What a difference peers can make: The impact of social (work) norms on unemployment duration

This article outlines a model of how social interactions among persons belonging to the same region might influence the individual unemployment duration. The impact is assumed to be enhanced through social work norms shared by peers within the group. Building on a range of German data sets and derived from multilevel analysis, the results show that social interactions in terms of social work norms, in conjunction with socio-demographic and regional characteristics, affect the individual unemployment duration. --regional social interactions,social work norms,group influence, regional unemployment,religious influences

General Considerations on Leadership in the Hospitality Industry. Conceptual Analysis and Practical Studies

Leadership in the hospitality industry is still an open research field especially in describing the effects of leadership style on hotel employees. The purpose of the paper is to present and analyze the following concepts: leadership and leadership style, hospitality industry; the practical aspects of leadership in the hospitality industry and to identify relevant studies regarding the importance of leadership styles applied in this industry. The research methodology consists of analyzing the foreign and Romanian specific literature regarding the hospitality industry and leadership, highlighting the current state of leadership in hospitality emphasizing both theoretical and practical studies. The results are focused on clarifying the current leadership concepts and practices in the hospitality industry by pointing out the best approaches.leadership and leadership style, management, hospitality, hotel industry, hospitality leadership, performance

The discourses of OERs: how flat is this world?

This paper proposes Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2000) as a tool for identifying the various discourses that can be found in the provision of open educational resources. The argument will be built upon the concept of a 'flat world', a powerful metaphor used by Friedman in his famous book 'The World is Flat' (2005). The discussion will draw upon concepts of critical discourse analysis to explore sample data from open educational resources (OERs) initiatives, and will investigate the degree to which such initiatives have a 'flattening' effect in terms of widening participation and empowering individuals through access to knowledge

Discussing international perspectives on Open Learning in Brazil: educational politics and pedagogical principles

This paper aims to present some of the new tendencies in Open Learning in the context of international online higher education. These tendencies work as a basis for a discussion of the role of e-learning in online higher education in Brazil. The use of open source technologies and the constant search for quality and innovative pedagogies in the teaching and learning process constitute a new trend in international distance education. The main concern nowadays seems to be with ‘quality’ and ‘widening participation’, which result in initiatives such as ‘Open Educational Resources’. In Brazil, the creation of the Brazilian Open University (UAB) would appear to be consistent with these tendencies. The challenge now is to be able to set up a system that attends to national needs while being open to international tendencies. This paper aims to explore some of these issues, and also to present the most recent freeware technologies used for the purpose of enhancing open learning initiatives

The role of mentoring in facilitating the process of repurposing OER

This paper presents the initial data analysis of a research that is work in progress. It discusses the role of mentoring and peer support in facilitating the process of repurposing open educational resources (OER). It also reports on the lessons so far learned from the analysis of two distinct but related case studies on working with learners to use and disseminate OER. The first case study is based on the 2009 presentation of the distance learning Masters’ course of the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University UK (from now on OU) entitled “Technology Enhanced Learning: Practices and Debates”. In this course the registered students were guided through the repurposing of content within the OER repository of the OU, OpenLearn, as part of their course activities. The aim was to provide the students with substantial information about and knowledge of finding, using and repurposing OER. The second case study relates to the activities of the online community COLEARN, an initiative of the Knowledge Media Institute of the OU which started in 2006. COLEARN is an online community hosted within the OpenLearn platform, bringing together researchers and practitioners from Brazil, Portugal and Spain mostly. The aim of COLEARN is to offer a community-supported environment in which research and ideas about the use of collaborative technologies for learning can be shared. All the activities in COLEARN are available to the world as OER, as well as all the resources shared the by participants. Mentoring in these two cases happen in different ways. In the first case we term it ‘formal mentoring’ because the mentoring is part of the course activities of registered students in the course. The students are guided step by step on how to find OER, assess its relevance and how to make use of web 2.0 technologies to modify the content to fit specific purposes. In particular, they are prompted to use an in situ editing tool offered by OpenLearn to modify and re-publish content. The mentoring in this case is offered through the task design of the course material and through the tutoring available. In the case of COLEARN, the mentoring process happens through peer and tutor support from the community to the community. This is why we term it ‘informal mentoring’, although at a times the user performing the mentor’s role is a tutor of another learning setting (e.g. a tutor associated with a higher education institution). By means of pre-booked learning sessions (e.g. brainstorming sessions based on a web-videoconference tool such as Flashmeeting ), workshops and discussion forums the participants of this community get substantial support and guidance on how to use OER and technologies that facilitate OER repurposing. By analysing the activities of the mentors and participants in the two case studies, we aim to explore how both forms of mentoring seem to address the needs of the practitioners/students in terms of learning how to work with OER

Research 2.0: How do we know about the users that do not tell us anything?

