Language Learners as Digital Bricoleurs: Exploring Independent Learning in Individual Digital Ecologies

Though there is a wealth of digital resources available for independent computerassisted language learning, language teachers may find mixed success in supporting learners in using it. Teachers need to understand their learners and how educational information-communication technology and the target language are integrated in their lives. We present the concepts of digital ecology and digital bricolage. Building on a prior survey study on English learner technology use at a Korean college, this qualitative case study explores ways that four Korean college students integrated technology and English into their lives. Drawing on a priori and emergent themes from interviews, we explore students’ digital ecologies and their processes of digital bricolage. We found that types of technology use varied across these cases, suggesting the value of digital ecologies for thinking about student technology use. Further, variations of technology use across the cases suggest that learners draw selectively from their available digital ecologies based on their perceptions of what it means to learn English and their personal priorities. We propose a framework for understanding language learner digital bricolage based on formality and instrumentality. This framework is of value to researchers and teachers who want to support students in digitally mediated self-directed language learning

The digital ecologies of Korean college students: An exploration of digital self-directed learning

The wealth of readily available online digital English language learning resources presents vast opportunities for students to engage in self-directed language learning. The extent to which such resources are known to students, however, let alone how they are being utilized, typically remains largely unknown to teachers. In order to design a curriculum that maximizes student learning opportunities by guiding them towards online digital resources that afford self-directed learning, it is essential for teachers to first develop an intimate understanding of the students’ relationships with such resources. This may include awareness, patterns of use, and the variables that constrain them from using the resources more extensively. To accomplish this objective, the Self-Directed Digital Study Instrument (SDDSI) was developed and implemented to survey 197 Korean college students. While the results of this study are indicative of a reality in which digital resources are being underused, they also point towards an area of great potential for pedagogical change in Korean post-secondary English learning education. In contrast to the traditional pedagogical model, the results suggest that self-directed learning or even self-determined learning models, facilitated via various digital resources, can present students with opportunities for more deeply engaging, individualized, and self-directed approaches to language learning

Marriage, Fundamental Premises, and the California, Connecticut, and Iowa Supreme Courts

The highest courts in California, Connecticut, and Iowa recently held that the constitutional norm of equality requires the redefinition of marriage from “the union of a man and a woman” to “the union of any two persons.” The argument leading to that holding, like all arguments, proceeds from premises that the argument does not prove but that serve as the starting point for reasoning. Those premises range from the nature of contemporary American marriage to the equivalence of the pre- and post-redefinition marriage institutions, to the social costs, if any, resulting from redefinition, and to marriage’s relationship with other social institutions such as law and religion. This Article critically examines the common fundamental premises underlying the California, Connecticut, and Iowa opinions. That critical examination leads to serious questions regarding those premises’ validity. Indeed, that examination demonstrates their falsity. At the same time, it clarifies their materiality; that is, it shows that, but for the cases’ fundamental premises, no line of judicial reasoning can lead to their holdin

Marriage, Fundamental Premises, and the California, Connecticut, and Iowa Supreme Courts

The highest courts in California, Connecticut, and Iowa recently held that the constitutional norm of equality requires the redefinition of marriage from “the union of a man and a woman” to “the union of any two persons.” The argument leading to that holding, like all arguments, proceeds from premises that the argument does not prove but that serve as the starting point for reasoning. Those premises range from the nature of contemporary American marriage to the equivalence of the pre- and post-redefinition marriage institutions, to the social costs, if any, resulting from redefinition, and to marriage’s relationship with other social institutions such as law and religion. This Article critically examines the common fundamental premises underlying the California, Connecticut, and Iowa opinions. That critical examination leads to serious questions regarding those premises’ validity. Indeed, that examination demonstrates their falsity. At the same time, it clarifies their materiality; that is, it shows that, but for the cases’ fundamental premises, no line of judicial reasoning can lead to their holdin

A different animal? Identifying the features of health technology assessment for developers of medical technologies

