55,414 research outputs found
Measuring the Impact of Youth Voluntary Service Programs
Summary and Conclusions of a meeting of international experts hosted by the World Bank and Innovations in Civic Participation to discuss evaluation of the impact of youth civic engagement on development
Mediators of Inequity: Online Literate Activity in Two Eighth Grade English Language Arts Classes
This comparative case study, framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and sociocultural understandings of literacy, investigated studentsâ online literate activity in two eighth grade English Language Arts classes taught by the same teacher - one with a scripted literacy curriculum and the other without. During a year-long research project, we used ethnographic methods to explore the nature of middle school studentsâ literate activity in each of these classes, with particular attention to the mediators evident as students engaged in online literate activity. Specifically, this article addresses the following research question: What mediators were evident within and across each of the classes and how did these mediators influence studentsâ online literate activity? In addressing this question, we illustrate how particular configurations of mediators â even those operating within the context of the same school and same teacher â significantly influenced the nature of studentsâ online literate activity and the literate identities available to students. This study reinforces the importance of attending to the influence of offline mediators in school settings. Without such attention, studentsâ formal education is likely to be transferred online rather than transformed online
Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development
This paper reflects on the relationship between who one designs for and what one designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting âInternational Developmentâ with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the
supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the toolâs function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke
the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the projectâs artefacts and processes. We examine the projectâs role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals
Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document
Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the "creative class" and "creative economy" is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity. In contrast, the social benefits of cultural engagement have received relatively little attention, even though -- as we shall see -- they provide a stronger case.We need to avoid a simplistic either-or choice between the economic and social impacts of the arts. People who live in our cities, suburbs, and countryside are simultaneously consumers, workers, residents, citizens, and participants. Culture's role in promoting community capacity and civic engagement is central to its potential for generating vital cultural districts. To separate the economic and the social impacts of the arts makes each more difficult to understand.This document provides an overview of the state-of-the-art literature on culture and urban revitalization. In Part 2, we place the creative sector in contemporary context with a discussion of three social dynamics. The "new urban reality" has restructured our cities by increasing social diversity -- fueled by new residential patterns, the emergence of young adult districts, and immigration; expanding economic inequality; and changing urban form. Shifts in the economic and political environment have changed the structure of the creative sector. Finally, the changing balance of government, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions in social policy development -- the shift to transactional policymaking -- has profound implications for cultural policy and the creative sector broadly defined. These three forces -- the new urban reality, the changing structure of the creative sector, and the emergence of transactional policy-making -- define the context within which culture-based revitalization takes place
Recommended from our members
Case Study: Using Cloudworks for an Open Literature Review
This case study is one of a series exploring the ongoing use and development of the Cloudworks site. This case study will focus on an expert elicitation Cloudscape established to support a literature review project led by the University of Exeter and funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA): "The positioning of educational technologists in enhancing the student experience".
We will look in detail at the way the site was utilised by the project teams and other participants in the review, and evaluate the site's effectiveness in supporting this piece of research. We will make recommendations for the development of support resources associated with the site and suggest factors that might impact on the success of similar activities
Social Indicators for Arctic Mining
This paper reviews and assesses the state of the data to describe and monitor mining
trends in the pan-Arctic. It constructs a mining index and discusses its value as a social
impact indicator and discusses drivers of change in Arctic mining. The widely available
measures of mineral production and value are poor proxies for economic effects on
Arctic communities. Trends in mining activity can be characterized as stasis or decline in
mature regions of the Arctic, with strong growth in the frontier regions. World prices and
the availability of large, undiscovered and untapped resources with favorable access and
low political risk are the biggest drivers for Arctic mining, while climate change is a
minor and locally variable factor. Historical data on mineral production and value is
unavailable in electronic format for much of the Arctic, specifically Scandinavia and
Russia; completing the historical record back to 1980 will require work with paper
archives. The most critically needed improvement in data collection and reporting is to
develop comparable measures of employment: the eight Arctic countries each use
different definitions of employment, and different methodologies to collect the data.
Furthermore, many countries do not report employment by county and industry, so the
Arctic share of mining employment cannot be identified. More work needs to be done to
develop indicator measures for ecosystem service flows. More work also needs to be
done developing conceptual models of effects of mining activities on fate control,
cultural continuity and ties to nature for local Arctic communities
ImpaCT2: emerging findings from the evaluation of the impact of information and communications technologies on pupil attainment
This report is concerned with the evaluation of the impact of the NGfL (National Grid for Learning) on pupils and teachers in the context of the wider ImpaCT2 study. ImpaCT2 was a major longitudinal study (1999-2002) involving 60 schools in England, its aims were to: identify the impact of networked technologies on the school and out-of-school environment; determine whether or not this impact affected the educational attainment of pupils aged 8 - 16 years (at Key Stages 2, 3, and 4); and provide information that would assist in the formation of national, local and school policies on the deployment of ICT
Recommended from our members
Pursuing Energy-Efficient Behavior in a Regulatory Environment: Motivating Policymakers, Program Administrators, and Program Implementers
This white paper examines how policymakers, program administrators, and program implementers can be motivated to pursue behavioral change in a regulatory environment. For the purposes of this report, behavior change is defined rather broadly, encompassing both behaviors associated with the purchase and installation of energy efficiency technologies as well as behaviors, decisions, and actions that might be thought of as more independent of technology. These include energy use habits, lifestyle choices, and consumption patterns. The insights and lessons discussed in this paper are drawn from a wide variety of sources including interviews with representatives from the energy and utility communities, and program documentation for energy-related programs and projects
- âŠ