Lived and Learned Experience with Accessible and Inclusive Pedagogy

I have always walked in two different worlds. Because I am low vision, not blind, I know the joy of seeing and capturing the perfect image in my digital camera’s viewfinder. I know the joy of teaching a dance class. I know what it’s like to be perceived as abled. Because I am low vision, not “normal,” I know the frustration and sometimes humiliation of a teacher caring more about their seating plans or their favorite activity than my ability to participate fully in class. I know the frustration of missing parts of presentations because the presenter did not explain visual content on a slide. I know what it feels like to have an instructor ignore accessibility needs that you have clearly articulated. I know the humiliation of people commenting on the appearance of my eyes. I know what it is to be underestimated or not taken seriously because of preconceived notions about my capabilities

Science is perception: what can our sense of smell tell us about ourselves and the world around us?

Human sensory processes are well understood: hearing, seeing, perhaps even tasting and touch—but we do not understand smell—the elusive sense. That is, for the others we know what stimuli causes what response, and why and how. These fundamental questions are not answered within the sphere of smell science; we do not know what it is about a molecule that … smells. I report, here, the status quo theories for olfaction, highlighting what we do not know, and explaining why dismissing the perception of the input as ‘too subjective’ acts as a roadblock not conducive to scientific inquiry. I outline the current and new theory that conjectures a mechanism for signal transduction based on quantum mechanical phenomena, dubbed the ‘swipe card’, which is perhaps controversial but feasible. I show that such lines of thinking may answer some questions, or at least pose the right questions. Most importantly, I draw links and comparisons as to how better understanding of how small (10’s of atoms) molecules can interact so specially with large (10 000’s of atoms) proteins in a way that is so integral to healthy living. Repercussions of this work are not just important in understanding a basic scientific tool used by us all, but often taken for granted, it is also a step closer to understanding generic mechanisms between drug and receptor, for example

I give at the office: A review of workplace giving research, theory, and practice

Workplace giving is a widely used philanthropic tool. Although it may have great unmet potential, it is also facing a number of challenges, including competition from informal crowdfunding campaigns. In the face of such challenges, we take stock of the extant research to better understand the value and future of workplace giving, emphasizing employee actions and preferences in our review. Workplace giving studies can also augment knowledge about contextual giving or bounded settings for exploring basic philanthropic questions (e.g., donor control or gift elasticity). We use a three‐part conceptual framework to synthesize and discuss research on individual workplace giving in the context of broader giving behaviors. We address what researchers know, do not know, and need to know on the topic of workplace giving

Im-position: Heidegger’s analysis of the essence of modern technology

[Excerpt] "One of Heidegger’s initial moves in “The Question Concerning Technology” is to call attention to the difference between Technik and its essence. When we are looking for the essence of a tree, he notes, we are not looking for something that is itself a tree. So, too, the essence of Technik is “completely and utterly nothing Technisches.” Initially, Heidegger offers no argument for this claim (pragmatists might dispute it), but it has a certain prima facie plausibility. What a bit of know-how is—the essence of Technik as a technique or mechanical art—is arguably not itself necessarily a bit of know-how, any more than what technical equipment is—the essence of Technik as equipment—is itself a piece of equipment."Accepted manuscrip

Know-how, action, and luck

A good surgeon knows how to perform a surgery; a good architect knows how to design a house. We value their know-how. We ordinarily look for it. What makes it so valuable? A natural response is that know-how is valuable because it explains success. A surgeon’s know-how explains their success at performing a surgery. And an architect’s know-how explains their success at designing houses that stand up. We value know-how because of its special explanatory link to success. But in virtue of what is know-how explanatorily linked to success? This essay provides a novel argument for the thesis that know-how’s special link to success is to be explained at least in part in terms of its being, or involving, a doxastic attitude that is epistemically alike propositional knowledge. It is argued that the role played by know-how in explaining intentional success shows that the epistemic differences between know-how and knowledge, if any, are less than usually thought; and that "revisionary intellectualism", the view that know-how is true belief that might well fall short of knowledge, is not really a stable position. If its explanatory link to success is what makes know-how valuable, an upshot of my argument is that the value of know-how is due, to a considerable extent, to its being, or involving, a kind of propositional knowledge

Effective teaching strategies: A brief overview

This article discusses and presents a brief overview for effective teaching strategies within the school or university classroom. As teachers know, teaching is a challenging task. There are many people who may know their subjects very well. However, not everyone is able to convey what he or she knows to others. In fact, despite the fact teachers know a lot, many struggle to explain their knowledge to others. The main reason is that those specialists do not have knowledge, skills and competencies of sharing what they know with others. Thus, this paper attempts to address the mismatch between having knowledge about a topic and being able to share it with others by providing an overview of effective teaching strategies

Maps, agents and dialogue for exploring a virtual world

In previous years we have been involved in several projects in which users (or visitors) had to find their way in information-rich virtual environments. 'Information-rich' means that the users do not know beforehand what is available in the environment, where to go in the environment to find the information and, moreover, users or visitors do not necessarily know exactly what they are looking for. Information-rich means also that the information may change during time. A second visit to the same environment will require different behavior of the visitor in order for him or her to obtain similar information than was available during a previous visit. In this paper we report about two projects and discuss our attempts to generalize from the different approaches and application domains to obtain a library of methods and tools to design and implement intelligent agents that inhabit virtual environments and where the agents support the navigation of the user/visitor

South African exporting firms: What do we know and what should we know?

Policies to stimulate export growth and diversify the composition of exports in South Africa are now high on the government’s agenda. In order to understand exporting and its impact on job creation, one needs to understand how firms function, what determines, or constrains, exporting at the firm level and the links between export behaviour and labour demand. An understanding of these relationships, particularly over time, is also essential for the implementation and evaluation of export related policies. This paper reviews the evidence on South African exporting firms, highlighting what we know, and what we do not know. A key conclusion is that our understanding of firm level export behaviour is severely constrained by the lack of adequate firm data, particularly panel data.South Africa; exports; firms

Augmented Reality Based Product Availability Checker Using Junaio Browser

This project is about augmented reality (AR) used in Smartphone to aid people in checking product availability. Augmented reality is used as it is fast moving technology that becomes common to people but less known to the Malaysian. This project is about helping people in knowing what do they have in surrounding but it is strictly limited to buildings around them. Some people might not know what places or shops are there but to some people they are not familiar with the place. This project can be used by everyone regardless of their intention. Depending on the intended use, the basic system could incorporate a wide range of other components adapted for specific operational functions [19]. Some may use it to know what are the shops nearby, or they can check what are the shops selling or if they now one particular shop are selling, they might want to know whether the product they looking for is available or not. By using augmented reality, it can help bypass some steps in traditional searching process like people use Google search to find for something and not all the information available on the internet