The role of stories in informed learning

Current practices in the information profession need to better address individuals as whole persons. Individuals are imbued with an historical past, a current situation, future aspirations, their own beliefs, values, and the stories that have shaped them. Our profession needs to recognise that individuals are unique, living in and amongst other processes in the world. The 'cookie cutter' approach often deployed in teaching our users has limited the great capacity libraries have to stimulate learners' innate creativity in enabling their lives to flourish. Lacking a holistic perspective of individuals as complex evolving beings, has limited our approach to teaching information literacy (IL) to a mere process of finding information, rather than encouraging learners to reflect on their information experiences as it applies to their own unique situations. Individuals are agents of their own becoming through time. Through reflection and examination we develop a greater awareness of agendas important to us as individuals, and we can enact that knowledge through ethical and wise decisions. Current practices do not fully nurture the development of reflective and sound use of information, which is crucial for the individual's own growth and development. This paper aims to provide an alternative way of understanding the learning process by reframing Christine Bruce's(2008) seven faces of Informed learning as relational to the creative process of narrative construction which Paul Ricoeur (1984, 1986, 1988) identifies as essential to human life. Stories have a vital role in IL as a process of human self-creation affecting all people across their entire lives. Narrative is the process through which learners make sense of themselves and the world by processing information to construct a story as an intelligent whole. Ricoeur refers to the process as a mimesis. It is important to acknowledge narrative as the process by which humans make meaning, as this empowers us to author our own lives as creative agents. Awareness of narrative as the structure by which people learn, opens up a new perspective of our understanding of Informed learning. Thinking of learners as story makers, and as a character in an unfolding story will inform libraries how to best support and encourage learners to re-author their narratives. The mimesis of narrative highlights the holistic nature of narrative structure as a creative process of becoming. A pedagogical approach such as Problem-based learning (PBL) offers a suitable method for the effective integration of narrative and learning. PBL encourages the forms of self-reflection that enables awareness of the narratives relevant to the individual learner. Libraries can adjust the delivery of their learning programs to include the use of PBL to teach informed learning – a process of using information to solve problems guided by reasoning. The PBL technique replicates the mimetic process. Drawing from Narrative and Informed learning allows learners to use information to assess the problem as a whole, enabling the practice and exercise of wise solutions

Telling stories: extending informed learning with narrative theory

Introduction. Learning design in the information profession may open new opportunities by addressing learners as whole persons with a historical past, a current situation, and future aspiration, with their own beliefs and values. These are, according to Paul Ricoeur, stories. Method. This conceptual paper explores the ideas of Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology of narrative (a theoretical description), and Bruce's phenomenography of informed learning (a model of information literacy experience) as perspectives of meaning making. It suggests the use of narrative awareness as an enabler of informed learning. Analysis. This paper provides insights into the information learning experience by considering Bruce's seven faces of informed learning as aspects of the creative process of narrative that Ricoeur refers to as a mimesis. The paper highlights the holistic and creative process of narrative structure in enabling learners to orient themselves as information users. Conclusions. Understanding informed learning as a narrative construct offers an account of learners' experiences as a process of meaning making and narrative making in the formation of an unfolding identity through time. With this understanding, information professionals may be encouraged to incorporate narrative as a strategy for supporting learners navigate information spaces

Non-prescription ophthalmic pharmaceutical agents for the prevention or relief of eye irritations in swimming

Non-prescription ophthalmic pharmaceutical agents for the prevention or relief of eye irritations in swimmin

Additional experiments with flat-top wing-body combinations at high supersonic speeds

Flat top wing body configuration effects on aerodynamic characteristics of supersonic aircraf

Space-time-frequency channel estimation for multiple-antenna orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems

We propose a linear mean square error channel estimator that exploits the joint space-time-frequency (STF) correlations of the wireless fading channel for applications in multiple-antenna orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. Our work generalizes existing channel estimators to the full dimensions including transmit spatial, receive spatial, time, and frequency. This allows versatile applications of our STF channel estimator to any fading environment, ranging from spatially-uncorrelated slow-varying frequency-flat channels to spatially-correlated fast-varying frequency-selective channels.The proposed STF channel estimator reduces to a time-frequency (TF) channel estimator when no spatial correlations exist. In another perspective, the lower-dimension TF channel estimator can be viewed as an STF channel estimator with spatial correlation mismatch for space-time-frequency selective channels.Computer simulations were performed to study the mean-square-error (MSE) behavior with different pilot parameters. We then evaluate the suitability of our STF channel estimator on a space-frequency block coded OFDM system. Bit error rate (BER) performance degradation, with respect to perfect coherent detection, is limited to less than 2 dB at a BER of 10-5 in the modified 3GPP fast-fading suburban macro environment. Modifications to the 3GPP channel involves reducing the base station angle spread to imitate a high transmit spatial correlation scenario to emphasize the benefit of exploiting spatial correlation in our STF channel estimator

Influence of the synthetic method on the properties of two-photon-sensitive mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles

International audienceHerein we report the modulation of the properties of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NPs) via various synthetic approaches. Three types of elaborations were compared, one in aqueous media at 25 °C, and the other two at 80 °C in water or in a water–ethanol mixture. For all these methods, an alkoxysilylated two-photon photosensitizer (2PS) was co-condensed with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), leading to five two-photon-sensitive mesoporous silica (M2PS) NPs. The M2PS NP porous structure could be tuned from radial to worm-like and MCM-41 types of organization. Besides, the 2PS precursor spatial dispersion was found to be highly dependent on both the 2PS initial concentration and the elaboration process. As a result, two-photon properties were modulated by the choice of the synthesis, the best results being found in aqueous media at 25 or 80 °C. Finally, the M2PS NPs were used for in vitro two-photon imaging of cancer cells