Colaboración internacional en el campo de la investigación educativa: Un estudio Delphi

(International) research collaboration (IRC) is considered one of the most important aspects of academic careers and, although it is often linked to co-authorship, investigations of academic perceptions and practices are rare. Reflections on factors affecting IRC, as well as effective technology for use in IRC are also now particularly vital, due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this three-round Delphi study, conducted prior to the pandemic, was to explore why and how academics conduct IRC in the field of Education. The results indicate that the benefits of IRC are more relevant than the barriers, and that networking with and learning from others are two of the most important reasons for conducting IRC. Four stages of IRC were identified, alongside a range of influencing factors, which could inform future project management training. Suggestions for institutional IRC policy are provided, as well as considerations for early career researchers.La colaboración (internacional) en investigación (IRC) está considerada como uno de los aspectos más importantes de las carreras académicas y, si bien se vincula a menudo a la coautoría, las investigaciones acerca de las percepciones y prácticas académicas son escasas. Las reflexiones sobre los factores que afectan a la IRC, al igual que una tecnología eficaz que se pueda usar en el marco de la IRC, han adquirido ahora una importancia vital debido a la aparición de la COVID-19. El objetivo de este estudio Delphi en tres rondas, llevado a cabo antes de la pandemia, consistía en explorar por qué y cómo ponen en práctica la IRC los académicos en el campo de la educación. Los resultados indican que los beneficios que reporta la IRC son más relevantes que las barreras, y que el trabajo en red, así como aprender de los demás, afloran como dos de los motivos más importantes para llevar a cabo la IRC. Se han identificado cuatro fases de la IRC, junto con una serie de factores relevantes que podrían informar la preparación futura en gestión de proyectos. Se ofrecen sugerencias para políticas institucionales de IRC, junto con consideraciones para investigadores centrados en las fases iniciales de la carrera profesional

Linking Public Transit Investment with Social and Economic Equity of Chicago Neighborhood Communities

This research paper is examining the impact and social equity of funding for projects that improve and expand the Chicago L rail system. Equity is an extremely multi-faceted concept, so this report uses a metric called a “Hardship Index” that uses census data to assess the quality of living in individual neighborhoods in Chicago. This data is compared to Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rail locations to draw conclusions between equity and access to public transit. This study also looks at other transit investment impacts such as health implications and potential macroeconomic return over time. Our data finds that there is a significant correlation between CTA access and lower hardship in serviced neighborhoods and a slight correlation between historical CTA rail projects and their social impacts. Our report endorses upcoming rail projects, such as the proposed $2.3 Billion Red Line Extension project, with the stipulation that hardship data and existing access are considered when deciding where rail extensions will be built

Invisible borders in educational technology research? A comparative analysis

Educational research is refective of the nature and structure of national and regional education systems and their historical evolution. Educational technology research, as an area within educational research, refects this case particularly prominently. Although individual countries and regions have varying research traditions, the publication of research in English as the scientifc lingua franca can lead to missing nuances in terminology, which is often not refected upon. Despite this, the exploration of research from diferent countries can still uncover diverse topical clusters. This study aims to identify the research topics in educational technology research in three countries (Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), each with their own research traditions, through the terms used. To this end, a bibliometric analysis of 3034 article abstracts and keywords from 29 English-language Web of Science journals in the feld of education and educational research was conducted, with a focus on educational technology. In addition, the quantitative fndings are comparatively analysed by considering the corresponding cultural clusters. Main fndings include diverse research foci in the three countries, also showing that distinct research traditions are still present, despite using English as lingua franca. Therefore, research articles written in English by non-English authors often do not refect the same meanings in each country, despite using the same words. The conclusions refect upon the need to establish ways of understanding the traditions behind those research articles and build collaborative systems to illustrate nuances in this research.Victoria I. Marín acknowledges the support of the Grant RYC2019-028398-I funded by MCIN/AEI/ https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE “El FSE invierte en tu futuro”

Emergency remote teaching in higher education: Mapping the first global online semester

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that spread globally in 2020, higher education courses were subsequently offered in fully remote, online formats. A plethora of primary studies began investigating a range of topics exploring teaching and learning in higher education, particularly during the initial semester. In order to provide an overview and initial understanding of this emerging research field, a systematic mapping review was conducted that collates and describes the characteristics of 282 primary empirical studies. Findings reveal that research was carried out mostly descriptively and cross-sectionally, focusing predominantly on undergraduate students and their perceptions of teaching and learning during the pandemic. Studies originate from a broad range of countries, are overwhelmingly published open access, and largely focused on the fields of Health & Welfare and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics. Educational technology used for emergency remote teaching are most often synchronous collaborative tools, used in combination with text-based tools. The findings are discussed against pre-pandemic research on educational technology use in higher education teaching and learning, and perspectives for further research are provided

Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators?

