Contextual Framework of Communications Functions Supporting Complex System Governance

The purpose of this research was to develop a systems theory-based contextual framework of communication functions supporting complex system governance using an inductive research design. Communication, as one aspect of Management Cybernetics (communication and control for effective system organization) constructed of channels of communication, provides for the movement of information internally and externally for a system. This flow reflecting new information, decisions, questions, and intelligence is critical for viability of a system. This research looked for communication mechanisms as developed in system theory, communication theory, management theory, and organizational theory. The literature indicates the importance of communications, but a systemic perspective of communication mechanisms and an effect on the viability of a system are not described. This gap in knowledge was addressed by this research. Specifically, the research looked at the description and system functions serviced by the development of content that flows through the channels of communication. The extensive use of grounded theory method enabled a rigorous inductive analysis of literature dealing with channels of communication. The research produced a construct of communication mechanisms that consists of an integrated grouping of the concepts; Direction, Mode, Product, and Technology (Conveyance). A communication design when developed and/or maintained suggests the communication mechanisms are subject to underlying influences; Identity (motive/intent), Variety Attenuation, Variety Amplification, and Transduction that must be recognized with respect to how Channels of Communication support the viability of the system of interest. While system emergence was not directly related to the Communication Mechanism, the role of Channels of Communication in system emergence is evident as the conduit for the emergence process. Identification of the communication functions means that communication mechanisms, beyond the identification provided by Beer (1979) and Shannon (1948) can be described based in systems theory, communication theory, management theory, knowledge management, and organizational theory. From this construct, a face validation in the form of a survey was conducted. The content of the questionnaire was aligned to the communication mechanisms with the intent to support triangulation. There was peer validation of the questions to the subject of communication, for ease of use and exclusion of private personal information. This was followed by a test run of the survey. The actual accomplishment of the survey was through a web service. This research provides a theoretical construct of communication mechanisms when viewing a system of interest to determining the state of the system channels of communication

“Visitor to All, Native to None”: How Digital-Native Teacher Education Students Use Bricolage and Multiple Modalities to Construct Knowledge

The focus of this hermeneutic phenomenological study is the current generation of “digital native” or “millennial” pre-service teachers and how, in their dual roles as last-semester students and future teachers, they adopt and use multiple modes to construct knowledge. The study is concerned with the lived experiences of the participants and the multiple “texts” they create. The researcher uses the multimodal concept of bricolage as a frame for describing and analyzing how pre-service teacher education students engage multiple learning modes. Using data collected from an original survey (Multimodal Knowledge Construction Survey), student-participant interviews, teaching methods faculty interviews, and classroom observations, the author provides extensive description, analysis and discussion of how these “digital native” pre-service educators construct, synthesize and interpret meanings through multiple modes. As technologies and media forms proliferate, these simultaneous student-teachers must be aware of and actively reflect upon how different modalities contribute to and shape their own learning experiences as well as the learning experiences of their future students. The researcher calls this process “modal and textual awareness,” or MTA. The conceptual framework and guiding research questions are based on the multimodal studies of Gunther Kress, the pioneering work of the New London Group, Gardner’s multiple intelligences, Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning, and media forms. The two major themes of the study are students’ modal and textual awareness and an inherent, shared tension between structure & guidance and creativity & choice. The three major implications of the study address critical media literacy, assessment, and 21st century learning skills

Coming of age: a review of embodiment and the neuroscience of semantics

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing body of work that explores whether sensory and motor information is a necessary part of semantic representation and processing. This is the embodiment hypothesis. This paper presents a theoretical review of this work that is intended to be useful for researchers in the neurosciences and neuropsychology. Beginning with a historical perspective, relevant theories are placed on a continuum from strongly embodied to completely unembodied representations. Predictions are derived and neuroscientific and neuropsychological evidence that could support different theories is reviewed; finally, criticisms of embodiment are discussed. We conclude that strongly embodied and completely disembodied theories are not supported, and that the remaining theories agree that semantic representation involves some form of Convergence Zones (Damasio, 1989) and the activation of modal content. For the future, research must carefully define the boundaries of semantic processing and tackle the representation of abstract entities

Social Networking Systems as a Vehicle to Promote Sense of Community and Performance in Online Classes

Academicians are navigating through the intersection of information technology and social change. The path that educators choose will help determine the future of higher education in traditional and online settings. The journey of teachers is clouded by the abundance and rapid creation of emerging technologies, but the trends of Net Generation students offer direction. Among Web 2.0 applications, social networking systems (SNSs) offer students a new approach to communicating, learning, and collaborating. The sociocentric view of knowledge and learning and the theories of Vygotsky and Dewey are helping to drive educators to look for a solution to a missing link in the current e-learning ecosystem, which many identify to be community. This study sought to identify whether SNSs promote sense of community, connecting, learning, and performing better than learning management systems (LMSs) in community college elearning classrooms. Chaos theory was used as a metaphor to identify variables. The results indicated that students in the SNS environment performed significantly better than students in the LMS environment by almost an entire letter grade. SNS students made dramatic gains toward achieving the performance level of face-to-face students. The findings revealed that females gained more than males over time in e-learning for sense of community, connecting, and learning. SNS students did not outperform LMS students on sense of community, connecting, or learning. The results could offer educators direction in the pursuit of a healthy e-learning ecosystem that is flexible and adaptive. The findings are applicable to scholars, teachers, administrators, and policy makers

Occupational therapy practice used for children diagnosed with a dual diagnosis of cerebral palsy and visual impairment in South Africa

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Occupational Therapy Johannesburg, 2016Occupational therapy aims to assist children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) to achieve independence in their occupational performance areas. Treatment includes the use of sensory stimulation but when a child’s vision is impaired the use of visual stimulation becomes difficult. Research guiding occupational therapists on how to combine treatment methods successfully when treating children with CP with a co-morbid diagnosis of visual impairment is limited(15)(16). This study aims to determine the occupational therapy practice used, including the therapists’ knowledge; skill and perceived confidence, for children with a dual diagnosis of CP and visual impairment in South Africa. It uses a descriptive, non-experimental, cross-sectional framework within a quantitative research approach. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. This study finds uniformity in the approaches occupational therapists use when managing these children, but these approaches are not always based on best practice. Therapists use clinical expertise and integrate evidence based practice rather than the other way around. This study demonstrates a need for clear protocols on how to manage these children and more accessible postgraduate training in the management of them.MT201

The Force of Digital Aesthetics. On Memes, Hacking, and Individuation

The paper explores memes, digital artefacts that acquire a viral character and become globally popular, as an aesthetic trend that not only entices but propels and molds subjective, collective and political becoming. Following both Simondon and Bakhtin, memes are first considered as aesthetic objects that mediate individuation. Here, resonance between psychic, collective and technical individuation is established and re-enacted through the aesthetic consummation of self, the collective and the technical in the various performances of meme cultures. Secondly, if memes are followed in the making, from birth to their spill-over onto wider social networks, the very expressive form of meme turns out to be borne by specific technical architecture and mannerisms of a small number of platforms, and, most notably, the image board 4chan. The source of memes’ various forms of power is concentrated here. Memes are intimately linked to 4chan’s /b/ board, the birthplace of Lulzsec and the Anonymous hacking networks. Memes’ architectonics, as an inheritance of a few specific human-technical structures, in turn informs the production of new platforms (memes generators), forms of networke