Contemporary Cypriot video art: an investigation of artistic practice and its educational implications for the visual arts curriculum

This qualitative project concentrates on the creative research processes of contemporary Cypriot video artists and on their interrelation with the field of visual arts education, examined through the triple role of artist/researcher/teacher. The project contains evidence of the achievement of a tangible research product in the form of an Educational Guide, accompanied by a DVD collection as a creative outcome that presents, in 10 DVDs, the video profiles of 10 local artists with a selection of their video artwork. The project adopts a pluralistic research methodology, and identifies and presents multiple results that are extracted from the artists’ case studies, together with a self-study concerning artistic research approaches to video art-making. The results are transformed through a hermeneutical and semiotic approach into educational suggestions for the employment of video art as an art form, and video as a medium into the visual arts educational context. The body of knowledge presented contributes to three major areas: the documentation and accessibility of the artistic practices of contemporary living Cypriot artists, the understanding of their artistic research processes, and the attribution of pedagogical value to video art’s content and context through the creation of educational materials that consider the availability of the artists’ video works. The outcome of the project is intended for general and visual arts educators, artists, art historians and gallery and museum professionals who wish to study the insights of video art in Cyprus through an audio-visual presentation. The overall contribution of the project to professional practice is summarised in the bridging of the gap between the sister fields of visual arts and contemporary visual arts education, by transforming everyday artistic practice in appropriate material for pedagogical contexts

Enrolment or a Job? The Dilemma of Economic Crisis Among Young People: “A Case study of First Year Students in Higher Education Institutions and New Employees in the Labor Market in Cyprus, before and after the Financial Crisis”

Many people in Cyprus are living in the worst financial and subsequently economic crisis worldwide. As a result of the global financial crisis, society has been hit hard, with the youth facing the biggest blow to its development, with the result of revising the selection process for enrolling in universities or looking for jobs. In this paper I analyze the main factors contributing to the selection of young people during the economic crisis through a quantitative study, with 201 youth participants taking part. At present, about 100 Greek-Cypriot first-year students from two universities in Cyprus, one public and one private are the sample of tertiary students, and about 100 young people from the labor market. The study showed that grants and allowances, student loans, total current expenditure as well as capital expenditures fell significantly. In addition, research findings have shown that young people need and wish to continue their studies because they believe that guarantee’s a safe or better career. Nonetheless, young people prefer admissions to public universities because of the excessively high costs and the difficulty of borrowing and repaying loans as well as changing bank policy in relation to the inability of family’s to make an income. Lastly, males appear to have suffered more in comparison to females with regards to their participation in higher education. Keywords: Economic crisis, Student choices, University decision making, Enrolment, Job decision making, Seeking for job, Economic impac

Choosing the Teaching Profession: Teachers’ Perceptions and Factors Influencing their Choice to Join Teaching as Profession

The study discovered why teachers around the world choose the Teaching profession and the factors affecting their choices. The study is meaningful to teacher education curriculum developers and teacher recruiters, for revealing the effects of teachers’ perceptions on their career planning and professional growth. The findings from inferential statistical analysis suggest the need for further in depth research, on the various perspectives of teachers according to their teaching experiences, their efficacy; whether their choice of the profession is just luck, low merit for hiring teachers or having no-other choice and the factors that can increase or retain their passion. Keywords: Teacher Profession, Perceptions on the teaching profession, inferential statistic

The design and implementation of an in-application automated testing and evaluation system for computer literacy skills based on the European and international computer driving licence (ECDL/ICDL)

models which, in turn, contributed to the development of the corresponding assessment tools and systems. With the ECDL at the forefront of the international computer literacy skills market and with its important role in the specification of digital literacy agenda, it becomes vitally important to ensure that assessment systems leading to this qualification are of the highest technical and pedagogical quality. This paper presents the experiences gained from the design, testing and implementation of such an assessment system and its deployment in a big-bang approach on a national basis in Cyprus. It explains the system’s technical architecture and components, its functionalities and services and discusses the pedagogical and educational aspects embedded in the design and highlights the pitfalls and lessons learned in the areas of team building and project

