Learning from peers. Online professional development for university staff

Professional development has long been associated with the provision of events or alternatively of accredited courses, often supplemented by texts or websites. At the same time we are aware that much of what is learnt about university teaching happens 'on the job' as staff try out new approaches, or meet each other for a chat in the corridor. In a distance environment such ad hoc arrangements are less likely to take place particularly for part-time staff, and both online courses and informal communities have a particular role in joining staff who otherwise have little opportunity to meet. We have been exploring the opportunities for harnessing the potential of peer learning in two online professional development courses at the Open University (UK) both of which are concerned with the adoption of new online tools for teaching and learning. This paper describes a case study of the two initiatives which deliver professional development at scale: some 2000 staff have undertaken the courses to date, including an astonishing 1000 staff over the last 12 months. We discuss some of the lessons we have learnt on the reasons for the widespread success of these initiatives and some of the factors influencing effective engagement on the courses. We have demonstrated the value of a near-synchronous strategy in a small cohort which enhances a sense of presence, while providing sufficient flexibility to accommodate working practices. An experiential approach which gives participants the opportunity to experience first hand the sense of being an online student is valued by many staff who are new to it, and it provides a safe environment in which to try out new techniques and tools and to reflect on what is a pressing concern for many staff. The affective, confidence building aspects of this experience seem to have been important to many participants. At the same time we have also found that a self study route can work for some individuals who value the added flexibility to work on their own. Further work will be needed to establish the extent to which the courses have resulted in new or enhanced working practices. But if we have succeeded in helping staff to develop the confidence to experiment for themselves, then this will have been a worthwhile endeavour

Looking for safe harbor in a crowded sea: Coastal space use conflict and marine renewable energy development

Technological advances in the marine renewable energy industry and increased clarity about the leasing and licensing process are fostering development proposals in both state and federal waters. The ocean is becoming more industrialized and competition among all marine space users is developing (Buck et al. 2004). More spatial competition can lead to conflict between ocean users themselves, and to tensions that spill over to include other stakeholders and the general public (McGrath 2004). Such conflict can wind up in litigation, which is costly and takes agency time and financial resources away from other priorities. As proposals for marine renewable energy developments are evaluated, too often decision-makers lack the tools and information to properly account for the cumulative effects and the tradeoffs associated with alternative human uses of the ocean. This paper highlights the nature of marine space conflicts associated with marine renewable energy literature highlights key issues for the growth of the marine renewable energy sector in the United States. (PDF contains 4 pages

Alien Registration- Campbell, Janet (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/29710/thumbnail.jp

Geographic Adventures: an Interdisciplinary Fourth Grade Geography Unit

The need for increased geographic literacy in an age of globalization and the decline in geographic literacy among people in the United States have created an educational challenge that should be addressed aggressively in the K-12 curriculum. One roadblock to improvement of geographic instruction is the subject centered instruction designed to accommodate standardized testing. The isolation of subject materials in the educational process limits students\u27 understanding and topic relevance. Canatsey (1999) suggested that the study of geography can create relationships among multiple subjects and that the resulting connections lead to a greater understanding of geography, as well as the other subjects with which it is integrated. The purpose of this project was to design an interdisciplinary fourth grade geography unit in which geography is integrated with a variety of other disciplines, including: (a) mathematics, (b) history, (c) reading and writing, (d) art, (e) economics, and (f) technology. This integration of geography with other disciplines provides students with a learning experience intended to increase geographic literacy while at the same time reinforcing skills and knowledge from other disciplines

The influence of English organization of space in dwellings on the development of dwellings in the United States

M.S.Joseph N. Smit

A study of exactness for discrete groups

We recall the concepts of exactness for both C*-algebras and groups. We explore some new properties linked or equivalent to exactness, including Property A, a second property we term Property O, and Hilbert space compression [GK2, O, Yu]. We use geometric methods to show that a variety of groups satisfy these properties. We then deduce that those groups are exact.In particular we show that Properties O and A are equivalent. We show that the integers, groups of subexponential growth, amenable groups and free groups satisfy Property O by constructing a family of Ozawa kernels for each case. To construct these families we exploit growth properties of the integers and groups of subexponential growth, Følner’s criterion for amenable groups and geometric properties of the Cayley graph for free groups. For each of these groups we deduce that they are exact and have Property A. Finally we turn to Hilbert space compression to prove our main theorem that groups acting properly and cocompactly on CAT(0) cube complexes are exact and have Property A.<br/

