Objects, subjects, bits and bytes: learning from the digital collections of the National Museums

This paper is concerned with online museum education, exploring the themes of user-centredness, digitization, authority and control. Taking as its starting point the shift of focus in museum policy from the collection to the user-learner, it suggests that this movement from object to subject – this ‘de-centring’ of the cultural institution – is further complicated by a fundamental change in the nature of the object, as a result of digitization programmes which transform material, ‘possessible’ artefacts into volatile amalgams of bits and bytes. The ability of users to take, manipulate, re-distribute and re-describe digital objects is, we suggest, a primary source of their educational value. It is also, however, a source of difficulty for institutions as they come to terms with the changing patterns of ownership, participation and knowledge production we are experiencing as we move further into the digital age

Ethnography and Analysis of the Effects of Racism and Creating a Black Family Tree

This research looks at the effects slavery and racism has had on the ability to make an accurate family tree. This research is spurred by both the desire to document my family and by the unfortunate events of the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre on June 17th, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. Using archival research, interviews, and family documents to build an accurate family tree, this research looks at the ways in which systematic oppression has played a generational role in my family. By looking at my own family for this research, I look at the stigmas, behavioral, regional, and generational differences that affect my family and relate to a larger Black community. The photographs taken as part of this project are from the series In These Clasped Hands

“Give me your Tired, your Poor,” so I can Prosper: Immigration in Search Equilibrium

We analyze the impact of immigration on the host country within a search and matching model that allows for skill heterogeneity, endogenous skill acquisition, differential search cost between immigrants and natives, capital-skill complementarity and different degree of substitutability between unskilled natives and immigrants. Within such a framework, we find that although immigration raises the overall welfare, it may have distributional effects. Specifically, skilled workers gain in terms of both employment and wages. Unskilled workers, on the other hand, gain in terms of employment but may lose in terms of wages. Nevertheless, in one version of the model, where unskilled workers and immigrants are imperfect substitutes, we find that even the unskilled wage may rise. These results accommodate conflicting empirical findings.Search, Unemployment, Immigration, Skill-heterogeneity

Integrating Google Apps and Google Chromebooks Into the Core Curriculum: A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experience of Public School Teachers

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of public school teachers using Google Suite for Education with Google Chromebooks integrated into the core curriculum. With the adoption of Common Core standards by 46 states, the increased use of technology has occurred due to standards that integrate technology. Google has created a free cloud-based educational suite for K-12 and Higher education institutions. The central research question that guided the study was: How do grade 4-8 public school core content teachers perceive the experience of using Google Suite for Education with Chromebooks in the classroom? The theory that guided the study was Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986). The theory places an emphasis on three main factors influencing how one learns from personal, social, and environmental. Self-efficacy as part of the learning theory plays an important role in discovering teacher willingness to integrate technology in the classroom. The participants were 13 grade 4-8 public school core content teachers. Data collection included individual interviews, focus group interviews, and online journals. A questionnaire was used to purposefully select participants. Semi structured interviews and focus group interviews were recorded and transcribed as well as online journals analyzed through significant statements resulting in the following four major themes: teacher attitudes and instruction, Chromebook accessibility and connectivity, student learning, and inconsistent training and support. The results identified the essence of the shared experience of the study participants

Integrated technology rotor/flight research rotor concept definition study

As part of the Integrated Technology Rotor/Flight Research Rotor (ITR/FRR) Program a number of advanced rotor system designs were conceived and investigated. From these, several were chosen that best meet the started ITR goals with emphasis on stability, reduced weight and hub drag, simplicity, low head moment stiffness, and adequate strength and fatigue life. It was concluded that obtaining low hub moment stiffness was difficult when only the blade flexibility of bearingless rotor blades is considered, unacceptably low fatigue life being the primary problem. Achieving a moderate hub moment stiffness somewhat higher than state of the art articulated rotors in production today is possible within the fatigue life constraint. Alternatively, low stiffness is possible when additional rotor elements, besides the blades themselves, provide part of the rotor flexibility. Two primary designs evolved as best meeting the general ITR requirements that presently exist. An I shaped flexbeam with an external torque tube can satisfy the general goals but would have either higher stiffness or reduced fatigue life. The elastic gimbal rotor can achieve a better combination of low stiffness and high fatigue life but would be a somewhat heavier design and possibly exhibit a higher risk of aeromechanical instability

P/2010A2 LINEAR - I: An impact in the Asteroid Main Belt

Comet P/2010A2 LINEAR is a good candidate for membership with the Main Belt Comet family. It was observed with several telescopes (ESO NTT, La Silla; Gemini North, Mauna Kea; UH 2.2m, Mauna Kea) from 14 Jan. until 19 Feb. 2010 in order to characterize and monitor it and its very unusual dust tail, which appears almost fully detached from the nucleus; the head of the tail includes two narrow arcs forming a cross. The immediate surroundings of the nucleus were found dust-free, which allowed an estimate of the nucleus radius of 80-90m. A model of the thermal evolution indicates that such a small nucleus could not maintain any ice content for more than a few million years on its current orbit, ruling out ice sublimation dust ejection mechanism. Rotational spin-up and electrostatic dust levitations were also rejected, leaving an impact with a smaller body as the favoured hypothesis, and ruling out the cometary nature of the object. The impact is further supported by the analysis of the tail structure. Finston-Probstein dynamical dust modelling indicates the tail was produced by a single burst of dust emission. More advanced models, independently indicate that this burst populated a hollow cone with a half-opening angle alpha~40degr and with an ejection velocity v_max ~ 0.2m/s, where the small dust grains fill the observed tail, while the arcs are foreshortened sections of the burst cone. The dust grains in the tail are measured to have radii between a=1-20mm, with a differential size distribution proportional to a^(-3.44 +/- 0.08). The dust contained in the tail is estimated to at least 8x10^8kg, which would form a sphere of 40m radius. Analysing these results in the framework of crater physics, we conclude that a gravity-controlled crater would have grown up to ~100m radius, i.e. comparable to the size of the body. The non-disruption of the body suggest this was an oblique impact.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, in pres

Imaginary friends, stalking, and curating the Web: An ESL student\u27s use of social media

Social media is a phenomenon that has only emerged in the last few years, but has quickly become one of the principal venues for communication between individuals. Because of recent technological developments in mobile technologies, individuals can now connect with their social network anywhere and anytime. Participation in networked online communities has been so pervasive that it has started to influence many of the ways in which individuals understand themselves and the world, communicate with each other, and engage in practices such as literacy and media consumption (Thorne & Black, 2008). One of the consequences of this qualitative shift is the development of cultures-of- use that shape the ways in which learners participate in computer-mediated interaction and literacy consumption (Thorne, 2003) and that are often inconsistent with institutionally promoted practices. This mismatch could lead to a diminished effectiveness of traditional computer-mediated pedagogical practices; on the other hand, an increased awareness of existing computer-mediated practices could foster the development of pedagogies that are more effective for language learning. This study aims to describe the social media habits of an English as a Second Language (ESL) student enrolled in an American university by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. Results show that this student used social networks to cultivate meaningful relationships, to project a true identity to the external world, and to learn about her host culture, and that these practices were carried out with an awareness of her purposes and of each tool\u27s culture-of-use (Thorne, 2003)