User-generated tagging and the public library online public access catalog

The purpose of this study was to survey southern New Jersey public librarians\u27 attitudes towards the feasibility of including user-generated tagging in the public library online public access catalog (OPAC). The research questions of the thesis concerned the advantages and disadvantages of user-generated tagging, the co-existence of user-generated tagging and controlled subject headings, the future of user-generated tagging, and what the librarians thought about user-generated tagging in the OPAC. The methodology of the study was applied research. Nineteen southern New Jersey public librarians completed an attitudinal survey on user-generated tagging. Responses were tallied and placed into a spreadsheet and graphic representations for analysis. A finding of the study was that good-enough, in reference to user-generated tagging, was not acceptable to the majority of the southern New Jersey public librarians. None of the librarians had user-generated tagging in their OPACs, and a significant finding of the thesis was that a majority of the librarians chose advantage in response to the survey statement user-generated tagging and controlled subject headings can co-exist

The Making of Knowledge-Makers in Composition: A Distant Reading of Dissertations

Combining qualitative coding with original algorithmic and quantitative analyses, this project aggregates and visualizes metadata from 2,711 recent doctoral dissertations in Composition/Rhetoric, completed between 2001 and 2010 (inclusive), in order to establish an empirical baseline of what new and established scholars in Composition/Rhetoric agree upon as acceptable research in the field. I find that both subject matter and methodologies largely collocate within a small number of clusters, but not without cross-over among these clusters, and I call for increased dialogue among schools focusing on these different methods and subjects. Chapter 1, \u27Disciplinary Anxiety and the Composition of Composition,\u27 reviews the history of Composition/Rhetoric\u27s search for a shared research paradigm, including its potential rejection of that goal. Following Derek Mueller (2009), I argue for \u27distant reading\u27 (Moretti), through metadata visualization, as a means of keeping abreast of research trends that would be unmanageable through direct reading alone. Chapter 2, \u27From Dissertations to Data: My Exhibits and My Methods,\u27 explains how I obtained, selected, and prepared the 2,711 documents that go into my subsequent analysis. Chapter 3, \u27Mapping the Methods of Composition/Rhetoric Dissertations: A \u27Landscape Plotted and Pieced,\u27 \u27 takes up the question of whether the field has divided along methodological lines, as Stephen North (1987) predicted. After identifying methods used in dissertations based on their abstracts, I describe correlations between dissertation methods and the graduate schools where they are most frequently employed. Most dissertations used more than one method. I demonstrate that, while aggregable and empirical methods have not disappeared, few schools focus on them; dialectical and text-hermeneutic methods are far more common across the board. Chapter 4, \u27Tapping the Topics: What We Study When We Study Writing in Writing Studies,\u27 turns from methods to content. Drawing on a computer-generated topic model of the full text of 1,754 dissertations, I provide evidence both for high-level clustering of topics and for large numbers of dissertations that cut across these clusters. The most common dissertation topics in this sample address the teaching of writing and, in a largely separate cluster, theories of meaning-making. In Chapter 5, \u27Toward a View From Everywhere: \u27Disciplined Interdisciplinarity\u27 and Distant Reading,\u27 I reflect on the benefits and limitations of the methods I have used, and suggest directions for future study. Although it is generally clear to doctoral students preparing to begin dissertation work that they have a number of methods to choose from, and a number of ways to construct and usefully constrain their subject matter, Composition/Rhetoric as a field has not generally speaking kept good track of trends across institutions, with the result that individual dissertation-writers do not know whether a particular method or subject they are considering is common or quirky, cutting-edge or passé. By offering a recent, zoomed-out view beyond the vantage point of any one program, these analyses provide a shared map of where Composition/Rhetoric doctoral research has been, so that researchers, thesis committees, and curriculum-planners can make more informed local decisions about where their research should go next

Learning in a digitally connected classroom: Secondary science teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and practices

