Spatial ability, urban wayfinding and location-based services:a review and first results

Location-Based Services (LBS) are a new industry at the core of which are GISand spatial databases. With increasing mobility of individuals, the anticipatedavailability of broadband communications for mobile devices and growingvolumes of location specific information available in databases there willinevitably be an increase in demand for services providing location relatedinformation to people on the move. New Information and CommunicationTechnologies (NICTs) are providing enhanced possibilities for navigating ?smartcities?. Urban environments, meanwhile, have increasing spatial complexity.Navigating urban environments is becoming an important issue. The time is ripefor a re-appraisal of urban wayfinding. This paper critically reviews the currentLBS applications and raises a series of questions with regard to LBS for urbanwayfinding. Research is being carried out to measure individuals? spatialability/awareness and their degree of preference for using LBS in wayfinding. Themethodology includes both the use of questionnaires and a virtual reality CAVE.Presented here are the results of the questionnaire survey which indicate therelationships between individuals? spatial ability, use of NICTs and modepreference for receiving wayfinding cues. Also discussed are our future researchdirections on LBS, particular on issues of urban wayfinding using NICTs

Designing with Care - Interior Design and Residential Child Care Final Report

This exploratory study examined the attitudes to a range of design interventions in four residential care homes for children in South Lanarkshire. The project set out to identify the benefits and disadvantages to young people and staff of a change in approach to the design of interior spaces. It was undertaken by Farm7 (specialists in design research and consultancy) and the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC). The main focus of the research was to evaluate design interventions aimed at removing 'institutional' approaches to design in the care environment and improving the experience of looked after children. This involved the commissioning of interior design consultants Graven Images in the development and design of South Lanarkshire's residential children's homes. Post-occupancy evaluation of the four residential homes was undertaken with the participation of both looked after children and staff. It was envisaged that this study would contribute to the development of design guidance that will promote a more systematic approach to the design of care environments. This will allow social work and design professionals to draw on a design framework in order to significantly enhance the experience of looked after children and staff

Health of offenders in the community: the forgotten Inequality

Health of offenders in the community: The forgotten Inequality. A report on Lincolnshire Probation’s Healthy Living Centre and the health needs of offenders in the communit

Achieving Teacher Professional Growth Through Professional Experimentation and Changes in Pedagogical Practices

To facilitate the professional learning of teachers and bring about changes in pedagogical practices, it is necessary to understand the process by which teachers grow professionally. Professional growth can be achieved when teachers work together to engage in professional experimentation and see results in terms of salient outcomes for their students. This paper reports on a study of teachers’ pedagogical practices as they introduced adaptations to focus on personalising students’ learning in mathematics. Two cases are presented to demonstrate how teachers in two schools used student mathematics test data to determine students’ strengths and needs, in order to personalise learning experiences. The findings highlight how shared responsibility and purposeful use of student data can lead to positive professional growth for teachers and improved learning outcomes for students

Challenges in personalisation: supporting mobile science inquiry learning across contexts

The Personal Inquiry project (PI) aimed to develop and implement personal inquiries in secondary schools in order to motivate engagement in scientific inquiry through its focus on inquiries of personal interest to young learners. This paper describes the authors’ experiences working with teachers in one school over three years, iteratively developing the nQuire toolkit* and pedagogical support across different inquiries which can be used in and across different contexts, ranging from the classroom to field trips and at home. As nQuire is web based, and can be accessed in different locations and on a range of networked devices it supports mobile inquiry learning and is the main resource for bridging between contexts. This paper discusses issues related to developing personal inquiries in schools, working across different contexts and focusing on three aspects of personalisation: choice, personal relevance and learner responsibility. It discusses the challenges faced when developing personalised inquiries in science, both in more traditional classroom contexts and in the less formal environment of an after school club. Drawing on technology supported inquiries from both these contexts it reflects on some of the constraints and tensions in providing learners with choice in their inquiries, identifying both the constraints and successes

Evaluation of the computers for pupils initiative: final report

The Computers for Pupils (CfP) initiative aimed to help overcome the digital divide, which can prevent young people from disadvantaged backgrounds from enjoying the benefits of access to information and communications technology. The initiative provided funding for schools in deprived areas to invest in home access to ICT for their neediest pupils in order to: • give eligible learners the same opportunities as their peers • contribute to raising educational achievement • support personalised learning • encourage the development of ICT skills among learners and families. In December 2006, Becta commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake a national evaluation of the CfP initiative. The main aim of the two-year evaluation was to assess the impact of CfP on learners and their families and to explore how schools and teachers had developed their pedagogic practices in order to support and capitalise on the new educational opportunities afforded by the technology. The evaluation involved distinct though interrelated strands of quantitative and qualitative research: • Questionnaire surveys of teachers in CfP schools, learners selected for CfP, and learners’ parents, which were conducted twice (autumn 2007 and 2008) in order to explore changes in general access to and use of computers and ICT, and assess the impact of the CfP initiative • In-depth case-study research across 13 schools within eight local authorities (LAs) in the spring and summer terms 2008 and again in the autumn term 2008 (including the same LAs and schools at all time points), in order to explore through detailed interviews perceptions of the implementation and impact of CfP. Key findings in relation to the aims of CfP