A Gel Probe Equilibrium Sampler for Measuring Arsenic Porewater Profiles and Sorption Gradients in Sediments: I. Laboratory Development

A gel probe equilibrium sampler has been developed to study arsenic (As) geochemistry and sorption behavior in sediment porewater. The gels consist of a hydrated polyacrylamide polymer, which has a 92% water content. Two types of gels were used in this study. Undoped (clear) gels were used to measure concentrations of As and other elements in sediment porewater. The polyacrylamide gel was also doped with hydrous ferric oxide (HFO), an amorphous iron (Fe) oxyhydroxide. When deployed in the field, HFO-doped gels introduce a fresh sorbent into the subsurface thus allowing assessment of in situ sorption. In this study, clear and HFO-doped gels were tested under laboratory conditions to constrain the gel behavior prior to field deployment. Both types of gels were allowed to equilibrate with solutions of varying composition and re-equilibrated in acid for analysis. Clear gels accurately measured solution concentrations (±1%), and As was completely recovered from HFO-doped gels (±4%). Arsenic speciation was determined in clear gels through chromatographic separation of the re-equilibrated solution. For comparison to speciation in solution, mixtures of As(III) and As(V) adsorbed on HFO embedded in gel were measured in situ using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Sorption densities for As(III) and As(V) on HFO embedded in gel were obtained from sorption isotherms at pH 7.1. When As and phosphate were simultaneously equilibrated (in up to 50-fold excess of As) with HFO-doped gels, phosphate inhibited As sorption by up to 85% and had a stronger inhibitory effect on As(V) than As(III). Natural organic matter (>200 ppm) decreased As adsorption by up to 50%, and had similar effects on As(V) and As(III). The laboratory results provide a basis for interpreting results obtained by deploying the gel probe in the field and elucidating the mechanisms controlling As partitioning between solid and dissolved phases in the environment

Institutional Ethnography (IE), Nursing Work and Hospital Reform: IE's Cautionary Analysis

