The lessons learnt from Willy Wonka (includes alternate ending)

Despite all that research has taught us, lectures and seminars still continue to be largely delivered in the classroom, with students sat in rows for far too long. Lecturers offer information, which some students choose to absorb. Some students choose not to, or don’t have the nature to be able to. So, what if we change this? What happens? And even more crucially, what can we do to use the ‘student voice’ to enhance how they learn and what they learn? Following a successful pilot in Experiential Education which we presented at the LJMU conference in 2013 we made developments which allow students to shape their own learning experience - truly engaging them in delivery. With Nick changing institutions at the beginning of this academic year we have both continued to explore Experiential Educational but in different ways. This presentation examines these developments and looks at three key areas: 1) The needs of students (which they weren’t shy in making clear to us!) and the differing learning styles they have, to see how teachers can use them to deliver an all-encompassing experience which is interactive, engaging and informative. 2) A taster of the technologies involved in flipped classrooms and the benefits of experiential education. 3) The reflective nature of learning journals to encourage the student voice to be raised (and then heard). Charlie got the Golden Ticket because he dreamt about it, because he did everything he could to get it. So, where did the others go wrong? And what could Wonka have done about this

The futures of Canadian governance: Foresight competencies for public administration in the digital era

Abstract Evidence?based practice has advanced in public administration, with increasing reliance on social research and population sampling in decision making. Yet the evidence?based turn risks marginalizing the value of strategic foresight and futures competencies in informing policy and planning. Where evidence enables policymakers to select the best near?term course of action, future outcomes are inferred and projected, and not determined by past evidence. Foresight provides a necessary competency for defining and investing in the right direction of future policy and action, by articulating future problematics with multiple foresight methods. While social and technological futures cannot be precisely predicted, future scenarios and prospectuses can be designed to inform options and trajectories for intervention and new policy. The emerging area of digital?era governance is examined, where complex scenarios for future policies are based on present evidence (such as trends) and informed speculation to formulate policies and options in dynamically changing societal contexts

Inferring short-term volatility indicators from Bitcoin blockchain

In this paper, we study the possibility of inferring early warning indicators (EWIs) for periods of extreme bitcoin price volatility using features obtained from Bitcoin daily transaction graphs. We infer the low-dimensional representations of transaction graphs in the time period from 2012 to 2017 using Bitcoin blockchain, and demonstrate how these representations can be used to predict extreme price volatility events. Our EWI, which is obtained with a non-negative decomposition, contains more predictive information than those obtained with singular value decomposition or scalar value of the total Bitcoin transaction volume

Student experiences of technology integration in school subjects: A comparison across four middle schools

This research examined student perspectives on their in-school, subject specific, technology use in four U.S. public schools. Considering students’ perspectives may provide a significant reframing of adult-created rhetoric of the utopian power of digital technologies for changing teaching and learning. A survey and focus group interviews were administered to 6th and 7th students (n=1,544) in four public middle schools, with varying demographics, that rely on local funding. These four schools revealed moderate use of many well-established digital technologies, such as word processing, presentation software, and quiz games. Students voiced outright hatred for teacher-directed PowerPoint-supported lectures, the most prominent technology activity students experienced, yet reported enjoying creation activities. The students in the rural school with a Hispanic-majority and high economically disadvantaged population reported much lower technology use. Discussion frame the digital inequities in the four schools and emphasizes the need for awareness and inclusion of students’ digital experiences to form any trajectory toward establishing digital equity and learning in schools

Understanding the Importance and Impact of Technology in an Accounting Setting: Work Outcomes and Relationships with Clients

This study explores how technology positively or negatively impacts the accounting profession, and specifically, the impact on work outcomes (i.e. the effectiveness and efficiency of work) and relationships with clients. Three types of technology tools were featured in this study: Accounting and Analytics, Robotic Process Automation, and Communication Technology Tools and Platforms. Our research questions were (1) How much do technology tools improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the accountant? and (2) How much do technology tools affect the relationship with clients? After surveying professionals in the accounting field, we concluded that accountants believe that Communication softwares improve their efficiency and effectiveness the most, with Accounting and Analytics softwares just behind. We can also conclude that technology has a positive, or at the very least, neutral, effect on the relationship between professionals and their clients. Overall, it was found that in the accounting field, technology has a positive impact on work outcomes and relationships with clients

Social enterprises and NEETs: ethical and effective entrepreneurial skills programmes?

If young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) participate in Entrepreneurial Skills Programmes (ESPs), delivered by social enterprises, there is an ethical responsibility to measure the outcomes of these programmes. So called "hard‟ outcomes, such as new businesses created or jobs secured, are self evident but potential "soft‟ outcomes, such as attitude to enterprise or general self-efficacy, are less evident. This exploratory study aimed to develop evaluation techniques for the assessment of "soft‟ outcomes on participants after completing a six-week ESP delivered by a work-integration social enterprise (WISE

Making sense of assets: Community asset mapping and related approaches for cultivating capacities

This working paper critically reviews some main aspects from asset based approaches highlights key strengths and weaknesses for future research/development. Drawing on a large body of reports and relevant literature we draw on different theoretical traditions and critiques, as well as practices and processes embedded within a broad range of approaches including, widely acknowledged frameworks such Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Appreciative Inquiry (AI), Sustainable Livelihood Approaches (SLA) and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). Although these are presented as distinct approaches, there is a sense of evolution through them and many of them overlap (in terms of both theories and methodologies). We also include emerging frameworks, including geographical, socio-spatial, visual and creative approaches, stemming from a number of projects within AHRC’s Connected Communities programme and additional collaborations