Rethinking Consumerism, Innovation and Tourism Sustainability in a Post-Viral World: An Exploratory Study of PIRT Usage in Niagara's Geoparks

Tourism resilience in the face of a prevailing pandemic and accompanying global uncertainties remains a concern to many stakeholders. A key area of interest for the industry regards the pandemic's potential to influence change in people's consumption patterns, possibly toward more sustainable, ethical, safe and technologically mediated forms of tourism. Such pandemic-induced attitudinal changes can, in turn, affect how tourism will be consumed in future. These changes may further translate into the need for new exchange relationships, tourism experiences, resources, and innovations to aid interactions between service providers (tour guides), tourists and destinations. With the advent of technology-driven solutions for normalization during the pandemic, some studies have predicted shifts from traditional long-haul travels to virtual tourism as they are considered to be a safer, accessible, and ecologically friendly form of tourism. This exploratory research, therefore, sought to unearth the influence of Covid-19 on Millennial students' preferences for virtual tours in the aftermath of the pandemic. The objectives were to identify factors that can influence intentions for change in people's tourism preferences based on their experience of the pandemic, to explore tourist perceptions about the potential of virtual tour innovations like PIRTs to meet their future preferences, and to investigate how this connection can translate into prospective models in Niagara's geopark tourism sector. Quantitative data was collected from 117 sampled students in the Brock University community through an online questionnaire. The findings revealed that financial, experiential, and ecological concerns are significant factors which will possibly influence Millennials' travel patterns and their inclination to use PIRTS in the post-Covid era. Based on these findings, suggestions are made on how smart tourism innovations such as PIRTs can be harnessed as resilient alternatives to conventional tourism in Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Global Geopark (NPAGG) destinations to promote socio-ecological wellbeing in the region

Virtual Reality: Prospective Catalyst for Restorative Justice

A 2018 U.S. Department of Justice report assessing data from thirty states found that eighty-three percent of those individuals released from state prisons in 2005 were rearrested within nine years.** When a revolving door ushers five of six individuals back into custody and decimates communities, more effective approaches to criminal justice demand attention. In countries around the world, restorative justice has been emerging as a promising candidate. It generally involves an interactive process in which stakeholders identify and grapple with harms caused by the crime. But many environments lack the resources to invoke its benefits. While restorative justice takes various forms, the crux of each variant involves perspective taking-seeing the harm and its consequences through the eyes of those who experienced it. Cognitive science research suggests that the emerging technology of virtual reality affords an innovative and often especially compelling approach to perspective taking. Embodying an avatar through virtual reality unlocks the opportunity to experience the world as another. Avatars could make virtual perspective-taking encounters a valuable introduction for subsequent in-person encounters or offer a perspective-taking opportunity when inperson encounters are not practical or prudent. This Article explores how virtual reality could become a catalyst for restorative justice

An Evaluation of Tertiary Educators’ Perception of Online Teaching Related Ergonomic Factors

The Aim of this research was to identify and assess ergonomic factors that affected educators in minerals, mining engineering and other educators’ experience with online teaching. Noise, insufficient time to complete all teaching related work, and lack of interaction with students were the main barriers identified. There was minimal difference in factors between minerals, mining engineering, and other educators’ experiences. Having good physical, organisational, cognitive, social, and environmental ergonomic factors facilitated online educators’ work

Teaming at a Distance: The Work Experience on Global Virtual Teams

Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) enable organizations to become more flexible, and to adapt and react to turbulent, complex and dynamic environments. These teams span boundaries such as space, time, and geography, working collaboratively to achieve a shared purpose. Due to their reliance on technology for communication, knowledge sharing, and project management, structural and nonstructural components of their design must exist to enable these teams to exist and flourish at the edge of innovation. The human experience of working in virtual teams remains insufficiently observed, yet crucial to their sustainability. This dissertation study employed an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to provide insights into the experience of working as a member or leader on a GVT. In phase one, a theoretical framework was developed to identify themes and sub-themes that emerged from 21 interviews with GVT practitioners from seven nations and multiple time zones across many sectors. The data revealed that experiences of working on a GVT are best expressed by four major themes: team design (both structural and nonstructural) components, cross-cultural communication, human dynamics, and technology. One meta-theme emerged, adaptability, which is well supported by the chosen guiding theoretical framework, adaptive structuration theory (AST), as well as extant research. The results of phase one informed development of a survey instrument; a pilot test of this instrument showed promise for future validation of a scale that accurately depicts the experiences of working on a GVT. The current findings support practical applications toward better understanding team functioning, essential human needs, and best practices for team awareness and functioning. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

The Short-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Labour Market Outcomes: Comparative Systematic Evidence

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Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

Surviving or Thriving? A Phenomenological Study of the Well-Being of Experienced Special Education Teachers

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the well-being of experienced special education teachers (SETs) in southeastern, Virginia. Experienced SETs’ well-being is a relevant issue based upon the role-related stressors SETs grapple with daily. These stressors influence SETs’ attrition and the SET shortages which have impacted much of the United States. The theory guiding this study was the well-being theory introduced by Martin Seligman in 2011. This theory indicates that there are five elements of well-being that are required to flourish. These elements are positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. The central research question for this study aimed at how experienced special education teachers described their well-being. In this study, experienced SETs were defined as having at least four years of teaching experience. Convenience, purposeful, and snowball sampling were used to gather twelve participants. In seeking to answer the central research question, the five elements of well-being were explored through a variety of data collection methods, to include: semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and individual audio diaries. Using traditional transcendental phenomenological data analysis, the data were analyzed thematically and five themes were revealed. The five themes revealed were: students at the heart of practice, artful instruction, integral relationships, proactive footholds for tomorrow, and inescapable barriers. Efforts were made to enhance trustworthiness and to ensure ethical research practices. Through a discussion of the results, and the study’s limitations and delimitations, there were remaining practical, theoretical, and empirical implications, each underscoring the criticality of teacher well-being

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3