Während der letzten Jahrzehnte war das Krankenhauswesen in Kanada im Zuge der Durchsetzung einer neoliberalen Agenda erheblichen Restrukturierungsprozessen ausgesetzt, verbunden mit dem Ziel einer effektiveren Verwendung öffentlicher Mittel und einer zunehmenden Expansion des privaten Sektors im Gesundheitswesen. Hierbei kamen erhebliche öffentliche Mittel für Gesundheitsinformationsdienste und für Forschung zum Einsatz, um objektivierbares Wissen für die Reform des Gesundheitssystems zu generieren: die Hoffnung war, dass Gesundheitsorganisationen und deren Wirksamkeit deutlich verbessert werden würden. Die Forschungsarbeit, die Gegenstand dieses Beitrags ist, beschäftigt sich mit der professionellen Pflege in diesem restrukturierten Krankenhauswesen und insbesondere mit der Frage, inwieweit die Reformen sich in der Pflegepraxis niedergeschlagen haben. Dabei fokussiert unser Ansatz der institutionellen Ethnografie die soziale Organisation von Gesundheitsbezogenem Wissen aus der Perspektive derer, die in diese Reformprozesse involviert und ihnen unterworfen sind – nämlich aus der Perspektive des Pflegepersonals. Ein wesentlicher Befund betrifft einen neuen Modus der Entscheidungsaushandlung und -findung: Das Pflegepersonal bemüht sich aktiv um die Ein- und Unterordnung eigener professioneller Urteile in objektiviertes Wissen und vorgängig festgelegte, wissensbasierte Praktiken, sodass Entscheidungsprozesse eher externalisiert und an autoritativen Vorgaben orientiert verlaufen. In dem Beitrag wird der Einsatz der institutionellen Ethnografie an Beispielen aus dieser Forschung beschrieben und diskutiert. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090287Los hospitales en Canadá han sido objeto de intensa reorganización en pocas décadas pasadas en tanto el sistema público de cuidado de la salud absorbe y se adapta a un programa de gobierno neoliberal que promueve el uso más "eficiente y eficaz" de los fondos públicos e incrementa la participación por parte de la sector privado. Una masiva infusión de dinero público para las tecnologías de información en salud y para la investigación de servicios en salud ha creado la capacidad para generar conocimiento objetivado y utilizarlo para reformar el sistema de atención de salud, tanto en su organización y, cada vez más, en su terapéutica, con la promesa de hacer que todo funcione mejor. La investigación que se reporta aquí es sobre la participación de profesionales de enfermería en su trabajo diario/nocturno en hospitales reestructurados y sobre cómo se reestructura la práctica de la enfermería en consecuencia. Nuestro enfoque de investigación, la etnografía institucional, se centra en la organización social de los conocimientos sobre la salud desde la perspectiva de quienes participan en ella y se subordinan a sus usos de gestión, en este caso, las enfermeras. Creemos que una nueva forma de gobernar se está desplegando. Las enfermeras desempeñan un papel activo en la subordinación de su propio juicio profesional al conocimiento objetivado y al conocimiento basado en las prácticas que externaliza la toma de decisiones y reposiciona el saber autorizado. Este artículo describe y discute la realización de una investigación etnográfica institucional (RANKIN & CAMPBELL 2006) e ilustra algunos de sus rasgos distintivos por medio de ejemplos en nuestra investigación. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090287Hospitals in Canada have been subject to intensive reorganization in the past few decades as the public health care system absorbs and adapts to a neoliberal government agenda that promotes more "efficient and effective" use of public funds and increased involvement on the part of the private sector. A massive infusion of public money for health information technology and health services research has created the capacity to generate objectified knowledge and to use it to reform the health care system—both its organization and, increasingly, its therapeutics—with the promise of making it all work better. The research reported here is on the engagement of professional nurses in their everyday/night work in restructured hospitals and on how nursing practice is being reshaped in consequence. Our research approach, institutional ethnography, focuses on the social organization of health knowledge from the standpoint of those involved in and subordinated to its managerial uses, in this case, the nurses. We argue that a new form of ruling is being deployed. Nurses play an active part in the subordination of their own professional judgment to the objectified knowledge and knowledge-based practices that externalize decision making and reposition authoritative knowing. The paper describes and discusses the conduct of an institutional ethnographic inquiry (RANKIN & CAMPBELL, 2006) and illustrates some of its distinctive features using examples from our research. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs09028

Translating Aboriginal Land Rights into Development Outcomes: Factors Contributing to a Successful Program in Central Australia

This paper explores some of the factors that appear to be supporting the growth and success of the Central Land Council's multimillion-dollar Aboriginal community development program that operates across Central Australia. The program has driven a major change in the way that Aboriginal groups across Central Australia apply a significant amount of their income. It has introduced a facilitated process that supports Aboriginal groups to set and achieve development objectives using income earned from collectively owned land. The program is premised on empowerment, ownership and control at the group level. Establishment of this process has taken time and commitment, in a context where participants are generally focused on individual autonomy and decision making at the family or very local level. However, the program is showing signs of real success in delivering Aboriginal control and empowerment, and a range of social, cultural and economic benefits. The paper explores the factors that appear to underpin this success. What is clear is that facilitating Aboriginal control is developing Aboriginal collective capacity to determine development in line with Aboriginal values and priorities, and is delivering outcomes people want to see

Fuzzy Classification of Ocean Color Satellite Data for Bio-optical Algorithm Constituent Retrievals

The ocean has been traditionally viewed as a 2 class system. Morel and Prieur (1977) classified ocean water according to the dominant absorbent particle suspended in the water column. Case 1 is described as having a high concentration of phytoplankton (and detritus) relative to other particles. Conversely, case 2 is described as having inorganic particles such as suspended sediments in high concentrations. Little work has gone into the problem of mixing bio-optical models for these different water types. An approach is put forth here to blend bio-optical algorithms based on a fuzzy classification scheme. This scheme involves two procedures. First, a clustering procedure identifies classes and builds class statistics from in-situ optical measurements. Next, a classification procedure assigns satellite pixels partial memberships to these classes based on their ocean color reflectance signature. These membership assignments can be used as the basis for a weighting retrievals from class-specific bio-optical algorithms. This technique is demonstrated with in-situ optical measurements and an image from the SeaWiFS ocean color satellite