According to various international reports, Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is one of the currently emerging fields in educational technology. Whilst it has been around for about 30 years, it is still unclear for educators how to make pedagogical advantage of it on a broader scale, and how it can actually impact meaningfully on teaching and learning in higher education. This paper seeks to provide an overview of research on AI applications in higher education through a systematic review. Out of 2656 initially identified publications for the period between 2007 and 2018, 146 articles were included for final synthesis, according to explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. The descriptive results show that most of the disciplines involved in AIEd papers come from Computer Science and STEM, and that quantitative methods were the most frequently used in empirical studies. The synthesis of results presents four areas of AIEd applications in academic support services, and institutional and administrative services: 1. profiling and prediction, 2. assessment and evaluation, 3. adaptive systems and personalisation, and 4. intelligent tutoring systems. The conclusions reflect on the almost lack of critical reflection of challenges and risks of AIEd, the weak connection to theoretical pedagogical perspectives, and the need for further exploration of ethical and educational approaches in the application of AIEd in higher education

Advancing Feminism Online. Online Tools, Visibility, and Women in Classics

Can online tools address gender bias in classics? Through two case studies, this article explores the use of crowd-sourcing in order to develop digital tools that amplify women and provide them with a firmer online identity. The first, Wikipedia.org, is already entrenched in the popular research realm, and the second, WOAH (Women of Ancient History), is currently being developed as a reference tool. Wikipedia.org is the most influential source of knowledge in the world, but it has a stubborn gender bias against women. This distortion is particularly evident in the field of classics, where prior to 2017 only 7% of biographies of classicists featured women. Here, ‘classics’ is an inclusive term, and is broadly conceived to include the field of Late Antiquity. This short article details how the Women’s Classical Committee (UK)’s Wikipedia editing initiative, #WCCWiki, and the development of WOAH, have successfully increased the visibility of women online. Consequently, it offers a model to mobilize change with few physical or financial resources, but rather facilitated by digital tools and social media. Through digital feminist activism, there is the potential to reverse the gender skew of classicists online and in the public discourse, while also creating an inclusive space that is professional, proactive, and accessible to all

A New Forest Fire Paradigm: The Need for High-Severity Fires

Forest fires, particularly those that burn at mixed and high severity (collectively called ‘severe’), have been traditionally perceived as catastrophic events, directing public attention and immense forest management budgets toward fire prevention and suppression. These fires may indeed be catastrophic when measured by losses of human lives and property. However, severe fires in wildland areas are both natural and necessary to maintain the integrity of dynamic, disturbance-adapted forest systems. We propose a change in the current paradigm—which holds that severe forest fires are always harmful—to a new one that embraces their ecological necessity

Measles virus causes immunogenic cell death in human melanoma

Oncolytic viruses (OV) are promising treatments for cancer, with several currently undergoing testing in randomised clinical trials. Measles virus (MV) has not yet been tested in models of human melanoma. This study demonstrates the efficacy of MV against human melanoma. It is increasingly recognised that an essential component of therapy with OV is the recruitment of host anti-tumour immune responses, both innate and adaptive. MV-mediated melanoma cell death is an inflammatory process, causing the release of inflammatory cytokines including type-1 interferons and the potent danger signal HMGB1. Here, using human in vitro models, we demonstrate that MV enhances innate antitumour activity, and that MV-mediated melanoma cell death is capable of stimulating a melanoma-specific adaptive immune response

The Tobacco Industry and Youth Smoking

 Background This paper provides a comprehensive account of how the tobacco industry, over time, has promoted its products to young people. Method   A comprehensive search of tobacco industry documents relating to youth smoking was conducted using documents available on the World Wide Web through the Master Settlement Agreement. Results The documents provide evidence that the industry invested great time and resources in developing strategies to attract young people through Youth Smoking Prevention strategies (including education strategies) and marketing to youth. The results include information from published literature and direct excerpts from the tobacco industry documents. Conclusion The tobacco industry documents confirm that the tobacco industry has promoted and supported strategies that are ineffective in reducing smoking by youth, and opposed strategies that have proven to be effective. It is clear from the documents reviewed that the industry values the youth market and through a number of measures continues to promote its products to young people.