Health technology assessment (HTA) conducted to inform developers of health technologies (development-focused HTA, DF-HTA) has a number of distinct features when compared to HTA conducted to inform usage decisions (use-focused HTA). To conduct effective DF-HTA, it is important that analysts are aware of its distinct features as analyses are often not published. We set out a framework of ten features, drawn from the literature and our own experience: a target audience of developers and investors; an underlying user objective to maximize return on investment; a broad range of decisions to inform; wide decision space; reduced evidence available; earlier timing of analysis; fluid business model; constrained resources for analysis; a positive stance of analysis; and a “consumer”-specific burden of proof. This paper presents a framework of ten features of DF-HTA intended to initiate debate as well as provide an introduction for analysts unfamiliar with the field

Sidechain control of porosity closure in multiple peptide-based porous materials by cooperative folding

Porous materials find application in separation, storage and catalysis. We report a crystalline porous solid formed by coordination of metal centres with a glycylserine dipeptide. We prove experimentally that the structure evolves from a solvated porous into a non-porous state as result of ordered displacive and conformational changes of the peptide that suppress the void space in response to environmental pressure. This cooperative closure, which recalls the folding of proteins, retains order in three-dimensions and is driven by the hydroxyl groups acting as H-bond donors in the peptide sequence through the serine residue. This ordered closure is also displayed by multipeptide solid solutions in which the combination of different sequences of amino acids controls their guest response in a non-linear way. This functional control can be compared to the effect of single point mutations in proteins, where the exchange of single amino acids can radically alter structure and functio

Behaviour of non-donor specific antibodies during rapid re-synthesis of donor specific HLA antibodies after antibody incompatible renal transplantation

Background: HLA directed antibodies play an important role in acute and chronic allograft rejection. During viral infection of a patient with HLA antibodies, the HLA antibody levels may rise even though there is no new immunization with antigen. However it is not known whether the converse occurs, and whether changes on non-donor specific antibodies are associated with any outcomes following HLA antibody incompatible renal transplantation. Methods: 55 patients, 31 women and 24 men, who underwent HLAi renal transplant in our center from September 2005 to September 2010 were included in the studies. We analysed the data using two different approaches, based on; i) DSA levels and ii) rejection episode post transplant. HLA antibody levels were measured during the early post transplant period and corresponding CMV, VZV and Anti-HBs IgG antibody levels and blood group IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies were quantified. Results: Despite a significant DSA antibody rise no significant non-donor specific HLA antibody, viral or blood group antibody rise was found. In rejection episode analyses, multiple logistic regression modelling showed that change in the DSA was significantly associated with rejection (p = 0.002), even when adjusted for other antibody levels. No other antibody levels were predictive of rejection. Increase in DSA from pre treatment to a post transplant peak of 1000 was equivalent to an increased chance of rejection with an odds ratio of 1.47 (1.08, 2.00). Conclusion: In spite of increases or decreases in the DSA levels, there were no changes in the viral or the blood group antibodies in these patients. Thus the DSA rise is specific in contrast to the viral, blood group or third party antibodies post transplantation. Increases in the DSA post transplant in comparison to pre-treatment are strongly associated with occurrence of rejection

Forecasting the long-term deterioration of a cut slope in high-plasticity clay using a numerical model

This paper details development of a numerical modelling approach that has beenemployed to forecast the long-term performance of a cut slope formed in high plasticity clay. It links hydrological and mechanical behaviour in a coupled saturated and unsaturated model. This is used to investigate the influence of combined dissipation of excavation-generated excess pore water pressures and seasonal weather-driven near-surface cyclic pore water pressures. Deterioration of slope performance is defined in terms of both slope deformations (i.e. service) and factor of safety against shear failure (i.e. safety). Uniquely, the modelling approach has been validated using 16 years of measured pore water pressure data from multiple locations in a London Clay cut slope. Slope deterioration was shown to be a function of both construction-induced pore water pressure dissipation and seasonal weather driven pore water pressure cycles. These lead to both transient and permanent changes in factor of safety due to effective stress variation and mobilisation of post-peak strength reduction over time, respectively, ultimately causing shallow first-time progressive failure. It is demonstrated that this long-term (90 year) deterioration in slope performance is governed by the hydrological processes in the weathered near surface soil zone that forms following slope excavation