Despite decades of research surrounding Information Communication Technology (ICT) use in schools, the pedagogical reasoning required to provide meaningful ICT enabled learning opportunities is rarely analysed in the literature. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate teachers’ pedagogically reasoned practice. This study involved three exemplary Australian secondary science teachers, renowned for their expertise in utilising ICT working in classrooms where students had school issued one-to-one computers and reliable network access. The research utilised qualitative methods, including semistructured interviews, video-based observational data, and an array of lesson artefacts. The study followed a naturalistic multiple-case study design to explore the pedagogical reasoning and actions of these science teachers. The study identified different forms of pedagogical reasoning and action for a digitally connected world. Many aspects of this iterative model bear close resemblance to Shulman’s (1987) original conception of pedagogical reasoning and action. In each case, sophisticated reasoned decision-making drawing upon a range of teacher knowledge bases, most notably technological pedagogical content knowledge took place. The pedagogical reasoning and action model presented demonstrates a backward mapping approach where the use of ICT was directed at supporting the development of scientific content and educational outcomes of the mandated science curriculum. The research also found that these teachers held social constructivist beliefs for the use of ICT and intentionally designed ICT enabled opportunities from a learning affordance perspective. The research also demonstrated a reflexive relationship between the teacher’s beliefs and their pedagogical practices. Teacher activity involved significant preparatory work in the selection and curation of motivating, authoritative and multimodal Internet accessible ICT resources and tools aligned to the mandated science curriculum. In each case, the teachers had purposefully created a customised classroom online presence or website, offering students a flexible learning environment, an uncommon practice at the time of the study. The teachers designed ICT enabled learning opportunities following a guided inquiry model, frequently involving collaborative problem-based strategies. In each case, the students were the dominant users of ICT in the classroom using ICT for discovering knowledge, constructing knowledge and for sharing knowledge. The teachers’ role was predominantly one of orchestration of the learning environment, scaffolding and questioning students as they engaged with guided inquiry-based learning tasks. Ultimately the research revealed the critical role of the teacher in mediating the affordances of ICT for meaningful learning. Overall the findings offer useful insights into how exemplary science teachers’ reason and act about the use of ICT in a digitally connected classroom. An important implication for the development of initial science teacher education programs arose from the study, notably that preservice teachers require ongoing and authentic course opportunities to support the development of the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge relevant for a digitally connected classroom

ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment

It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

Online Communities of Practice and Professional Change: a Three-Tier View of the Knowledge Embedding Process

This interpretivist study, in the field of information Systems, investigates the process of transformative professional change using a knowledge management lens. The goal of the research was to understand how online communities of practice (CoPs) facilitate the transfer and embedding of professional knowledge. It was guided by the question: How do online CoPs facilitate the transfer and embedding of professional knowledge? This topic was of contemporary and strategic significance in New Zealand: The government had embarked on a strategy to transform teaching in NZ schools, aiming to leverage a major investment in IT infrastructure, using online CoPs to help embed a new paradigm of studentcentred, ICT-enriched learning at system level. There was, however, no research to suggest how this might occur. Despite the increasing use of online CoPs by organisations, and an expansion in the number of tools available for this purpose, there is little understanding of how online CoPs can facilitate knowledge transfer. The way in which knowledge embedding (deep transfer) occurs, and the role online CoPs may play in supporting this process, is particularly poorly understood. This is significant issue in this internet-rich era, when developing nations are aiming to cultivate knowledge economies. I conducted the research using a case research strategy, qualitative methods and an inductive process of theory generation. The research case was a national professional development programme for schools, with five CoP subunits: Four were regionally based school cluster CoPs and one was a distributed blogging community. (Membership of this community overlapped with three of the cluster CoPs.) Based on my analysis of data, and on feedback from participants, I found that three complementary mechanisms were operating simultaneously, facilitating the embedding of knowledge at meso, micro and macro levels. The result of my study is a threelevel explanatory theory. At the meso (school) level, knowledge embedding followed a six-stage cycle, with different activities and issues characterising each stage. Online CoPs played a different role at each stage. At the micro (individual) level, knowledge embedding was driven by teachers' crossings of multiple engagement spaces (communication contexts) in a polycontextual environment. Crossings drove personalisation and facilitated the linking of theory and practice, leading to deep individual understanding. At the macro level, the embedding of knowledge was driven by the brokering function of a middle layer community in a system of overlapping, tiered CoPs. Key roles were played by two kinds of knowledge brokers: connector-leaders and follower-feeders. All three embedding-facilitating mechanisms promoted five fundamental knowledge embedding processes: focusing, persuading, aligning, adapting, and owning (developing ownership)