Today’s University Students and Their Need to Connect

Higher education is rapidly changing and university instructors are presented with new types of students for whom technology is a significant influence. They perceive technology as a way of life and express a need to feel connected at all times. With increasingly diverse university classroom, technology integration is both a challenge and an opportunity. Supportive communication is important in the promotion of relationships and essential in a university classroom. A convenience sample of 390 students was surveyed to investigate the perceived influences of technology on relationships, including preferences, usage and time with technologies. Results indicated that technology makes communication easier, allows students to stay in touch with more people, and have relationships that would otherwise not be possible. Implications of this study suggest positive influences of technology on academic work, performance and maintenance of relationships. However, disadvantages with using technology such as increased stress, addictive feelings toward technologies, and increased misunderstandings in relationships and conflict also exist

Tensions of Data-Driven Reflection: A Case Study of Real-Time Emotional Biosensing

Biosensing displays, increasingly enrolled in emotional reflection, promise authoritative insight by presenting users’ emotions as discrete categories. Rather than machines interpreting emotions, we sought to explore an alternative with emotional biosensing displays in which users formed their own interpretations and felt comfortable critiquing the display. So, we designed, implemented, and deployed, as a technology probe, an emotional biosensory display: Ripple is a shirt whose pattern changes color responding to the wearer’s skin conductance, which is associated with excitement. 17 participants wore Ripple over 2 days of daily life. While some participants appreciated the ‘physical connection’ Ripple provided between body and emotion, for others Ripple fostered insecurities about ‘how much’ feeling they had. Despite our design intentions, we found participants rarely questioned the display’s relation to their feelings. Using biopolitics to speculate on Ripple’s surprising authority, we highlight ethical stakes of biosensory representations for sense of self and ways of feeling

Ant Tribe

Ant Tribe describes the post-80s generation university graduates who live together in poor conditions without Social security in communities around China\u27s major metropolises. They dream of a better life in big cities but struggle with low-paying jobs. These struggling elites have become the fourth weak Social group, after peasants, migrant workers and unemployed people. The reason why these college graduates are compared to ants is that they are like ants: clever, hardworking, politically weak and living in groups. The real world is always different from the ideal world of the Ant Tribe in China. They often lose their purposes in a complex society. It is more important for them to recognize the distance between the real and imaginary in order to rethink whether it is a right choice to stay in a big city and try to realize their dreams. The intention of the Ant Tribe installation is to explore the process and concept of changing between the real and fantasy. In the installation, I hope to portray the Ant Tribe phenomenon widely and deeply from an artist\u27s perspective. The most important thing for me is using my artistic practice to investigate the power of the media over the contemporary subject in order to activate the viewers to question some Social issues regarding humanity consciousness. My artwork should be thought - provoking for them. I would like to use my visual language to convey specific Social issues to inquire how far the viewers are from their dreams. I hope they think about themselves in their complex society physically and psychologically when they go through my work

The Curative Power of Play: The Voices of Therapists around the World

It is important for all therapists to be culturally sensitive to children and their eco-systems as well as to be aware of the current trends and the changing application of play as a healing agent. The focus of this study is on the development of a current description of play by therapists from a global perspective through a thematic analysis of focus groups resulting in an explanation of how play contributes to healing and the practice of therapy. In this study, the naturalistic method of qualitative research (Bowers, 2009; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) was applied to the study of play around the world, resulting in a new description of “play”. The analyses of focus group meetings in Morocco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and Europe resulted in the emergence of 8 themes: productivity through play, contribution to development, facilitation of the relationship through play, honouring diversity, collaboration between children and caregivers, stimulation through technology-based play, relaxation provided by play, and the devaluation of play. These themes, which are presented through the “voices of the participants”, together with the literature review, serve to enrich the changing description of play. With participants from all continents, a current global perspective highlights the changes that play, both as a concept and as a healing agent, has undergone and will continue to do so. New information emerged suggesting that technology has become a worldwide focus for children but has a paradoxical effect on their relationships

The Emotivism of Law. Systematic Irrationality, Imagined Orders, and the Spirit of Decision Making

The process of decision making is predictable and irrational according to Daniel Ariely and other economic behaviorists, historians, and philosophers such as Daniel Kahneman or Yuval Noah Harari. Decisions made anteriorly can be, but don’t have to be, present in the actions of a person. Stories and shared belief in myths, especially those that arise from a system of human norms and values and are based on a belief in a “supernatural” order (religion) are important. Because of this, mass cooperation amongst strangers is possible

The impact of professional learning on the teaching identities of higher education lecturers

Higher Education is currently undergoing some of the most profound changes in its history. Against a backdrop of increasing marketization, rising levels of student debt and far greater fully online offerings, the higher education lecturer is grappling with new ways of working and high expectations of teaching quality. This 3 year qualitative study based in The Open University UK investigates the ways in which HE distance learning lecturers are approaching professional development and learning, identifying what type of learning may be most effective in creating and sustaining an online teaching identity. The study also examines ways in which resistance discourse is shaping these identities and practices revealing emerging re- conceptualisations of what it means to be an effective and well-motivated distance learning lecturer. The investigation uses a framework for identity analysis which analyses professional identity via the expression of hegemonies, phenomenological, narrative articulations of identity, and a post-modern, constructivist view of identity which is shaped by social interactions and communities of practice. It highlights the importance of personal agency in identity formation. The results revealed a number of insights into the ways in which a combination of resistance discourse, professional learning and reflections from student interactions are shaping new understandings of professional knowledge in this context