ReDesign: Redesigning learning through a new Learning Management System

[EN] In a world which abounds with digitally-driven changes, an orthodoxy of technology adoption and utilisation in higher education is emerging, and it is deemed critical for steering the discussions of experts for planning and implementing a digitally-enabled ecology where students and faculty members alike will benefit. Although several types of software that host educational or training content for students have been used in previous studies, the aim of this EU-funded project was to design a digitally-enabled platform that would afford culturally-driven exchanges between university students and collaboration among faculty members of the same disciplines across Europe. The platform is based on, but extends beyond, principles of standard Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and Facebook, by affording Web 2.0 tools, Augmented Reality (AR) applications, and QR codes. Further, the platform has been designed based on multiple pilot testing phases, students’ individual needs, instructors’ constructive feedback, and the tailored needs of each academic discipline. This EU-funded project is a joint effort to guide instructors and students in experiencing the curricula in different academic institutions, to guide instructors and students in understanding the affordances and contradictions of intercultural telecollaboration, and to guide students in developing a conceptual understanding of complex constructs in their discipline.European Commission funded projectAvgousti, MI.; Hadjistassou, S. (2019). ReDesign: Redesigning learning through a new Learning Management System. The EuroCALL Review. 27(1):48-63. https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2019.11202OJS4863271Avgousti. M. I. (2018). Intercultural communicative competence and online exchanges: A systematic review. 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O'Dowd (Eds.), Researching online interaction and exchange in foreign language education. Telecollaboration in education (3). Bern: Peter Lang Publishing Group, 135-162.Dooly, M., & O'Dowd, R. (2018). Telecollaboration in the foreign language classroom: A review of its origins and its application to language teaching practice. In M. Dooly and R. O'Dowd (Eds.), (pp.11-34). Bern: Peter Lang Publishing Group.Ducate, L., & Arnold, N. (eds.), Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching. San Marcos, TX: CALICO.Ertmer, P. A., Newby, T. J., Yu, J. H., Liu, W., Tomory, A., Lee, Y. M., Sendurur, E. & Sendurur, P. (2011) Facilitating students' global perspectives: Collaborating with international partners using Web 2.0 technologies. Internet and Higher Education, 14(4), 251-261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.05.005European Internet Foundation: Political Leadership for Network Society. (2009). The digital world in 2025. 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Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 9, 174-199. https://doi.org/10.14483/22487085.3150Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Palgrave Macmillan: New York.Gilakjani, A. P. (2011). Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic learning styles and their impacts on English language teaching. Journal of Studies in Education,2(1), 104-113. https://doi.org/10.5296/jse.v2i1.1007Gilakjani, A. P., Ismail, H. N., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2011). The effect of multimodal learning models on language teaching and learning. Theory & Practice in Language Studies, 1(10), 1321-1327. https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.1.10.1321-1327Hamper, R., & Hauck, M. (2006). Computer-mediated language learning: Making meaning in multimodal virtual learning spaces. The JALT CALL Journal, 2(2), 3-18.Hauck, M. (2007). Critical success factors in a TRIDEM exchange. ReCALL, 19(2), 202- 223. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0958344007000729Hauck, M. (2010). At the interface between multimodal and intercultural communicative competence. In S. Guth & F. Helm (Eds.), Telecollaboration 2.0: Language and intercultural learning in the 21 st century (pp. 219-248). Bern: Peter Lang.Kabilan, M. K., Ahmad, N., & Abidin, M. J. Z. (2010). Facebook: An online environment for learning of English in institutions of higher education? Internet and Higher Education, 13, 179-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.07.003Kress, G. R. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge. Kress, G. R. (2011). 'Partnerships in research': Multimodality and ethnography. Qualitative Research, 11 (3), 239-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794111399836Kress, G. R., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. Oxford UK: Oxford University.Lee, L., & Markey, A. (2014). A study of learners' perceptions on online intercultural exchanges through Web 2.0 technologies. 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An Analysis of the Essential Chromatin Factor Zinc Finger Protein 1 (ZFP-1), and a Study of the Involvement of RNAi factors in Histone Processing in Caenorabditis Elegans

The formation of chromatin defines when and where genes will be expressed, from the histone proteins forming the nucleosome and their many post-translational modifications, to the immense number of proteins that bind these modifications. This thesis is comprised of two projects: the first is an analysis of the essential plant homeodomain-containing protein called zinc finger protein 1 (ZFP-1); the second is a study into how RNA interference (RNAi) factors are involved in histone production in C. elegans. I investigate the physical and biological properties of the PHD fingers of ZFP-1 and find that 1) they are essential for viability and 2) they specifically bind to methylated lysine 4 on histone H3. This study has expanded our understanding of the molecular nature of ZFP-1, the C. elegans ortholog of AF10, which has a role in chromosomal translocations promoting leukemia. I also determine that the RNAi factors CSR-1, EGO-1 and DRH-3 are required for proper histone production in C. elegans. Severe histone depletion results from the knockdown of these RNAi pathway components, which explains both the phenotypes of sterility and chromosome segregation defects in early embryos that are associated with mutants of these factors. This discovery explains the well-known, but poorly understood, phenotypes of the RNAi mutants and provides the first evidence for RNAi positively affecting gene expression

