Jack's story: A need to know

This article examines a recent case study exploring evidence that children in early childhood services can use ICT to direct their own inquiry learning. A qualitative case study involving an interview and the learning story tool of assessment was conducted to describe the experience of one child and his teacher. They engaged in sustained shared thinking using ICT as a tool to facilitate inquiry in an early childhood setting. The findings indicate that children in early childhood settings can use ICT to direct their own inquiry learning. Two key factors are identified that enable this. These factors are the child as an active learner, and a supportive well resourced learning environment. In this article we argue that these factors need to be acknowledged in teaching practice if ICT is to be used in meaningful and purposeful ways

Podcasts as a conversational pedagogy

The use of technology such as podcasts, social networking sites, wikis, and Google docs for communicating information which supports teaching and learning in tertiary institutions is well documented (Bates, 2005). These tools have been shown to enhance traditional lectures and tutorials (Salmon, 2007). Little attention, however, has been given to the use of conversational approaches when using these tools and their potential in developing alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching. This article examines the use of a conversational style podcast in an online pre-service early childhood teacher education programme. The podcasts were initially used to disseminate information and respond to the students’ needs, however, their conversational use revealed a number of unexpected outcomes. Analysis of the podcast conversations that occurred between the two lecturers, and the student feedback to these, were used to identify unexpected outcomes for students enrolled in the programme. These included the ‘humanising’ of the e-learning environment and the sense of community that emerged. This paper argues that the affordance of conversational podcasts personalises the e-learning environment, enhances students’ and lecturers’ motivation, and engenders a greater connectedness with the university context

Archard, S., & Archard, S. (2016). Jessica connects: A case study focussing on one child’s use of information and communication technology (ICT) in an early childhood education setting. In V. Sharma & A. Brink (Eds.), Childhood Through The Looking Glass (pp. 129–139). Oxford, United Kingdom: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is regarded as playing an ever increasing role in the lives of people which includes young children; The role of ICT in early childhood educational services in Aotearoa New Zealand is still being argued despite curriculum and assessment expectations that endorse and support its integration into practice. This presentation draws upon a small, qualitative case study involving young children and their uses of ICT in one early childhood education setting in Aotearoa New Zealand. We use a socio-cultural perspective to recognise and examine the notion of children’s understanding and practices of ICT. In this presentation we focus on Jessica, aged 4 years old, and the ways she uses ICT in her life as tool to document and share her learning and interests. These uses also reflect Jessica as a competent and confident learner using ICT as a cultural tool to mediate her learning in her home and early childhood education setting. We examine how such ICT practices can contribute and fulfil curriculum and assessment intentions. This can support and endorse the competent, confident learner that reflects the curriculum principle of Empowerment. This presentation supports the view that ICT can be used to enhance the empowerment of the learner. We conclude that the early childhood curriculum and assessment practices justify the place of ICT in early childhood settings as a learning and teaching tool. We also argue that teachers have a role in responding to the needs of the 21st century learner to direct their own learning and that this can be guided by the curriculum aspirations in the principle of Empowerment

The role of arginine in the replication of vaccinia virus

Imperial Users onl

Mapping rail wear regimes and transitions

This paper outlines work carried out to produce maps of rail material wear coefficients taken from laboratory tests run on twin disc and pin-on-disc machines as well as those derived from measurements taken in the field. Wear regimes and transitions are identified using the maps and defined in terms of slip and contact pressure. Wear regimes are related to expected wheel/rail contact conditions and contact points (rail head/wheel tread and rail gauge/wheel flange). Surface morphologies are discussed and comparisons are made between field and laboratory data

Hydrodynamics and Metzner-Otto correlation in stirred vessels for yield stress fluids

This paper investigates the hydrodynamics and power consumption in laminar stirred vessel flowusing numerical computation. The Metzner–Otto correlation was established for mixing in power-law fluids. This paper focuses on its application to yield stress fluids. Distributions of shear rates and their link to power consumption for helical and anchor agitators are discussed. Insight is sought from the analytical formula for Taylor–Couette flows. Laws are established for Bingham, Herschel-Bulkley and Casson fluids and reveal similar results. Fully or partially sheared flow situations with plug regions are considered. Depending on the fluid model, the concept is valid or constitutes a satisfactory approximation for fully sheared flows. When the flow is partially sheared, the expression depends on the Bingham number and the concept must be adapted. The results of the numerical simulations are interpreted in the light of this analysis and results from the literature

Democracy and Information, Communication Technology: A pedagogical Relationship

Democracy and the identification and application of democratic practices using ICT is important to declare and share. • Such democratic features further clarify ICT and its position in ECE and further legitimises its place. It adds to the defining of a pedagogy and practices that will inform, reassure and maximise purposeful uses of ICT by children and teachers. • These features of our teaching pedagogy and practices are powerful. • It is something that is enshrined in our curriculum . It enables us to define our identities as teachers, our children as learners and includes family/whaanau and community. It also affirms our contributions as a sector to a democratic and fair society. It is something we teach in the here and now with children, whatever their age

In-situ and ex-situ rheometry of high density Yarrowia lipolytica broth: determination of critical concentration and impact of yeastmycelial transition

The specificity of microbial bioreactions which give rise to irreducible couplings with hydrodynamics and heat and mass transfers, led into complex (three phases medium) and dynamic (auto-biocatalytic reaction) systems. Cells (concentration, shape, dimension, physiology…) strongly affect physico-chemical properties of broth and the modification of these characteristics interacts with bioprocess performances (specific rates, yields…) with an improvement or, more generally, a decrease of yields

Aggregation of silica nanoparticles in concentrated suspensions under turbulent, shear and extensional flows.

The production of nanoparticles in concentrated suspensions requires strict control of the stability of the systems which are strongly influenced by the physico-chemical properties and the hydrodynamic conditions they are placed in. This study deals with the analysis of the aggregation processes of a colloidal silica suspension destabilized by addition of salt under different flows: a turbulent flow performed in a stirred tank, a pure shear flow created thanks to a Couette geometry and an extensional flow obtained in a four-roll mill (Taylor cell). During the aggregation process, the silica suspensions behave as shear-thinning fluids and the variation of their apparent viscosity can be related to the evolution of the size distribution of the aggregates in the suspension. Pure shear and turbulent flows at an equivalent strain rate exhibit almost the same behaviour. The viscosity and the aggregate size decrease with the shear rate. On the contrary, the apparent viscosity and the aggregate size distributions were not very sensitive to a change of an extensional constraint within the considered range. Indeed, although aggregates obtained in the Taylor cell were bigger than in the Couette cell, the apparent viscosity was higher in the latter case. Different aggregate structures, characterized by their fractal dimension, were finally predicted depending on the hydrodynamic nature of the main flow under which they were produced

Democracy and information communication technology (ICT): A pedagogical relationship

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is acknowledged as being a significant part of many people's lives, including young children. Educational research suggests that the very nature of ICT, with its ever growing range of equipment and programs and increasingly interactive features, requires relational and collaborative pedagogical practices to accompany it. This aligns with evaluations of ICT use in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education, that identify the need for more thoughtful and purposeful ICT pedagogy. This paper draws on findings from a small case study which examined, through a democratic lens, the relationship between ICT and teaching and learning. It argues that notions of democracy can add to an effective Pedagogy of ICT in early childhood education