Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) to support teaching practice: Insights from a nurse tutor program in Nigeria

AimTo determine the feasibility of using the Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) platform, WhatsApp, to provide supervision and support for student nurse tutors during a teaching practice placement in Nigeria. Methods A descriptive qualitative method was used to design and evaluate a six-week WhatsApp group discussion intervention among 19 student nurse tutors. Two pre-intervention focus group sessions (n=9 and n=10) and a workshop were conducted to assess the students’ content needs and media usage, and to develop a short online supervisory curriculum. To evaluate the intervention, two focus group sessions (n=9 and n=9) were carried out, transcribed verbatim, and analysed together with the actual WhatsApp conversations using thematic content analysis.Findings The participants found the WhatsApp-enabled learning space valuable, in particular for the transfer and application of knowledge in their day-to-day teaching practice and, more generally, for their professional development. There were rich and multifaceted indicators of learning and professional development in evidence which were mostly triggered by specific facilitation techniques. The four themes from the WhatsApp conversations are: (1) sharing and discussing “tricks of the trade”; (2) providing direction and triggering reflective (teaching) practice; (3) sparking professional discussions and announcing professional development opportunities; and (4) maintaining a continuous moderating and teaching “presence”. ConclusionDespite some technical challenges centred mainly on the accessibility of the MIM space, the study identified indicators of good supervision practice and the results point to the feasibility and value of MIM to enhance supervision during teaching practice

Feminine Magic

Having been introduced to magic by my father, I have adapted the classic methods to work in my role as a mature female teacher. Using performance and mysterious narrative, intriguing props and playing on my femininity, the classic magician routines have served me well when performing for teenagers. Reworking the classic routines in this way ensures that a school magic club for teenagers serves the various needs of both male and female students

After the Prestige: A Postmodern Analysis of Penn and Teller

By mocking the magic community and revealing the secret behind some of their tricks, Penn and Teller perform a kind of parodic and post-modern “anti-magic.” Penn and Teller display an artful use of rhetoric; in exposing the secrets and shortcomings of conjuring, they are revolutionizing the way people think about both the art of magic and the magic community. Individuals such as Penn and Teller may use parody to subvert the hegemonic interpretations. However, we also know that it is difficult to bring down a system while operating within that system. Thus, this article explores the way Penn and Teller are challenging the metanarrative of the magic community, using several of the duo’s more popular illusions as examples for analysis. Ultimately, this paper should help us gain a better understanding of the way parody can be used to challenge hegemonic conceptions, and the limitations of this type of rhetorical approach

The Second Mile for Legal Aid Clinics

The report begins with a short introduction to what logistics management and total cost analysis are. This is followed by a presentation of the study's methodological design, a presentation of the cases I studied as well as analysis and concluding reflections.Final report for the project conducted with the support ofLiTH's Educational Development Group, PUG.</p

Teaching old sensors New tricks: archetypes of intelligence

In this paper a generic intelligent sensor software architecture is described which builds upon the basic requirements of related industry standards (IEEE 1451 and SEVA BS- 7986). It incorporates specific functionalities such as real-time fault detection, drift compensation, adaptation to environmental changes and autonomous reconfiguration. The modular based structure of the intelligent sensor architecture provides enhanced flexibility in regard to the choice of specific algorithmic realizations. In this context, the particular aspects of fault detection and drift estimation are discussed. A mixed indicative/corrective fault detection approach is proposed while it is demonstrated that reversible/irreversible state dependent drift can be estimated using generic algorithms such as the EKF or on-line density estimators. Finally, a parsimonious density estimator is presented and validated through simulated and real data for use in an operating regime dependent fault detection framework

Review of the Book \u3ci\u3eShakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education\u3c/i\u3e

[Excerpt] Befitting a former journalist, Kirp\u27s book is extraordinarily well-written; once one picks it up it is hard to put down. Some economists may be put off by a book that contains no equations, tables, figures or regression results. Such an attitude, however, would be misguided and any academic economist interested in better understanding how market forces are reshaping higher education should read Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 25 (08) 1972

published or submitted for publicatio

How can the concepts of habitus and field help us to understand the engagement of educational workers in higher Education?

In ‘Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality’, the EU stressed the role of universities in relation to lifelong learning, a role that entails a need for widening access to universities, particularly for those not coming through the traditional direct route of upper secondary education. As teachers play a significant role in the quality of the lifelong learning as well as in motivating future generations to take part in lifelong learning, education and training for teachers becomes important; not only in relation to initial teacher education, but also in relation to a continuous development of knowledge and skills. This paper represents the first stage of a larger comparative project intended to examine and compare educational workers’ (i.e. professionals involved in teaching in the class room) participation in higher education in England and Denmark, their access and interest. In particular, the paper relates participation and engagement to national and international educational policies and frames this work within an examination of the social background of the professional groups. The key research questions at this stage of the work are methodological and can be summed up by the overarching question, “How can the concepts of habitus and field help us to understand levels of engagement of educational workers in Higher Education”? The paper reports the results of our review of current policies and our efforts to identify the structural relations within the educational professional fields in each country. To do so we are developing a theoretical model using the relational analytical approach advocated by Bourdieu. As such, our work is an early stage attempt at operationalising Bourdieu’s observations regarding the dynamics of field. This seems to us to provide an important conceptual approach to understanding the habitus of educational workers in the context of the dynamics of a fast changing policy arena and the complexities of the backgrounds of individuals working in the educational field. The model attempts to build in the reflexivity that Bourdieu demands for a ‘science’ that is not weakened by over-emphasis on either the objective structural relations or the subjective phenomenology of experience. Thus, the paper presents a preliminary contextual analysis of the factors that enable an understanding of engagement or lack of engagement in higher level learning among school-based education workers in the two EU countries and is related to a larger research project that explores habitus (both individual and collective) among these groups of education workers

A Future Teachers Conference – A Vehicle to Retain, Inform, and Inspire New and Prospective Teachers

The Los Angeles Collaborative for Teacher Excellence (LACTE) Future Teachers Conference is a day-long learning event for beginning and pre-service K-12 math and science teachers. The Conference provides information, resources and connections tailored to the needs of prospective and new teachers. A unique aspect of the conference is that a group of new and future teachers serve as partners with college faculty on the planning committee. Thus the Conference not only serves to educate new and future teachers, but also provides leadership training for the planning team members; and, the presence of prospective and new teachers on the planning team ensures that the conference sessions effectively target the intended audience\u27s interests. This conference is the most popular activity for new and prospective teachers in the Collaborative. Over the five years the conference has been held, its attendance has grown to 120-150 participants annually. A planning handbook is available to assist anyone interested in organizing a similar event