Zen and the art of film narrative: Towards a transcendental realism in film

Nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the consequences of those lies. If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings. (Okri 1995: 21) What defines the classic narrative is also at the root of its limitations; an epistemology that ties it to a material and psychological paradigm governed by largely explicable laws of cause and effect. Such notions as ‘character motivation’, ‘narrative aims’, ‘obstacles’, ‘climax’ and so on have evolved to become as overwhelmingly dominant in cinema as the dogma of reason which subsequently the industrial age solidified. It is from this that the moving-image medium emerged: empirical evidence of motivations, mechanistic notions of causes and effects and scientifically based – including the pseudosciences of psychology and sociology – that provide justifications for events and actions – all serve to reinforce the dominance of the classic narrative’s role in the storytelling of the developed world. In this article, I shall call for a different perspective on cinematic narrative form; not with a view to discussing what film generally is, but to make some general suggestions of what it could be, particularly from the perspective of a film-maker trying to transcend the limitations of the classic narrative. The motive is to try and understand how, in practice, one may evolve narrative forms in such a way as to deal with experiences not sufficiently touched by the classic form, as it is currently generally practised in cinema. I shall, in particular, look at the relationship between emotions and feelings and their relationship to narrative structure and bring into this examination some notions and ideas from Zen Buddhism to re-evaluate that relationship. The issues I hope to raise are about paradigms and I shall therefore deliberately base my discussion on general assertions and eclectic contextualization

Understanding Bullying and the Necessity for Prevention and Intervention in Schools

The emotional stability and mental health of a student plays an essential role in his or her academic success. The emotional state of a student can be greatly damaged when he or she is the victim or perpetrator of bullying. Unfortunately, bullying is an active and serious problem that affects millions of students in K-12 classrooms every day. One could argue that the issue of bullying is becoming more prevalent in present time that is ever was before. In recent years, the rise of technology gave birth to a new form of bullying named cyberbullying. Kids no longer have a safe haven when they leave school. Bullies are able to continue the tormenting of their peers through social media, texting, email, and countless other outlets. Bullying can detrimentally affect students physically, emotionally, and academically. Teachers now have the responsibility to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for their students. In order to provide that safe environment, there must be a stop to bullying. The objective of this paper is to identify the root causes of bullying, the effects bullying has on students, and the most effective strategies to prevent and intervene with bullying in the classroom

The Oneiric Reality of Electronic Scents

This paper investigates the ‘oneiric’ dimension of scent, by suggesting a new design process that can be worn as a fashion accessory or integrated in textile technologies, to subtly alter reality and go beyond our senses. It fuses wearable ‘electronic scent’ delivery systems with pioneering biotechnologies as a ground-breaking ‘science fashion’ enabler. The purpose is to enhance wellbeing by reaching a day‐dream state of being through the sense of smell. The sense of smell (or olfaction) is a chemical sense and part of the limbic system which regulates emotion and memory within the brain. The power of scent makes content extremely compelling by offering a heightened sense of reality which is intensified by emotions such as joy, anger and fear. Scent helps us appreciate all the senses as we embark on a sensory journey unlike any other; it enhances mood, keeps us in the moment, diverts us from distractions, reduces boredom and encourages creativity. This paper highlights the importance of smell, the forgotten sense, and also identifies how we as humans have grown to underuse our senses. It endeavours to show how the reinvention of our sensory faculties is possible through advances in biotechnology. It introduces the new ‘data senses’ as a wearable sensory platform that triggers and fine tunes the senses with fragrances. It puts forward a new design process that is currently being developed in clothing elements, jewellery and textile technologies, offering a new method to deliver scent electronically and intelligently in fashion and everyday consumer products. It creates a personal ‘scent wave’, around the wearer, to allow the mind to wander, to give a deeper sense of life or ‘lived reality’ (verses fantasy), a new found satisfaction and confidence, and to reach new heights of creativity. By combining biology with wearable technologies, we propose a biotechnological solution that can be translated into sensory fashion elements. This is a new trend in 21st century ‘data sensing’, based on holographic biosensors that sense the human condition, aromachology (the science of the effect of fragrance and behaviour), colour-therapy, and smart polymer science. The use of biosensors in the world of fashion and textiles, enables us to act on visual cues or detect scent signals and rising stress levels, allowing immediate information to hand. An ‘oneiric’ mood is triggered by a spectrum of scents which is encased in a micro-computerised ‘scent‐cell’ and integrated into clothing elements or jewellery. When we inhale an unexpected scent, it takes us by surprise; the power of fragrance fills us with pleasurable ripples of multi‐sensations and dream‐like qualities. The aromas create a near trance‐like experience that induces a daydream state of (immediate) satisfaction, or a ‘revived reality’ in our personal scent bubble of reality. The products and jewellery items were copyrighted and designed by Slim Barrett and the technology input was from EG Technology and Epigem