Bespoke Mobile Application Development: Facilitating Transition of Foundation Students to Higher Education

Smartphone usage by students has increased rapidly over the last number of years, and it is expected that the utilisation of mobile applications in educational environments will continue to increase. This chapter focuses on a bespoke mobile application which aims to facilitate the transition of Foundation students to Higher Education in an Irish setting. Foundation students comprise of Access and International Students participating on pre-degree foundation courses. These students experience a major life change in making this transition and it is important that efforts are made to ensure a successful adjustment experience. Research suggests that mobile technologies can play a central role in this endeavour by offering support and access to particular information needs. This chapter will detail the design and development of a bespoke mobile application with such a purpose in mind and will also describe how the app was field tested with a cohort of incoming Foundation students in an Irish third level institute

Landscapes of Heathrow : the aircraft landing gear compartment and the politics of global transfer

This paper, an output of an art research project, explores the agency of the aircraft landing gear compartment in global transfer. Through the prism of historical events involving aircraft preparing to land at London Heathrow, it reflects on the part played by the compartment in ecological and humanitarian struggle. Its theoretical frameworks include John Ruskin’s writing on geology, new materialism, and the planetary garden. These are brought into proximity with methodologies and collaborations developed through practice-based elements of the research, such as architectural modelling, geoforensic science and exhibition making. It incorporates an account of the process of reconstructing a compartment, as well as extracts from a microstratigraphic survey commissioned as part of the project. It examines the landing gear compartment’s capacity as a vessel in which dust, seeds, insects, pollen and even people are transported around the globe. It explores, too, its role as expository instrument, as far as it makes available for inspection the politics inscribed into its formal, spatial and temporal configuration. The paper argues that the wheel bay gives shape to a set of otherwise intangible aeromobilities, knowledge of which is integral to a nuanced understanding of the political geography of London Heathrow

Telecommuting and the Management of the Human Moment

Telecommuting is a tool that is becoming more and more a way a life for organizations as they strive to recruit and retain employees and assist them in improving their quality of life. The recurring themes tended to be the need to select the proper employee, training managers to manage remote employees, strong communication (formal/informal) strategies, clear expectations and proactive stance in deterring isolation. Telecommuting is not for everyone or every organization. Extreme care must be taken in preparation; development, implementation and ongoing evaluation must take place to ensure that it is not only a good fit for the employee but also for the organization. Safeguards must be in place to promote the human moment at work that may be lost when there is lack of face-to-face contact with fellow workers. Efforts should be made by management to promote professional development via regularly scheduled meetings with fellow workers, management, and customers. © 2008, IGI Global

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