used to inform the development of a number of new learning resources which were provided for students within a virtual learning environment (VLE), or in collaborative workshops. The impact of the implementation of these new resources was assessed in order to inform research and development for the next academic year. In this paper, we describe the development of the research conducted in the Department of Plant Sciences and also chart the involvement of embedded researchers in the formation of the TfLN. The research structure is initially described in association with action research methodology but it is argued that the format has developed throughout the formation of TfLN so that it is best aligned with theories of social network analysis (Granovetter, 1973). This paper uses the theoretical perspective of brokerage between communities of practice (Burt, 2005; Wenger, 1998) to describe the role that plant science researchers have played in conducting research concerned with initiating changes in teaching and learning practices and also the subsequent coconfiguration of the TfLN research community. Burt’s (2005) four levels of brokerage are used to structure the discussion of these research processes, and the boundary crossing objects that have been used to support brokerage activities are described

Behind the Scenes with OpenLearn: the Challenges of Researching the Provision of Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are defined as technology-enabled educational resources that are openly available for consultation, use and adaptation by users for non-commercial purposes (UNESCO, 2002). OpenLearn is one of the largest of such initiatives and is committed to the provision of open educational resources for all. It is being developed by The Open University and is primarily sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It provides users with over 4 200 hours of higher educational material drawn from Open University courses. Other learning tools such as discussion forums, video conferencing, and knowledge mapping software are also available to the user. In this paper we introduce OpenLearn and outline some of the main research issues surrounding such an initiative. We seek to explore theoretical and practical approaches that can provide suitable tools for analysis. Activity theory is seen as a suitable approach for macro analysis and its use is illustrated in terms of the complexity of large scale research. Activity theory, besides informing research perspectives, can be turned in upon the research process itself allowing us to consider the challenges and context of the research. By using activity theory in this way and illustrating from a range of practical approaches we demonstrate and illustrate a useful research approach

Rethinking professional practice: the logic of competition and the crisis of identity in housing practice

The relationship between professionalism, education and housing practice has become increasingly strained following the introduction of austerity measures and welfare reforms across a range of countries. Focusing on the development of UK housing practice, this article considers how notions of professionalism are being reshaped within the context of welfare retrenchment and how emerging tensions have both affected the identity of housing professionals and impacted on the delivery of training and education programmes. The article analyses the changing knowledge and skills valued in contemporary housing practice and considers how the sector has responded to the challenges of austerity. The central argument is that a dominant logic of competition has culminated in a crisis of identity for the sector. Although the focus of the article is on UK housing practice, the processes identified have a wider relevance for the analysis of housing and welfare delivery in developed economies