An eHealth-Care Driven Perspective on 5G Networks and Infrastructure

This work describes the advancements that next generation mobile networks can bring to emergency services on the basis of a fully 5G enabled medical emergency response scenario. An ambulance service combining autonomous driving, advanced on-board patient monitoring, remote diagnosis and remote control from the hospital is introduced, allowing increased levels of care during patient transport and improved early diagnosis, thus enhancing patient survival rates. Furthermore, it is shown that such an ambulance service requires a variety of different traffic types that can only be supported concurrently and with guaranteed quality of service by a high-performance network fulfilling all 5G key performance indicators. The scenario described combines a multitude of aspects and applications enabled by 5G mobile communications, including autonomous driving, ultra-high definition video streaming, tactile remote interaction and continuous sensing, into a compelling showcase for a 5G enabled future. A centralized radio access 5G network with space division multiplexed optical fronthaul using analog radio-over-fiber and optical beamforming is analyzed, fully supporting SDN and NFV for advanced network slicing and quality of service guarantee.</p

The next challenge for world wide robotized tele-echography experiment (WORTEX 2012): from engineering success to healthcare delivery.

Access to good quality healthcare remains difficult for many patients whether they live in developed or developing countries. In developed countries, specialist medical expertise is concentrated in major hospitals in urban settings both to improve clinical outcomes and as a strategy to reduce the costs of specialist healthcare delivery. In developing countries, millions of people have limited, if any, routine access to a healthcare system and due to economic and cultural factors the accessibility of any services may be restricted. In both cases, geographical, socio-political, cultural and economic factors produce ‘medically isolated areas’ where patients find themselves disadvantaged in terms of timely diagnosis and expert and/or expensive treatment. The robotized teleechography approach, also referred to as robotized teleultrasound, offers a potential solution to diagnostic imaging in medically isolated areas. It is designed for patients requiring ultrasound scans for routine care (e.g., ante natal care) and for diagnostic imaging to investigate acute and medical emergencies conditions, including trauma care and responses to natural disasters such as earthquakes. The robotized teleechography system can hold any standard ultrasound probe; this lightweight system is positioned on the patient’s body by a healthcare assistant. The medical expert, a clinician with expertise in ultrasound imaging and diagnosis, is in a distant location and, using a dedicated joystick, remotely controls the scanning via any available communication link (Internet, satellite). The WORTEX2012 intercontinental trials of the system conducted last year successfully demonstrated the feasibility of remote robotized tele-echography in a range of cultural, technical and clinical contexts. In addition to the engineering success, these trials provided positive feedback from the participating clinicians and patients on using the system and on the system’s perceived potential to transform healthcare in medically isolated areas. The next challenge is to show evidence that this innovative technology can deliver on its promise if introduced into routine healthcare

The Deep‐water corals of Cyprus: Environmental settings and ecological features (CYprus Cold‐corals Levantine SeA, Eastern MEditerraneaN: CYCLAMEN)

The recently started research project CYCLAMEN (CYprus Cold-corals Levantine SeA, Eastern MEditerraneaN), will conduct the first detailed study of cold-water coral communities in eastern Cypriot waters. Cold-water coral habitats have been found during exploratory surveys. The 2-yr long project will include the environmental characterization of the area, as well as the study of the spatial distribution of cold-water coral communities. In addition to the study of the biology of the coral species, genetic and eco-physiological studies will be included. This project is the first of its kind in Cyprus and will additionally have an associated scientific outreach programme in order to bring these ecosystems, still poorly known, to the general public. The project is led by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), and relies on the participation of research Institutions in Cyprus: The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and the NGO Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre (EPERC); France: Aix-Marseille University – Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity & Ecology (AMU-IMBE); Greece: The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR); Mónaco: Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM); United Kingdom: National Oceanography Centre (NOC), and Spain: Universitat de Barcelona (UB). Here we present the conceptual frame of the project, the background knowledge and the first obtained results in the oceanographic cruise carried out in summer 2015