The OpenLearn initiative at the Open University offers free and open access to online material across a wide range of subjects. This material has been placed in on online environ- ment based on the Moodle learning environment together with additional tools for communicating with other users and creating knowledge maps. One of the design aims of the initiative was to be low barrier to access so all content is available without registration, though some tools and features will only work once registered. The result is that we are seeking to research a site that is publicly accessible and has a majority of users that do not iden- tify themselves, many of whom spend a short time on the site. As a further challenge the content itself is openly licensed using Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/) and can be taken and relocated on mirror servers, or accessed remotely through content feeds. The initiative has had to face this challenge and implemented a mixture of tracking, simplified surveys and the gathering of interesting stories. This approach has enabled us to spot interesting trends while remaining unsure about many of our users and their aims. The methods that we find we are using indicate a new style of research that can be related back to Web 2.0 as Research 2.0

Fence and plough for Lapwings: Nest protection to improve nest and chick survival in Swiss farmland

Switzerland had up to 1000 Lapwing pairs breeding in the 1970s. Actually, there are some 200. The crash was mainly due to a poor productivity of 0.2 to 0.4 fledglings per pair and year. To achieve a fledging rate of at least 0.8 required for population stability, a Recovery Programme was initiated to support a small population of 10-25 pairs breeding in central Switzerland. In 2004 to 2006 all nests were marked and spared during field labour by the farmers. As a result of a well established cooperation with the local farmers, not a single nest was destroyed by agricultural activities. However, there was a high risk of nest desertion when farming activities took place during the period of egg laying. Therefore, it might be worth to postpone field labour for some days to allow clutch completion. In 2005 and 2006, but not in 2004, most nests were protected from ground predators by surrounding entire fields rather than individual clutches with electro-fences as used in sheep farming. While 95 % of clutches within the fences hatched successfully, 61 % of unprotected nests were predated. In 2006 the influence of predation on chick survival was investigated by radio-tagging 81 chicks soon after hatching. They had no difficulties to cross the electro-fences. Predation occurred mostly at night (73 %) and outside the fences (87 %). Of 46 chicks predated at night only one was taken inside an electro-fence. Daytime predation played a minor role (27 % of all chick predations) and occurred at the same rate inside and outside the electro-fence. Reproductive success in 2005 was an estimated 0.8 fledging young per pair and year. In 2006, however, it dropped to 0.25 due to heavy chick predation.In den 1970er Jahren umfasste der Brutbestand des Kiebitzes in der Schweiz ca. 1000 Paare. Heute sind es schätzungsweise nur noch ca. 200. Für diesen dramatischen Rückgang dürfte in erster Linie der viel zu geringe Reproduktionserfolg verantwortlich sein (0.2-0.4 flügge Junge pro Brutpaar und Jahr). Um den Bruterfolg auf ein populationserhaltendes Mass von ca. 0.8 Jungen pro Paar zu steigern, wurde bei einem Restbestand in der Zentralschweiz (10-25 Paare) ein Artenförderungsprogramm in Angriff genommen. In den Jahren 2004-2006 wurden alle Kiebitzgelege markiert und auf diese Weise von der Feldbearbeitung ausgespart. Dank der ausgezeichneten Zusammenarbeit mit den örtlichen Landwirten ging in dieser Zeit kein Kiebitzgelege bei landwirtschaftlichen Feldarbeiten verloren. Wenn allerdings die Bodenbearbeitung während der Gelegeproduktion erfolgte, wurden verhältnismässig viele Bruten aufgegeben. Hier kann es ratsam sein, die landwirtschaftliche Bearbeitung hinauszuzögern bis die Vögel mit dem Bebrüten des Vollgeleges begonnen haben. 2005 und 2006, nicht aber 2004, wurden Kiebitzgelege zusätzlich mit einem Elektrozaun, wie er bei Schafhaltern üblich ist, gegen Raubsäuger gesichert. Eingezäunt wurden in der Regel ganze Felder. In den so gesicherten Kulturen schlüpften 95 % der Gelege, in den nicht eingezäunten nur 39 %. 2006 wurden 81 Kiebitzküken besendert, um deren Überlebensraten und den Einfluss der Prädation zu untersuchen. Die Küken konnten den Elektrozaun ohne weiteres passieren (bodennahe Maschen 10x15 cm). Kükenverluste durch Prädation ereigneten sich überwiegend nachts (73 % aller Verluste) und außerhalb der Elektrozäune (87 % aller Verluste). Von 46 in der Nacht prädierten Küken stammte nur eines aus einer Elektro-Umzäunung. Kükenverluste, die durch tagaktive Prädatoren verursacht wurden, spielten eine untergeordnete Rolle (27 % aller Verluste). Sie traten innerhalb und außerhalb der Elektroumzäunungen in gleichem Umfang auf. Der Bruterfolg des Kiebitzes lag in 2005 bei einem bestandserhaltenden Wert von 0.8 Küken pro Paar. In 2006 führten hohe, prädationsbedingte Kükenverluste zu einem Bruterfolg von lediglich 0.25 Küken pro Paar

Behind the Scenes with OpenLearn: the Challenges of Researching the Provision of Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are defined as technology-enabled educational resources that are openly available for consultation, use and adaptation by users for non-commercial purposes (UNESCO, 2002). OpenLearn is one of the largest of such initiatives and is committed to the provision of open educational resources for all. It is being developed by The Open University and is primarily sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It provides users with over 4 200 hours of higher educational material drawn from Open University courses. Other learning tools such as discussion forums, video conferencing, and knowledge mapping software are also available to the user. In this paper we introduce OpenLearn and outline some of the main research issues surrounding such an initiative. We seek to explore theoretical and practical approaches that can provide suitable tools for analysis. Activity theory is seen as a suitable approach for macro analysis and its use is illustrated in terms of the complexity of large scale research. Activity theory, besides informing research perspectives, can be turned in upon the research process itself allowing us to consider the challenges and context of the research. By using activity theory in this way and illustrating from a range of practical approaches we demonstrate and illustrate a useful research approach

On the globalization of stock markets: An application of Vector Error Correction Model, Mutual Information and Singular Spectrum Analysis to the G7 countries

This paper analyzes stock market relationships among the G7 countries between 1973 and 2009 using three different approaches: (i) a linear approach based on cointegration, Vector Error Correction (VECM) and Granger Causality; (ii) a nonlinear approach based on Mutual Information and the Global Correlation Coefficient; and (iii) a nonlinear approach based on Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA). While the cointegration tests are based on regression models and capture linearities in the data, Mutual Information and Singular Spectrum Analysis capture nonlinear relationships in a non-parametric way. The framework of this paper is based on the notion of market integration and uses stock market correlations and linkages both in price levels and returns. The main results show that significant co-movements occur among most of the G7 countries over the period analyzed and that Mutual Information and the Global Correlation Coefficient actually seem to provide more information about the market relationships than the Vector Error Correction Model and Granger Causality. However, unlike the latter, the direction of causality is difficult to distinguish in Mutual Information and the Global Correlation Coefficient. In this respect, the nonlinear Singular Spectrum Analysis technique displays several advantages, since it enabled us to capture nonlinear causality in both directions, while Granger Causality only captures causality in a linear way. The results also show that stock markets are closely linked both in terms of price levels and returns (as well as lagged returns) over the 36 years analyzed

Open educational resources - new directions for technology-enhanced distance learning in the third millennium

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are an innovation giving new opportunities for learning and distance education. OERs are typically provided as courses but also include smaller units of learning and their components of audio, text or image files made available on the internet free of charge; usually under a Creative Commons License (Creative Commons, 2007). This license takes the approach of 'some rights reserved' for the materials replacing the 'all rights reserved' attitude of standard copyright (Lessig, 2004). Distance education based in OERs removes limits and offers the possibility of widening participation in education. This can include hard-to-reach groups which have little or no access to education or, for example small businesses and individuals who feel they could benefit from professional development and access to current knowledge about a topic of interest. The release of OERs can be a 'public good' for educational inclusion purposes, but they also could mark the first steps towards a revolution on the way people learn. So far, access to knowledge as taught at university level has been restricted to academic institutions. These institutions not only 'create the knowledge' but also have regulated the ways in which it can be accessed. A pattern is in place of establishing course registration procedures, charging fees, conferring grants, assessing performance and awarding degrees, These mechanisms form part of a traditional system of education that can be found all over the world